History of Russia: Exhibition “August 1991. 20th anniversary of coup attempt in the USSR” kicks off in St. Petersburg

On August 19, 2011 the Museum of Political History of Russia (St. Petersburg) is staging an exhibition “August 1991. 20th anniversary of coup attempt in the USSR”.

The Museum of Political History of Russia goes on with the project “The Soviet Union. Last Chapter” - a series of exhibitions, which cast light on important milestones and dramatic circumstances, reasons and aftermath of Soviet power collapse. Project’s third exhibition – “August 1991” – highlights the events related to the political crisis in August in respect of their impact on USSR’s collapse”.

The exhibition has attracted the Archive of Cold War (Los Angeles, USA), that keeps the Soviet poster collection purchased by the American collector Tom Ferris in the 1990s. Posters from the collections of the Museum of Political History of Russia and the Archive of Cold War present the view of Soviet artists on the State Committee of the State of Emergency and collapse of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Visitors of the exhibition may see the belongings of those who protected the “White House” in Moscow and Mariinsky Palace in Leningrad, fragments of barricades, self-made tricolor Russian flags carried by democrats during the days of resistance to the State Committee of the State of Emergency, the watch “To Protector of the White House of RSFSR”, which was presented by the President of RSFSR to the TV journalist A. V. Politkovsky. The exhibition displays M. S. Gorbachev’s camera which recorded the “Address of the President of the USSR to Soviet people” during the Foros “arrest”. Shots of Moscow and Leningrad photographers, which present the chronicle of August events, show participants of resistance to the State Committee of the State of Emergency and typical slogans of those days. Leaflets, appeals, telegrams and eyewitness accounts display the attitude of authorities, as well as the mood of ordinary citizens. Exhibits also feature materials on closure of Leningrad regional committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in Smolny.