Attempted coup d'etat in the USSR in 1991

USSR. Chita. One of the leaders of the Social Democratic Party of Russia, assistant of the Department of General History of the Historical and Philological Faculty of the Chita State Pedagogical Institute (CSPI) Oleg Vladimirovich Kuznetsov (left) during a speech on Lenin Square at an unauthorized rally in support of USSR President Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev and RSFSR President Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin during the attempted coup d'état by members of the State Emergency Committee (SEC). 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 USSR president from power and declared a state of emergency in the country. Vladimir Sayapin/TASS