Attempted coup d'etat in the USSR in 1991

USSR. Moscow. President of the RSFSR Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (right) in the House of Soviets of the RSFSR, guarded by volunteers from among his supporters after declaring a state of emergency in the country during an attempted coup d'état. 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 Vice President of the USSR Gennady Ivanovich Yanayev, removed the president of the USSR from power and created the State Committee for the State of Emergency (GKChP). Dmitry Sokolov/TASS