The Coup That Killed The U.S.S.R.

In August 1991, a group of Soviet hard-liners locked Mikhail Gorbachev up in his Crimean dacha and tried to keep the U.S.S.R. together by force. Facing massive protests, they gave up just three days after taking power, when the first civilian blood was spilled in Moscow. The Communist Party was banned after the coup's failure, and the Soviet Union officially broke up later that year -- putting 15 independent countries on the map.