91-705 F CRBM<SBRe rt or BH~Ss Soviet Union: A Chronology of Events Surrounding the Coup Attempt August 1 - September 15, 1991 Sergiu Verona Analyst in European Affairs Foreign Affairs and National Defense Division September 27, 1991 CRS fCnrs Sevc - Th Lirr CnrssoaS Reeac SOVIET UNION: A CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS SURROUNDING THE COUP ATTEMPT AUGUST 1 - SEPTEMBER 15, 1991 SUMMARY This chronology covers one of the most important periods in Soviet history, possibly the most significant since the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. Most of the results of the 1917 revolution were repudiated: the existence and the unlimited power of the Communist Party, the Soviet system, the shadow of the KGB, the "socialist system of property," and the total rejection of the free enterprise economic model. The key period was from August 18 to August 21, the days of the attempted reactionary coup. Events included Gorbachev's arrest and isolation, the institution of a new power representing the coalition of the top military, KGB government and Communist Party leaders, the suspension of the media, the attempt to use the diplomatic network to recognize the new regime, and the military rule in Moscow and Leningrad. Equally important were the rapid failure of the coup, as well as the international support for the restoration of the legal power in the U.S.S.R. The changes in Soviet society were not limited to these few days of August. On the contrary, the following period witnessed the most crucial transformation of what is frequently called today the former Soviet Union. Events included the suspension of the Communist Party's activities, the secession of the Soviet republics from central control, and the independence of the Baltic states, Moldavia, and other former Soviet republics. The drastic reduction of the KGB's power and the ouster of many high-ranking anti-democratic Soviet military officers signalled the eclipse of these two long-time instruments of Soviet internal and external power. GENERAL SOURCE NOTE Sources for this chronology include: Facts on File, Keesing's, Radio Free Europe Daily Report, Radio Free Europe/RadioLiberty's Report on the U.S.S.R., Foreign Broadcast Information Service Daily Report for the Soviet Union, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the FinancialTimes, the Economist, and Izvestiya. This chronology is the continuation of previous similar publications: CRS Report 87-551F, Soviet "Restructuring" Under Gorbachev: A Chronology, January 1985-June 1987; CRS Report 89-138F, Glasnost and Perestroika Under Gorbachev: A Chronology, July 1987-December 1988; and CRS Report 89-616F, Soviet Glasnost and Perestroika: A Chronology, January-October 1989. SOVIET UNION: A CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS SURROUNDING THE COUP ATTEMPT AUGUST 1 - SEPTEMBER 15, 1991 08/01/91 -- Referring to the U.S.S.R.-U.S. summit, President Gorbachev outlined the most important gains--"the beginning of the reduction of nuclear arms," a "new qualitative level of the European process," the contribution to "the solution of some regional conflicts," and a major step toward a new type of international economic relations. -- Russian President Boris Yeltsin declared that the R.S.F.S.R. and Kazakhstan would sign the Union treaty on August 20. -- The Committee for Public Education reported U.S.S.R. Defense Minister Dmitri Yazov had submitted an official memorandum to President Gorbachev suggesting that daytime students be drafted into the Army this fall. 08/02/91 --- Aleksandr Yakovlev explained the reason for his resignation as adviser to President Gorbachev. "I am increasingly convinced that our tragedy results from Marxist dogmas". 08/03/91 --- In an article published in Sovetskaya Rossiya, Yegor Ligachev attacked the results ofperestroika, especially the U.S.S.R.'s policy in Eastern Europe under Gorbachev. He attributed the "loss" of Eastern Europe almost entirely to Aleksandr Yakovlev and Eduard Shevardnadze. -- The Democratic Party of Communists of Russia decided to form a party within the Soviet Communist Party. -- Seven Lithuanian officials killed on July 31 were buried in Vilnius. The Russian Television quoted "Shchit," an organization of reformist Soviet military officers, as saying it believed the KGB was responsible for the killings. On August 7, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB issued a joint statement denying responsibility for the murders. 08/04/91 --- It was officially announced in Moscow that President Gorbachev had left for the Crimea for vacation. -Moscow radio network reported increasingly divergent opinions between President Gorbachev and Prime Minister Pavlov and the CRS-2 view that it had been no accident that Pavlov did not accompany Gorbachev to the G-7 meeting in London. -- R.S.F.S.R.'s decree on depoliticization came into force. According to the decree, the activity of Communist Party organizations was banned in state institutions and enterprises. Some reports said the Army was resisting the implementation of the decree. -- Soviet newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that the popularity of military academies has substantially increased this year. There were also reports on the increasing inflow of young people to the MVD internal and airborne troops. 