Gennady Yanayev

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In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Ivanovich and the family name is Yanayev.

Gennady Yanayev
Геннадий Янаев
28th Central Committee
In office
14 July 1990 – 31 January 1991
Personal details
Born(1937-08-26)26 August 1937
Perevoz, Gorky Oblast, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Died24 September 2010(2010-09-24) (aged 73)
Moscow, Russia
Cause of deathLung cancer
Political partyCommunist Party of the Soviet Union (1962–1991)

Gennady Ivanovich Yanayev (Russian: Геннадий Иванович Янаев; 26 August 1937 – 24 September 2010) was a

Union of Soviet Societies for Friendship and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries
.

Due to his chairmanship of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, in 1990 he gained a seat in the

August 1991 coup d'état attempt. After three days, the coup collapsed, in part due to Western backing of Boris Yeltsin, but during its brief grip of power Yanayev was made Acting President of the Soviet Union. He was then arrested for his role in the coup, but in 1994 he was pardoned
. He spent the rest of his life working in the Russian tourism administration until his death on 24 September 2010.

Early life and career

Yanayev was born on 26 August 1937 in the town of

Secretary of the Central Committee.[7]

Vice president

See also:
Gang of Eight (Soviet Union)

On 27 December 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev proposed Yanayev as Vice President of the Soviet Union. He was Gorbachev's third choice for the post; Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze and Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev had turned the offer down.[8]

Yanayev had initially been rejected by the

Soviet government, the unionists withdrew their plans for a strike.[11]

August Coup

Main articles:
1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt and State Committee on the State of Emergency

Shortly after taking office, Yanayev joined a group of more conservative Communist politicians, led by KGB chairman Vladimir Kryuchkov, who hoped to persuade Gorbachev to declare a state of emergency.[12][13]

After Gorbachev announced his proposal for a New Union Treaty to form the

Soviet life and the territorial integrity of the USSR.[15][16] Yanayev further claimed that the danger of collapse was imminent, and if the economic situation was not handled quickly, the Soviet Union would collapse. In addition, Yanayev and the rest of the state committee ordered the Cabinet of Ministers to alter the then current five-year plan to relieve the housing shortage. All city-dwellers were given one third of an acre each to combat winter food shortages by growing fruit and vegetables.[17]

When asked about Gorbachev, Yanayev replied: "Let me say that Mikhail Gorbachev is now on vacation. He is undergoing treatment, himself, in our country. He is very tired after these many years and he will need some time to get better."

drunkenness instead of Gorbachev's alleged bad health.[18]

On 19 August, citizens of Moscow gathered around Russia's

White House and began to erect barricades around it, in which at 16:00 Yanayev responded by declaring a state of emergency in Moscow.[19][20] Yanayev declared at the press conference at 17:00 that Gorbachev was "resting". He said: "Over these years he has become very tired and needs some time to get his health back." Yanayev said the Emergency Committee was committed to continuing his reforms. However, Yanayev's weak posture, trembling hands and shaky expressions made his words unconvincing.[19] On August 21, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, chaired by the heads of the chambers of the union parliament, adopted a resolution in which it declared illegal the actual dismissal of President Gorbachev from his duties and the transfer of them to the country's vice-president and, in this regard, demanded that Vice-President Yanayev cancel the decrees and emergency orders based on them.[21] According to some historians, Yanayev was the most visible and powerful member of the Emergency Committee but was not its mastermind; Kryuchkov has been described as the "heart and soul of the conspiracy". Yanayev only agreed to head the Emergency Committee on 20 August. Along with the other coup leaders, such as Valentin Pavlov and Boris Pugo for instance, Yanayev was dismissed as vice president and later jailed for his crimes against the Soviet state.[22]

In 1993, Moscow weekly Novy Vzglyad quoted Yanayev as admitting that he was drunk when he signed the decree which made him acting president, but saying that inebriation had not affected his judgment.[23] In a 2008 interview, Yanayev said he regretted making himself acting President, further claiming that he was pressured by the more conservative members to sign the documents which declared his own presidency. He described the events of 1991 as a burden for the rest of his life.[2]

Later life and death

Yanayev was released on recognizance not to leave in January 1993.[24] He was pardoned in 1994.[22] He would eventually become the head of the Department of History and International Relations of the Russian International Academy of Tourism.[2] On 20 September 2010, he fell ill and was hospitalised at the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow, where he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He died on 24 September 2010.[25]

