<P> The 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt , also known as the August Coup ( Russian : Августовский путч , tr . Avgustovskiy Putch `` August Putsch '' ) , was an attempt by members of the Soviet Union 's government to take control of the country from Soviet President and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev . The coup leaders were hard - line members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ( CPSU ) who were opposed to Gorbachev 's reform program and the new union treaty that he had negotiated which decentralised much of the central government 's power to the republics . They were opposed , mainly in Moscow , by a short but effective campaign of civil resistance led by Russian president Boris Yeltsin , who had been both an ally and critic of Gorbachev . Although the coup collapsed in only two days and Gorbachev returned to government , the event destabilised the Soviet Union and is widely considered to have contributed to both the demise of the CPSU and the dissolution of the Soviet Union . </P>
who instigated the august 1991 hardliner coup in the soviet union
members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ( CPSU )