Former Vice-President of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Gennady Yanayev, 73, has died in Russia. He was a leading official in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the youth and trade union sections.
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AP - Friday, September 24, 2010 3:20:00 AM
By JIM HEINTZ
Gennady Yanayev, a leader of the abortive 1991 Soviet coup who briefly declared himself president replacing Mikhail Gorbachev, has died at age 73, Russia's Communist Party announced Friday.
In one of the indelible images of the putsch that hastened the
collapse of the Soviet Union, Yanayev's hands shook visibly as he
announced that he was taking over as president. Yanayev was later
quoted by a newspaper as saying he was drunk when he signed the decree elevating himself from the vice-presidency.
A statement from the party said Yanayev died Friday after an
unspecified lengthy illness. The news website RBK said he died in the Kremlin-run Central Clinical Hospital, citing the Russian
International Academy of Tourism, where Yanayev once taught.
Yanayev was one of 12 members of the so-called State Emergency
Committee that announced Gorbachev was being replaced on Aug. 19, 1991. Gorbachev was on a short holiday in the Crimea at the time.
Tank divisions rolled into Moscow to enforce the power grab, but
crowds of civilians, emboldened by the loosening of strictures under
Gorbachev's "perestroika" policies, turned out to defy them and
erected barricades around the parliament building.
The coup collapsed on Aug. 21, but it fatally weakened the
already-unraveling Soviet Union, which was dissolved four months
later.
Yanayev initially said that he was taking over the presidency because
Gorbachev "is very tired after all these years, and he will need some
time to get better. We hope ... he will take office again."
But he and other coup plotters later said they were trying to prevent
the breakup of the Soviet Union, many of whose constituent republics
were increasingly defying central control.
In 1993, the newspaper Novy Vzglyad quoted Yanayev as saying that was drunk when he signed the decree, but that he denied inebriation
affected his judgment.
"My body is such that I remain sane even after drinking all my buddies under the table," he said.
Yanayev and his fellow plotters were arrested and jailed after the
coup collapsed, but he and the others were released in 1993 and
amnestied by parliament a year later. After his release, he taught
history at the tourism academy and was a consultant to the state
committee on invalids and veterans of government service
Yanayev was a conventional creature of the Soviet Union's intricate
bureaucracy. His posts included heading the national committee for
youth organizations, then moving on to head the national council of
trade unions. He became a Politburo member in July 1990 and was
appointed to the new post of Soviet vice president that December.
The announcement of his death from the Communist Party took note of those posts and praised him as "a highly professional specialist ... a dear and trustworthy comrade." It made no mention of the attempted coup.
Reports said Yanayev is survived by his wife and two daughters.
Funeral arrangements have not been announced.
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