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By 1991 the Soviet Union was all but gone.
Peaceful revolutions had ousted most of the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe (violent in the case of Romania), East Germany had been relinquished and allowed to reunify, the Baltics, the Caucasus and the Central Asian states were de facto independent from Moscow, and even the Russian SSR itself was ignoring the central government in what was called the "War of Laws".

In the face of all this massive disintegration and unrest taking place, the 1991 coup looks like a very feeble, late attempt to restore the hardliners to power.
They placed Gorbachev on house arrest rather than summarily executing him. They failed to arrest important figures like Yeltsin, Silayev or Khasbulatov.

Yanayev, the coup's figurehead, claims he was hesitant about it until the very last second. On his TV nationwide address to the Soviet Union he appeared to be drunk and shaking.

When Yeltsin had roused the Russian people to resist the coup, repression and an operation to take over the Russian White House was ordered and organized, but General Lebed spoke against it, and Yazov ultimately ordered the troops to pull out from Moscow.

The coup plotters hesitated, they did not know what to do. They had no stomach for the bloodshed that would have been needed to consolidate their authority. (Thankfully!)

Eventually, Gorbachev restored communications with the outside world and the coup collapsed.

My question is, is there any way this coup could have succeeded or was it doomed from the start? Is 1991 simply too late for a hardliner restoration of CPSU control?

Could a coup have taken place earlier, say 1987 or 1989?

What would happen in such a scenario?
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