In August 1991, a group of Soviet hawks tried and failed to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachev.
(ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP/Getty Images)
Twenty-five years ago, an unsuccessful coup attempt, known as the August Coup, was launched by a group of hawkish Communist Party members and security elites against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, in what was widely seen as one of the key moments that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. The coup's ring leaders, known as the Gang of Eight, were dissatisfied with Gorbachev's liberalization plans and the balancing act between the Soviet republics and Moscow. Similar conversations are being had in Moscow today -- and within the Kremlin are very familiar divides....
