4:52 A.M. A column of armored transport vehicles approaching Leningrad is sighted 52 kilometers outside the city. According to official orders, these units should have arrived at midnight. By 5:00 A.M., KGB and Army divisions have joined the column near Gatchina outside Leningrad.
5:00 A.M. A deputy of the Leningrad Soviet reports that close to 150 military vehicles, tanks, and APCs are moving toward Leningrad. Self-defense units are being formed outside the building of the Leningrad Soviet.
6:07 A.M. In Moscow, Silaev gives a radio address at the White House. He thanks the demonstrators.
6:54 A.M. In Moscow, the citywide protest against the introduction of the state of emergency in the USSR, planned for noon, is moved from Manezh Square to the White House due to fears that tear-gas may be used against demonstrators. Manezh Square is completely filled with armored vehicles and troops.
8:02 A.M. According to the Russian Information Agency, Colonel General Pavel Grachev, has been put under arrest [this report proved to be incorrect]. Highly placed officials of the Russian government report that the Airborne Assault Division which arrived from Tula to protect the White House was acting on Grachev’s orders.
9:00 A.M. The White House Radio announces Yeltsin’s decree calling for a political general strike.
9:31 A.M. Outside Leningrad, the column of armored vehicles stops its advance and retreats farther from the city.
A meeting is in progress on the square at the Kirov Factory in Leningrad. The number of protesters on the square is estimated at 10,000.
10:00 A.M. In Leningrad, the protest meeting planned for Palace Square begins. It lasts until 1:00 P.M. with an estimated 130,000 to 300,000 participants. The meeting issues a unanimous declaration in support of the decrees of the Russian parliament, the Leningrad Soviet, and Leningrad’s mayor. After the meeting, groups of protesters proceed to the Leningrad Soviet to guard the building.
In Moscow, Russian Vice President Aleksandr Rutskoi, Silaev, and Khasbulatov have reportedly left the Kremlin by car to present Anatolii Lukianov with an ultimatum.
Thousands of people continue to arrive in the vicinity of the White House. The building of barricades continues.
Yanaev has issued a decree, dated August 20, overruling Yeltsin’s decrees nos. 59, 61, 62, and 63 of August 19 on the grounds that they are “at variance with the laws and the Constitution of the USSR.”
The Emergency Committee issues its Resolution No. 3, establishing tight controls over the electronic media, closing down Russia’s Television and Radio as well as Moscow Echo, and ordering the KGB and MVD “to take additional measures in order to ensure that the decree is carried out.”
10:36 A.M. A memorandum, signed by Yeltsin, Rutskoi, Silaev, and Khasbulatov, is presented to the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (Lukianov), requesting, among other things, an urgent meeting with Gorbachev, the lifting of the state of emergency for the duration of the session of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet, the lifting of censorship, and the disbanding of the Emergency Committee.
11:00 A.M.—12:00 noon. Major General Lebed withdraws his battalions from the vicinity of the White House on orders from Colonel General Grachev.
11:00 A.M. The head of the Governing Board of the USSR Central State Bank, Viktor Gerashchenko, sends a cable to the heads of the Central Bank Branches and the National Banks in the republics demanding that they carry out their duties as outlined in Resolution No. 1 of the Emergency Committee or face dismissal.
The RSFSR Press and Information Ministry registers Obshchaia gazeta (Joint Newspaper), a publication formed by a consortium of eleven independent papers banned by the Emergency Committee.
According to the press service of the CPSU Central Committee, the Deputy General Secretary of the CPSU, Vladimir Ivashko, has been hospitalized for a minor operation. According to the same source, no plenary session of the Central Committee is expected in the next two days.
11:15 A.M. The leadership of the USSR Cinematographers’ Union issues a statement protesting the introduction of the state of emergency and declaring the actions of the Emergency Committee illegitimate.
11:30 A.M. Rutskoi, Silaev, and Khasbulatov return to the White House from their visit to Lukianov. They are greeted by an enthusiastic crowd when they arrive at the White House.
11:31 A.M. The Presidium of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet has resolved that an emergency session of the Supreme Soviet is to be convened at 11:00 A.M. the following morning (August 21).
11:54 A.M. There is an unconfirmed report that Gorbachev arrived outside Moscow by plane the previous evening. Rumor has it that he is being held under KGB guard at a residence outside Moscow. There are unconfirmed reports that Air Force General Yevgenii Shaposhnikov has been placed under arrest on Yazov’s orders. [These reports proved to be incorrect.]
12:00 noon. Outside the parliament, a rally begins under the slogan “The Defense of Legality and the Rule of Law.” The estimates of the size of the rally vary from 70,000 to over 150,000.
There are now four different radio stations broadcasting from inside the Russian parliament building.
At the rally, Russian Vice President Rutskoi explains that the putsch leaders have been given 24 hours to meet the Russian authorities’ demands. He reports that Lukianov himself admits the illegality of the State Emergency Committee’s actions. Yeltsin also addresses the rally and reaffirms the position of the Russian leadership.
Meanwhile, outside the Moscow City Soviet, Aleksandr Yakovlev, Gavriil Popov, Eduard Shevardnadze, and Sergei Stankevich address a rally of thousands. They call the coup plotters “state criminals.” At the conclusion of the rally, the demonstrators march to the White House carrying a giant tricolor flag which is to adorn the balcony of the White House.
A meeting of the heads of the “creative” unions is held at the office of the USSR Minister of Culture, Nikolai Gubenko, to discuss a common response to the introduction of the state of emergency.
The Central Committee of the USSR Komsomol has issued a strong condemnation of the Emergency Committee.
12:17 P.M. It is reported that the Emergency Committee is preparing a decree to remove Yeltsin from his post as President of Russia and prosecute both Yeltsin and General Kobets.
Units of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs in Krasnoiarsk hold a gathering in support of Yeltsin.
12:30 P.M. Colonel Ivanov of the staff headquarters of the Leningrad Military District Emergency Committee states, in reply to a reporter’s question, that the attitude of troops toward the addresses issued by Yeltsin and the Leningrad Soviet is “positive.”
An emergency meeting of the Congress of Russian Business Circles issues a strong condemnation of the Emergency Committee and appeals to the business community abroad for support.
12:34 P.M. The Presidium of the Moscow Soviet appeals to the military to avoid civil war and not to open fire on citizens.
1:00 A.M. Mstislav Rostropovich has arrived in Moscow from Paris and proceeded directly to the White House.
1:40 P.M. Russian Vice President Aleksandr Rutskoi has briefed reporters about his meeting with the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet Lukianov (see 10:36 above). According to Rutskoi, Lukianov said that he would convene a meeting of the Presidium to consider the legal status of the State Emergency Committee’s decrees and would insist that Gorbachev be permitted to attend. Lukianov hoped to contact the President, who was reported to be alive and well. Rutskoi believed that Gorbachev was still under guard by a special unit of KGB troops at a dacha in the Crimea, and not in Moscow as some have reported.