General and major

Moscow, 18. August 2001, evening

Fireworks like fireworks, beautiful and colorful, just like the memories of the glorious past. Especially what happened on the same day ten years ago. Today, on that occasion, thousands of Muscovites gathered in front of the White House, all with flags and slogans. There was also a concert. Like every day, Novi Arbat Street was full of neon signs, luxury limousines parked in front of nightclubs and casinos, expensive boutiques and beggars.

From the twentieth floor, the view is excellent. General Valentin Varenjikov, using the remote control, increases the operation of the air conditioner and sits down at the imposing wooden table. As befits the president of the Association of Heroes of the Soviet Union and Russia.

General: "They tried me three times, but I would still do everything I did today." I just…I would have done it more firmly and with more determination!”

At the time of the coup, Varennikov was the commander of the ground forces of the Red Army and one of the key coup plotters. On assignment, he went to Kiev to monitor the situation in Ukraine. Hence, he followed the indecision of the ringleaders in Moscow with increasing panic.

"For God's sake, we were saving the country from falling apart, and they were so indecisive." Instead of appearing nicely on television and clearly saying: 'We are against Mikhail Gorbachev. We are for the preservation of the Soviet Union...', they made soft statements that, well, they were mildly opposed to the course of Gorbachev's policy... instead of a hard stance in the breaking news, they played a video of 'Swan Lake' on television... "

Desperate, Varennikov sent the State Committee coded telegram no. 17/1970 from Kiev. "Most of the executive bodies act extremely indecisively and disorganized. The security authorities are not fulfilling their tasks at all... In the name of our people, in the name of all soldiers and officers, we ask you to immediately liquidate the group of Yeltsin's adventurers... The government building of the Russian Federation should be immediately blocked, water, electricity, as well as telephone and radio connections should be cut off... "

MAJOR: At the time of the attack, Major Sergei Yevdokimov was the chief of staff of one of the tank battalions of the elite guard unit, the Taman division. He was sent with six tanks to block the bridge in front of the White House. Having reached the Parliament, Yevdokimov turned the tanks and the barrels were now aimed at the defense of Yeltsin and his supporters...

"The most difficult thing was to find out what was happening. When they sent us out of the barracks at eight in the evening, we had no idea what was happening. But we are soldiers... we were ordered. Most of the other units spread across the city were cut off from information. And as soon as we approached the White House, we were surrounded by people. I, unlike other commanders, allowed the soldiers to talk to the people... and it was easy for us because we knew very quickly what the putschists were saying, and what Yeltsin was saying, and what the people were thinking. After that, it was easy to decide who was right, on whose side the law was."

Yevdokimov entered the parliament building and consulted with Alexander Rutskoy (a hero from Afghanistan) and the general about the tactical situation. Although they had live ammunition, it was clear to both of them that the six tanks had no chance if an even larger unit attacked.

"Of course I was afraid. Well, I was a professional officer who disobeyed an order during the state of emergency! I was followed by a summary judgment in the event of the victory of the putschists. I didn't worry about myself, I made my own decision, it's easy for me to answer. But I was afraid for my parents, my brother... the memories of how Stalin punished rebellion are too fresh..."

He was encouraged by the growing number of people who came to the defense of the White House.

"That's the strongest memory… that river of people." There were a few of them who came up to us and said 'alal faith, just be tough with Yeltsin...' but that was a miserable minority. The vast majority came to defend and defend the White House, and with it democracy.

Yevdokimov is one of the few key figures who hasn't 'gone away'... He served in the army until last year, lives in a modest apartment, is broke like most Russians. Is this how he imagined democracy?

“Well…not really. But it is not up to me and those who were with me then. But even then, and now, I think I did the right thing and I'm proud of it. What came after... I think it's good that the Berlin Wall fell, that freedom came, that the press is free. But I thought it would be different on the economic front. It could somehow all have passed without the kind of privatization we had, which created a class of super-billionaires and turned the majority of the population into beggars..."

TRAITORS: The foyer leading to General Varennikov's office is decorated with portraits of fallen heroes, including Comrade Dzhugashvili. In the office, Comrade Varennikov is also convinced of the correctness of what he has done. He only regrets the lack of determination. He served a year and six months in prison, then was a deputy in the Duma, and now he is preparing memoirs and managing living heroes and memories of the fallen. He vigorously rejects the thesis that the coup attempt actually weakened Gorbachev to such an extent that the president was no longer able to save the country. "It's not our fault... I was tried for treason, but I wasn't." JA traitor. The traitor and destroyer of the country was Mikhail Gorbachev. Our goals were right. Our intention was right. But our methods were simply not energetic enough."

"I tried to balance between the left and the right wing, reformists and hardliners." That's my mistake," says Mikhail Gorbachev in the elegant building of the Gorbachev Foundation on Lennigradsky Boulevard. Tanned, he looks elegant and authoritative as ever as he explains how he was betrayed by those he trusted most, members of the government and the Communist Party leadership. "But such a mistake cannot be corrected afterwards."

A new state treaty was scheduled to be signed in Moscow on August 20, on the basis of which nine of the 15 members of the Soviet Union would remain in some kind of state union, an asymmetrical federation. The signing was canceled due to the coup and after that Yeltsin was already too powerful. Together with the presidents of Ukraine and Belarus, he signed the death certificate of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in December.