俄羅斯紀念導致蘇聯解體的91年政變大綱

Russia is marking the 20th anniversary of the failed coup attempt that hastened the collapse of the Soviet Union.

On August 19, 1991, a small group Communist hardliners placed Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev under house arrest at his vacation home in the Crimea. Their aim was to block the Kremlin chief's program of broad political and economic reforms, including allowing greater autonomy for the Soviet republics.

Within hours, thousands of people gathered around Russian government headquarters in Moscow, where Russian President Boris Yeltsin stood atop a tank to denounce the coup plotters.

The coup collapsed three days later and Mr. Gorbachev returned to Moscow.

Within weeks, the republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania seceded from the Soviet Union. The entire U.S.S.R. ( - the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics - ) was dissolved in December, less than 75 years after the Russian Revolution brought the communist state into existence.

To this day, Russians remain deeply divided over the Soviet collapse and the economic and political chaos that followed.俄羅斯紀念1991年8月的未遂政變20週年，那場未遂政變加速了蘇聯的解體。

1991年8月19日，幾名共產黨強硬派人士軟禁了在克里米亞度假的蘇聯領導人戈爾巴喬夫。他們的目的是阻止這位克里姆林宮的負責人實施廣泛的政治和經濟改革計劃，其中包括給聯盟內的各加盟共和國更大的自治權。

政變發生的幾個小時之內，數以萬計的民衆聚集到莫斯科的俄羅斯政府總部周圍。當時俄羅斯總統葉利欽站在一輛坦克上講話譴責發動政變者。三天後政變失敗，戈爾巴喬夫返回莫斯科。

幾個星期內，愛沙尼亞、拉脫維亞和立陶宛紛紛宣佈脫離蘇聯。在俄國革命後建立的蘇維埃社會主義聯盟在經歷了不到75年的時間後最終在1991年12月全面解體。

直到今天，俄羅斯人仍然對蘇聯解體以及隨後出現的經濟、政治混亂局面所持的看法。