THE WEEK THAT SHOOK THE WORLD: THE SOVIET COUP

THE WEEK THAT SHOOK THE WORLD: THE SOVIET COUP (1991, MPI, $19.98) This first- rate ABC News documentary on ''one week that unshook the world'' (David Brinkley's riff on Bolshevik Revolution chronicler John Reed) provides both you-are-there immediacy and big-picture perspective on last summer's abortive Soviet coup. While only time can sort out the import of those seven days, ABC jump-starts the process with a gripping account of Boris Yeltsin and 10,000 Moscow citizens facing down the cabal that tried to overthrow Gorbachev and ended up destroying the Soviet Union. We are in the streets, on the barricades, and even inside Yeltsin's office redoubt as Diane Sawyer scoops the world with a face-to-face interview. The coup failed in part because the whole world was watching; now we can watch and learn again. A -Terry Catchpole