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Soviet Union [USSR] Groups of Forces Stationed Abroad
In 1989 the Soviet Union had six major groups of forces
stationed abroad. The groups of Soviet forces in Eastern Europe
included thirty Ground Forces divisions and four air armies in the
(East Germany) German Democratic Republic, Poland, Czechoslovakia,
and Hungary
(see Soviet Union USSR - Appendix C).
These groups of forces been in
Eastern Europe since 1945 and have been used on several occasions
to suppress anticommunist uprisings in those countries and keep
them within the Soviet alliance system. They have also been the
main concentration of Soviet forces against NATO. They were
continuously manned and equipped at wartime levels. The Group of
Soviet Forces in Germany was the most important Soviet territorial
command. In 1989 it had 400,000 troops organized into nineteen
divisions and five armies. Its importance was underscored by the
fact that it was commanded by a commander in chief, like the five
armed services.
When the cuts announced by Gorbachev in December 1988 are
completed in 1991, 50,000 Soviet troops and six Soviet tank
divisions will have been withdrawn from East Germany,
Czechoslovakia, and Hungary
(see Soviet Union USSR -
Conventional Arms Control, ch. 17).
In addition to its forces stationed in Eastern Europe, the
Soviet Union continued to maintain a large troop presence in
Afghanistan throughout most of 1988. The Soviet 40th Army's four
divisions and other forces--116,000 troops in all--had been
fighting in Afghanistan for nearly ten years by late 1988. In mid1988 the Soviet Union began a full-scale withdrawal from
Afghanistan. The withdrawal was completed by early 1989. The Soviet
Union has also had forces stationed in Mongolia since that country
became an ally in 1921. Under a plan articulated in a 1986
Vladivostok speech, Gorbachev withdrew one Soviet division, leaving
four in Mongolia.
Data as of May 1989
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