The Moscow Coup

Available for over a year

The failed attempt to overthrow the Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachov in August 1991. Mr Gorbachov was held prisoner in his holiday dacha in the Crimea on the Black Sea while tanks and troops were deployed on the streets of Moscow. One of Mr Gorbachov's neighbours recalls an abruptly curtailed telephone conversation, and a Moscow journalist remembers filming on the streets of a nervous capital.