cover image Putsch: The Diary: Three Days That Collapsed the Empire

Putsch: The Diary: Three Days That Collapsed the Empire

Russian Information Agency. Mosaic Press (NY), $19.95 (155pp) ISBN 978-0-88962-509-9

This ``diary'' of the ``three days that collapsed the empire'' serves as evidence that a Moscow book publisher can rival the speed of a U.S. house in producing an instant replay: three weeks after the abortive coup of Aug. 19-21, 1991, Progress had 50,000 copies of this book in the marketplace, as well as a 10-hour videotape of the events. To actively oppose the coup, the publisher joined with two independent Russian news services in compiling and distributing bulletins every two hours to people in Moscow's streets and Metro stations. In this compilation of those reports, we feel the building tension of events--``Motorized rifle unit stationed near Bolshoi Theatre. . . . Troops and military vehicles have assembled near the Russian Parliament building''; and we witness the resolve of the anti-putschists--``Armored vehicles tried to pass between the Manege and Alexander Gardens but were prevented by demonstrators. . . . Trucks with water cannons were attacked by demonstrators at Moscow University.'' The book may be only a footnote to history, but its eye-witness immediacy makes it a rousing document. (Sept.)