The Keys ep33 The August Coup of 1991
The 1991 August Coup in Moscow. The attempt to save the Soviet Empire that destroyed it. While the impact of the coup was felt also in the streets of Riga, this time Moscow was the epicentre. The main goal of the putschists was to prevent the signing of Mikhail Gorbachev’s New Union Treaty that would give the Soviet republics more autonomy.
In the August Coup, the history of Latvia was decided in Moscow. Our government realized that and called for people to stay at home and protest passively and peacefully. In contrast to the January Barricades, the streets of Riga remained empty. On 21 August Latvian parliament ended the transitional period for reinstatement of independence. Nobody hadforeseen it but by the end of the summer the Baltic States were free and internationally recognized, and by the end of the year the Soviet Empire collapsed.
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