Northern Group of Forces

The Northern Group of Forces (Russian: Северная группа войск; Polish: Północna grupa wojsk) was the military formation of the Soviet Army (Russian Ground Forces starting 1992) stationed in Poland from the end of Second World War in 1945 until 1993 when they were withdrawn in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union.

Although officially considered Polish allies under the Warsaw Pact treaty, they were seen by many Poles as a Soviet occupation force.

[1][2] Soviet forces entered Poland for the first time on 17 September 1939, and then again as they were advancing towards Nazi Germany in the course of the Red Army's Operation Bagration in the summer of 1944.

Its second objective was much less stressed in public Soviet sources, but nonetheless crucial: it was to ensure the loyalty of the Polish communist government, and its Polish People's Army; a policy consistent with that of the Brezhnev Doctrine, and enforced during events such as the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 or the Prague Spring of 1968.

[1][5][6][9][14] Soviet forces were mobilized and actually advanced on Warsaw during Polish October in 1956, and there were threats that they could be similarly used before the martial law in Poland was introduced to stem the progress of the Solidarity movement in 1980.

The presence of Soviet forces on Polish territory caused several problems, in addition to the war reparations issue.

[15][16] Contemporary archives contained many reports of mugging, burglary, rape and murder attributed to Soviet soldiers in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War;[17] even Polish Communists were uneasy, as in 1945 the future Chairman of the Polish Council of State, Aleksander Zawadzki, worried that "raping and looting of the Soviet army would provoke a civil war".

[18] In the early years, the Red Army appropriated any resources it needed from the Polish government with no thought of compensation, or treating Poles as their allies.

[5] By that time the Northern Group had already shrunk to 58,000 troops,[14] but its military installations were still spread over about 700 square kilometres of Polish territory.

[3] The Group was headquartered in Legnica, Lower Silesia, where Soviet military took over a third of the city as their extraterritorial enclave (although for six years[when?]

[3] Other major Soviet military bases were located in Bagicz, Białogard, Brzeg, Borne Sulinowo (one of the two largest), Burzykowo, Chojna, Dębice, Kęszyca Leśna, Kluczewo, Kłomino, Nowa Sól, Oława, Przemków-Trzebień (may refer to the same base as Strachów/Pstrąże), Strachów (now - deserted town shown as Pstrąże on maps), Świdnica, Świętoszów, Świnoujście (military harbor), Szprotawa, Wschowa, Żagań.

[22] In the 1990s, when the Group was preparing to leave Poland, it had the strength of approximately 56,000 soldiers, with 600 tanks, 400 artillery pieces and 200 planes.

The Soviet Army was stationed in Poland for 48 years; it is estimated that its stay cost the Polish state 62.6 billion złoty (in 1993 prices, approx.

[20] Some of the Soviet administered areas were subject to ecological contamination and pollution (by oil products, heavy metals, unexploded ordnance).