This article will be permanently flagged as inappropriate and made unaccessible to everyone. Are you certain this article is inappropriate? Excessive Violence Sexual Content Political / Social
Email Address:
Article Id: WHEBN0001256915 Reproduction Date:
Exercise Zapad-81 (West-81) was the largest military exercise ever to be carried out by the Soviet Union, according to NATO and US sources.[1] It was conducted from September 4, 1981 and lasted approximately 8 days. It was a joint operation including elements from all Soviet service branches and introduced several 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.[2]
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 the failure of reform communism in Poland during the seventies the People's Republic of Poland was in a state of crisis and civil unrest (Solidarność). Exercise Zapad included amphibious landings in Poland near Gdańsk, reminding Poles that the Soviet Union could resort to military force if that was deemed necessary.
The exercise was widely criticised by the US for violating the Helsinki Final Act of notification of military exercises.[3]
Italy, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Turkey, Canada
World War II, Russia, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian language, Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic
France, Poland, Russia, Pomeranian Voivodeship, World War II
Joseph Stalin, Soviet Union, World War II, Nikita Khrushchev, Moscow
Kraków, Warsaw, Polish language, Ukraine, Silesian Voivodeship
1981 in the Soviet Union, 12th Moscow International Film Festival, 1981 Armenia mid-air collision, 1981 Soviet nuclear tests, 1981 in fine arts of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union, Order of Lenin, Russian language, General, Soviet Army
Russian language, President of Russia, Russian Ground Forces, Moscow, Russian Air Force
Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet Union, Alexei Kosygin, Prague Spring, Friendship Games
Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, Leonid Brezhnev, Alexei Kosygin, Prague Spring