Gang of Eight (Soviet Union)
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The Gang of Eight was a group of eight conspirators holding top level positions within the KGB and the CPSU who conspired a coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev from August 18, 1991-August 20, 1991.
The group consisted of top personnel close to Gorbachev within the Politburo, CPSU, and KGB.
The eight members of the so called State Emergency Committee were arrested. They were:
- Gennady Yanayev, Soviet Vice President; today is a pension fund consultant
- Vladimir Kryuchkov, head of the KGB; has since written his memoirs
- Dmitriy Yazov, Soviet Defense Minister; now an advisor to an arms exporter
- Valentin Pavlov, Soviet Prime Minister; eventually became a banker; died in 2003
- Oleg Baklanov, of the Soviet Defense Council
- Vasily Starodubtsev, member of the Soviet Parliament
- Alexander Tizyakov, president of state enterprises, industrial construction, transport, and communications.
- The eighth member, Interior Minister Boris Pugo, shot himself to avoid arrest.
The attempted coup has been considered over time more as a desire to maintain power and control over the Soviet Union in the face of Gorbachev's democratic and economic reforms that led to the political and economic decline of the USSR.
