Explore: event » 1991-gkchp-coup
Lyube "Stop Fooling Around, America!" (Ne Valiai Duraka, Amerika!) music video
Music video for the fourth track on Lyube’s second studio album Who Said We Lived Poorly? (Kto skazal, chto my plokho zhili?), which was released in 1992. Written from the perspective of the Russo-Soviet “common man,” while using folk vernacular, the song explores questions of Alaska’s historical and territorial integrity – lamenting its sale to the United States and demanding its return while celebrating Russia’s national character.
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Lenin Was a Mushroom
An excerpt from the famous episode of the TV show "Piatoe koleso" (The Fifth Wheel) in which the experimental musician and performer Sergey Kuryokhin (1954-1996) nearly convinced Soviet audiences that "Lenin was a mushroom."
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The First (Home-Made) Post-Soviet Independent TV
The Saint Petersburg “New Artists” stage a meeting of the committee “anti-state of emergency” on their “Pirate Television,” declaring their support of Yeltsin against the group of communist hardliners who led the coup d’etat against Gorbachev on August 19, 1991.
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Ekho Moskvy on the 1991 Putsch
Live coverage of the GKChP putsch in August 1991 from the Echo of Moscow radio station, demonstrating the chaos of the moment, the putschists' failure to control their message, and the power of a newly independent Russian media.
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A Coup d'État Holds a Press Conference
A press conference held by the State Committee on the State of Emergency (GKChP in Russian), the group of hardline government officials who attempted a coup d’état overthrowing Mikhail Gorbachev. This press conference, held on 20 August 1991, shows the coup coming apart at the seams.
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“Vzgliad” on the GKChP
Clips of “Vzgliad”'s reports during the attempted anti-Gorbachev coup of August 1991. These include the hosts’ holing up in the seat of Russia’s new parliament, the White House alongside its defenders and celebrities, including the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich (1927-2007).
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