The attempted coup against the soviet government in 1991 was led by the united states. boris yeltsin. citizens angered by shortages. communist hardliners.

Communist hardliners.

Explanation:

The attempted coup d'état in the Soviet Union, also known as the August Coup, was a three-day period between 19 and 21 August 1991, in which a group of members of the Government and the KGB of the Soviet Union briefly deposed the President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev and tried to take control of the country. The leaders of the coup d'état were members of the so-called "hard line" of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and the KGB, who thought that Gorbachev's reform program had gone too far and that the New Treaty of the Union that he had negotiated dispersed too much the power of the central government in favor of the Soviet republics. However, the coup failed in only three days and Gorbachev returned to power. Even so, the events undermined the legitimacy of the CPSU, further contributing to the collapse of the USSR.

D. Communist hardliners.

Explanation: