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A woman stands by a flag picturing Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), during a rally in downtown Moscow on August 22, 2016, to mark the symbolic 25th anniversary of the August 1991 putsch. On August 19, 1991, a group of security chiefs and Communist bosses who opposed Mikhail Gorbachev's decentralising reforms declared themselves in charge, ushering in three days of turbulence. Calling themselves the State Committee for the State of the Emergency, they said Gorbachev had stepped aside for “health reasons” and sent tanks rolling into the centre of Moscow. But crowds flocked to the White House parliament building to defend Boris Yeltsin, the president of the Russian republic of the USSR, who was then seen as a symbol of reform and democracy. (Photo by Alexander Nemenov/AFP Photo)
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