Gorbachev is on the eve of signing a deal with the republics giving them greater freedom. It is the last straw for the hardliners.
Early in the morning of 19 August, the plotters make their move. Some of Gorbachev's closest and most senior colleagues are among them, along with military chiefs and the head of the KGB.
Tanks roll into Moscow and occupy strategic positions. Emergency law is imposed and many newspapers closed.
Gorbachev is on holiday in the Crimea. The day before the coup, the plotters have travelled to ask him to declare a state of emergency. When he refuses, he is placed under house arrest and remains cut off from the outside world until the coup collapses. The plotters announce that he is ill.
Yeltsin seizes the moment. After learning of the coup, he rushes to the Russian parliament, the White House, and begins organising resistance.
Thousands of demonstrators start turning out to back him and to protect the building from being stormed. At noon he stands on a tank in front of the parliament building, publicly defying the coup plotters. He becomes the people's darling.
