Elite Soviet Infantry Leaving Germany
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STENDAL, Germany — Front-line Soviet soldiers, long regarded by the West as the likely enemy in a war, were leaving Germany on Sunday.
Members of an elite Soviet infantry unit joined a trainload of 22 armored personnel carriers leaving this town west of Berlin for the Baltic Sea and the journey home.
In the first publicized send-off of Soviet troops from the reunited Germany, the troops’ joy at leaving was mixed with uncertainty about what awaits them at home, where many will lack adequate accommodations.
At the end of World War II, soldiers of the elite Berlin Regiment raised the Soviet flag over Berlin’s battered Reichstag. The division will be gone from Germany by next week.
About 380,000 Soviet troops have been based in Germany. All Soviet units will be transferred out by 1994.
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