Attempted coup d'etat in the USSR in 1991

USSR. Moscow. Soldiers in infantry fighting vehicles near the Central Exhibition Hall on Manezhnaya Square after the announcement of a state of emergency in the country during an attempted coup d'etat. 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 highest 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). Andrei Solovyov/TASS