The August Coup
The Destruction of the Soviet Union and the Making of New Russia 1985-1991
Published on 11. June 2026
Book
Hardback
432 pages
978-1-5290-6578-7 (ISBN)
Description
'Lively and insightful' - The Times
'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 Gorbachev, 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 Gorbachev'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 Gorbachev'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.
'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 Gorbachev, 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 Gorbachev'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 Gorbachev'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.
Reviews / Votes
A lively and insightful account . . . [from] Britain's foremost expert on Soviet history -- Edward Lucas, <i>The Times</i> 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 <i>Forged in War</i> 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 <i>Churchill: Walking with Destiny</i> 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 <i>A Seditious and Sinister Tribe</i> 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 <i>Making Sense of War</i> 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 <i>Stalin and the Fate of Europe</i> 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 <i>The Return of Russia</i>More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Pan Macmillan
Target group
Interest Age: From 18 years
Dimensions
Height: 164 mm
Width: 243 mm
Thickness: 40 mm
Weight
692 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5290-6578-7 (9781529065787)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Robert Service
The August Coup
The Destruction of the Soviet Union and the Making of New Russia 1985-1991
E-Book
06/2026
Picador
€45.49
Available for download
Person
Robert Service is a Fellow of the British Academy, Emeritus Professor of Oxford University and Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He has written several books, including the highly acclaimed Lenin: A Biography, Russia: Experiment with a People, Stalin: A Biography and Trotsky: A Biography, which won the 2009 Duff Cooper Prize, as well as many other books on Russia's past and present including Blood on the Snow: The Russian Revolution 1914-1924 and Kremlin Winter: Russia and the Second Coming of Vladimir Putin. He lives in London.