By pure chance, I happened to be visiting Moscow in late August of 1991 after a summer of research in Prague. When we landed in Moscow, my husband and I had no inkling that there was a massive upheaval taking place. But when I realized what was happening -- with tanks churning up the asphalt on the streets, Russian women weeping on street corners, barricades on the bridges leading to the Parliament Building, we quickly caught on. The lack of information was incredible; all tv channels were filled with the same entertainment (I want to say it was a famous ballet, but I'd have to look it up, didn't spend much time watching the aimless but significant show that was on every single channel, indicating that something was vastly wrong). We went straight to the Parliament Building, surrounded by Russian tanks (turrets then challenging the Russian "White House" and by Russian protestors). My husband was frightened but I had my camera and couldn't stop taking photographs and attempting to talk to the protestors. Thank god, after a few days, it ended in peace. (So interesting, many years later, in 2016, I was visiting a friend in Nairobi after the terrorist attack on the mall took place. The news covered every detail, criticizing the Kenyan government harshly)

Boris Yeltsin would attack that same Congress building a couple years later in 1993.

22:05 - good to see Borat kept his eye in as things fell apart

1:45 August 19 15:29 August 20 26:13 August 21 45:25 August 22 54:16 August 23 56:27 August 24 59:20 August 25

News was different back then...feels like i am really watching history change before my eyes.

Peter Jennings had an incredible skill in delivering straight facts while at the same time unapologetically calling it like he saw it.

1991 was crazy. The Gulf War, and then the fall of the Soviet Union. I wish I was old enough to appreciate seeing history in the making.

That '90-'91 period was absolutely nuts. Between the Gulf war and this. Crazy times.

This is crazy nostalgia. As an American (kid at the time). I remember this. And in like the previous 5 years it went from "soviets bad, want to kill us". To "soviets are alright, we're not gonna go to war". To "soviets are cool! We're friends now!" When this happened it was "hope those soviets are ok, theyre cool" Lasted for awhile at least.... hope someday the old politics will go away for good

Crazy. I remember watching the evening news with my mom every day as a kid. I was 7 at this time, I remember watching footage of the Persian Gulf War, but I have NO memory of watching these events on the news. It must have been so routine to my young mind, I didn’t understand then how monumental this was.

I was 12 when this happened, my parents always made me watch the news. I realize now the Berlin wall , The fall of Russia, and the Persian gulf war are historic events that I witnessed. Fukk I'm getting old.

“History repeats itself; try and you’ll succeed.”

Parts of history are so wild its hard to believe they actually happened sometimes

I loved when news was news

Welcome, new viewers.

it's pretty neat to live at a time where I can watch events unfold that happened before I was born

I was 30 with a family and beginning Army basic training in South Carolina when our drill sargeants announced that the Soviet Union has fallen and that President Gorbachev was overthrown and under arrest. They also told us that no matter what our MOS was, if we were going to war we were all riflemen first and will be sent into the infantry. We didn't realize that there were plenty of already trained soldiers ready to deploy and that our specialty training would continue, if only abbreviated.

This aged pretty well.

KZfaq picked one hell of a day to recommend this to me

the soviet union was such a distant place to me when i was kid that when i heard Gorbachev is in Crimea under house arrest back then in the news i remember thinking "what the hell is a Crimea" Putin was near the stasi kgb office that was torched down.

Sad to think where the country has gone since this...

Ah s***, here we go again.

Not a cell phone in sight. Just living in the moment. Everyone looks so happy.

4:04 that's one fast tank.

While this is happening, Sergei is stuck in space with USSR passport

Mmm I wonder why this appeared in my feed

And then Metallica played Moscow a month later.

You really appreciate how Gorbachev lost power after this. Whilst he was locked up in Crimea, Yeltsin was fighting and had created a sort of fortress within Moscow itself, the heart of Russian power. Yeltsin was the face seen by the international community and media. He was the man of action, whilst Gorbachev was totally absent. Naturally the Russian people would find one man more reliable a leader than the other. And Gorbachev lost all political respect. The world had overnight moved on from Gorbachev during that week.

