The attempted coup against Gorbachev
A committee of senior Soviet officials detained Gorbachev at his holiday residence and declared a state of emergency, intending to stop the new union treaty that would have devolved power to the republics. The attempt collapsed within three days against public resistance in Moscow and the refusal of key military units to act. Its consequence was the opposite of its intention: it destroyed the authority of the central institutions, accelerated the republics' declarations of independence, and left Gorbachev presiding over a state that was dissolving underneath him.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- Mikhail Gorbachev · person · Soviet Union · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
The Cold War: A New History
Named as the general narrative authority behind this pack's framing of the period, and cited in the Journey's own declared references. V55 verification basis: NOT consulted in this session. It is also a work with a definite interpretive position — broadly, that Soviet conduct drove the confrontation and that Western pressure and Soviet internal failure ended it — and this pack cites it as one reading rather than as a neutral summary.
Penguin · 2005 · Partly verified
John Lewis Gaddis, The Cold War: A New History, Penguin, 2005
Recorded on Mikhail Gorbachev
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- The Soviet Union is formally dissolved · 1991-12-26
- The Belavezha accords · 1991-12-08
- The Berlin Wall opens · 1989-11-09
- The INF Treaty is signed in Washington · 1987-12-08
- The Reykjavik summit · 1986-10-11 – 1986-10-12
- The Soviet intervention in Afghanistan · 1979-12 – 1989-02-15