hungry for the full story we've got it for the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers. of the past the hour time to update you on many stories on r.t. global markets end the week on wall apply massive sell off this is panic over forecasts of recession in the u.s. and europe and. the middle east is in flames once again as a mass pulls out of a cease fire following two days of israeli airstrikes on gaza exchange of fire between the sides came as israel targeted those hit plane for a deadly attack on its territory on thursday. russia marks the anniversary of a crucial turning point for a failed coup by commoners hardliners in the bloody resistance of democratic activists twenty years ago open the air up

a new post soviet russia. and you can now watch a detailed report of those pivotal dramatic events in our special report that's coming up next on r.t. . central moscow moscow's regional k.g.b. headquarters. early morning of august the nineteenth one nine hundred ninety one. this is the officer and. the events of the day the could reverse the country's history. it was an attempt to depose president mikhail gorbachev his reforms on hold. tanks and other hardware thirteen moved into moscow. the city's key points have been taken over.

as the nineteen thousand nine hundred ninety one monday in the morning teacher tatiana yakovlev a switch the t.v. on a sort of following picture of the usual programming every channels broadcasting tchaikovsky's famous ballot. that part of which i turned the t.v. on to check the latest news and i was so surprised to see swan lake everywhere i was switching the t.v. channels for a long time thinking maybe there was something wrong with my t.v. set. at the same time as the ballot will cast more than seven hundred tanks and on the personnel carriers were being stationed in the streets the porters were in the criminal. meanwhile those so-called white house was at the center of civil resistance at the time it housed the russian

parliament where the people's deputies met in session. it was past seven in the morning when the security chief came to my place. to work when i opened the door it's old me i had better go to the white house right away. as far as i could tell there was a coup going on in the country that's how i learned about it or you would decided to take a roundabout route instead of going straight to this building where. the coup was led by top brass and high ranking communist officials they had expected to get support from the population and were dissatisfied with the long drawn process of perestroika. they decided to make short work of gorbachev's reforms. the situation was quite old and the country was in turmoil. there was a revolt of the hungry people standing in line for sausages stoop to fist fights

but there were pervis of sort of jism a consumer market. but the country's president waved good bye to everybody and headed down south to the career to relax in. the crimean peninsula southern shore serbia president mikhail gorbachev's private residence near the village of photos. both it and scores of surrounding hecht as it came a prison for the head of state here he spent several days in what amounted to confinement but there were up a side can be seen from all sides you get an almost bird's eye view of it from that mountain the rude leading to resilience can easily be blocked with stones after those events the joke here was that gorbachev's residence must have been deliberately built in this place so that he could be easily cut off from the outside world is going to work your way or the. k.g.b.

colonel lev tolstoy was directly involved in the events of those days he's a direct descendant a namesake of the celebrated russian novelist leo tolstoy. before he rose to the rank of colonel he served as a bodyguard on august the eighteenth one thousand nine hundred one top k.g.b. officials ordered him to block all exits from the gorbachev residence but i have no idea what would have happened if gorbachev and others had tried to escape from the residence or what i do think he would have faced very unpleasant consequences for. this is exclusive footage of the residence of the first savior president a splendid park was laid out almost on their rocks this had special significance because gorbachev was known to be very fond of strolling by the seaside. whatever visa arizona seeders these pines and peace shrubs were all planted just

before the territory was to be commissioner it in one nine hundred eighty eight that it was a short while before mikhail gorbachev's first visit here. the crimean residence was named terra trees in k.g.b. documentation the interior design of the main building reflected the wishes of race to go over the president's wife she was with mikhail gorbachev throughout the force or deal. with of for you we built what i would describe as internal defenses their men carrying guns with live ammunition were posted all over the place they were under strict orders not to allow provocations or. the soviet president study was on the second floor close to the hole it was here that mikhail gorbachev learned about his complete isolation from the outside world

. gorbachev study looks just like it was back then for this is his desk. and that telephone was meant for communicating with government officials. for the lying was shut down or pm on aug eighteenth which. gorbachev remained in his residence moreover measures to isolate him were reinforced still further valarie shah was the one who caught at the gates to the residence during cool k.g.b. officers from moscow kept a close eye on him along with other local agents. special measures were taken with a truck was stationed on the helo pad to prevent helicopters and touching down a tractor with a trailer outside the gates was meant to prevent motor vehicles breaking through

into the compound when for security precautions were introduced throughout. the army general balanchine but a nick of was one of the key figures in the coup attempt on august the eighteenth one thousand nine hundred one he visited gorbachev at his residence in the crimea which. asked the serbian president to recognize the legality of the coup. we knew what we were going to do it would be a nice tolly malted goodness somehow be fitted into state of emergency and retorted by exclaiming that a state of emergency was bonsa bring machine guns and blood in its wake at a quarter or even i realize that other people as well as my family would suffer no doubt blood would be spilled certainly in such a vast country as ours this country takes time to get worked up when it does you

