The attempted coup of August 1991 ended the long drawn out haemorrhaging of the party that had been evident over the preceding twelve months. While some of the circumstances of the coup attempt remain uncertain, it seems that as an organisational entity, the party was not a prime mover in it. Certainly the leaders of the coup were all members of the party, but none were in the Politburo although Yanaev and Kriuchkov had been full members and Yazov, Pugo and Luk'ianov had been candidate members. Party members publicly had called for decisive action to prevent further disintegration. But preparations for the coup do not seem to have taken place within the organisational structures of the party. Yanaev said that no consultation had taken place between the party leadership and the State Committee for the State of Emergency. In the name of the CC the Secretariat, through the person of Ivashko, on 21 August demanded a meeting with Gorbachev and said it could give no assessment of the events of 19 August without such a meeting. This sort of reaction certainly represents an attempt to sit on the fence, an unwillingness either to condemn or support the coup; it is also consistent with surprise and a lack of complicity.

But despite the apparent lack of organisational involvement, the attempt by the coup leaders to put a brake on the reform process was undoubtedly welcomed by significant sections of the party leadership.