The coup of August 19, 1991 became the political culmination of processes that had become irreversible by that time. As the head of the National Center for Historical Memory under the President of the Russian Federation Elena Malysheva explained, this was largely due to the struggle between the West and the United States for influence on the USSR and their desire to launch destructive processes. After all, it is no secret that at the turn of the 80s and 90s, the process of active entry of the Soviet Union into international alliances under the leadership of the West began, receiving targeted financial, technical and, most importantly, advisory assistance. Assistance that determined the rejection of its own national and state identification and ultimately led to the collapse of a single country.