Attempted coup d'etat in the USSR in 1991

USSR. Moscow. Civilians and media representatives at the Tchaikovsky Tunnel on the Garden Ring after a clash with a column of armored vehicles patrolling the streets on the night of August 20-21, 1991, following the declaration of a state of emergency in the country. In order to prevent the signing of the Union Treaty, which was supposed to replace the USSR with a new federation of sovereign states, representatives of the top Soviet leadership, headed by USSR Vice President Gennady Ivanovich Yanayev, removed the president of the USSR from power and created the State Committee for the State of Emergency (GKChP). Sergei Mamontov/TASS