Moscow Coup: Day 1

In the Soviet Union

Tanks and armored personnel carriers swarm through the streets of Moscow as the chiefs of the Soviet army, KGB, police and fellow right-wingers oust Mikhail S. Gorbachev, impose a state of emergency on the capital and move to gut or liquidate many of the deposed Soviet president’s reforms.

“There was no alternative but to take resolute action to stop the country from sliding into disaster,” Vice President Gennady I. Yanayev (ghen-AH-dee yah-NYE-ev), proclaimed the country’s “acting president” earlier Monday, tells a news conference.

Pressed for specifics on Gorbachev’s whereabouts, Yanayev says: “Nothing threatens Comrade Gorbachev. He is in a safe place, except that he needs some time to feel better.”

Resolution No. 1 of the self-proclaimed Committee for the State of Emergency in the U.S.S.R. says: All press and broadcast organs are now subject to official “control”; political parties that break the peace are to be shut down; government bodies that violate Soviet law are to be dissolved, and strikes and demonstrations are banned.

A Soviet military official announces he is assuming control of the three secessionist Baltic republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin demands a national general strike against the coup leaders. Thousands of Muscovites brave a cordon of armor to rally outside Russian government headquarters.

U.S. Reaction

President Bush returns to Washington from his Maine vacation home, puts aid to the Soviet Union on hold and calls on Western allies to do likewise. He questions whether the Soviet people will surrender new-found freedoms, saying “coups can fail.”

World Reaction

In Brussels, officials of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization call a special session.

British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd announces the “temporary interruption” of $80 million in aid to the Soviet Union.

Financial Markets

Investors dump stocks and hoard dollars and oil. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial index plummets 100 points in early trading before rallying slightly to close down 70 points. Stocks tumble overseas, while dollar and gold prices surge.