On Friday 27 March 1981 the four-hour 'warning strike' took place in Poland, one of the largest in the history of the Polish labour movement and certainly the largest in the history of the former Soviet bloc.
Everyone was convinced USSR was gonna invade Poland at some point during 1981. This was behind a lot of the WW3 and nuclear war fears pre-Andropov.
There was one night in the summer when News at Ten was reporting on Soviet naval exercises in the Baltic off the Polish coast... that was a 'uh-oh' moment. Then it became a bit of a joke. Not The Nine O'Clock News I think ran a 'bulletin' saying "Here are the headlines. Russia has not invaded Poland. It's the first time Russia hasn't invaded Poland since yesterday".
Martial Law was bad for the Polish people, but Jaruzelski probably dodged a bullet for the world because the Russians were sure that Communism wouldn't be overthrown, and things seemed to calm down a little until the countdown to the arrival of Cruise in 83... which ramped things up again. Scary times.
Everyone was convinced USSR was gonna invade Poland at some point during 1981. This was behind a lot of the WW3 and nuclear war fears pre-Andropov.
ReplyDeleteThere was one night in the summer when News at Ten was reporting on Soviet naval exercises in the Baltic off the Polish coast... that was a 'uh-oh' moment. Then it became a bit of a joke. Not The Nine O'Clock News I think ran a 'bulletin' saying "Here are the headlines. Russia has not invaded Poland. It's the first time Russia hasn't invaded Poland since yesterday".
Martial Law was bad for the Polish people, but Jaruzelski probably dodged a bullet for the world because the Russians were sure that Communism wouldn't be overthrown, and things seemed to calm down a little until the countdown to the arrival of Cruise in 83... which ramped things up again. Scary times.