Seven Days to the River Rhine

Training Exercise "Seven Days to the River Rhine"
	Part of the Cold War
	; A 1976 American map of probable axes of attack for the Warsaw Pact forces into Western Europe
Date	at least since 1964
Location	Central Europe, Iron Curtain
Result	Unknown; never attempted.; Signing of the SALT II treaty.; If attempted, intended to be a Warsaw Pact victory but with heavy cost of lives
Territorial; changes	German unification under East Germany; Occupation of Austria, Denmark, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands east of River Rhine to the Warsaw Pact (if attempted)
Belligerents
Warsaw Pact Soviet Union GSFG; Soviet Army Central Group of Forces; Soviet Army Northern Group of Forces; Soviet Army Southern Group of Forces; ; Bulgaria; Czechoslovakia; East Germany; Hungary; Poland; Communist Parties in prospective Soviet Satellites: KPÖ; KPB/PCB; DKP; KPL; CPN; Communist Parties in prospective Soviet Satellites; (9-day extended plan to Lyon): PCF;	NATO United States; United Kingdom; France; Belgium; Canada; Denmark; West Germany; Italy; Luxembourg; Netherlands; Norway; Turkey; Austria
Commanders and leaders
Leonid Brezhnev; Dmitriy Ustinov; Nikolai Ogarkov; Col. Gen. Yuri Zarudin (ru); Gen. Yevgeni F. Ivanovski; Todor Zhivkov; Dobri Dzhurov; Gustáv Husák; Martin Dzúr; Erich Honecker; Heinz Hoffmann; János Kádár; Lajos Czinege; Edward Gierek; Wojciech Jaruzelski Franz Muhri (de); Louis Van Geyt; Jørgen Jensen; Marcus Bakker Georges Marchais	Jimmy Carter ; Harold Brown; David C. Jones; SACEUR: Gen. Alexander Haig; (Jan–Jul 1979) ; Gen. B. W. Rogers; (Jul 1979–1987) ; James Callaghan; (Jan–May 1979); Margaret Thatcher; (May 1979–1990); Valery Giscard d'Estaing; Yvon Bourges; Paul Vanden Boeynants; (Jan–Apr 1979); Wilfried Martens; (Apr 1979–1981); José Desmarets; Pierre Trudeau; (Jan–Jun 1979); Joe Clark; (Jun 1979–1980); Anker Jørgensen; Poul Søgaard; Helmut Schmidt; Hans Apel; Giulio Andreotti; (Jan–Aug 1979); Francesco Cossiga; (Aug 1979–1980); Attilio Ruffini; Gaston Thorn; (Jan–Jul 1979); Pierre Werner; (Jul 1979–1984); Émile Krieps; Dries van Agt; Willem Scholten; Odvar Nordli; Bülent Ecevit; (Jan–Nov 1979); Süleyman Demirel; (Nov 1979–1980); Bruno Kreisky; Otto Rösch
Casualties and losses
Would be carried out in response to a NATO first strike on Poland. Such a strike was estimated to cause 2 million immediate Polish deaths near the Vistula	If carried out, heavy losses in West Germany

The Rhine is one of the most important rivers in Europe.

Seven Days to the River Rhine (Russian: «Семь дней до реки Рейн», romanized: "Sem' dney do reki Reyn") was a top-secret military simulation exercise developed at least since 1964 by the Warsaw Pact. It depicted the Soviet Bloc's vision of a seven-day nuclear war between NATO and Warsaw Pact forces.^[1]^[2]^[3]

^ Findlay, Christopher (28 November 2005). "Poland reveals Warsaw Pact war plans". International Relations And Security Network. ETH Zurich. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
^ Watt, Nicholas (26 November 2005). "Poland risks Russia's wrath with Soviet nuclear attack map". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 29 April 2020. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
^ Rennie, David (26 November 2005). "World War Three seen through Soviet eyes". Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2 November 2019. Retrieved 14 June 2013.

[1] Findlay, Christopher (28 November 2005). "Poland reveals Warsaw Pact war plans". International Relations And Security Network. ETH Zurich. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 23 December 2014.

[guardian2005-2] Watt, Nicholas (26 November 2005). "Poland risks Russia's wrath with Soviet nuclear attack map". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 29 April 2020. Retrieved 14 June 2013.

[telegraph3-3] Rennie, David (26 November 2005). "World War Three seen through Soviet eyes". Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2 November 2019. Retrieved 14 June 2013.

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