Group of Soviet Forces in Germany
The Western Group of Forces (WGF), previously known as the Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany (GSOFG) and the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (GSFG), were the troops of the Soviet Army in East Germany. The Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany was formed after the end of World War II in Europe from units of the 1st and 2nd Belorussian Fronts. The group helped suppress the East German uprising of 1953. After the end of occupation functions in 1954 the group was renamed the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany. The group represented Soviet interests in East Germany during the Cold War. Before changes in Soviet foreign policy during the early 1990s, the group shifted to a more offensive role and in 1989 became the Western Group of Forces. Russian forces remained in the eastern part of Germany after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and German reunification until 1994.
Inspection of 39th Guards Motor Rifle Division, 1968.
Abandoned Soviet Army barracks in Stendal, 1991.
Soviet military equipment being loaded aboard a ferry in Rostock, March 1991.
Soviet Military Road Police watchpost in Wittenberg, 1991.
The Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union was the land warfare service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces from 1946 to 1992. In English it was often referred to as the Soviet Army.
US tanks and Soviet tanks at Checkpoint Charlie, October 1961
Soviet anti-air instructors and North Vietnamese crewmen in the spring of 1965 at an anti-aircraft training center in Vietnam
A Russian soldier of the 2nd Guards Tamanskaya Motor Rifle Division in Moscow, January 1992, a few weeks after the dissolution of the USSR. He is wearing the Soviet winter Afghanka uniform.
A U.S. assessment of the seven most important items of Soviet combat equipment in 1981