Gennady Ivanovich Yanayev (; 26 August 193724 September 2010) was a Soviet politician who served as the first and only vice president of the Soviet Union. Yanayev's political career spanned the rules of Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko, and culminated during the Gorbachev years. Yanayev was born in Perevoz, Gorky Oblast. After years in local politics, he rose to prominence as Chairman of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, but he also held other lesser posts such as deputy of the Union of Soviet Societies for Friendship and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. Due to his chairmanship of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, in 1990 he gained a seat in the 28th Politburo and Secretary of the Central Committee. Later that year, on 27 December, with the help of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yanayev was elected the first, and only, Vice President of the Soviet Union. Having growing doubts about where Gorbachev's reforms were leading, Yanayev started working with, and eventually formally leading, the Gang of Eight, the group which deposed Gorbachev during the August 1991 coup d'état attempt. After three days, the coup collapsed, in part due to Western backing of Boris Yeltsin, but during its brief grip of power Yanayev was made Acting President of the Soviet Union. He was then arrested for his role in the coup, but in 1994 he was pardoned. He spent the rest of his life working in the Russian tourism administration until his death on 24 September 2010. Early life and career Yanayev was born on 26 August 1937 in the town of Perevoz, Gorky Oblast during the administration of Joseph Stalin as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He graduated from the Gorky Institute of Agriculture in 1959. After graduation he worked as the head of a mechanised agricultural unit and later as a chief engineer in the Gorky Oblast. He applied and officially became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1962. From 1963 to 1968, he held the positions of second, and subsequently first, secretary of the Gorky Komsomol, and later became Chairman of the Committee of Youth Organisations, which he held for 12 years. From 1980 to 1986 he was Deputy Chairman of the Union of Soviet Societies for Friendship and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. He became Secretary for International Affairs of All-Union Central Council of Trade