On August 19, 1991, hard-line Communist Party officials launched a coup to overthrow reformist Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, placing him under house arrest in Crimea. Over three tense days, mass popular resistance—led by Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin, who famously stood atop a tank in Moscow—paralyzed the coup plotters' efforts. By August 21, the coup collapsed as military forces refused to fire on civilians and international condemnation mounted. Gorbachev returned to power but was fatally weakened, accelerating the Soviet Union's formal dissolution just four months later and fundamentally reshaping the geopolitical landscape of Eurasia.
