So in 1991 Communist hardliners attempted to overthrow Gorbachev, opposed to his reforms and the new union treaty which was to have decentralized the USSR. The attempt failed after a few days. However, it had a huge ramification on the USSR and is said to have caused the Soviet Union to finally totally collapse rather than continue on with reform and decentralization (fun fact, the Soviets would have renamed their country the Union of Sovereign Soviet Republics).
So what if this coup attempt had been aborted and never came to pass?