Would you have supported the GKChP?

So, it has been more than 20 years since a group of Communists led by Gennadiy Yanayev tried to save the USSR. Ultimately, they failed. Would you have supported what they would have done or not?

I guess I'd vote yes although I've never been convinced that Gennady would have led to anything other than just continuing down the same old path. Either way he's better than Yeltsin so yeah.

I suppose if I were indeed a Soviet citizen and saw that Gorby was running the country into the ground, while Yeltsin & others were in the process of dismantling my country, I would have given some degree of support for such an action.

As a non-citizen of the USSR, and not being a dogmatic liberal (and I'm not using this term in the way it's used in the US) who supports notions of "individual rights" and "freedom" and spits on everything with a red flag or doesn't look like a Western capitalist democracy, given what I know about the '90s in Russia as a result of the success of Yeltsin & Co., I would come to the same conclusion, namely that the success of the August Coup against Gorby & others wouldn't have been as negative for the people of the USSR at least in that period.

Whether or not it would have done a lot of good in the long run is another issue and depends on too many factors, but sure, why not?

Kind of mixed between "Yes" and "Other" but leaning more toward "Yes" so I voted that way.

Unlike with Sablin's foolish putsch attempt, I have to vote yes on this one. The main concern was saving the revolution, and the USSR, itself.

Yes,because even fake communists are better than Yeltsin and Co.

Misuzu wrote:

So, it has been more than 20 years since a group of Communists led by Gennadiy Yanayev tried to save the USSR. Ultimately, they failed. Would you have supported what they would have done or not?

Comrades, I think today's world wouldn't have been as aggressively consumerist and other values would prevail if they would've succeeded in that coup d'etat. Soviet Union would've been saved and probably they'd help keep Yugoslavia together (which would be quite controversial).

Besides, the Politburo of the USSR and the generals in the Joint Chiefs of Staff should've had him removed 2 years earlier. According to Gorbatschow himself, the coup d'etat would've been successfull 2 years earlier when the genie was not out of the bottle yet.

I suppose in hindsight I support the coup attempt, but if I was actually there at the time? It's a more difficult question to answer.

I have to say I was glad to see the counter for the "No" answer at 0%.
Would we as Communists have supported the protection of the Soviet Union against counterrevolutionaries like Yeltsin? The answer is pretty obvious.

Jingle_Bombs wrote:

I suppose in hindsight I support the coup attempt, but if I was actually there at the time? It's a more difficult question to answer.

Not many people have a vision for the future and that's why they wouldn't be for the coup at that time. Leaders with a vision are the ones who take us to the next level. Without them, we roam in circles.

Judging the circumstances of 1991, if I were a Soviet citizen I doubt I would have supported the coup for the same reasons many Soviets opposed it. The momentum in the country with the free discussion and new open discourse would be such that I would no doubt feel uneasy about the coup.

No way I'd put my butt on the line of fire for a totalitarian jackass who wasn't all that leftist to begin with. The way I hear it many of the "Gang of Eight" ended up in the boards of the newly privatized corporations anyway (though apparently this wasn't the case with Gennady Yanayev. Maybe he was more honest, or maybe just slower in spoil seizing. Who knows). Either way I don't think I'd be particularily motivated to join them.