Japan found itself in the enviable position of being among the first nations to learn that Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev had survived a failed coup attempt by Communist hard-liners in 1991 ...
is ousted in a coup by hardliners (Aug 19); The Soviet coup fizzles out. Mikhail Gorbachov resumes as President of USSR (Aug 21-22); Moscow grants independence to the Baltic States of Lithuania ...