Article The cold war - Soviet Army

[Иван Феоктистов]

More brutal KGB soldiers. From the collection of my friend Mikhail Kazankov.

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

Tired KGB soldier with a duffel bag and a machine gun.

 

[11E]

I love your pictures! Was you stationed in East Germany during the eigthies or nineties?
Regards,
Lesley

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

I love your pictures! Was you stationed in East Germany during the eigthies or nineties?
Regards,
Lesley

Hee-hee, I'm only 18 years old ?
But, if you need to know something, I can ask my older comrades.
Regards, Ivan.

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

From the demobilization album of a soldier of the 10th Panzer Division, Group of Soviet Forces in Germany. 1987-1991.

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

Glasses are the key to style.

 

[11E]

Oranienburg 1990. Looking and noting numbers from the based Mi-6's and Mi-8MTs. I don't know if you can see it on the uploaded pic but the Ural truck spotted us an braked so hard that there was coming smoke from the tires. We didn't wait to find out what they wanted....

 

[11E]

Arrested by the Russian air force at Sperenberg in 1991. Everything was very friendly till the moment a guy from the HQ in Zossen came. Lukily the German police intervened and escorted us out of the area

 

[11E]

Found a piece of Russian aircraft in the landing pattern of Sperenberg

 

[11E]

Some winter ops at Weimar-Nohra. It was very easy to get very close to the helicopters

 

[11E]

Anti-tank mine, I believe a TM-62. We found it when driving off road along the fence of Stendal airfield. When exiting the car it was a meter from the right front wheel. Not a thing you see every day.

 

[11E]

Hee-hee, I'm only 18 years old ?
But, if you need to know something, I can ask my older comrades.
Regards, Ivan.

I was curious how it was for them being in East Germany. I met some soldiers over there which were from Siberia. They were a real long way from home. As Dutch conscript based in West Germany you could drive back home in the weekend to see your family, friends etc. but they were several time zones away from home.

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

View attachment 344942

Oranienburg 1990. Looking and noting numbers from the based Mi-6's and Mi-8MTs. I don't know if you can see it on the uploaded pic but the Ural truck spotted us an braked so hard that there was coming smoke from the tires. We didn't wait to find out what they wanted....

You're dangerous guys!
Gorbachev gave up East Germany without a fight. This greatly influenced the morale and discipline of both the German military and Soviet soldiers from the Western Group of Forces. It seems to me that in the 1970s it would have been very difficult to repeat the same thing.

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

I was curious how it was for them being in East Germany. I met some soldiers over there which were from Siberia. They were a real long way from home. As Dutch conscript based in West Germany you could drive back home in the weekend to see your family, friends etc. but they were several time zones away from home.

Every Soviet soldier during his service had the opportunity to take one large vacation for two weeks (not counting the days on the road). The soldier could take advantage of this opportunity, or continue his service. Additional leave could be obtained as a reward: for completing the commander's assignment, for showing courage in emergency situations, for successes in combat and political training. But if the unit had a shortage of soldiers (in the 1960s and 70s there was a large demographic hole due to losses in the war), the commander could not let the soldier leave the unit.

 

[Иван Феоктистов]

By the way, if we are talking about time zones. The head of our department, candidate of historical sciences Alexander Polyakov served in the railway troops (1984-1986). He accompanied military trains, and visited almost all corners of the Soviet Union. I will attach this outstanding list.

"During my service in the Soviet army, I visited:
1.Kazan. 2. Alatyr. 3. Irkutsk. 4. Penza. 5. Ungheni (Moldova). 6.Ulyanovsk. 7.Smolensk. 8. Moscow. 9. Kaliningrad. 10. Agryz (Kazakhstan). 11. Gorky (Nizhny Novgorod). 12.Kovylkino (Mordovia). 13. Nikolaev. 14.Alma-Ata. 15. Cheboksary. 16. Achinsk (Krasnoyarsk Territory). 17. Petrovsky plant. 18. Penza. 19. Ufa. 20.Termez (Uzbekistan). 21. Khabarovsk. 22. Tashkent. 23 Bryansk. 24. Perm. 25. Novocherkassk. 26. Mozhaisk. 27. Kostroma. 28 Vitebsk. 29.Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg). 30. Yoshkar-Ola. 31. Volgograd. 32. Lozovaya. 33. Kharkov. 34. Magdagachi (Amur Region). 35 Vladivostok. 36. Chernigov. 37. Green Valley (Tatarstan). 38 Brest. 39 Bui (Kostroma region). 40. Komsomolsk-on-Amur. 41. Koktas (Lake Balkhash). 42. Arys (Kazakhstan). 43.Naushki (Buryatia). 44.Sumerlya (Chuvashia). 45. Ulan-Ude. 46. Orenburg. 47. Shepetivka (Khmelnytsky region)"

 

[11E]

Su-7UM, NATO reporting name Moujik at Templin / Gross Dolln airbase as monument. Pic is taken during the open day for the local population just before the departure of the Fighter Bomber Regiment back to Russia

 

[11E]

Flightline with Some Su-17M4 Fitter-K's and in the background an An-12, MiG-29 and Mi-8MT

Main platform with a fuelstorage in the foreground and some radars in the background. Templin / Gross Dolln had a very long runway capable of handling the Tu-22 Blinder as well as the Tu-22M Backfire which sometimes landed there.

 

[11E]

We strolled a little over the base and found that the old German Luftwaffe housing was still in use as quarters for military personnel and their families.

 

[11E]

When I was still young...... in front of an Su-17M4

The beer and wodka were cheap and the local base population also!

 

[11E]

Different airbase, this time Grossenhain were at that moment MiG-27s were based. This Su-7, which in western Europe was quite a rare aircraft, was not visible from the public road so we asked at the gate if we could see the aircraft. A friendly Russian (the guy on the far right) escorted us to the aircraft and we could take pictures.