The Cast of Characters in the Soviet Coup : THE PLOTTERS:

Oleg D. Baklanov, former Defense Council vice chairman; member of State Emergency Committee

Valery I. Boldin, Gorbachev’s former chief of staff

Major Gen. Vyacheslav V. Generalov, KGB commander at Gorbachev vacation retreat in Phoros

Vladimir A. Kryuchkov, former KGB head; member of State Emergency Committee

Anatoly I. Lukyanov, chairman of the Supreme Soviet, accused of treason

Vladimir Medvedev, Gorbachev’s former adjutant

Valentin S. Pavlov, former prime minister; member of State Emergency Committee

Lt. Gen. Yuri S. Plekhanov, former chief of the KGB equivalent of the presidential Secret Service

Boris K. Pugo, former Soviet Interior Minister; member of State Emergency Committee

Oleg S. Shenin, former Communist Party Politburo member

Vasily A. Starodubtsev, leader of the Soviet Peasants’ Union; member of State Emergency Committee

Alexander I. Tizyakov, industrial leader; member of State Emergency Committee

Gen. Valentin I. Varennikov, former commander of Soviet ground forces and deputy defense minister

Gennady I. Yanayev, former vice president; named head of State Emergency Committee

Marshal Dmitri T. Yazov, former defense minister; member of State Emergency Committee

THE DEFENDERS:

Vadim V. Bakatin, loyal Gorbachev staffer later appointed KGB chief

Vladimir Boxer, Moscow leader of Democratic Russia organization backing Yeltsin

Anatoly S. Chernayev, foreign policy specialist on Gorbachev’s staff

Yevgeny G. Dudin, retired Soviet army intelligence officer

Valentin Karasev, loyal Gorbachev staffer

Gen. Konstain I. Kobets, Russian Federation defense minister

Andrei Kozyrev, Russian Federation foreign minister

Major Vladimir N. Lopatin, deputy chairman of the Russian Federation defense committee

Nursultan Nazarbayev, president of the republic of Kazakhstan and Gorbachev loyalist

Mikhail N. Poltoranin, Russian republic minister of information

Gavriil Popov, reformist Moscow mayor

Yevgeny Primakov, loyal Gorbachev staffer

Col. Alexander Rutskoi, air force officer and vice president of the Russian Federation

Adm. Vyacheslav Shcherbakov, deputy Leningrad mayor appointed by Yeltsin as local military commander

Eduard A. Shevardnadze, former Soviet foreign minister who quit last December in protest at what he warned was a building conspiracy to reverse perestroika

Ivan S. Silayev, Russian prime minister

Nikolai Vorontsov, former Soviet environment minister who opposed coup

Alexander N. Yakovlev, architect of perestroika who resigned days before the coup while warning that a “Stalinist” putsch was in the making

Veniamin Yarin, loyal Gorbachev staffer

THE HEROES:

Col. Mikhail Golovatov, former deputy commander of the KGB’s elite anti-terrorist Alpha Unit who refused order to storm Yeltsin headquarters; later promoted to command Alpha Unit

Mikhail S. Gorbachev, president

Dmitri Komar, former paratrooper killed trying to stop tanks in Moscow; named Hero of the Soviet Union, posthumously

Ilya Krichevsky, architect killed trying to stop tanks in Moscow; named Hero of the Soviet Union, posthumously

Maj. Gen. Alexander Lebed, commander of a Soviet paratroop unit which switched to Yeltsin’s side

Anatoly A. Sobchak, reformist Leningrad mayor

Vladimir Usov, former KGB man killed trying to stop tanks in Moscow; named Hero of the Soviet Union, posthumously

Boris N. Yeltsin, Russian Federation president and leader of the anti-coup resistance

THE TARNISHED:

Alexander A. Bessmertnykh, former foreign minister

Yuri Dubinin, former ambassador to Washington and apparent coup supporter

Col. Gen. Nikolai Kalinin, former commandant of Moscow now under investigation

Major Gen. Viktor Karpukhin, former commander of the KGB’s elite anti-terrorist Alpha Unit, who passed on order to assault Yeltsin’s anti-coup headquarters

Leonid P. Kravchenko, former head of state broadcasting

Gen. Mikhail Moiseyev, former chief of the Soviet general staff

Col. Gen. Alexander Samsonov, former Leningrad military commander and suspected coup supporter