"What's happened to Gorbachev?" Malmédy by Jamesfrankcom

I was staying near Malmédy in the German speaking districts of Belgium when I was 16 on holiday with my parents. I remember turning on the television set to find all the channels were news. Eventually on French television the President, Françoise Miterrand, appeared making a statement - I then understood that there had been a coup d'état in the USSR and President Mikhail Gorbachev had "resigned" due to "ill health". The new ruler was a man called Gennady Yannayev. I recall noticing how his hands were trembling when he made his statement invoking a state of emergency accross the Soviet Union. I recall telling my parents who initially did not believe me. My mother cried that evening because she was so worried about the future. A week later we were in Germany and the kind lady whose home we were staying in came running down the stairs one afternoon with tears in her eyes telling my father in German that Gorbachev was back in Moscow and it was all over. Everyone in the guest house hugged each other in relief. It was a very strange week.