Coup Leaders to Testify Gorbachev OKd Plot : Russia: On eve of treason trial, defendants say the former Soviet president encouraged them and could have stopped their plan.

In a last-minute attempt to divert attention from themselves, key figures in the August, 1991, Soviet coup, who are scheduled to go on trail for treason today, are spreading the word that they will accuse then-Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev of encouraging their plot.

After long months in prison awaiting trial, the 12 coup leaders remain steadfastly unrepentant. They say Gorbachev had the power to stop their coup but failed to do so. It was he who betrayed them--and his country--by failing to aid their attempt to preserve the old Soviet Union, and not the other way around, they say.

In an interview on the eve of the trial, Gorbachev’s vice president, Gennady I. Yanayev--whose shaky hands at a press conference on the coup’s first day became a symbol of the group’s weakness--denounced Gorbachev for not admitting that he was involved in the plot because he was more concerned about his image than his country.

Oleg D. Baklanov, 61, who was first deputy chairman of Gorbachev’s National Defense Council, has such disdain for his former boss that he tries to refrain from saying his name.

When he caught himself uttering it by mistake during a pretrial interview, he spat, as if the name left a bad taste in his mouth.

Yanayev and Baklanov contend that the trial, which will be held before a military tribunal of the Russian Supreme Court, will expose Gorbachev’s behind-the-scenes role in the putsch.

On Sunday evening, Aug. 18, 1991, the minister of defense, KGB chief, prime minister and other powerful Soviet officials had Gorbachev arrested while he was vacationing in the Crimea. They persuaded Yanayev to sign a decree assuming power on the false pretext that Gorbachev was gravely ill.

In the morning, the news spread and so did the public resistance. Despite tanks and troops sent into the city by the plotters, tens of thousands of people stood up against the attempted coup. With the military refusing any deeper involvement, the coup collapsed. By Thursday, its leaders were under arrest. Within days, Interior Minister Boris K. Pugo had committed suicide.

Baklanov, who was among the members of the so-called State Emergency Committee who visited Gorbachev at the Black Sea resort of Foros on the day the coup was launched, said Gorbachev gave his approval to their plan.

“I was in Foros, I talked with him,” Baklanov said. “He said, ‘Go ahead, take measures.’ ”

It was Gorbachev, as commander in chief of the armed forces, he added, who sent the troops and tanks into Moscow.

Baklanov refused to give more details about what Gorbachev said.

“I’m getting ahead of myself,” he said. “But I will talk about this in court.”

According to Yanayev and Baklanov, Gorbachev was the one who initiated the plan by instructing his top officials to devise ways to implement emergency rule over the country.

Yanayev said that Gorbachev could have easily arrested the plotters or returned to Moscow to take control of the situation.

“Instead, Gorbachev in Foros indulged in a wait-and-see tactic,” Yanayev, 56, said.

“He understood that if the coup plotters succeeded in taking over, he would return in four days and (re)occupy his position. If the democrats won, he would return to Moscow, make peace with the democrats and his martyrdom would boost his ratings, which by that time were close to zero. He had nothing to lose. This was a political game.”

Despite winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Gorbachev had indeed seen his popularity at home dwindle sharply. Consequently, many Russians believe the plotters’ story about Gorbachev being behind the seemingly convoluted plan to appear to oust himself from power.

Gorbachev has denied the accusations repeatedly, and even supporters of Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin, once Gorbachev’s political nemesis, say the claims are ridiculous.

“Unlike Yanayev, Gorbachev is a smart person, and he could easily assess the possible damage (of coup participation),” said Alexander A. Osovtsev, a leader of the Democratic Russia movement, Yeltsin’s main political base. “He could not but see that whether the putsch succeeded or not, he, Gorbachev, would end up as a political corpse.”

Some Russians, suffering from the painful consequences of their country’s economic reforms and nostalgic for the old days, support the coup plotters and look to them to help bring order back to Russia. But many others are disgusted by the putsch leaders’ version of the events of Aug. 19-21.

“They are so blockheaded that they don’t even understand what they did,” Alexander Krasnikov, a driver, said. “Can you believe that these people led our country!?”

Still, a year and a half after the events, the public view of the coup leaders has softened dramatically. In September, 1991, a survey by the Russian polling agency Mnenie showed that 25% of the Muscovites questioned favored the death penalty for the 12 defendants if they were found guilty. In a similar poll recently, only 1% favored capital punishment for them.

Indeed, the 12 are facing long prison terms or even execution. But the consensus is that much milder punishments will be handed down if they are guilty.

By late January, all of the defendants had been released pending trial and several of them have been busy trying to breathe life into the remnants of the Communist Party.

Yanayev said he plans to continue his political career, even if he is sentenced to prison.

“I am still a Communist, and even in jail I will continue my political activity,” he said. “I do not intend to bury myself alive. I will keep struggling for the system that we have lost and for the restoration of the Soviet Union.”

Moscow Bureau reporter Andrei Ostroukh contributed to this report.

Facing Trial for Treason

The 12 men accused of plotting the failed hard-line coup:

Vladimir A. Kryuchkov, 69, was chairman of the KGB. Gorbachev called him the mastermind of the coup.

Gennady I. Yanayev, 56, was vice president of the Soviet Union and head of the self-proclaimed State Emergency Committee, which seized power.

Valentin S. Pavlov, 56, was prime minister. According to investigators, he was so drunk on the second day of the coup that a Kremlin doctor was called to treat him.

Anatoly I. Lukyanov, 62, was chairman of the Soviet Parliament and had been a friend of Gorbachev’s since law school. He wrote patriotic poetry while in prison.

Gen. Dmitri T. Yazov, 69, was defense minister. He told investigators he began having second thoughts soon after the coup was launched.

Oleg S. Shenin, 56, was a Politburo member and might have replaced Gorbachev as Communist Party leader. He recently was elected head of the newly revived Union of Communist Parties in the former Soviet republics.

Gen. Yuri S. Plekhanov, 53, was head of KGB presidential security.

Gen. Vyacheslav V. Generalov, 47, was Plekhanov’s deputy.

Gen. Valentin I. Varrenikov, 69, was head of Soviet ground troops and was sent to the Crimea to tell Gorbachev he had been ousted.

Oleg D. Baklanov, 61, was deputy chief of the National Defense Council and a representative of the military-industrial complex.

Alexander I. Tizyakov, 67, headed an association of state factories.

Vasily A. Starodubtsev, 62, headed a group of collective farm leaders.

Source: Times wire reports