Attempted coup d'etat in the USSR in 1991

USSR. Moscow. Servicemen at the building of the USSR Ministry of Defense at the intersection of Znamenka Street and Yanysheva Lane during an attempt by members of the State Emergency Committee (SEC) to stage a coup d'etat 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, led by USSR Vice President Gennady Ivanovich Yanayev, removed USSR President Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev from power and declared a state of emergency in the country. Vladimir Musaelyan, Eduard Pesov/TASS