Mourning rally on Manezhnaya Square in Moscow

USSR. Moscow. Relatives and friends of Vladimir Aleksandrovich Usov, who died on the night of August 21, during a memorial rally on Manezhnaya Square in memory of the defenders of democracy who died during the attempt of the State Committee for the State of Emergency (GKChP) to carry out a coup d'etat. 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 the Vice President of the USSR Gennady Ivanovich Yanayev, removed the President of the USSR from power and declared a state of emergency in the country. Alexander Chumichev/TASS