The

Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) expressed their condolences to Yanayev's family.[26] Gennady Zyuganov, the leader of the CPRF, said of him: "Yanayev lived an interesting, complicated and worthy life."[27] The CPRF officially praised him as "a highly professional specialist [...] a dear and trustworthy comrade".[28] In another statement made by the CPRF, this time on their official website, they claimed: "If they had acted much more decisively, our unified country would have been preserved."[29] He was buried at the Troyekurovskoye Cemetery, in a ceremony attended by several prominent CPRF members. He was survived by his wife and two daughters.[30]

Decorations and awards

See also

  • Index of Soviet Union-related articles

References

  1. ^ Постановление Съезда народных депутатов СССР от 4 сентября 1991 г. N 2390-I "Об освобождении Г. И. Янаева от обязанностей Вице-президента СССР"
  2. ^ a b c Schwirz, Michael (24 September 2010). "Gennadi I. Yanayev, 73, Soviet Coup Plotter, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
  3. ^ Громыко Андрей Андреевич (in Russian). hrono. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
  4. ^ Steele, Jonathan (26 September 2010). "Gennady Yanayev obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 December 2010.
  5. Pravda Online
    . Retrieved 1 October 2010.
  6. ISBN 0-275-96643-7
    .
  7. ^ Биография Геннадия Янаева: ветеран и инвалид госслужбы (in Russian). Temadnya. Archived from the original on 5 November 2013. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
  8. ^ Union of Soviet Socialist Republics at Encyclopædia Britannica
  9. ^
    ISBN 0-8157-3060-8
    .
  10. ^ "Mulig at Sjevardnadse forsetter" (in Norwegian). Norwegian News Agency. 7 January 1991.
  11. ^ "Sovjetunionen: gruvearbeidere trekker plan om streik" (in Norwegian). Norwegian News Agency. 3 March 1991.
  12. ^ (in Russian) September 1991 internal KGB report on the involvement of KGB in the coup
  13. ^ (in Russian) "Novaya Gazeta" No. 51 of 23 July 2001 Archived 15 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine (extracts from the indictment of the conspirators)
  14. ^ Указ вице-президента СССР от 18 августа 1991 года
  15. ^ Заявление советского руководства
  16. ISBN 0-275-95713-6
    .
  17. ^ a b "Russian Reaction". PBS NewsHour. 19 August 1991. Archived from the original on 13 November 2012. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
  18. ^ "Gennady Yanayev". The Daily Telegraph. 12 October 2010. Retrieved 15 December 2010.
  19. ^ a b Тоннель на крови (in Russian). nr2. 18 August 2006. Archived from the original on 7 January 2008. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
  20. ^ Государственный комитет по чрезвычайному положению в СССР (in Russian). souz. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
  21. ^ Постановление Президиума Верховного Совета СССР от 21 августа 1991 года № 2352-I «О неотложных мерах по восстановлению конституционного порядка в стране» [1]
  22. ^ a b "Soviet coup leader Gennady Yanayev dies". BBC News. 24 September 2010. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  23. ^ "Soviet coup plotter Gennady Yanayev dies at 73". USA Today. 24 September 2010. Retrieved 15 December 2010.
  24. ^ Ъ-Газета — Пресс-конференция по делу ГКЧП
  25. ^ Один из идеологов ГКЧП Геннадий Янаев скончался в московской больнице (in Russian). echo.msk.ru. 24 September 2010. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
  26. LifeNews
    . 24 September 2010. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
  27. ^ Antonova, Maria (24 September 2010). "Soviet 1991 coup leader Gennady Yanayev dies at 73". Agence France-Presse. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
  28. ^ 24 сентября на 74 году жизни после продолжительной и тяжёлой болезни скончался Геннадий Иванович Янаев // Официальный сайт КПРФ
  29. ^ Gutterman, Steve (24 September 2010). "1991 Russian coup plotter dies". Toronto Sun. Reuters. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
  30. LifeNews
    . 27 September 2010. Retrieved 28 November 2010.

Further reading

  • Yanayev, G. I. (2010). GKChP Against Gorbachev: The Last Battle for the USSR. Moscow: Eksmo Algorithm.

External links

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