What does the Congress do? How does it do it? Is the Congress up to the challenges ahead? This primer offers students an introduction to Congress and the role it plays in the US political system

Introduction; I: Saving the Old Country; 1: Proclamations and Decrees of the State Committee for the State of Emergency, August 19, 1991; 2: The Press Conference of the State Committee for the State of Emergency, August 19, 1991; 3: Statements and Explanations by the Putschists After the Coup; II: The Public Reacts; 1: To the Barricades; 2: Letter from Moscow; 3: August 19 and 20 in Moscow; 4: Moscow: The Morning of August 21; 5: Moscow's M.V. Khrunichev Machine-Building Factory Reacts to the August Coup; 6: The Congress of Compatriots: Witness to a Democratic Counter-Revolution; 7: A View from Saratov; 8: Letter from St. Petersburg; III: In High Places; 1: What Happened in Foros; 2: Proclamations, Decrees, and Appeals in Response to the Coup, August 19, 1991; 3: Speech to the Russian Parliament, August 21, 1991; 4: Between Russia and the Soviet Union-With Notes on the USSR Council of Ministers Meeting of August 19, 1991; 5: Vladimir Shcherbakov Recounts His Role in the Coup; 6: The Coup and the Armed Forces; 7: From Dushanbe to Moscow; 8: Breakthrough: The Coup in St. Petersburg; 9: Our Children Were on the Barricades; IV: Defending the White House; 1: Reflections from the Barricades; 2: Concerning the Defenders of the White House; 3: Death on the Streets; 4: A Man in the Crowd; 5: On the Barricades; 6: In and Around the White House; V: Getting the News In and Out; 1: Three Days in August: On-the-Spot Impressions; 2: Getting the News on 'Vremia'; 3: The Foreign Press and the Coup; 4: The August 19 Press Conference; 5: A Russian Reporter Remembers the Coup; Chronology of Events of August 19, 20, 21, 1991