Could the August Putsch have succeeded?

[Ansar]

Hi all,

Was the [wiki]August Putsch[/wiki], you know, the one in Russia against Gorbachev, decided before it even took place (as in, was it clear it was not going to succeed?)

thanks,
Ansar

(and aren't y'all glad this isn't another What if question?)

 

[BananaLee]

A good question, thank god. Too bad I don't know anything about it.

 

[Lord Baal]

From what I've read, it actually stood a good chance of succeeding. All it needed was more military support, and preferably some political support as well. But Boris Yeltsin, the most likely successor to Gorbachev, denounced it immediately, and there was massive popular resentment of the move. This resulted in most of the military refusing to lend their support to the putsch, and the leaders backed down.

 

[chad187]

Im interested in what would the effect have been if it had succeeded what would have happened to the USSR?

 

[Racsoviale]

The glorious Sovjet Union would have colonized the moon. DUH!!!!

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

I had some fun with some of these questions a year or so ago. Worth a read, if I dare to be so vainglorious.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=301372

 

[innonimatu]

I had some fun with some of these questions a year or so ago. Worth a read, if I dare to be so vainglorious.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=301372

Wrong coup!

About the August 1991 one, No, I don't think it could have succeeded. For two reasons: it hadn't been politically prepared, it looked like (it was) a military coup, and there was no "tradition" in the USSR of those. And because the generals in question were incompetent in preparing the coup, they failed to guarantee the loyalty of even key units near the capital. A coup is all about removing competing centers of power - but they first discounted and then failed to remove Yeltsin, a very clear new center of power in the context of the renegotiation of the federal status of the USSR.

A more interesting alternative history is "what would have happened if Gorbachev had sacked and replaced those incompetents before they had time to organize a coup"?

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]