Attempted coup d'etat in the USSR in 1991

USSR. Moscow. Vice President of the RSFSR Aleksandr Vladimirovich Rutskoi speaking at a rally of supporters of USSR President Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev and RSFSR President Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin near the building of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR on Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment. In order to prevent the signing of the Union Treaty, which was 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 declared a state of emergency in the country. Valery Khristoforov, Aleksandr Chumichev/TASS