Attempted coup d'etat in the USSR in 1991

USSR. Moscow. Members of the State Committee for the State of Emergency in the USSR, USSR Minister of Internal Affairs Boris Karlovich Pugo and Acting President of the USSR Gennady Ivanovich Yanayev (from left to right) during a press conference at the press center of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs after the announcement of a state of emergency 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 State Committee for the State of Emergency removed USSR President Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev from power and declared a state of emergency in the country. Vladimir Musaelyan, Alexander Chumichev/TASS