Estonia Government Buildings Guarded After ‘Coup Attempt’

RIGA, Soviet Union —  Guards surrounded government buildings in the secessionist republic of Estonia today after Soviet loyalists converged on Parliament in what the prime minister called a failed “coup attempt.”

Lawmakers in neighboring Lithuania began a closed-door debate on new proposals designed to end an impasse with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev. Calm was reported in all three Baltic republics.

In the Latvian capital, Riga, about two dozen pro-independence demonstrators stood outside Parliament, holding a banner that showed a cow made up of the national colors of the three Baltic republics and a figure of Gorbachev sucking on the udder. They also held Latvian flags.