On 27 December 1990,
Mikhail Gorbachev proposed Yanayev as Vice President of the Soviet Union. He was Gorbachev's third choice for the post;
Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze and
Kazakh president
Nursultan Nazarbayev had turned the offer down. Yanayev had initially been rejected by the
Supreme Soviet, but he was finally approved by a second vote due to Gorbachev's insistence, (by a vote of 1,237 for to 563 against), only days after Shevardnadze had resigned from office due to Gorbachev's willingness to give leeway to conservatives. Yanayev said after the vote "I am a Communist to the depths of my soul." At the beginning of January 1991, Yanayev headed a committee working on the formation of a new cabinet. Later, he was sent to the Soviet city of
Kuznetsk to negotiate with a newly formed independent
trade union, making this the first time since 1917 that a Russian government official had negotiated with a trade union; however, after gaining the attention of the
Soviet government, the unionists withdrew their plans for a strike.
August Coup Shortly after taking office, Yanayev joined a group of more conservative Communist politicians, led by
KGB chairman
Vladimir Kryuchkov, who hoped to persuade Gorbachev to declare a state of emergency. After Gorbachev announced his proposal for a New Union Treaty to form the
Union of Sovereign States, as a reorganisation of the
Soviet Union into a new confederation, he went on vacation to his
dacha in
Crimea. Believing that this new Union treaty would lead to the disintegration of the USSR, the
State Committee of the State of Emergency placed Gorbachev under
house arrest on 19 August, one day before the treaty was due to be signed. On that same day the
Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) issued the coup plotters' decree, which stated: "Owing to the conditions of his health, Mikhail Gorbachev is no longer capable of carrying on the duties of the President of the USSR. In accordance with article 127, clause 7 of the
USSR constitution, Vice President Gennady Yanayev has assumed the duties of the President of the USSR." The decree made references to the growing problems facing the country such as ethnic tensions, political confrontations and chaos, which according to the coup leaders threatened the very existence of
Soviet life and the territorial integrity of the USSR. Yanayev further claimed that the danger of collapse was imminent, and if the economic situation was not handled quickly, the Soviet Union would collapse. In addition, Yanayev and the rest of the state committee ordered the
Cabinet of Ministers to alter the then current
five-year plan to relieve the housing shortage. All city-dwellers were given one third of an acre each to combat winter food shortages by growing fruit and vegetables. At a press conference, Yanayev's hands were shaking rather violently, leading many journalists to focus on Yanayev's apparent
drunkenness instead of Gorbachev's alleged bad health. On 19 August, citizens of Moscow gathered around Russia's
White House and began to erect barricades around it, in which at 16:00 Yanayev responded by declaring a
state of emergency in Moscow. Yanayev declared at the press conference at 17:00 that Gorbachev was "resting". He said: "Over these years he has become very tired and needs some time to get his health back." Yanayev said the Emergency Committee was committed to continuing his reforms. However, Yanayev's weak posture, trembling hands and shaky expressions made his words unconvincing. According to some historians, Yanayev was the most visible and powerful member of the Emergency Committee but was not its mastermind; Kryuchkov has been described as the "heart and soul of the conspiracy". Yanayev only agreed to head the Emergency Committee on 20 August. He was dismissed as vice president and later jailed for his crimes against the Soviet state. In a 2008 interview, Yanayev said he regretted making himself
acting President, further claiming that he was pressured by the more conservative members to sign the documents which declared his own presidency. He described the events of 1991 as a burden for the rest of his life. ==Later life and death==