I was living in Ireland when this happened...I remember feeling really tense and exhilarated when this was going on.

same thing happened in Afghanistan a year prior, the hardliners returned trying to take the country back. Both the Soviet Union and Afghanistan would eventually fall by 1992.

History does indeed repeat itself.

This ABC News documentary delves into the military coup attempt in the Soviet Union between August 19 and August 25, 1991. It provides a detailed account of these events that unfolded during that fateful week.

Interesting, I was too young to remember anything, thank you 👍

Thank You

cant wait for part 2

Back time, I was visiting Hungary, in Budapest.. In apartment with my family and their old friends (they were over 70' yrs), watching TV.. they said.. 'God, we hope they don't invade us again'.. I was only 16, didn't understood all, but now, I say: we do not let them cross, with every costs we have to endure! (and now, Hungary-Orban.. I don't understand)..

06:25 the news backgrounds looks like old movie set paintings.

Who else is watching this after the Russian rebellion

Tedd somehow doesn't open his mouth to speak. Absolutely amazing how a human can produce information without the use of his mouth

This is so great. Thank you for posting.

I like it that they invited Boris Yeltsin to go with them to where they've arrested Mikhail Gorbachev. So kind of them!

This reminds me of the old adage "Don't bother learning history because nothing ever happens twice".

30 years...

Gorbachev lost power in August. Gorbachev died in August.

An interesting end to a most dramatic, perhaps most deceptive & most detestable (to some) revolution. Good narrative, kudos to the producers et am.

i know it’s serious but, that T-80U sure is racing cause he’s going fast hahahaha

The hardliners almost returned back into power. I have a few ideas to add into Gorbachev's viewpoint. 1. Togetherness principle to prevent balkanization of Russian Federation, 2. The American-Chinese political model of 1-2 party system for the Russian Federation.

interesting how this showed up in my suggested videos on 8/18/2022…the day before the 31st anniversary of the coup attempt

I was there and was living in Russia after that. That was terrible, what happened Gorbachov sold the country to the western world. That chose broke out shortly after. And struggle that people had to go through is indescribable. You all have no clue what was life like trough the 90s

“Right wing agents in the shadows”. Very interesting given today’s circumstances

6 months after Desert Storm, the USSR became defunct. 5 million soldiers in the Soviet Army and every Republic was declared independent with Russia being the biggest; their willingness to stand up for “freedom” stopped the coup, but today the reforms are gone and jail or gulag for speaking up are back!

I remember my parents made me sit down and watch this news cast. I was 21 and didn’t have a care in the world but my mother explained in detail what was going on and what this could mean for the world. It was scary.

I REMEMBER THIS

And what a Winter that would be for the Soviet people.

"WE WILL FIGHT TO BRING BACK THE SOVIET UNION!....oh shit we made it worse"

22:05 Borat used to play a role there, I didn't know that.

Anyone know when the 2nd coup will be? Thank you.

Everyone gangsta until the tank open fire

Getting briefings from CIA in a situation like this must be such a relief

Exactly 32 years ago today

The good old days

44:42 "they would be happy when he will occupy his place which really belongs to him" he does now 🤣

I don't like how Prigozhin is in asylum in Belarus sitting along side Putin nuclear weapons station in Belarus now they have Prigozhin there with his troops

Hi from Jun 24th 2023. Coup in Russia is on course as I write this.

From 50s through to the start of 90s USSR had been on the focus of the world. Even Americans seemed were keen of watching news about the Soviet Union. Now Russia does not have popularity, world superiority snd other advantages like its predecessor had.

some political translations for everyone: 20:00 - 'we care about the will of the soviet people' = (they are supporting someone on our payroll), 'some coups fail' = these folks are not on our payroll one day we (our US government) will learn to mind it's own business. regrettably that day was not in the 1990's and damn sure isn't today either. our people want peace with Russia and deserve it.

The day the whole world was never the same

I thought that this happened in late 1993. I am sure that I remember tanks firing at buildings in Moscow. Maybe they were different events?

By the way, is it really Good for any Country in The World for its Secret Policing Police to take over The Goverment?!

I bet all the Yeltsin supporters are not celebrating now

The deaths of thoze three ordinary, yet brave and powerful souls died in vein, at least for this decade

Diane Sawyer trying to be the main character in that interview was super cringe.

