What is the name of the failed 1991 August coup to remove Mikhail Gorbachev from power in the USSR?

• A. Perestroika
• B. Glasnost
• C. The Prague Spring
• D. Soviet coup attempt (1991)

Answer: (D)

The key idea here is identifying the specific event in the late Soviet period when hard-liners tried to topple Gorbachev in a failed August 1991 coup. This was an actual attempt by members of the State Committee on the State of Emergency to reverse reforms and seize control of the Soviet government while Gorbachev was away. It is commonly called the Soviet coup attempt of 1991, also known as the August Coup, and it ultimately failed as massive popular support and resistance within the military collapsed the plot. Gorbachev remained in power briefly; the failure eroded the central authority of the Soviet Union and accelerated its dissolution later that year.

The other options refer to different things: Perestroika and Glasnost are reform policies championed by Gorbachev, not the event’s name. The Prague Spring was a 1968 reform movement in Czechoslovakia, not related to the USSR’s 1991 crisis.