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The August Coup

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What to expect

‘A must-read for those fascinated by the decline and fall of the USSR and the emergence of a new Russia’ - Mark Galeotti, author of Forged in War

'Immensely well-researched and compellingly written . . . grips the reader from page one' - Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill: Walking with Destiny

From the acclaimed author of Kremlin Winter and Blood on the Snow, a dramatic and expertly researched account of an extraordinary moment in Russia’s recent history: the August Coup.

In the summer of 1991, a group of eight plotters came together to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachëv, then the president of the USSR. These ruthless conspirators, who occupied positions of high office, declared a state of emergency to restore stability through authoritarian rule. The reality turned out to be a shambolic failure which hastened the fall of the USSR and a pivotal shift from communism to capitalism.

Beginning with a minute-by-minute re-enactment of Gorbachëv’s capture in his holiday home in Crimea, Robert Service follows the plot from its inception to its humiliating collapse. The troubling side effects of Gorbachëv’s well-meant reforms in the Soviet Union – business fraud, government corruption, organized crime and interethnic conflict – increased exponentially, and a New Russia was born. Fathered by Boris Yeltsin, it brought lamentably less benefit to the Russian economy or its people than he had promised.

Linking the years from the coup itself to today’s Russia under Vladimir Putin, The August Coup is a thoroughly compelling and original chronicle of a moment that changed Russian and global politics forever.

Critics Review

Robert Service has a historian's rare and welcome capacity to dig deep, without losing sight of the big picture. He tells the story of a three-day drama in unprecedented detail, while placing it clearly within the context of the failure of Gorbachev's reform project, making it a must-read for those fascinated by the decline and fall of the USSR and the emergence of a new Russia
Dr Mark Galeotti, author of Forged in War
This immensely well-researched and compellingly written book grips the reader from page one. You are right there in the room with Mikhail Gorbachev as he is interned in his own dacha, cut off from the outside world, and subjected to a coup attempt intended to alter world history drastically. If you want to understand Vladimir Putin today, you need to get into the plotters’ mindset in 1991, and no-one is better at taking you there than Robert Service
Lord Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill: Walking with Destiny
Robert Service ingeniously and meticulously disentangles the extraordinary web of intrigue, criminality, naive ambition and fortuitous events that marked the collapse of the USSR
Professor Donald Rayfield, author of A Seditious and Sinister Tribe
Robert Service’s gripping narrative and brilliant research takes us behind the scenes, reliving the drama and banality, courage and cowardice, hopes and fallacies manifested during those fateful days of August 1991 and lowering the final curtain on the communist era in Europe
Professor Amir Weiner, author of Making Sense of War
Remarkable . . . a finely argued, carefully researched, and beautifully written account of the fall of the Soviet Union and rise of the Russian Federation. Service understands Russian affairs as few others. His ability to penetrate the murky waters of Moscow’s politics during [these] dramatic events . . . helps us understand how we ended up with Putin’s Russia
Professor Norman M. Naimark, author of Stalin and the Fate of Europe
With The August Coup, Robert Service reminds us why he is such an outstanding historian. The book combines detailed research with engaging storytelling. The result is a compelling account of a dramatic episode in late Soviet history that we need to understand today for its continuing relevance to Russia, and to the world
James Rodgers, author of The Return of Russia

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