Withdrawal of Soviet troops
1968 – 1991
The heads of the parliamentary commission for the withdrawal of Soviet troops, Josef Macek and Michael Kocáb, talking with Colonel General Vorobjov.
One of the important demands of civil society during the Velvet Revolution was the immediate departure of the Soviet Army. In December 1989, Czechoslovak and Soviet representatives began negotiations on the continued presence of Soviet troops on the territory of Czechoslovakia and their withdrawal in the context of the pan-European disarmament process. Both sides agreed on the complete withdrawal of the Soviet Army by June 30th, 1991. On February 26th, 1990, Foreign Ministers Jiří Dienstbier and Eduard Shevardnadze signed the Agreement in Moscow between the Government of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Withdrawal of Soviet Troops from the Territory of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic.
The last aviation regiment of the Central Group of Forces departed from Boží Dar Airport on January 21st, 1991.
The withdrawal was gradually supervised by two parliamentary committees, led by deputies Josef Macek and Michael Kocáb. The withdrawal itself was a logistically demanding task. Within 16 months, everything that the Central Group of Soviet Forces had accumulated over almost 23 years of its existence had to be removed. In about a hundred Soviet garrisons on the territory of Czechoslovakia, 73,350 soldiers, 1,220 tanks, 2,505 armoured vehicles, 18,594 passenger and truck vehicles, 1,216 guns and mortars, 105 combat and 8 transport aircraft, 175 helicopters and hundreds of thousands of tons of supplies were deployed. Families of professional soldiers, a total of 39,000 people, lived near the Soviet units, and they also had to be moved.
The last transport of Soviet troops left Milovice on June 19th, 1991. On June 21st, 1991, before 8 p.m., it crossed the Czechoslovak border in Čierná nad Tisou.
Most of the Soviet units were departed by rail. The Czechoslovak State Railways sent out 825 special trains with a total of 20,265 railway cars. Another 11,088 cars were connected to regular services. There were no major incidents during the entire rail transport. The last train left Milovice on June 19th, 1991 and crossed the USSR border two days later. The central group of Soviet troops ceased to exist upon leaving Czechoslovakia. The plenipotentiaries of both governments, Rudolf Ducháček and Eduard Vorobjov, signed the final protocol on the end of the withdrawal at Prague Castle on June 25th, 1991. Colonel General Vorobjov then symbolically left Czechoslovakia as the last Soviet soldier on June 27th, 1991.
Hundreds of families of Soviet officers had nowhere to move to after being expelled from Czechoslovakia.
Did you know that…? On Sunday, June 30th, 1991, sirens and church bells rang throughout Czechoslovakia to signal freedom and celebrate the final departure of Soviet troops.
The last soldier of the Central Group of Soviet Forces, Colonel General Eduard Vorobyov, flew from Kbely to Kiev on June 27th, 1991.