The Northern Group of Armed Forces (; ) 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Ground Forces starting 1992) stationed in Poland from the end of Second World War in 1945 until 1993 when they were withdrawn in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union.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. Jan Parys, the first civilian minister of defense of the Republic of Poland between 1991 and 1992, expressed this.

History

Early years 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. Following the Vistula-Oder Offensive in early 1945, all of Poland was liberated from Nazi occupation by Soviet forces. While formal Polish sovereignty was almost immediately restored, the territory of Poland fell under de facto Soviet control as the Soviet military and security forces acted to ensure that Poland would be ruled by the Soviet-installed communist puppet government of Poland.

As the war ended, the structure of the Soviet military was reorganized from a war-time to a peace-time mode. Directive No. 11097 of 10 June 1945 created several new formations, known as Groups of Forces, equivalent to military districts, but used for command and administration of Soviet forces outside the Soviet Union itself. One of those new formations, at that time 300,000-400,000 strong, was to be stationed in Poland. It was mostly based on the 2nd Belorussian Front of General Konstantin Rokossovsky (formerly stationed around Mecklenburg and Brandenburg).Craig Crofoot, in a manuscript available at www.microarmormayhem.com, says that the NGF was established by Order No. 11096 dated 29 May 1945 issued by the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command (Stavka VGK), and took effect on 10 June 1945Jerzy Domagała, Bratnia straż, Rzeczpospolita, 28.04.04 Nr 100. Retrieved on 15 June 2008 With the exception of Szczecin (Stettin), which fell under the operational territory of the Western Group of Forces, the Northern Group of Forces was located entirely within the territory of Poland.

The Polish communist government, which largely owed its existence to the Soviets (see Polish Committee of National Liberation, 1946 Polish people's referendum, 1947 Polish legislative election), signed several agreements with the Soviet Union regulating the status and purpose of the Soviet troops.

In the early years, the Soviet forces aided the Polish communists in establishing their government and combating anti-communist resistance, such as the Polish cursed soldiers or the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (see Operation Vistula). Another major task of the Northern Group was to organize and transport war reparations from the former eastern territories of Germany attached to Poland after World War II (the so-called Recovered Territories) to the Soviet Union. These actions, often involving the complete stripping down of industrial facilities, sometimes also took place in traditionally Polish territories. This caused tensions between the Soviets and the Polish government, which intended to use the resources of those territories to rebuild Poland.

Cold War By 1949 the Soviet Union had concluded twenty-year bilateral treaties of friendship, cooperation, and mutual assistance with Poland and several other countries, which usually granted the Soviet Union rights to a continued military presence on their territory. The Polish government, however, had no operational control over the Soviet forces. On December 17, 1956, as one of the agreements of the Polish October period, the Polish and Soviet governments signed the dedicated treaty that would finally fully regulate the Soviet military presence in Poland, the "Agreement on Legal Status of Soviet Troops Temporarily Stationed in Poland"."The Polish-Soviet Treaty of December 17, 1956 formalized for the first time a situation which had existed in fact since World War II.".Nish Jamgotch,Soviet-East European Dialogue: International Relations of a New Type?, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University, Google Print, p.64David B. Michaels, International Privileges And Immunities: A Case for a Universal Statute, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1971, , Google Print, p.144 According to the 1956 treaty (which was further developed by later, more specific amendments), the Soviet military in Poland was limited to 66,000 troops, although the Soviets never fully disclosed the actual number of personnel of the Northern Group to the Polish government, and the Polish government had no right to inspect the Soviet bases. The treaty also limited the number of Soviet bases in Poland to 39, while the actual number of bases reached 79. Borne Sulinowo - historia (history). Official municipal website of the town. The Soviets also installed nuclear weapons in Poland, without informing the Polish government of that fact. The treaty's name declared the Soviet military presence to be temporary, while in fact the treaty did not contain any limitations to the duration of their stay, nor any provisions on their withdrawal.Jaromír Navrátil, The Prague Spring 1968: a national security archive documents reader, Central European University Press, 1998, , Google Print, p.533 Until the 1956 agreement, the Soviet troops stationed in Poland were seen by some Poles as occupying Polish territory; even afterwards they were de facto exempt from any Polish oversight and their role of an 'allied force' stationed in the territory was viewed by many as a mere propaganda claim. Mirosław Golon, Północna Grupa Wojsk Armii Radzieckiej w Polsce w latach 1945-1956. Okupant w roli sojusznika (Northern Group of Soviet Army Forces in Poland in the years 1945-1956. Occupant in the role of an ally), 2004, Historicus - Portal Historyczny (Historical Portal). An online initiative of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń and Polskie Towarzystwo Historyczne. Last accessed on 30 May 2007. The issue of Polish-Soviet military cooperation was further regulated the next year, and in the 1965 Polish-Soviet friendship treaty that reflected the Soviet domination of Polish military policy.

