The State Committee on the State of Emergency (Russian: Государственный комитет по чрезвычайному положению, ГКЧП, Gosudarstvennyi Komitet po Chrezvechainomu Polozheniyu, GKChP), also known as the "Gang of Eight", was a group of eight high-level officials within the Soviet government, the Communist Party, and the KGB, who attempted a coup against Mikhail Gorbachev on 18 August 1991.