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Ligachev was the head of the we-love-Brezhnevism club in the last days of the Soviet Union. Was he at all involved in the bring-back-Brezhnevism coup in 1991? If not, what did he do and say in that period?

Edit: their main target may have been Yeltsin, but they locked up Gorbachev in his dacha and appointed a new 'acting President'. That sounds like it's against Gorbachev to me but I suppose that's a matter of opinion.

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  • fun fact: Ligachev was born pretty much in the same time as USSR, and he is still alive.
    – CsBalazsHungary
    Oct 7, 2015 at 12:57
  • Are you sure that their plan was "bring-back-Brezhnevism"? Given that the chief mastermind behind the coup was Kruchkov, "Andropovism" might be even likelier.
    – Moishe Kohan
    Jun 5, 2020 at 15:00

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Nothing, in 1991 he was already 70 years old. He laid in the hospital.

From the interview in Komsomolskaya Pravda, 2011

Почему ГКЧП провалился?
Потому что они не были связаны с партийными организациями. Партийные организации на местах ждали сигнала. Я в это время в больнице был, но я знаю настроения людей.

Rough translation:

"Why did the GKCHP fail? Because they were not connected with party organizations. Party organizations in the field were waiting for a signal. At that time I was in the hospital, but I know the mood of the people."

BTW. This is not right, saying that GKCHP's coup was against Gorbachev. The primary target was Yeltsin. The fact is, they didn't arrest Gorbachev, because sought a way to cooperate with him. Of course, he was considered too weak to keep the seat for a long time. But as the future events showed, Gorbachev was going to lose in any case.

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  • Very convenient for him. Perhaps too convenient....
    – Felix Goldberg
    Oct 5, 2015 at 20:19
  • So from the sound of it, he was in favour... I wonder if he made any statement at the time. I know he was old but he's actually still alive today!
    – Ne Mo
    Oct 5, 2015 at 20:20
  • @FelixGoldberg He had no real power. I'm inclined to think that he wasn't really invited.
    – Matt
    Oct 5, 2015 at 20:35
  • @NeMo If you lived in USSR in 1991 you would realize how funny your "making statements" sounds. How? To whom? I can only remember two statements: by GKCHP and by Gorbachev from Foros.
    – Matt
    Oct 5, 2015 at 20:44
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    @bytebuster (1) The former GKCHP members never confirm such long term (2) Yakovlev, being on the other side, couldn't know anything definite about Ligachev's role, except his own dislike of the old adversary. What's more important is that Ligachev never was under investigation, even though he had no friends to cover him. Say, Lukyanov was arrested, though he didn't participated in the putsch, but Ligachev wasn't. I can only think of one reason: Ligachev became a political corpse long before that.
    – Matt
    Oct 6, 2015 at 8:29

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