Exercise Zapad-81 was the largest military exercise ever to be carried out by the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

, according to NATO and US sources. 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"

Soviet aircraft carrier Kiev

Kiev was a heavy aircraft carrying cruiser that served the Soviet and Russian navies from 1975 to 1993. It was built from 1970 till 1975 at Chernomorski factory in Nikolayev and was the first ship of its class -Service life:The Kiev was laid down on 21 July 1970 and launched on 26 December 1972...

 Project 1143 aircraft carrier.

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

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

. After the failure of reform communism in Poland during the seventies the People's Republic of Poland

People's Republic of Poland

The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...

 was in a state of crisis and civil unrest. Exercise Zapad included amphibious landings in Poland near Gdańsk

Gdansk

Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...

, 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.

External links

• de Weydenthall, Jan B., Bruce Porter, and Kevin Devlin, The Polish Drama: 1980-1982. Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath and Company 1983
• Parallel History Project
  Parallel History Project
  The Parallel History Project on Cooperative Security is an open source website reference compilation, research project, and analysis nexus sparked by the progressive increase in the declassification of NATO and Soviet bloc documents related to Cold War activities, as viewed by both sides...
  
  , Information on the Complexes of the Strategic Offensive Forces of the USSR That Were Presented During the Exercise ZAPAD 81 -Original document
• Parallel History Project
  Parallel History Project
  The Parallel History Project on Cooperative Security is an open source website reference compilation, research project, and analysis nexus sparked by the progressive increase in the declassification of NATO and Soviet bloc documents related to Cold War activities, as viewed by both sides...
  
  , Information on the Complexes of the Strategic Offensive Forces of the USSR That Were Presented During the Exercise ZAPAD 81 -Translation
• Message to the Congress Transmitting a Report and a Fact Sheet on Soviet Noncompliance With Arms Control Agreements, 1983