Raisa Gorbachev said she temporarily lost the ability to speak in the coup's final dramatic hours when she heard the defeated conspirators were flying to the Crimea to confront her husband, the Trud newspaper reported Tuesday.
In the Trud interview, Raisa Gorbachev said she experienced hypertension when the British Broadcasting Corp. reported that KGB chief Vladimir Kryuchkov and Defense Minister Dmitri Yazov were heading to the president's dacha where theGorbachev family had been kept isolated for three days.
The Soviet first lady said she feared the conspirators would try to make it appear Gorbachev was indeed incapacitated and they might even use force "to turn their lie into reality."
"I felt that the tragic denouement could be approaching very soon," Raisa Gorbachev said. "I had a high tension attack, which was accompanied by loss of speech. I now feel much better, and I just have to recuperate some."
Raisa Gorbachev walked on her own when she returned from the Crimea. When she got off the plane she had her arm around her granddaughter, 11-year-old Oxana.
Gorbachev's press office had reported Raisa "was unwell and was resting at home" and Gorbachev said in an interview with Cable News Network Sunday that his wife had a "serious attack" but was much improved and talking on the telephone.
Raisa Gorbachev, the first Soviet first lady to take a high-profile role, said she learned of the coup when Gorbachev came into her room about 5 p.m. Aug. 18 and said unknown people were on their way and they were not invited.
She said her husband told her to be prepared for anything, and she reported that after she saw the televised news conference of six of the coup leaders on the first day of the putsch she believed "they would not stop at anything."
She said the Gorbachev family was allowed to watch the news conference after insisting they be allowed to see it. She reported their personal guards remained loyal but the KGB-provided security personnel betrayed them.