Attempted coup d'etat in the USSR in 1991

USSR. Moscow. Civilians clash with a column of armored vehicles of the Taman Division on Novinsky Boulevard near the Tchaikovsky Tunnel after the declaration 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). Sergei Mamontov/TASS