Name[]
Exercise Zapad-81 (English:West-81).
Exercise[]
It was first and foremost both a show of force to both NATO and Polish counter revolutionaries. It was the largest military exercise ever to be carried out by the Soviet Union, according to both NATO and official American sources. It involved several then new "complexes" such as the RSD-10 medium-range strategic missile (known often to the West as the SS-20 Saber) and the "Kiev" Project 1143 aircraft carrier. Exercise Zapad-81 included amphibious landings in Poland near Gdańsk.
Duration[]
It ran from September 4, 1981 and lasted approximately 8 days. It was a joint operation including elements from all Soviet service branches and a large part of the Soviet forces in the region.
Participants[]
The USSR and Poland to a lesser extent.
Controversy[]
It was widely criticised by the US for violating the Helsinki Final Act laws on the notification of major superpower military exercises and the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe's ideals. It was a massive Soviet war game in Poland and Kalinagrad Oblast. Soviet propaganda tapes were made of the large scale offensives concluding in a large victory parade meant to rub NATO and Polish nosed in the shit afterwards.
Also see[]
- Soviet "Era of Stagnation"
- Red Army racism and shortages!
- Exercise Reforger
- Exercise Dnepr 1967
- A nuclear\atomic holocaust or nuclear apocalypse
Link[]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exercise_Zapad-81 and http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/resource/speeches/1984/12384c.htm