Exercise Zapad-81 (russian: Запад-81, lit=West-81) was the largest military exercise ever to be carried out by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, according to

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

and US sources. It was conducted from September 4, 1981 and lasted approximately eight days, it involved between 100,000 and 150,000 troops. It was a joint operation including elements from all Soviet service branches and introduced several new systems such as the

RSD-10 The RSD-10 ''Pioneer'' (russian: ракета средней дальности (РСД) «Пионер» tr.: ''raketa sredney dalnosti (RSD) "Pioner"''; en, Medium-Range Missile "Pioneer") was an intermediate-range ballistic missile with a ...

medium-range strategic missile (known often to the West as the SS-20 Saber) and the Project 1143 aircraft carrier ''Kiev''.

History

The exercise was first and foremost a show of force. Propaganda tapes were made of the large scale offensives concluding in a large victory parade. Apart from being a show of force to the NATO countries, the exercise was a large-scale demonstration of military capability in Poland. After failed reforms, communism in the People's Republic of Poland during the seventies was in a state of crisis and civil unrest (

Solidarność Solidarity ( pl, „Solidarność”, ), full name Independent Self-Governing Trade Union "Solidarity" (, abbreviated ''NSZZ „Solidarność”'' ), is a Polish trade union founded in August 1980 at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland. Subseq ...

). Exercise Zapad included amphibious landings in Poland near Gdańsk, reminding Poles that the Soviet Union could resort to military force if it was deemed necessary for the preservation of communist power. The exercise was criticised by the US for violating the Helsinki Final Act of notification of military exercises.

References

External links

Photos of the Zapad-81 drills, VisualRian

Historical film footage of the Zapad-81 exercise
() {{Brezhnev era 1981 in the Soviet Union Poland–Soviet Union relations Soviet military exercises Zapad military exercises September 1981 events in Europe 1981 in military history

History

See also

References

External links