08/05/91 --- Viktor Alksnis said that the "Soyuz" parliamentary group, of which he is a leader, still wanted to see President Gorbachev replaced by a collegial body. -- The chief of the Chinese general staff, Colonel General Chi Haotian, started an official visit at the invitation of General Mikhail Moiseev. 08/06/91 --- Soviet presidential spokesman Vitaly Ignatenko stressed that Mikhail Gorbachev was very healthy. -- In Moscow it was announced that the signing of the Union treaty would occur on August 20 at 11.00 a.m. in the presence of President Gorbachev, Prime Minister Pavlov, and other Soviet officials. -- Vladimir Shcherbakov, U.S.S.R. First Deputy Prime Minister, made public data showing significant increases in unemployment in 1991 due to the conversion of Soviet defense industries. The expectation for 1991 was similar. 08/07/91 --- The memoirs of Valerii Legostaev, a former speechwriter of the late Soviet communist leader Konstantin Chernenko, published by the journal Den, discussed Gorbachev's election as General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. Legostaev said that frictions between the military and Gorbachev occurred immediately after the latter's accession to power. -Izvestiya published an article warning against a possible conservative counterattack. The author said that the democrats must think seriously how to protect their positions in the light of a possible upsurge of attacks. -- According to the publication Vzglyad, a top official from Pensa Oblast told R.S.F.S.R. People's Deputy Yurii Didenko that CRS-3 Gorbachev would be overthrown and that the KGB and Army were on the side of the plotters. 08/08/91 --- The revised version of the Soviet Communist Party (CPSU) draft program was published by Pravda. The new version included a critical reference to Bolshevism, and called for united armed forces under a central leadership. -- Soviet air traffic controllers rejected a government proposal as insufficient and planned a strike for the next day. -A delegation of deputies from the hardline "Soyuz" faction in the Supreme Soviet returned from Iraq and called for the restoration of close Soviet-Iraqi ties. -A student strike committee was set up in Moscow to draw public attention to the new draft law, "On General Military Service," which the student believed contained many anti-reform conditions. 08/09/91 --- The Movement for Democratic Reform condemned the expulsion of two leaders of the Democratic Party of Communists of Russia, Aleksandr Rutskoi and Vasilii Lipitsky, from the Soviet Communist Party, which it said "behaves in the old Stalinist way." -- The Ukrainian Prime Minister complained that under the conditions of the Draft Union Treaty, about 45 percent of the Ukraine's industrial potential would remain under centralized management, and that the center wanted to retain control of road, sea, and air transport. He also objected to the proposed retention of a single financial, credit, and insurance policy. -- Moldavian President Mircea Snegur accused Moscow and the Moldavian Communist Party of putting pressure on Moldavia in connection with the Union treaty, and reaffirmed a pro- independence stand. 08/10/91 --- Moscow radio announced that a joint Soviet-Polish Commission had officially confirmed that several thousand Polish army officers were shot by the NKVD (predecessor of the KGB) in Kharkov in April-May 1940 and buried in a nearby forest. 08/11/91 --- Moscow radio cited Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev as saying that Balorussia and Tajikistan would join the R.S.F.S.R., Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan in signing the Union Treaty on August 20. -- Yeltsin stated at a meeting with the trade unions that the signing of the Union Treaty would mark the end of the institutional CRS-4 power of the U.S.S.R. The task of the center would be restricted to defense, border security and railway transportation. 08/12/91 --- Colonel General Gennadiy Stefanovskiy, Deputy Chief of the Main Political Administration of the U.S.S.R. Armed Forces, denied in an interview with Neues Deutschland the threat of a military coup. He stated, however, that "not all military members accept the speedy steps of rapprochement with the West, the unilateral concessions in disarmament, and the hasty return of the troops to our country." He considered the Army to be the sole guarantor of stability in the Soviet Union. -- The R.S.F.S.R. Communist Party Central Committee and the Communist Party Committee of Leningrad Oblast founded a new newspaper called Narodnaya Pravda. The new publication contained materials critical of Gorbachev, Aleksandr Yakovlev, and Eduard Shevardnadze. 08/13/91 --- U.S.S.R.'s Premier Valentin Pavlov warned of the risk of a power vacuum after the Union Treaty was signed unless the center retained some control over the economy.