Dmitry Yazov, the former Soviet defense minister and the last surviving member of the hardline group that tried to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachev in a failed 1991 coup, has died in Moscow. He was 95. Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed his death, stating it followed a serious and prolonged illness.
Yazov’s passing marks the definitive end of a chapter for the key figures behind one of the 20th century’s most dramatic political events. The August Coup was a desperate, last-ditch effort to preserve the Soviet Union. It failed spectacularly. Its collapse instead accelerated the very outcome the plotters sought to prevent.
A Pivotal Role in a Failed Coup
As the Soviet Minister of Defense, Dmitry Yazov was a central figure in the State Committee on the State of Emergency. This eight-man group, often called the “Gang of Eight,” launched their takeover attempt on August 19, 1991. Their primary objective was to halt the sweeping reforms of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, known as perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness). The committee feared these policies were leading to the complete disintegration of the USSR.
The plot began while Gorbachev was on vacation in Crimea. He was placed under house arrest. Back in the capital, Yazov ordered tanks and troops to roll into the streets of Moscow to secure key government buildings and suppress opposition. The committee announced on state television that Gorbachev was ill and that they were assuming control to restore law and order. The move shocked the world. It appeared the old Soviet guard was reasserting its power with an iron fist.
The Coup’s Collapse and Aftermath
The plotters fatally underestimated the public’s will. Thousands of citizens, led by the charismatic president of the Russian republic, Boris Yeltsin, poured into the streets to defy the military presence. In an iconic moment of defiance, Yeltsin climbed atop a tank outside the Russian parliament building, rallying the people and denouncing the coup as illegal. This act became a powerful symbol of popular resistance.
The coup quickly unraveled. Many soldiers and even elite military units refused to follow orders to storm the parliament or fire on civilians. Within three days, the takeover had completely fallen apart. Gorbachev returned to Moscow, but his political authority was fatally wounded. The failed coup empowered Yeltsin and the leaders of the other Soviet republics, who saw the central government in Moscow as weak and illegitimate.
Yazov and the other conspirators were arrested for treason. The event served as the final catalyst for the Soviet Union’s dissolution, which occurred just four months later in December 1991. Following his arrest, Yazov spent time in prison before being granted amnesty in 1994 by Russia’s new parliament, the State Duma.
Yazov’s Later Years and Legacy
Dmitry Yazov never expressed public regret for his actions. He remained an unrepentant hardliner, arguing that he and his fellow plotters were patriots trying to prevent a national catastrophe. In interviews years later, he maintained that their only mistake was their indecisiveness.
“The only thing I can be blamed for, perhaps, is that I did not ensure the firm use of the armed forces to establish order,” he reportedly stated, reflecting a belief that a more brutal crackdown could have succeeded.
His complicated legacy was further shaped in his final years. In 2019, a court in Lithuania convicted Yazov in absentia of war crimes. The conviction was related to his role in the Soviet military’s deadly 1991 crackdown on pro-independence demonstrators in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius. Despite this international condemnation, he received a degree of official recognition within Russia. President Vladimir Putin awarded him the Order of Honour in 2004 and the Order of Alexander Nevsky in 2014, acknowledging his long military service which dated back to World War II.
His death closes the book on the principal actors of the August Coup. He outlived all of his co-conspirators, including Gennady Yanayev and Vladimir Kryuchkov, as well as his chief rivals, Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin. Yazov remains a deeply controversial figure—seen by some as a traitor who tried to turn back the clock and by others as a patriot who fought to save his country from collapse.