Attempted coup d'etat in the USSR in 1991

USSR. Moscow. Civilians near armored personnel carriers in the passage of the Art Theater during the attempt by members of the State Committee for the State of Emergency in the USSR (GKChP) to carry out a coup 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 President of the USSR Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev from power and declared a state of emergency in the country. Gennady Khamelyanin/TASS