On August 18, 1991 Boris Yeltsin and his backers was under siege at the Moscow parliament. The old commies were staging an armed coup to oust Gobarchov’s successor. He drank a bottle of vodka and confronted the rebel soliders in tanks. They listened to his passionate plea from Rodina and did not fire on the besieged reformers.
What a hero.
To hear his speech, please go to this URL
https://web.viu.ca/davies/H102/Yelstin.speech.1991.htm