After the Wall fell, and after reunification, Soviet/Russian forces remained in former East Germany until the mid-90s. How was this viewed by the German public? Did the average Russian soldier see Germany as a plush posting, or were they more concerned about events at home? Did the Soviets/Russians coordinate exercises with the reunified Bundeswehr, or did the two armies coexist completely separately?
EDIT: How did the Soviet Army in Germany react after the dissolution of the USSR? Did the various nationalities head home, or did they remain in Germany?
I'm a bit bummed that no one has chimed in on this.
My dad was stationed in Germany during this time (Americans, we were stationed in Landstuhl). We heard absolutely nothing about any Soviet military in the former East Germany following reunification.
I didn't find much info on it with a quick internet search, but I did see that the Soviets engaged in absolutely NO military exercises following reunification in Germany. This makes sense because it was a pretty delicate period and any military exercises at the time would very likely have been seen as gearing up to retake East Germany.
Because we heard nothing about it and the lack of military exercises on their part, I would guess that the Soviet military forces in East Germany after reunification kept a super low profile.
I was growing in the West at that time.
The general attitude was one of "What's taking so long?", as Russian barracks were emptied out only slowly, and piecemeal.
Of course, it was also understood that Russia was changing itself, but the second missed deadline made us a little wary.
Once the former garrisons were inspected, at least one reason became obvious why it took years for the Russian military to leave, and a lot of ground had to be dumped as highly toxic waste for different reasons (including at least one chemical weapons spill that I remember).