In 1981, the Soviet Union's national strength gradually reached its peak, and in the late stages of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union began to change from the defensive side to the offensive side.
Soviet military parade
In order to deter the NATO group led by the United States, the Soviet Union held a military exercise that shocked the world in 1981, and the Soviet Union dispatched 500,000 troops and tens of thousands of tanks to carry out the largest military exercise in human history on the Baltic Coast, using the NATO group as an imaginary enemy. This was a "show of muscle" in the heyday of the Soviet army, which made the world see the strong Soviet armed forces, and the Americans pessimistically believed that the Soviet Union could occupy Germany in 8 days.
Coincidentally, ten days after the Soviet Union held military exercises, China also held the famous North China Exercise, which was the largest military exercise since the founding of New China and also shocked the world. Was it a coincidence or a deliberate coincidence that the Soviet Union and China held exercises one after the other?
Chinese the North China Exercise of the People's Liberation Army
Today's Expo History will take you to understand the purpose of the grand military exercises of China and the Soviet Union in 1981. New friends can click on the first one, which is convenient for reviewing previous articles and not missing the wonderful content after that.
The reason why the Soviet Union held the 1981 military exercises also began with the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. How long did it take the Soviet Union from taking over a fading capitalist state to becoming the world's only two superpowers? It took only 28 years, from the October Revolution in 1917 to seize power and establish a socialist state, to the end of World War II in 1945, the Soviet Union experienced civil strife and war in the process of twists and turns to explore and move forward, still building into a great power, becoming a world pole capable of confronting the United States.
Stalin
Some people cling to the problems and mistakes made during the construction of the Soviet Union. There are also some people who misinterpret "materialistic dialectics" into the so-called dialectical view of problems, that is, "looking at problems in two parts", that is, "seeing both the good and the bad aspects", as if to do this step is to "look at the problem dialectically", which is a vulgar dialectic without compromise, a kind of "and thin mud" practice.
This kind of vulgar dialectics will only "divide into two" and think that "all things are good and bad", so they adopt a "moderate attitude" of neither negating nor affirming everything, for example, in dealing with Chiang Kai-shek, if someone talks about Chiang Kai-shek's crimes, those who hold "vulgar dialectics" will say that "Chiang Kai-shek also has merit, and cannot completely negate Chiang Kai-shek", as if as long as we talk about the good side of a person and talk about the bad side of a person, we will "look at" this person dialectically.
So what is dialectics? Dialectics sees contradictions, and sees the opposition and unity of contradictions in the process of the development of things, rather than directly separating things into positive and negative sides, and then looking at things statically, counting its merits and faults in a static state.
The reason why Chiang Kai-shek committed all kinds of uncountable crimes, and the reason why the Soviet Union took detours and had problems in the period of socialist construction, is what we really want to understand through dialectics, that is, the development of the contradictions inherent in things, how to promote the movement of things, rather than counting their "merits" and "sins". After all, "we use dialectics to understand the world and transform it, not to muddy it."
Let us place the dialectic on the Soviet Union, where the contradiction has a principal contradiction and a secondary contradiction, and the main contradiction has a major and a minor aspect, and compares it with the main aspect of the merits of the Soviet Union in building socialism. It should be noted that "a warrior with flaws is a warrior in the end, and a perfect fly is nothing but a fly." ”
Next, let's take a good look at the Soviet Union, the "flawed warrior". After making a series of mistakes that some people considered "the most heinous crime", the Soviet Union achieved more brilliant results than mistakes. The Soviet Union in 1945 was already capable of breaking the wrists of the United States, especially the banner of the socialist camp it was waving, which made the United States see it as a thorn in its eye and wanted to get rid of it quickly.
Churchill's "Iron Curtain Speech" and Truman Doctrine after the war opened the curtain on the Cold War, the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949 marked the military realization of a strategic alliance between the capitalist camp, the Soviet Union would not sit still, and immediately united the countries of the socialist camp, and the Warsaw Pact in 1955 marked the formation of a bipolar pattern.