can hardly stop at what my belief is the country's modernization without blood. august nineteenth nineteen ninety one moscow eleven am i cried halt barmer personnel carriers heading for the city center demonstrators climb one of them chanting to fascism. hundreds of people gather womanish square in central moscow they are ready to oppose the so-called state committee on the state of emergency people who met each other back then joined to still keep in touch and remember those events. hello hello hello brothers i don't see in a hundred years when my parents woke me up in the morning to tell me that a coup was underway i was actively involved in a us democratic movement so i said if no one i know was arrested right away if this is no could all yes there were tanks but people were blocking them off what kind of

courage is it if tanks can be stopped short in their tracks. or. a small radio set is one of the most treasured mementos from those days people used it to listen to the few independent stations it was still on that. one reporter said the air force refused to side with the coup are poor. another a military garrison in st petersburg also refused to back it it was great to hear the people in many towns were supporting us. tediously didn't hear that a minor radio station called echo of moscow was the main source of news in those days the k.g.b. shut it down in the first few hours of the coup but whether by fair means or foul it stuff managed to regain access to the airwaves. at one point we even used telephone lines to reach out to our audience there was no link between the studio

and the transmitter so our engineers use an analog sell it online by all accounts those words are a billion times. the students who assumes it's meanwhile the coup organizers called a press conference in moscow many took note of banerjee you know it's troubling hands he named himself the country's head of state claiming that gorbachev had fallen ill. the press conference reached a turning point after a question from turkey an american a then twenty four year old journalist of whom i do realize that what you have down to do is a coup do you see parallels with your actions in soviet history nineteen seventeen or nineteen sixty four. because for your clear him a coup took place during the night. you said i would disagree with you because all legal and constitutional norms work complied with so i should

really just say that they looked hesitant would be an understatement and they looked as if life was dying out of them and there was no vitale's he left in their faces and shifty eyes they looked like people who had lost a battle before they had a chance to start it. this nineteen thousand nine hundred ninety one zero eight a spontaneous rally began in my. goes my nation i ask where they crowd swelled as more and more people arrived the events in moscow are described as an see constitutional coupe there are calls for an open ended general strike. in this day on we are protesting on so large a man's or. no to fascism no to fascism they're not really ever i go.

as you know song was sixteen years old when he committed these murders that's not inside the song so it should not be punished for his crimes so on is. no rational person can deny that tone has been punished is being honest and will be honest. as ours must be i see it in front of britain. this is punishment this is not to. mention. that it's in. constant.

immersed no new whatsoever. and i didn't come here just. heard the rumors. start really small now. finally working on. that is now. on august the nineteenth nine hundred ninety one top k.g.b. officials in moscow ordered reinforced security precautions. residents in the crimea on the same day mikhail gorbachev videotaped has since become

a famous address. the crew has taken place. this anti constitutional action. is based on a tremendous slide. and there was little chance of the taping taken out of the compound on the same day coast guards protecting the residence attempted to establish contact with the president was a nominal defense since i was serving in one of the k.g.b.'s naval units i was not allowed to communicate with the president therefore i asked my wife to write a note in her own handwriting a note said that the sailors were ready to take the president to a place of his choice one of my subordinates took the note to the security guards asking them to hand it over to gorbachev. when he came back they told him that nobody will be allowed to approach the residents and intruders will be shot.

comatose residence was secured from the sea even better than from the land. was one of the security guards there during those days nobody could approach the shore within less than four nautical miles without being spotted by the gods if they saw the intruder as a possible threat they were under orders to open fire. three groups on permanent duty scoured the woodlands. snipers were in position on the nouns. there was a soldier with a machine gun on top of the cliff near the base remains it can still be a theme of their. day for all of us have a celebration. health resort for communist functionaries and their families was near the residence of the soviet president all this is high

season that the resort was crammed with holiday makers to capacity couple fears self of the forest result was in charge of discos and other entertainment programs . must go on aug nineteenth i said to students and physicians look the country's president mikhail gorbachev is under arrest near here shall we cancel the dances you know she said the guests should not suffer let them dance this iteration with gorbachev doesn't concern us. moscow august nineteenth one thousand nine hundred one there it seems wednesday cannons attempt to break through to the downtown area demonstrators damage some of them and force them to turn back. meanwhile the coup organizers ordered the arrest of the president of russia boris yeltsin at the

time he was at his residence and in moscow the chief of his security guards alexander korsakoff was with him a driver service car to moscow and reached the city on him that. yeltsin was seated between two guards and you flatly turned down the idea of wearing a bulletproof vest so we simply put it over him just in case. that heavy vest weighing nine kilos was of the kind born in the army. the driver was told to go as fast as he could without stopping no matter what. yeltsin managed to get to the white house where he reunited with his team later he climbed a tank to read out a message to a large crowd that had gathered outside the white house. claim all the decisions and orders by that committee illegal. by then white house defenders had set up a makeshift barricade near the building in

