HT This Day: August 20, 1991 -- Hardliners oust Gorbachev

Reformist Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was removed from power today by his hardline opponents who imposed a state of emergency sending shock waves across the world which had witnessed unprecedented changes during his six-year rule.

Reformist Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was removed from power today by his hardline opponents who imposed a state of emergency sending shock waves across the world which had witnessed unprecedented changes during his six-year rule.

HT This Day: August 20, 1991 -- Hardliners oust Gorbachev

In what was regarded as a bloodless coup, an eight-member state emergency committee led by Mr Gennady Yanayev, Vice-President, who has taken over Mr Gorbachev’s duties, announced emergency for six months, a ban on demonstrations, restrictions on mass media and suspension of political parties.

Mr Gorbachev was unable to function as President for “health reasons”, the committee said.

There was no immediate word on the whereabouts of Mr Gorbachev, who was said to be on holiday on the Black Sea. But the French news agency AFP said he was “under house arrest” at his official residence.

The eight-member committee consists of O. D. Baklanov, First Deputy Chairman of the USSR Defence Council, V. A. Kryuchkov, Chairman of the KGB, V. S. Pavlov, Prime Minister of the USSR, B. K. Pugo, Interior Minister of the USSR, V. A. Starodubisev, Chairman of the Farmers’ Union of the USSR, A. I. Tizyokov, president of the Association of State Enterprises and Industrial Construction, Transport and Communications Facilities of the USSR, D. T. Yazov, Defence Minister of the USSR, G. I. Yanayev, acting president of the USSR.

The dramatic move came on the eve of signing of a new union treaty by Mr Gorbachev provoking President Boris Yeltsin of the Russian federation to call a strike. He denounced Gorbachev’s removal as “an unconstitutional and reactionary coup” and declared that the decisions of the emergency regime committee would have no validity on the Russian territory.

The Soviet Parliament will hold a special session on Aug. 26 in Moscow to endorse the decision to impose a state of emergency in some parts of the USSR, the Parliament Speaker announced in a ruling.

Soon after the takeover, a column of armoured personnel carriers mounted with automatic machine guns and carrying armed troops, was approaching the Moscow centre.

Mr Yanayev, a former trade union leader and long-time Communist Party official, was elected to the new post of Vice-President last December by the Congress of People’s Deputies after much persuasion by Mr Gorbachev and a second vote.

“I want someone alongside me I can trust,” Mr Gorbachev, who took over in 1985 and brought sweeping political change to the Soviet Union and revolutionised Kremlin foreign policy, said.

LEADERSHIP STATEMENT:

In a statement the new leadership said it had the support of the Defence Minister, the KGB, police chiefs and other key officials in its move to prevent a “national catastrophe”. Soon after the issue of the statement, issued by official news agency Tass, armoured vehicles rumbled into Moscow and other major Soviet cities and took up positions around vital installations.

The Soviet TV broadcast the statement saying the country had become ungovernable and the emergency was necessary to restore order.

The surprise turn of events came on the eve of signing of the new union treaty by three republics, the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Mr Yanayev’s address, which was read out in full on the Soviet TV as well, said the emergency measure was temporary and expressed hopes that it would find “proper understanding on the part of peoples and the government, and the United Nations Organisation.”

The emergency decree said it had been imposed on the “demands by broad popular masses to adopt the most decisive measures to prevent society from sliding into national catastrophe and ensure law and order.”

The emergency came into force at 4 a.m. Moscow time (6.30 a.m. IST).

Mr Yanayev said the second reason for the emergency was “to establish that the federal constitution and laws have unconditional priority throughout the territory of the USSR.”

SOVIET CAPITAL TENSE: The atmosphere in the Soviet capital was tense but no immediate incidents were reported.

Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin told a Press conference that he feared for the life and safety of Mr Gorbachev now under arrest in Crimea where he is vacationing.

Witnesses said today that hundreds of tanks and armoured personnel carriers were moving into Moscow.

A witness saw up to 500 military vehicles, in column after column, moving into the city toward Gorky Street, one of the main routes to the Kremlin.

The convoy, seen just before 9 a.m. (11.30 IST), included 30 or 40 tanks, and many trucks filled with armed soldiers. In Talinn, the capital of Estonia, Soviet ships blockaded the harbour after the announcement, according to Estonian officials.

Armoured personnel carriers arrived at the Russian Parliament building today, headquarters of Russian President Boris Yeltsin, shortly after the noted reformer called for a general strike to fight the ouster of Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

A crowd of several thousand people surged from the Moscow City Council building, and rallied on Manezh Square next to the Kremlin. A speaker read a statement from Mr Yeltsin and Russian Prime Minister Ivan Silayev denouncing the coup.

“No matter what reasons they offer to justify this, the statement read, ‘we are having a rightist, reactionary and unconstitutional coup d’etat.”

Twenty minutes later, a column of tanks and armoured personnel carriers drove to the head of the square, where they were met by the crowd. The people immediately flowed into side streets to block the advance of the tanks.

Several hundred people surrounded the tanks and climbed on top of many of them Some of the people waved Russian flags.

Several of the tanks began to back off, and the people started to flow out of the Square.

Demonstrators unhooked four trolley buses and used them to block the entrance from Tverskaya Street to Manezh Square. Armoured personnel carriers were assembling in front of the Bolshoi theatre and the Gosplan building, one block from the Square, as well as behind the trolley bus barricade on Tverskaya Street.

Armed soldiers were walking around the area.

Russian television, which is loyal to Mr Yeltsin, was taken off the air early this morning in the midst of transmit ting a news show to the Soviet Far East, its reporters said. The Moscow television studios and transmitting facilities were reported surrounded by troops.

KGB takes over Radio: The KGB has taken over the pro-reform Moscow City Radio station, which has been jammed since the announcement of Mikhail Gorbachev’s ouster as President, sources at City Hall said on Monday.

A spokesman told AFP that about 5 KGB secret police burst into the Radio station, controlled by pro-reform local authorities, and ordered the staff to leave.

Journalists said earlier the radio station. Moscow Echo, could no longer broadcast.

Emergency meet: The central committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is to hold its emergency meeting tomorrow to relieve Mr Mikhail Gorbachev from the post of the party general secretary.

According to sources, first deputy chairman of the USSR Defence Council Oleg Baklanov is likely to be elected the new General Secretary Mr Baklanov is one of the three Soviet leaders who signed the decree on formation of the State emergency committee and is one of its senior members.