On 18 September 1993, over half a century after the USSR’s backstabbing of Poland, the last Soviet soldiers officially left the country’s territory. They left behind ruined buildings, an environmental catastrophe and losses estimated at PLN 6.3 billion.

The withdrawal of Soviet troops from Polish soil began in December 1990. The negotiations between Warsaw and Moscow were not overly difficult, given the approaching collapse of the Soviet Union. By the early 1990s, the Eastern Bloc was already disintegrated.

In Romania, Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife had been shot a year earlier, while in Bulgaria Todor Zhivkov had been deprived of any influence on the government. Czechoslovakia was still a single entity, but the Velvet Revolution gently detached it from Soviet influence. 

In November 1990, the demolition of the Berlin Wall represented a major symbolic event, the confirmation of the “wind of change” Scorpions were singing about at the time. In Poland, the transition from communism to capitalism occurred even a year earlier.  

The withdrawal of Soviet troops from the Polish garrisons was a considerable undertaking. In addition to soldiers and accompanying civilians, nearly 600 tanks, almost 1,000 armoured personnel carriers, 390 guns, 20 rocket launchers, and 200 aircraft had to set off towards the eastern border.

Soviet troops were stationed in 60 garrisons located in 21 voivodeships. They formed a strip running from east to west and spread near the German border to the north and south. Soldiers had 15 airports at their disposal, 8 training grounds, 4500 m of sea coast and 3 hectares of port quays with infrastructure, as well as 23 railway sidings, among other things. 

In some Polish cities – such as Legnica, one-third of the inhabitants were Russians until 1990. Other cities such as Borne Sulinowo were inhabited virtually only by Russians, although they did formally not exist (they did not appear on any map). It was Borne Sulinowo that was the largest Russian garrison in Poland, with about 25,000 Red Army soldiers stationed there.

It is estimated that about 53,000 Red Army soldiers were stationing in Poland until the early 1990s. 

Image: Histmag

Author: Sébastien Meuwissen