User:Colchicum/Aftermath of the August Coup

In the immediate aftermath of the August Coup of 1991 in the Soviet Union on August 21 the USSR Prosecutor General's Office started investigation of the coup attempt. Since a number of heads of the regional executive committees supported GKChP, on August 21 Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR by its Decision No.1626-1 authorized Russian President Boris Yeltsin to appoint heads of regional administrations. On August 22 several conspirators (Vladimir Kryuchkov, Dmitriy Yazov, Alexander Tizyakov, Gennady Yanayev) were arrested. On August 22 the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR by its Decision No.1627/1-1 declared the white-blue-red flag official national flag of Russia, instead of the Soviet red flag. Gorbachev was still willing to preserve the union and insisted that it would be wrong to blame the entire party for the coup. On August 23 Boris Pugo shot his wife and himself in his apartment. Despite Gorbachev's objections, during a session of the Supreme Soviet Yeltsin signed a decree suspending the CPSU for the time of investigation. Valentin Pavlov and Vasily Starodubtsev were arrested. At midnight of August 24 the monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky was removed from the Lubyanka Square to the applaud of the crowd. GOleg Baklanov was arrested, as well as Valery Boldin, Oleg Shenin and Yury Plekhanov. Sergey Akhromeyev and later Nikolay Kruchina, who weren't explicitely blamed for the coup, committed suicide. Georgy Pavlov and Dmitry Lisovolik followed their way few weeks later. In the meantime on August 24 thousands of Moscow citizens took part in the funeral of Dmitriy Komar, Vladimir Usov and Ilya Krichevsky, the victims of teh coup. Mikhail Gorbachev posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union to them. On August 24 Mikhail Gorbachev created the so-called “Committee for the Operational Management of the USSR Economy” (Комитет по оперативному управлению народным хозяйством СССР), to replace the USSR Cabinet of Ministers (government) headed by Valentin Pavlov, a GKChP member. Russian prime minister Ivan Silaev headed this committee.

Gorbachev resigned from the CPSU Secretary General position, but remained President of the Soviet Union. Contrary to the plotters' intentions and Gorbachev's wishes, the Soviet Union started breaking up. The Estonian SSR, Latvian SSR, Ukrainian SSR, Byelorussian SSR, Moldavian SSR, Azerbaijani SSR, Kyrgyz SSR, Uzbek SSR, Tajik SSR declared sovereignty starting from August 20, as the Lithuanian and Georgian SSRs had already done. Anatoly Lukyanov was removed by the USSR Supreme Soviet from the position of its chairman and was arrested. The majority of Russia's population insisted on an exceptionally harsh punishment for the plotters and supported Yeltsin.

On August 24 Russian President Boris Yeltsin by his Decree No. 83 transferred the archives of the CPSU to the state archive authorities. On August 25 Boris Yeltsin by his Decree No. 90 nationalized the property of the CPSU in Russia.

On September 5 the state administration of the Soviet Union was reformed for the period of transition. On September 5 the USSR Congress of People’s Deputies adopted the USSR Law No.2392-1 “On the Authorities of the USSR in the Transitional Period” under which the USSR Supreme Soviet was reformed. Instead of the Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities (previous two chambers), both elected by the USSR Congress of Peoples Deputies, the new two chambers were the Soviet of the Union (Совет Союза) and the Soviet of Republics (Совет Республик). The Soviet of the Union was to be formed by the USSR people’s deputies elected by the citizens. The Soviet of Republics was to include 20 deputies from republic plus one deputy for each autonomous region in each union republic (both USSR people’s deputies and republican people’s deputies) delegated by the legislatures of the union republic. Russia was an exception with 52 deputies. However, the delegation of each union republic was to have only one vote in the Soviet of Republics. The laws were to be first adopted by the Soviet of the Union and then by the Soviet of Republics. The USSR State Council (Государственный совет СССР) which included the USSR President and the presidents of union republics was created. The “Committee for the Operational Management of the USSR Economy” was replaced by the USSR Interrepublican Economic Committee (Межреспубликанский экономический комитет СССР), also headed by Ivan Silaev.

The Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR adopted the Declaration of Human Rights and Freedoms. On September 6 the Soviet State Council acknowledged independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

On November 6 Boris Yeltsin by his Decree No.169 banned the CPSU and CP of the Russian SFSR in Russia.

In 1991 the Parliamentary Commission for Investigating Causes and Reasons of the coup attempt was established under Lev Ponomaryov, but in 1992 it was dissolved at Ruslan Khasbulatov's insistence. On February 23, 1994 the State Duma declared amnesty for the GKChP members and their accomplices, as well as for the participants of October 1993 events.