俄罗斯纪念1991年8月的未遂政变20周年，那场未遂政变加速了苏联的解体。
1991年8月19日，几名共产党强硬派人士软禁了在克里米亚度假的苏联领导人戈尔巴乔夫。他们的目的是阻止这位克里姆林宫的负责人实施广泛的政治和经济改革计划，其中包括给联盟内的各加盟共和国更大的自治权。
政变发生的几个小时之内，数以万计的民众聚集到莫斯科的俄罗斯政府总部周围。当时俄罗斯总统叶利钦站在一辆坦克上讲话谴责发动政变者。三天后政变失败，戈尔巴乔夫返回莫斯科。
几个星期内，爱沙尼亚、拉脱维亚和立陶宛纷纷宣布脱离苏联。在俄国革命后建立的苏维埃社会主义联盟在经历了不到75年的时间后最终在1991年12月全面解体。
直到今天，俄罗斯人仍然对苏联解体以及随后出现的经济、政治混乱局面所持的看法。
Russia is marking the 20th anniversary of the failed coup attempt that hastened the collapse of the Soviet Union.
On August 19, 1991, a small group Communist hardliners placed Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev under house arrest at his vacation home in the Crimea. Their aim was to block the Kremlin chief’s program of broad political and economic reforms, including allowing greater autonomy for the Soviet republics.
Within hours, thousands of people gathered around Russian government headquarters in Moscow, where Russian President Boris Yeltsin stood atop a tank to denounce the coup plotters.
The coup collapsed three days later and Mr. Gorbachev returned to Moscow.
Within weeks, the republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania seceded from the Soviet Union. The entire U.S.S.R. ( – the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics – ) was dissolved in December, less than 75 years after the Russian Revolution brought the communist state into existence.
To this day, Russians remain deeply divided over the Soviet collapse and the economic and political chaos that followed.