On the night of August 18-19, 1991, representatives of the USSR’s top leadership who disagreed with the reform policy (“perestroika”) of the country's president Mikhail Gorbachev and the draft new Union Treaty created the State Committee on the State of Emergency (GKChP USSR). It included 8 people: G.I. Yanaev, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR V.S. Pavlov, Minister of Defense of the USSR D.T. Yazov, Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR B.K. Pugo, Chairman of the KGB of the USSR V.A. Kryuchkov, O.D. Baklanov, A.I. Tizyakov and V.A. Starodubtsev. By decision of the Emergency Committee, troops were sent to Moscow. President Gorbachev and his family rested in a summer house in the Crimea.
The main goal of creating the State Emergency Committee was to prevent the liquidation of the USSR, which was supposed to begin on August 20 at the time of signing the Union Treaty. According to the agreement, the USSR was to be transformed into a federation. The new federal state was supposed to be called the Union of Sovereign Soviet Republics, with the former abbreviation - the USSR.
When interviewing citizens of what the State Emergency Committee was in August 1991 - by a coup or an attempt to avoid the collapse of the country - 93% of the viewers who answered said that it was a desire to save the USSR! Marshal Yazov said; We served the people ...
