In August 1991, hard-line Communists staged a coup in a last-ditch effort to block the reforms rocking the Soviet power structure. Boris Yeltsin, president of the Russian Republic, stood atop an armored vehicle in front of the parliament building and rallied tens of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators. The coup was thwarted, and a wave of new freedom washed away the Soviet empire. Ten years later, the splintered region is still reeling from the transition. FULL STORY »