Im worried something like this could happen in the US sooner rather then later. Albeit for "different" reasons. But this is a real concern. I was a pre-schooler when this happened, so i remember little, but what i do remember is my fathers concern. We moved back to Puerto Rico that year. Wa came bavk a year later. I remember in second grade that our globe and maps in school still had USSR still stamped in them. As an early millennial, i remeber much if the changes in my world.

This was the last crisis of this magnitude in the world before the Towers fell down in 2001. Oh well, we had at least (more or less) 10 good years before everything went to hell.

S.Surovikin than low oficer ordered shoting on civilians from tanks. Later finish in prison. Today famouse general " Armagedon" 🙈

Gorbachev is like a scholar coming to power, like Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. Steeped in theory, but doesn't fully understand the hard politics of power.

Gorbachev's Perestroika and Glasnost policies released an energy Gorbachev couldn't control nor foresee due to him being so naive and weak.

Time for an encore.

I remember this like it was yesterday. So much hope for a people who have suffered so much because of their horrible leaders. 😮

It’s funny how looking back we’re like ‘I miss Boris Yeltsin and even both Bushes - upstanding statesmen compared to what we’ve got today’

what month did this aire?

I remember as a 20 year old man, one that was even then very interested in politics and the ideological difference between capitalism and socialism. I sat a watched dumbfounded the events in Russia, after the fall of the wall, still wondering if what I was watching was real or a dream. Growing up in the 80s, the threats of Nuclear annihilation between East and West. To see the collapse of Soviet socialism/Communism... it's still one of the greatest events in history I believe I may ever witness. Today, I look at America and what is being taught in our universities. Our political leaders spewing socialist ideals. How so many can be so ignorant of not just the horrors of socialism in the last century but, the failure to understand why socialism itself is a wildly failed ideology. It's beyond disappointing. It's disgusting. Capitalism is and never will be perfect. Any large and complex system consisting of human beings will be flawed because human beings are flawed. The failures of capitalism, pale in comparison to socialism, isn't due to the structural foundation of capitalism. It's because some humans lack morals, ethics and anything resembling character. For example, the leaders of our current govt and of BOTH political parties. Egotistical narcissists with a blood lust for power. That is the modern Democrat party. Willing to say or do anything, destroy anyone that dares challenge them and using the weakest and most vulnerable groups in our society as political weapons. The GOP leadership, although not as pure evil as the Democrats, are feckless cowards that have abandoned all principles so they can cling to power. At some point, we the people must realize that when our politicians spend decades in the same office and become multimillionaires in the process...we have a money problem in DC. They have lost their right to serve. They can no longer be trusted. We MUST pass and amendment for term limits!!! Otherwise, nothing will ever change and they will continue to represent the only group they really care about. The elite ruling class. The rest of us...are just here to dig their holes, clean their toilets and serve them food in restaurants. Buy more consumer crap and pretend to be happy and free with our mortgage, 2 car garage and two weeks a year at Disneyland. They will ensure we remain asleep while forgetting every founding principle when this nation was not only founded, by fought for.

22:05 Sacha Baron Cohen was there!

I came for cold war Russia, not modern day Russia

The irony behind this coup, is that Gorbachev barely died maybe a year or 2 ago... Every soviet leader before him died because of age.

@26:40 u r fox news anchor same?

Sorry, Uncle Roni didn't click to the end

back when presidents were leaders to be heard and listened to, whether you agree with them or not. Not the side show, clown school we have running our country now.

This should be titled 'The Rise of the Oligarch'

It was the free different countries from the U.S. Alliance Victory by the end of the Cold War and the end of the Persian Gulf war and brought peace

Dig that giant wooden tape dispenser on Yeltsins deak whwn hes talking to the reporter

The map at 3:37 still shows the GDR.

Diane Sawyer looking fire in that outfit

Yeltsin - How to drink your way through a decade.

On this day, Putin grew horns on his head and did a Mister Burns laugh

42:35 he knew

When Russia had hope

Little did anyone back then know of a guy named Vladimir Putin…

It shure as hell shock the world

There were and are plenty of good people in Russia. I hope some day they will prevail as they once did.