Regional resistance to the coup attempt in August 1991: Volgograd case

In this article, the author analyzes the reaction to the State Emergency Committee (GKChP) attempted coup in August 1991 and the resistance to it in Volgograd. In scholarly literature and socio-political debates the opinion is widespread that resistance to the putsch was limited to Moscow and Leningrad, and the regions treated it rather neutrally or even supported the GKChP. Based on the memoirs, newspapers, rallies resolutions and news agency reports from Volgograd, the author shows the wave of protests in the region, compares what was happening there with what was happening in other regions and comes to the conclusion that the Russian regions did show widespread resistance to the coup. He also discovers the main factors that distinguished the regions of protest. A key feature of Volgograd and other regions, where the protest took on a broad, organized character, was the presence of a large number of independent democratically minded deputies in the local Soviets and the media independent of the old nomenclature. In addition, the residents of Volgograd had a direct access to Boris Yeltsin’s entourage, as the chairman of the regional Soviet, Valery Makharadze, was exactly at that time appointed the Chief State Inspector of Russia. As a result, journalists received and distributed the news about the resistance to the putsch on the part of the Russian leadership, while independent deputies won support for Yeltsin from the local authorities. The author concludes that the most important changes that created this combination of factors were predetermined by the elections to the Soviets held on March 4, 1990.

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