The August Coup

The Destruction of the Soviet Union and the Making of New Russia 1985-1991
The acclaimed historian of Russia offers his compelling analysis of a dramatic turning point in recent Russian history: the August Coup of 1991.

'Lively and insightful' – The Times
‘Superb . A work of quite exceptional scholarship and narrative verve’ – Literary Review
‘A must-read for those fascinated by the decline and fall of the USSR’ – Mark Galeotti
'Immensely well-researched and compellingly written . grips the reader from page one' – Andrew Roberts


From the acclaimed author of Kremlin Winter and Blood on the Snow, a dramatic and expertly researched account of an extraordinary moment in Russia’s recent history: the August Coup.

In the summer of 1991, a group of eight plotters came together to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachëv, then the president of the USSR. These ruthless conspirators, who occupied positions of high office, declared a state of emergency to restore stability through authoritarian rule. The reality turned out to be a shambolic failure which hastened the fall of the USSR and a pivotal shift from communism to capitalism.

Beginning with a minute-by-minute re-enactment of Gorbachëv’s capture in his holiday home in Crimea, Robert Service follows the plot from its inception to its humiliating collapse. The troubling side effects of Gorbachëv’s well-meant reforms in the Soviet Union – business fraud, government corruption, organized crime and interethnic conflict – increased exponentially, and a New Russia was born. Fathered by Boris Yeltsin, it brought lamentably less benefit to the Russian economy or its people than he had promised.

Linking the years from the coup itself to today’s Russia under Vladimir Putin, The August Coup is a thoroughly compelling and original chronicle of a moment that changed Russian and global politics forever.

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