Tsai Auditorium, CGIS South Building, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
About
In August 1991 a failed coup d'état attempt (known as Putsch) led by a
group of hard-core communists in Moscow, ended the 70-year-long rule of
the Soviets. The USSR collapsed soon after, and the tricolour of the
sovereign Russian Federation flew over Kremlin. As president Gorbachev
was detained by the coup leaders, state-run TV and radio channels,
usurped by the putschists, broadcast Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" instead
of news bulletins, and crowds of protestors gathered around Moscow's
White House, preparing to defend the stronghold of democratic opposition
led by Boris Yeltsin, in the city of Leningrad thousands of confused,
scared, excited and desperate people poured into the streets to become a
part of the event, which was supposed to change their destiny. A
quarter of a century later, Sergei Loznitsa revisits the dramatic
moments of August 1991 and casts an eye on the event which was hailed
worldwide as the birth of "Russian democracy". What really happened in
Russia in August 1991? What was the driving force behind the crowds on
the Palace Square in Leningrad? What exactly are we witnessing: the
collapse or the regime or its' creative re-branding? Who are these
people looking at the camera: victors or victims?
Free admission
Sponsors
Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University
