THE FAILED coup d’etat of August 19th-21st, 1991, was the key event that led to the fall of the Soviet Union yet only three people lost their lives in an event that led to the dismantling of a nuclear superpower that had the capability of destroying the planet several times over.
On Saturday evening in persistent rain a memorial ceremony was held at the point where Dmitriy Komar, Vladimir Usov and Ilya Krichevsky were killed in an incident with a tank at an underpass in central Moscow. Fewer than 100 people turned up at the small monument dedicated to the three young men and a large proportion of these were local and international journalists.
Relatives of the victims laid wreaths and small bunches of flowers in even numbers according to the Russian tradition. Priests of the Russian Orthodox Church accompanied by a small choir conducted a short memorial service and a rabbi offered a prayer as Moscow’s heavy traffic sped heedlessly by.
Konstantin Truetsev, chairman of the Living Ring Organisation, which consists of people who ringed the Moscow White House against the tanks of the coup plotters, was not dismayed by the small numbers who attended the ceremony. "I think it is normal because so many years have passed since that day," he told The Irish Times.
He remembered how small the crowds of “White House Defenders” had been. “On the first night there were only 2,000-4,000 people there. The second night was the most difficult and decisive and about 40,000 turned out but even that is not much in relation to the population of Moscow,” he said.
The really large crowds appeared on the streets when it became clear that the coup had failed: “When there is the impression of a big victory as usual there will always be many people prepared to turn out,” Mr Truetsev said.
Asked his opinion about the post-Communist Russia which the three young men gave their lives to help create, he said: “Compared to the Soviet Union the possibility of getting information is much greater. There is much more freedom of expression now and although it has been reduced on TV, it is there on the internet and in newspapers. As for freedom of political choice, it started to be reduced more and more beginning at the millennium.” At the end of the ceremony a Russian flag flying over the scene of the deaths was brought to half mast and the tiny crowd dispersed into the night.