a bid to block the access of military vehicles. everybody was dragging whatever they could lay their hands on a trolley bus stop there the driver got out and lowered the trolleys but surely box was left standing across the road the barricade was here that's how we began blocking all approaches to the building. the crimea the city of sevastopol a soviet black sea fleet placed fifty kilometers from global twelve summer residence throughout the coup first rank captain semyonov waited for an order to rescue. but with the defense ministry part of the coup the rescue plan was ignored but they didn't like the first the pockets of resistance were to be suppressed seconds the president was to be found and taken under our protection third the remaining pockets of resistance were to be eliminated and we were to help evacuate the. president i see him. the

upshot of it was that naval commanders only sent a telegram to the trough urging him to hold on and that telegram was received by lubavitcher villa an employee of the for us post-office hundreds of telegrams addressed to go bunch of were arriving from all over the soviet union k.g.b. men immediately seized all such mail. those three days oldest eighteenth nineteenth and twentieth were the most disturbing days in my life we had no idea whether we would be allowed to go home and be arrested things were simply left around the course. or was bracing for the worst case scenario people inside the white house expected an assault on the building with that possibility in mind they inspected all of the basement secret passages leading out into nearby courtyards. some of the regular reports coming in here claim that an assault on the building of the supreme soviet would begin in an

hour's time but why would they need an assault or the building is like an aquarium all you need to do is just answer it and that's all there is to it. really actually go. this old holder was in fact given to the k.g.b. so called alpha unit the men were already on high alert but for the first time in the unit's history they demanded an open debate and a vote on the order before launching operation but it's over with. the commander asked everybody to voice their opinion on the operation and whether an assault was necessary at all. yes yes. most of the men with a service record of more than five years said no to the operation. the operation was cold off but casualties were still unavoidable in the early hours of august twenty first ninety ninety one the crews of several armored vehicles ordered to

move to another location city white house defenders attempted to stop them because they thought the vehicles were heading towards the parliament building to attack it three young men died as a result. you both calmer spent the night waiting for the sun shortly before the oldest events he had served as a soldier in afghanistan he went to the white house after hearing an appeal from vice president alexander called on people to go and defend democracy are going elsewhere for when my son had to squeeze appeal he went to the barricades because that's was a call from someone who served in afghanistan to the good but a day before. i asked him if he was going to the barricades were going and he said no that he had to see the fighting in afghanistan. he had no business monkeying around barricades but in tuesday it was a different story i feared on wednesday and he was no more. after that

tragedy it became obvious the coup had failed tanks began leaving moscow i want to list the twenty first a card carrying russia's vice president would score it over took one for convoys he was rushing to the airport to bring mikhail gorbachev back to moscow it was a total mess with a man's hands in the air. with the pulled up and none of the ground controllers guided our flight not even during the landing regardless it was a trouble free flight when we touchdown the airdrome superintendent drove up to the plane i introduced myself and said i needed a car and a boss to take us to gorbachev the problem. he said go right ahead for the wrong. good scores planes gorbachev on board touched down in moscow on august twenty second one thousand nine hundred one the coup had failed but the soviet president had in effect returned to a different country should change during those three days in august i defended the

soviet union to the laws with all it that's what i did what i failed. the finale of the standoff central moscow ammonium. felix regions keep the founder of soviet secret police standing in front of k.g.b. headquarters and look young because square is pulled down it was a symbol of the beginning of the new people. the bright future which the communists had been talking about for seventy years finally became a possibility we could build it with our own hands we were used to the fact of the state was on neverland and it could break and destroy anyone but this time nothing happened people had risen like a wall we said no enough white. at approximately the same time the prosecutor general's office launches an investigation into the role of the coup organizers the plotters tried to pass the blame on the crimean frontier guards. initially

and a team of investigators of the prosecutor general's office displayed tolerance of that then they began dropping hints are generous to repent and take the whole blame for gorbachev's isolation otherwise we would face charges of high treason. as military men we became very better when we heard the word treason and we. were because however the frontier guards were later acquitted only those who gave the orders were arrested the driving forces of the coup led by going to unite a year later they were released from prison under an amnesty you know i have died in two thousand and ten this is an excerpt from one of his last interviews we will not. have any misguided decisions were made during those three days in august one thousand nine hundred one. tanks should not have been brought in word and demonstrated or should not have been used for a few months where we could have been done in

a different way. when people today are asked whether they want a revival of the soviet union only nine percent say yes there is no chance of the state being revived in the form of the soviet union. mikhail gorbachev has never returned to his summer residence since august ninety ninety one now it's the property of the ukrainian state however top officials rarely vacation . and. the former k.g.b. colonel tolstoy makes no secret of the fact that even now he has no right to talk about some aspects of what happened then. overtops crimean residents still harbors many secrets relating to those three days in one thousand nine hundred one only when new information has been declassified livy able to shed light on. what that affair to be frank this place is not considered to be a very lucky at all that's what that. fact.

this is the officer on duty august twenty second nineteen ninety one five am boris yeltsin declares that their reactionary coup has failed and thanks to defenders of the white house. pm for the first sign the three colored flag is raised over the supreme council of russia. yeltsin yelled for. only five months and left before the collapse of the soviet you.

home. mom.

twenty years ago not just country. to some to face it. might have been each. began to.