Timeline of the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt

This is a time line of the Soviet coup d'état (1991), starting from the house arresting of Mikhail Gorbachev and ending in the surrender of the failed coup leaders.

1991

Monday 19 August

04.00: General Igor Maltsev orders the Crimean Airport to close. Warships are anchored near Kap Foros, which is located near the summer villa of president Mikhail Gorbachev.^[1]
5.18: Vice-President Gennadi Yanayev declares himself President of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev is deposed under medical reasons and put under house arrest at his Crimean summer villa.
5.57: A State of Emergency is declared in all of the territory of the Soviet Union. All the power is under the State Committee on the State of Emergency which members are Vice President Gennady Yanayev, Premier Valentin Pavlov, Interior Minister Boris Pugo, Defence Minister Dmitry Yazov, Chairman of the KGB Vladimir Kryuchkov, First Deputy Chairman of the Defense Council of the USSR Oleg Baklanov, Chairman of the Peasants' Union of the USSR Vasily Starodubtsev, President of the Association of State Enterprises Alexander Tizyakov
09.00: Tanks are driven near the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic's Parliament Building where President Boris Yeltsin is located.
10.40: State Committee on the State of Emergency dissolves the freedom of press.
10.45: Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic President Boris Yeltsin condemns the coup and encourages a general strike.
12.00: Tanks are driven near the Kremlin and Red Square. People gather near the Parliament Building of the Russian Soviet Federation to give support to Yeltsin and build barricades around the Parliament Building.
13.00: Georgia's president Zviad Gamsakhurdia encourages people to be calm in Tbilisi.
14:00: U.S. President George H. W. Bush condemns the coup.
16.10: Boris Yeltsin declares himself the legal Head of State of Russia. State Committee on the State of Emergency declares an emergency in Moscow and Leningrad. Miners strike starts in Russia.
16:35: Lithuania's President Vytautas Landsbergis encourages people to start passive resistance.
17.00: State Committee on the State of Emergency holds its first press conference in the Foreign Ministary Building. Gennadi Yanayev announces that President Gorbachev is sick and is staying in Crimea.
20.00: State Committee on the State of Emergency warns Boris Yeltsin not to provoke the masses.
21.00: Tamanskaya elite force tanks proceed to support Yeltsin.

Tuesday 20 August

0.30: U.S. President George H. W. Bush calls the coup leaders in an effort to restore Gorbachev to power.^[1]
01.00: Tens of thousands of people demonstrate near the Russian Parliament Building.
04.00: Mayor of Leningrad, Anatoly Sobchak, condemns the coup.
07.00: Military convoys start approaching Leningrad.
08.00: Soviet Army's Baltic commander Fedor Kuzmin declares control over Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
12.00: Over 100,000 people demonstrate against the coup in Leningrad.
14.00: Moldavia's premier Valeriu Muravschi declares his support for Yeltsin.
15.00: European Community halts all economic aid en route to the Soviet Union.
16.00: U.S. President George H. W. Bush gives his support to Boris Yeltsin by telephone, supporting the return of Gorbachev to power.
19.50: Ukraine's Parliament condemns the coup. Kazakhstan's president Nursultan Nazarbayev condemns the coup and resignes from the Politburo and Central Committee.
20.00: Yeltsin takes control of all Russian troops under his command. Curfew is declared at night time.
20.35: State Committee on the State of Emergency's member Premier Valentin Pavlov is announced that he is ill.
21:00: State Committee on the State of Emergency's member Defence Minister Dmitry Yazov resignes because of health reasons.
23.00: In Moscow tens of thousands of people condemn the coup.
23.10: Estonia declares independence from the Soviet Union, restoring a status which dated back to February 1918.
23:59: Demonstrators burns two tanks in front of the Parliament Building

Wednesday 21 August

0.01: Tanks are not able to break the barricades in the front of the Russian Parliament Building.^[1]
0.40: Three civilians are shot in a skirmish in Moscow.
01.31: Army fails to break the barricades in front of the Russian Parliament Building
2.21: Civilians form a human chain in front of the Russian Parliament Building. Arrest warrant issued for Yeltsin.
8.39: Russian Parliament Building still free. Some tanks defect to Yeltsin's side.
9.20: General strike starts in Latvia.
11.50: Mikhail Gorbachev refuses to return to Moscow as offer behest of the coup leaders. Yeltsin also refuses to travel to Crimea to get Gorbachev back to Moscow.
13.00: Uzbekistan's president Islam Karimov declares the State Committee's actions illegal and threatens to leave the Communist Party
13.15: Coup leaders flee Moscow.
13.29: Soviet Russian Parliament gives mandate to Yeltsin to arrest the coup leaders.
13.39: Military cadre agree to pull all troops from Moscow.
14.59: Coup leaders escape to Crimea.
15.20: Ministry of Defense announces that all troops are pulled out back to bases.
16.13: Some coup leaders are arrested in Sverdlovsk, Byelorussia.
16.15: Supreme Soviet's Defense Committee declares the emergency over.
16.29: Two members of the State Committee on the State of Emergency, KGB's Kryuchkov and Defense Minister Yazov travel to Crimea to meet Gorbachev.
17.00: Soviet troops pull out from Lithuania. Press censorship is lifted.
17.10: Soviet Parliament abolishes the State Committee on the State of Emergency's instructions and restores Gorbachev to power.
18.14: Supreme Soviet announces that Gorbachev is President of the Soviet Union again.
18.30: Gorbachev leaves Crimea
18: 59: Coup leader Vice-President Gennadi Yanayev returns to the Kremlin
19.19: U.S. President George H. W. Bush talks with Gorbachev by telephone.
20.13: Gorbachev is announced to rule the Soviet Union again.
20.17: Four coup leaders are located at Gorbachev's summer villa in Crimea.

References

1 2 3 Hybinette-Bergknut, Leena . ' Vuosi 91: Kaappaajat pelkäsivät liittosopimusta. 1991. pages 186–187. Bertmark Kustannus Oy. Helsinki (in Finnish)

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[vuosi1991-1] 1 2 3 Hybinette-Bergknut, Leena . ' Vuosi 91: Kaappaajat pelkäsivät liittosopimusta. 1991. pages 186–187. Bertmark Kustannus Oy. Helsinki (in Finnish)