Radio Moscow (Coverage of end of coup attempt): August 22, 1991

IC-R71A.jpg

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Gavaras, who shares the following recording and notes:

Radio Moscow coverage of the end of the coup attempt. Per Wikipedia: The 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, was an attempt made by members of the government of the Soviet Union 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 decentralized 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 power, the event destabilized the USSR and is widely considered to have contributed to both the demise of the CPSU and the dissolution of the USSR.

Date of recording: 8/22/1991

Starting time: 0300 UTC

Frequency: Unknown

Reception location: Minnetonka, MN

Receiver and antenna: ICOM R71A