{"id":200,"date":"2011-12-23T11:29:44","date_gmt":"2011-12-23T10:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rainbow.chard.org\/?p=200"},"modified":"2012-03-27T19:09:59","modified_gmt":"2012-03-27T18:09:59","slug":"tass-coverage-of-the-attempted-coup-in-ussr-19th-august-1991","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rainbow.chard.org\/2011\/12\/23\/tass-coverage-of-the-attempted-coup-in-ussr-19th-august-1991\/","title":{"rendered":"TASS coverage of the attempted coup in USSR, 19th August 1991"},"content":{"rendered":"

In August 1991, Gennady Yanayev led an attempted coup<\/a> and seized power in the USSR, temporarily deposing Gorbachev. The Russian news agency TASS started sending a loop tape of statements and rhetoric as events unfolded. I was lucky enough to have left my receiving equipment running, and captured the TASS tape below.
\n<\/p>\n

Note that the text was sent as 50bps RTTY using a five-bit code called Baudot<\/a>. This has no error-correction, and uses special shift characters to switch between letters and numbers (like a Telex machine, for those old enough to remember them). My receiving equipment automatically switched back to letters after receiving a space, so there are some obvious errors that could be corrected with reference to the code itself. There are also many errors caused by noise in the transmission: the code used has no automatic provision for error detection or correction.<\/p>\n

Here is a sample of the capture, which repeated itself many times. If you’re interested, you can download the entire file (193k, plain text)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\nZCZCKNA1#6 Q INF 0676 V\nSS BC884E999 VEN E999001\nWZEMERGENCY-RESOLUTION \n+  Z \n    .STATE-OF-EMERGENCY COMMITTEE'S RESOLUTION--FULL =1. \n   N((!8=35-(3') \n    19\/8 TASS 33 \n  \n    MOSCOW AUGUST 19 TASS - THE STATE COMMITTEE FOR THE STATE OF \nEMERGENCY ISSUED THE FOLLOWING RESOLUTION NO. Q HERE TODAY: \n    WITH A VIEW TO PROTECTING THE VITAL INTERESTS OF THE PEOPLES \nAND CITIZENS OF THE USSR AND THE COUNTRY'S INDEPENDENCE AND \nTERRITORIAL INTEGRITY, RESTORING LAW AND ORDER, STABILISING THE \nSITUATION, OVERCO+MING THE GRAVEST CRISIS, AND PREVENTING CHAOS, \nANARCHY AND A FRATRICIDAL CIVIL WAG, THE STATE COMMITTEE FOR THE \nSTATE OK EMERGENCY IN THE USSR RESOLVES: \n    1. ALL BODIES OF AUTHORITY AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE USSR, \nUNION AND AUTONOMOUS REPUBLICAN TERRITORIES, REGIONS, CITIES, \nDISTRICTS, VILLAGES AND SETTLEMENTS SHOULD ENSURE UNGAILING \nMOMPLIANVE WITH STATE-OF-EMERGENCY REGULATIONS IN KEEPING WITH \nTHE USSR LAW +ON THE LEGAL CEGCME OF A STATE OF EMERGENCY+ AND \nWITH THE STATE COMMITTEE FOR THE STATE O+F EMERGENCY'S \nRESOLUTIONS. IN THE EVENT OF THEIR INABILITY TO ENSURE THE \nOBSERVANCE OF THESE REGULATIONS, THE POWERS OF THE RESPECTIVE \nBODIES OF AUTHORITY AND ADMINISTRATION ARE TO BE SUSPENDED, WITH+ \nTHEIR FUNCTCOMS TO BE EXERCISED BY OFFICIALS SPECIALLY \nAPPOINTED BY THE STATE COMMITTEE FOR THE STATE OF EMERGENCY. \n    2. TO IMMEDIATELY DISMANTLE THE STRUCTURES OF POWER, \nADMINISTRATION AND MILITARISED UNITS ACTING CONTRARY TO THE \nCONSTITUTION AND LAWS OF THE USSR. \n    3. TO REGARD THE LAWS AND DECIS+IONS BS BODIES OF PO  AND \nADMINISTRATION THAT RUN COUNTER TO THE CONSTITUTION AND LAWS OF \nTHE USSR AS BEING HENCEFORTH INVALID. \n    4. TO SUSPEND THE ACTIVITIES OF POLITICAL PARTIES, SOCIAL \nORGANISATIONS AND MASS MOVEMENTS THAT PREVENT THE NORMALISATION \nOF THE SITUATION. \n    MORE \n   \nMSK 11.45 QOAPIAQOOQ\nNNNN\nZCZCKNA082 E INF 018 TASS CC519 E999 EN E999001\n+GORBACHEV-YANAYEV \n+  Z \n    .URGENT-DECREE BY SOVIET VICE-PRESIDENT--FULL.     19\/8 TASS 11 \n  \n    OOECOI AUGUST 19 TASS -  IN CONNECTION WITH THE INABILITY FOR \nHEALTH REASONS BY MIKHAIL SERGEYEVICH GORBACHEV TO PERFORM HIS \nDUTIES AS USSR PRESIDENT, I HAVE ASSUMED THE DUTIES OF USSR \nPRESIDENT FROM AUGUST 19, 1991 ON THE BASIS OF ARTICLE 127 KUL OF \nTHE USSR CONSTITUTION. \n  \n    GENNADY I. YANAYEV \n    VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE USSR \n  \n    AUGUST 18, QOOQZMZ \n    ITEM ENDS \n   \nMSK 11.46 QOAPIAQOOQ\nNNNN\n<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In August 1991, Gennady Yanayev led an attempted coup and seized power in the USSR, temporarily deposing Gorbachev. The Russian news agency TASS started sending a loop tape of statements and rhetoric as events unfolded. I was lucky enough to have left my receiving equipment running, and captured the TASS tape below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rainbow.chard.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rainbow.chard.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rainbow.chard.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rainbow.chard.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rainbow.chard.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/rainbow.chard.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":316,"href":"https:\/\/rainbow.chard.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200\/revisions\/316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rainbow.chard.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rainbow.chard.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rainbow.chard.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}