Essen, Michael Fredholm von Whiskey on the Rocks. Volume 2: The Swedish-Soviet Confrontation, 1981

One volume in the series Europe @ War. This book describes and analyses the events surrounding the Soviet Navy's Baltic Fleet Whiskey-class submarine, which ran aground on the southern coast of Sweden near the naval base of Karlskrona, one of Sweden's largest military bases, on 27 October 1981. The incident triggered a serious diplomatic and military crisis. After the discovery, Swedish naval and army units quickly surrounded the submarine and cordoned off the immediate area. Surveillance of Sweden's sea and land borders was stepped up. Swedish intelligence intensified its activities against Soviet naval activities and communications. A tense diplomatic tug-of-war began over the fate of the stranded submarine and its crew. The Soviets maintained that the submarine had entered Swedish waters accidentally and demanded that it be allowed to leave without further inspection of the vessel or interrogation of the crew. The Swedes demanded further clarification of the submarine's mission and activities. In the meantime, Swedish technical intelligence concluded that the submarine was carrying nuclear weapons, which were ultimately identified as torpedoes with nuclear warheads. The submarine's crew made preparations to blow up the submarine if Swedish special forces stormed the vessel an emergency for which the Swedish military was actually preparing. Exacerbating the political and military crisis, Swedish intelligence and naval reconnaissance detected the unannounced arrival of a number of Soviet warships, which dropped anchor just outside Swedish territorial waters. The Soviet naval task force, under the command of Vice-Admiral Aleksey Kalinin on the destroyer Obraztsovyy, eventually consisted of more than ten Soviet warships. In response, Swedish Prime Minister Thorbjörn Fälldin ordered the armed forces to defend the border in case the Soviets tried to rescue the stranded submarine. At the time, the international media saw the incident as proof of extensive Soviet undersea activity in Swedish waters. Swedish military forces concluded that the violation was intentional and part of an illegal espionage operation directed against Sweden. However, others argued that the violation was due to incompetence and inferior technical equipment rather than a deliberate policy of aggression. In this book, Michael Fredholm von Essen describes the submarine incident and presents new research on the events based on recently declassified Swedish, Soviet and US military intelligence archive documents. He describes the submarine's journey into Swedish waters and the confrontation between Swedish and Soviet naval and air force elements. He also explains the Soviet naval doctrine and fleet organisation that formed the background to the submarine incident and the Soviet Union's global naval posture.