Marxist-leninist Rule, Which Lasted 74 Years, Collapsed in Just Three Days in August 1991, Revealing How Hollow the System Had Become

Robert Service's 'The August Coup' offers a brilliant account of the Soviet Union's final days, capturing the absurdity of the old guard's failed attempt to reclaim control. Marxist-Leninist rule, which lasted 74 years, collapsed in just three days in August 1991, revealing how hollow the system had become. Service, the foremost English-speaking historian of 20th-century Russia, explains why the regime vanished without a fight, drawing parallels to the fall of tsarism in 1917. He also notes a near-repeat in June 2023, when Yevgeny Prigozhin's march on Moscow went largely unopposed.

Mikhail Gorbachev, who came to power in 1985 intending to save the USSR, instead oversaw its demise. His reforms, perestroika and glasnost, proved ineffective. The August coup, led by KGB chief Vladimir Kryuchkov, was a desperate response from a bureaucracy that knew things were going wrong but had no solution.

It failed quickly, but fatally damaged Gorbachev, who was ousted by Boris Yeltsin four months later. Service's clear writing makes complex Soviet bureaucracy accessible, and his use of rich firsthand accounts provides a graphic depiction of the plotters' fatal press conference. "When I got into Yeltsin’s office, he was lying unconscious on the floor with a couple of empty vodka bottles beside him."