Gennady Yanayev | Soviet coup leader, 73

Gennady Yanayev, 73, a leader of the abortive 1991 Soviet coup who briefly declared himself president replacing Mikhail Gorbachev, has died, Russia's Communist Party announced Friday.

In one of the indelible images of the putsch that hastened the Soviet Union's collapse, Mr. Yanayev's hands shook visibly as he announced he was taking over. He was later quoted as saying he was drunk when he signed the decree elevating himself from the vice presidency.

A party statement said Mr. Yanayev died Friday after an unspecified lengthy illness. The news website RBK said he died in the Kremlin-run Central Clinical Hospital.

Mr. Yanayev was one of 12 members of the so-called State Emergency Committee that announced that Gorbachev was being replaced on Aug. 19, 1991. Gorbachev was then on a short holiday in the Crimea.

Tank divisions rolled into Moscow to enforce the power grab, but crowds of civilians, emboldened by the loosening of strictures under Gorbachev's perestroika policies, turned out to defy them and erected barricades around the parliament building.

The coup collapsed Aug. 21, but it fatally weakened the already-unraveling Soviet Union, which was dissolved four months later.

Mr. Yanayev and his fellow plotters were arrested and jailed after the coup collapsed, but he and the others were released in 1993 and granted amnesty by parliament a year later. After his release, he taught history at the Russian International Academy of Tourism. - AP