Group of Soviet Forces in Germany

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The Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (1949–1988) (ГСВГ, Группа советских войск в Германии), also known as the Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany (1945–1949) and the Western Group of Forces (1988–1994) were the troops of the Soviet Army in East Germany.

The Soviet armies permanently stationed in Germany were the predominant land-based military threat to NATO from the late 1940s until 1989, a primary factor in the military situation during the Cold War. The possibility of a Soviet invasion of West Germany and other Western European countries (or a corresponding NATO eastward incursion) was however kept low due to the dangers of nuclear escalation.

1 History
2 Structure and Equipment
3 Commanders-in-Chief of the GSFG
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

The GSFG was formed after the completion of the Second World War from formations of the First and 2nd Belorussian Fronts. These troops had the task, for the adherence to the regulations to ensure the Potsdam Agreements. Furthermore they represented the politico-military interests of the Soviet Union. In the year 1957 an agreement between the governments Soviet Union and the GDR in laid out the arrangements over the temporary stay of Soviet armed forces on the territory of the GDR, the numerical strength of the Soviet troops, their assigned posts and exercise areas. It was specified that the Soviet armed forces were not to interfere into the internal affairs of the GDR.

Following a resolution of the government of the USSR 1979/80 20,000 army personnel, 1,000 tanks and much equipment was withdrawn from the territory of the GDR. In the course of Perestroika the GSFG was realigned as a more defensive force regarding strength, structure and equipment. This entailed a clear reduction of the tank forces in 1989 . The withdrawal of the GSFG was one of the largest troop transfers to times of peace in military history. Despite the difficulties, which resulted from the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the same period, the departure was carried out according to plan and punctually until August 1994.

The return of the troops and material took place particularly by the sea route by means of the ports in Rostock and the island of Ruegen as well as via Poland. The Russian Ground Forces said good-bye on 25 June 1994 with a military parade of the 6th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade in Berlin. The parting celebrations in Wuensdorf on 11 June 1994 and in the Treptower park in Berlin on 31 August 1994 marked the end of Soviet military operational readiness on German soil.

[edit] Structure and Equipment

The Soviet troops occupied on the territory of the GDR 777 barracks plants at 276 places. This includes 47 airfields and 116 exercise areas also. At the beginning of 1991 there were still about 338,000 soldiers in 24 divisions, distributed among five land armies and an air army in what was by then the WGF. In addition there were still about 208,000 relatives of officers as well as civil employees came, among them were about 90,000 children. Most locations were in the area of today's Brandenburg Lander.

In 1991 there was approximately:

was 4,200 tanks
8,200 armored vehicles
3,600 cannons
106,000 other motor vehicles
690 airplanes
680 helicopters
180 rocket systems

At the end of the 1980s, the primary Soviet formations included:

1st Guards Tank Red Banner Army, Dresden (1 гвардейская танковая Краснознаменная армия)
2nd Guards Tank Red Banner Army, Fürstenberg/Havel (2 гвардейская танковая Краснознаменная армия)
- included 94th Guards Motor Rifle Division, 21st, 207th Motor Rifle Divisions
3rd Shock Combined-Arms Red Banner Army, Magdeburg (3 общевойсковая Краснознаменная армия)
- 10th, 12th, 47th Guards Tank Divisions
8th Guards Combined-Arms Order of Lenin Army (Nohra) (8 гвардейская общевойсковая ордена Ленина армия )
20th Guards Combined-Arms Red Banner Army, Eberswalde-Finow (20 гвардейская общевойсковая Краснознаменная армия )
16th Air Red Banner Army, Wünsdorf (16 воздушная Краснознаменная армия )
A number of separate regiments of Group subordination (sapper, communications, rocket, artillery, etc.)

This list of divisions includes all the manoeuvre formations of the GSFG.

[edit] Commanders-in-Chief of the GSFG

The first three Commanders-in-Chief were also Chiefs of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany.

Georgy Zhukov 9 June 1945 to 21 March 1946
Vasily Sokolovsky 22 March 1946 until 31 March 1949
Vasily Chuikov 1 April 1949 until 26 May 1953
Andrei Grechko 27 May 1953 until 16 November 1957
Matvei Zakharov 17 November 1957 until 14 April 1960
Ivan I. Yakubovskiy 15 April 1960 until 9 August 1961 (Ivan Ignatyevich Yakubovsky?)
Ivan Konev 9 August 1961 to 18 April 1962
Ivan I. Yakubovskiy 19. April 1962 to 26. January 1965
Pyotr Koshevoy 27. January 1965 to 31. October 1969
Viktor Kulikov 1. November 1969 to 13. September 1972
Semyon Kurkotkin 14 September 1971 to 19 July 1972
Yevgeni F. Ivanovski 20 July 1972 to 25. November 1980
Mikhail M. Saizev 26. November 1980 to 6. July 1985
Pyotr G. Lushev 7 July 1985 to 11 July 1986
Valeri Belikov 12. July 1986 to 12. November 1987
Boris W. Snetkow 26. November 1987 to 13. December 1990
Matvei Burlakov 13 December 1990 to 31 August 1994

[edit] References

Lutz Freundt, Sovetskiye voyska v Germanii, 1945-1994 (Soviet Troops in Germany 1945-1994), Molodaya Gvardiya Publishing House, 1994.
Scott and Scott, The Armed Forces of the USSR, Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, 1979
Roter Stern über Deutschland, Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk und Stefan Wolle, Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin, 2001, ISBN 3-86153-246-8. This German book, The Red Star over Germany, Soviet troops in the GDR, presents 49 years of the Soviet Army stationed in East Germany. The 256 pages of the book cover it all: from 49,000 who perished in prison camps of the Soviet zone, to the 18 Russian soldiers who refused to shoot unarmed Germans.