Attempted coup d'etat in the USSR in 1991

USSR. Moscow. Supporters of USSR President Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev and RSFSR President Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin sign up for the National Guard to protect the House of Soviets of the RSFSR after a state of emergency was declared in the country during an attempted coup. 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 USSR President from power and created the State Committee for the State of Emergency (GKChP). Gennady Khamelyanin/TASS