Hardliner in failed Soviet coup dies at 92

Alexander Tizyakov, one of the hardliners behind an attempted coup in 1991 against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, has died aged 92, authorities said on Tuesday.

“We are in mourning. The former director of ZiK plant Alexander Tizyakov has passed away,” said authorities in the Urals city Yekaterinburg, where the plant is located.

ZiK, or Kalinin Machine-Building Plant, makes anti-aircraft rocket systems.

Tizyakov reportedly died late last week.

Regional governor Yevgeny Kuivashev called Tizyakov a “strong, courageous and smart person”.

In August 1991, Tizyakov — then the head of an industry association — served for several days on the eight-member State Committee on the State of Emergency, which consisted of high-ranking hardliners from the Soviet government, the Communist party, and the KGB.

The committee memorably appeared on television dressed in nearly identical grey suits on August 19, to announce that Gorbachev was unable to carry out his duties “due to health reasons” and that executive power had been transferred to vice president Gennady Yanayev, the head of the committee.

With Gorbachev at a government residence in Crimea, the putsch leaders proclaimed that the reformist course he had taken was detrimental to the country’s development and unity.

They declared a state of emergency and called troops into Moscow.

The coup was thwarted on August 22 due to public opposition led by Boris Yeltsin, the newly-elected President of the Russian Soviet republic.

“The perestroika (reforms) which started in 1985 did not lead to results everyone expected,” Tizyakov said during the televised news conference, referring to problems experienced by manufacturers.

Like other members of the committee, Tizyakov was arrested but amnestied by Yeltsin in 1994.