Churchill's Iron Curtain Speech
At the beginning of the Cold War, the purpose was to struggle between the social and capitalist camps, but with the sudden death of Stalin in 1953, the "de-Stalinization" after Khrushchev came to power led to the division of the socialist camp, and the Soviet Union at this time did not have the same attitude towards other fraternal countries at all, and used tough means to send troops to suppress the voices of Eastern European countries against Khrushchev, but the contradictions would only intensify without resolution.
Khrushchev put forward the theory of "three harmonies and two completes," that is, "peaceful coexistence, peaceful competition, and peaceful transition." In the 1950s, when the Cold War was just formed, the Soviet Union wanted to "coexist peacefully" with the United States.
After that, despite Khrushchev's ouster, his successors continued to follow this line, and the transformation of the Soviet Union began with Khrushchev until its collapse in 1991.
Khrushchev
Since then, although the banner of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union has still been marked by the struggle between society and capital, the essence has become the arms race, space race, and diplomatic race waged by the United States and the Soviet Union in order to compete for world hegemony, and the Soviet Union has also become an out-and-out "social imperialism", disregarding the interests of other countries for the sake of its own national interests and wantonly provoking conflicts with its neighboring countries.
Will a truly socialist country take the initiative to invade other countries? If you look at China, you can see that a real socialist country does not invade other countries, and a country that invades other countries, although it wears the cloak of a "socialist country", its behavior exposes its essence.
Didn't the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 expose the essence of the Soviet Union's imperialism? In the 1970s, the Soviet Union's military strength was already strong enough, and the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union also became a situation in which the Soviet Union attacked and defended the United States, and in order to seize the competition with the United States for world hegemony and realize its strategic intention of controlling the pivotal areas of Central Asia, the Soviet Union brazenly launched a war of aggression against Afghanistan in 1979.
It can be seen that the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan was not accidental, something that was done at the first whim, but an inevitable product of the transformation of the Soviet Union into social imperialism and the emergence of ambitions for world domination.
Soviet special forces in Afghanistan
Brezhnev was a Soviet leader unlike Khrushchev, more ambitious and more political. Succeeding as supreme leader of the Soviet Union after the overthrow of Khrushchev in 1964, Brezhnev's military power increased dramatically, far surpassing the United States in nuclear weapons, and the Soviet Union became the most militarily powerful country at the time.
Brezhnev was in charge of the Soviet Union for 18 years, and under his leadership, the national strength of the Soviet Union reached a historic peak, but because it did not solve the countless contradictions accumulated by the Soviet Union, it made these contradictions accumulate deeper and deeper, and the grave of the Soviet Union was dug, and when to bury it was only a matter of time, and who would personally bury it was only a historical accident.
Premier Zhou made a prediction to the Soviet Union, saying: "After Khrushchev stepped down, we had pinned our hopes on the new leadership of the Soviet Union, but now it seems that this is not possible." They still adhere to Khrushchev doctrine, the policy has not changed ... It is still 'cooperation between the two hegemons' and still 'cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union to dominate the world'. But this is only the wishful thinking of the Soviet Union, can the United States agree to the existence of two hegemons? ”
Premier Zhou's far-sightedness can still give us a deep thought today, can China today and China in the future coexist peacefully with the United States? Obviously, the United States will not agree.
Brezhnev (right)
In December 1979, the Soviet Union, with superior forces and modern weapons, launched a large-scale surprise attack on Afghanistan, and by January 1980, the Afghan government announced its surrender. The Soviet Union then began to target the rebel resistance of the Afghan people.
In 1981, the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan reached a stalemate, the Soviet Union supported the puppet regime that submitted to it, and the afghan rebel forces began to receive military assistance from the United States, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and a new round of war smoke ignited throughout Afghanistan.
Because the war was difficult to resolve quickly, the United States began a new round of blockade of the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union felt the need to carry out a deterrent operation against NATO, so that European and American countries could see the powerful military power of the Soviet Union.
Military exercises are generally closed to the public, but Brezhnev specially invited NATO military personnel to visit the military exercise this time, called "military exchanges." In addition to deterring NATO, the Soviet Union was also designed to deter the opposition within the countries of the socialist camp, to make it clear that these internal opposition, these Soviet troops were likely to appear at the scene of the suppression of the riots.