The Northern Group of Forces had several objectives. With the beginning of the Cold War, it was to act, together with other Groups of Forces, as a counterpart to the Western Allies (particularly the United States) forces in Europe. Later, in that regard it represented part of the Warsaw Pact forces, countering the NATO troops. 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.APPENDIX C: THE WARSAW PACT -- Soviet Union. US Library of Congress study.Group of Soviet Forces in Poland Northern Group of Forces (NGF) at globalsecurity.org 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. All of the objectives of the Northern Group were shared with the Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany in the German Democratic Republic and to a lesser extent with the two Groups with a shorter history: the Central Group of Forces in Czechoslovakia (from 1968 on) and the Southern Group of Forces in Hungary and (only until 1958) Romania.

The presence of Soviet forces on Polish territory caused several problems, in addition to the war reparations issue. Although not supported by the Soviet High Command, excesses by individual soldiers of the Red Army led to mounting tensions between Soviet forces and the Polish population.Norman Davies, God's Playground, a History of Poland, Columbia University Press, 2005, , Google Print, p.359Richard C. Raack, Stalin's Drive to the West, 1938-1945: the origins of the Cold War, Stanford University Press, 1995, , Google Print, p.90 Contemporary archives contained many reports of mugging, burglary, rape and murder attributed to Soviet soldiers in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War;Padraic Kenney, Rebuilding Poland: Workers and Communists, 1945-1950, Cornell University Press, 1997, , Google Print, p.155 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".Norman Davies, God's Playground, a History of Poland, Columbia University Press, 1982, , Google Print, p.558 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. For example, when the Northern Group commander, Konstantin Rokossovsky, decided that it should be headquartered in Legnica, he ordered all Poles, including communist officials who were organizing the city and provincial government, to vacate one third of the city within 24 hours, later requisitioning any of their private belongings (like furniture) left behind. This incident was perceived by contemporaries as a particularly brutal action, and rumors circulated exaggerating its severity.Paweł Piotrowski of the Institute of National Remembrance, Wrocław, writes that the report of Polish Secret Police notes that "in certain aspects" the resettlement brought about the associations with the Nazis' forced resettlement of Jews into ghettos; and for a time a rumour spread through Poland that the Soviets were massacring Polish population around Legnica; though no evidence of anyone being killed in the course of it has come to light. See cited article. Later, Polish settlements in which Soviet garrisons were placed were inconvenienced in other ways, for example by being removed from all official maps or by the low flying Soviet jets, training at night. Approximately 600 Polish citizens died over the years 1945–1993 in crimes or accidents for which the Soviet soldiers were responsible. The Soviet army, which was subject to many financial privileges (reduced taxation, import tariffs, etc.), often refused to pay for municipal resources it consumed, particularly water, gas or electricity. On the other hand, Soviet units did also aid the locals with infrastructure projects, harvests, or during environmental disasters.

After the fall of communism in Poland in 1989, and with the signs of the fall of the Soviet Union, the new Polish government wanted the Soviet troops to leave Poland. By that time the Northern Group had already shrunk to 58,000 troops, but its military installations were still spread over about 700 square kilometres of Polish territory. After a new treaty in late 1991 and May 1992, and Poland's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact, the Soviet agreed to withdraw military units by 1992 and support units by 1993. Soviet troops had already begun leaving Poland, with the first group exiting in 1991. All troops left Poland by the end of 1993, the last leaving on 18 September. Wyjście Sowietów, Polityka, 'Rok 1993', 27 stycznia 2007 Symbolically, Polish President Lech Wałęsa saw them off on 17 September, the anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939.

Aftermath