The August 1991 coup attempt against Gorbachev failed primarily because:

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Accepted Answer

Boris Yeltsin rallied popular resistance in Moscow, and key military units refused to fire on civilians. The August 1991 coup failed primarily because Boris Yeltsin, as President of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, rallied public resistance by climbing atop a tank outside the Russian White House and calling on citizens and soldiers to defy the coup plotters. Crucially, key military and KGB units refused to carry out orders to storm the White House and fire on the tens of thousands of civilians who had gathered to defend it.

No Western military forces were deployed to defend Gorbachev. Western nations condemned the coup diplomatically but did not intervene militarily. Gorbachev did not escape the country - he was held under house arrest at his vacation dacha in Crimea throughout the coup and was isolated from events in Moscow. The coup plotters did not voluntarily surrender after 24 hours - the coup lasted three days (August 19-21, 1991) before collapsing, and the plotters attempted to flee before being arrested.

The August coup is one of the most critical events on the DSST exam because its failure paradoxically accelerated the dissolution of the very Union it was intended to preserve. The coup discredited the Communist Party and the centralized Soviet institutions, empowered Yeltsin and the leaders of the individual republics, and demonstrated that the Soviet system could no longer command the loyalty of its own military. In the months following the coup, republic after republic declared independence.

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