State Committee on the State of Emergency

The State Committee on the State of Emergency, abbreviated as SCSE, was a group of eight high-level Soviet officials within the Soviet government, the Communist Party, and the KGB, who attempted a coup d'état against Mikhail Gorbachev on 19 August 1991. The American publicist Georges Obolensky called it the Gang of Eight. The coup ultimately failed, with the provisional government collapsing by 22 August 1991 and several of the conspirators being prosecuted by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. Members The eight members were: Gennady Yanayev (1937–2010), Vice President Valentin Pavlov (1937–2003), Premier Boris Pugo (1937–1991), Interior Minister Dmitry Yazov (1924–2020), Defense Minister and Marshal of the Soviet Union Vladimir Kryuchkov (1924–2007), Chairman of the KGB Oleg Baklanov (1932–2021), First Deputy Chairman of the Defense Council of the USSR Vasily Starodubtsev (1931–2011), Chairman of the Peasants' Union of the USSR Alexander Tizyakov (1926–2019), President of the Association of State Enterprises Pugo committed suicide via gunshot to avoid arrest, while the other seven members were arrested. However, there is some speculation that he may have been murdered instead. Coup d'état