Attempted coup d'etat in the USSR in 1991

USSR. Moscow. President of the RSFSR Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (center) and State Secretary of the RSFSR Gennady Eduardovich Burbulis (right) on the balcony of the House of Soviets of the RSFSR during a rally dedicated to the failure of the attempted coup d'etat 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 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). Valery Khristoforov/TASS