
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, September 1, 1994                   TAG: 9409010102
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: BERLIN                                LENGTH: Medium

`TODAY IS THE LAST DAY OF THE PAST'

The Russian army Wednesday ended a half-century of military occupation in Germany with a somber ceremony that marked the final dismantling of the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe.

Russian President Boris Yeltsin, here to oversee the departure of the last 1,800 troops from an army that numbered 338,000 just four years ago, told his soldiers they could return home assured that ``for Russia, a military threat will never again rise from German soil.''

``Today,'' Yeltsin added, ``is the last day of the past.''

``As a result of this protracted and bloodiest of wars, Europe was saved from Hitlerism,'' Yeltsin declared, his voice booming over the assembled ranks of Russian and German soldiers. ``Here, in Berlin, the poisonous roots of this unprecedented evil were torn out, the ashes of Hitler's monstrous plans were thrown into the wind.''

Kohl acknowledged that ``terrible things were done to the Russian people by Germans and in the name of Germany. We bow in respect before the millions of your countrymen who lost their lives in this dreadful war.''

The ceremonies in Berlin overshadowed the departure of the last Russian troops from Latvia and Estonia, occurring the same day. Together with last year's departure of occupation forces from Lithuania, Wednesday's withdrawal completed Moscow's retreat from the Baltic republics annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940 and restored to independence in 1991.

The Russian exodus marks the final contraction of what was once the world's greatest military empire, stretching from the forests of Western Europe to the Bering Strait in the Soviet Far East. The Kohl government has lauded Moscow for what one German official recently called ``a strategic and logistical masterpiece'' in dismantling the occupation force in Eastern Europe, which for decades formed the backbone of the Warsaw Pact.

Since the pullout from eastern Germany began in 1990, for example, the Russians have transported more than 540,000 people, including soldiers, civilians and family members, and 2.6 million tons of equipment, enough to fill 13,400 jumbo jets. The withdrawn cargo includes 4,200 tanks, 3,700 artillery tubes, 1,400 aircraft and 677,000 tons of ammunition.

by CNB