On September 4, 1981, the Soviet Union mobilized tens of thousands of tanks and more than 2,000 infantry fighting vehicles to mobilize a total of more than half a million Soviet troops for an eight-day military exercise.
Like all exercises, the 81 exercise was also divided into red and blue sides, and the Soviet military demanded "maximum closeness to actual combat", not only using real knives and guns, but even the final exercise results ordered both sides to make temporary judgments according to the battlefield situation and fight until the victory or defeat was divided. During the exercise, the Soviet army mainly practiced missile long-range precision strikes, armored cluster assaults, parachute and airborne landing of airborne troops, Marine Corps personnel, and heavy equipment assault landing. Tens of thousands of tanks were used in the exercise, more than the total number of Tanks in China at that time.
Through these exercise projects, we can see that the Soviet 81 military exercise is not just a ground armor cluster and a torrent of steel, it also simulates sea and air landing operations and strategic nuclear strikes. The 81st Military Exercise is a strategic exercise in which multiple arms, land, sea and air cooperate. This caused NATO military personnel to exclaim that "the Soviet army can control all of Germany and march into France in 8 days." ”
81 Military Exercise
The blitzkrieg of Nazi Germany during World War II was enough to sweep across the entire Western European continent, and the Soviet Union was more powerful than Germany at that time, and once the war broke out, the Soviet army could sweep through europe in a short period of time and reach the Atlantic coast. The Soviet Union's 81 military exercise achieved the expected purpose, greatly shocked the United States and NATO, and also made the world tremble.
But in the past 10 years, the great Soviet Union has collapsed, and the torrent of steel that appeared in the 81 Military Exercise has not fired a single shot to defend the Soviet Empire, and the 81 Military Exercise has become a veritable "apocalyptic carnival", and under the powerful appearance of the Soviet Union, its society has long been difficult to return.
The decisive factor in war is man, weapons are only an important factor, and when the people's hearts are lost, even the most advanced weapons cannot maintain a country.
China's 1981 North China Exercise, just 10 days away from the Soviet Union's "carnival of the last days," was held on September 14 and ended on September 19.
Why did china's military exercise follow the Soviet military exercise? In fact, this is just a coincidence, as early as the end of 1980, China planned to organize a soldiers' exercise in the autumn of 1981.
In this exercise, our army invested more than 100,000 troops, and the exercise was set up as a red-blue confrontation, simulating the blue army launching an all-out offensive against our country in the form of a surprise attack, first attacking important targets within the depth of China's defense with nuclear weapons and long-range aviation, and then attacking north China under the cover of the air force with tanks and armored vehicles in an attempt to seize strategic points. China's "Red Army" quickly organized mobilization and entered a state of emergency to launch a counterattack and smash the offensive attempts of the "Blue Army".
This exercise setting does not sound familiar, let's not make unfounded associations, the hypothetical enemy Blue Army here does not necessarily refer to the Soviet Union.
The People's Liberation Army North China Exercise
China's North China exercise lasted for a full 5 days, and more than 114,000 troops participated in the exercise, using 1,327 tanks and armored vehicles, 1,541 artillery pieces, 475 aircraft, and 10,606 vehicles.
Since then, with the development of the times, our army has conducted many military exercises, and has also set up the famous Zhu Rihe base, which is very powerful as an imaginary enemy, so most of the Red Army in the exercise has lost more than won less.
The purpose of China's military exercises is different from the Soviet Union's efforts to deter NATO, and the primary purpose of China's military exercises is to test the combat effectiveness of the troops, and secondly, to deter all hostile forces and display China's military and national prestige.
People's Liberation Army North China Exercise Site Deng Xiaoping (center)
After the 1981 North China Exercise, China's military construction has entered a new era. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, quickly slid towards disintegration after its peak, and the 81 Military Exercise, which once shocked the world, failed to save this decaying and declining empire. The collapse of the Soviet Union heralded the end of the Cold War, with the Soviet Union stuck forever in 1991 and China challenging the new era.
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