Extraordinary session of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR in Moscow

Russia. Moscow. General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, President of the USSR Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, President of the RSFSR Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin, Acting Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR Ruslan Imranovich Khasbulatov (from left to right) in the House of Soviets of the RSFSR on Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment, taking part in an extraordinary session of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR after the attempted coup d'état undertaken by the State Committee for the State of Emergency. Members of the State Emergency Committee, led by Vice President of the USSR Gennady Ivanovich Yanayev, tried to remove the President of the USSR from power in order to prevent the signing of a new Union Treaty, which was to replace the USSR with a federation of sovereign states, but met resistance from the President of the RSFSR and deputies of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. Alexander Chumichev/TASS