Gennady Yanayev

Gennady Ivanovich Yanayev, Soviet bureaucrat (born Aug. 26, 1937, Perevoz, Russia, U.S.S.R.—died Sept. 24, 2010, Moscow, Russia), was one of eight hard-line coup leaders, or “putschists,” who in August 1991 tried to oust Soviet Pres. Mikhail Gorbachev and take over the government with Yanayev, then vice president, as president at the head of the State Committee for the State of Emergency. Yanayev grew up in Gorky oblast (now Nizhegorod), where he studied agriculture and law. He joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in his 20s and worked with the Komsomol youth organization before becoming head of the Central Council of Trade Unions. He later was named Politburo secretary in charge of foreign policy, and in December 1990 he unexpectedly received Gorbachev’s support as a compromise choice for the new post of vice president. Yanayev was one of those arrested after the abortive three-day coup failed and convicted of high treason. He was granted amnesty, however, by the Russian legislature in 1994 and released from prison.