How the Russians lived.

Just what I thought Stephen when I saw the pictures of the Russian Barracks, I was too lazy to make the observation as I thought no one would agree.

I was speaking with a Quartermaster at the RAMC Depot in Mytchett who was involved with the handover of BMH Rinteln. Apparently when they handed over the Officers Mess, the guy from the Stadt had an Inventory of the place when it was taken over by the Brits, and he was wanting to know where the Grand Piano was! True or not........not sure?

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Apparently when they handed over the Officers Mess, the guy from the Stadt had an Inventory of the place when it was taken over by the Brits, and he was wanting to know where the Grand Piano was! True or not........not sure?

Almost certainly true!
I handed back the Officers Mess 1 (BR) Corps/ARRC in Bielefeld in 1993. The Rep from the Federal Assets Agency (Bundesvemorgensamt) attended with an Inventory of what was present in the mid-50s. It was longer than any list I had ever seen (antiques/chattels/paintings etc etc), of course nothing was left from that time. It was then a matter for Defence Lands to negotiate the lowering of any claim against the Forces by trading off what we had added to the original property. They were however extremely pleased with the standard of the properties we were handing back - at that time they were also heavily involved in taking back the former Soviet Barracks in the East (which as you know were attrocious). It was standard procedure for us to ensure all repairs were carried out (including broken windows/locks etc) and even weeded the areas. The Soviets just 'upped and went' leaving heavily-polluted areas behind. The Germans had very little concerns with the Barracks we handed back.
When I handed back Ripon Barracks, they were so pleased with our Standards that they wanted to avoid any potential vandalism. They immediately installed Security Guards with CCTV to overlook it (I left some old beds/chairs/tables in the Guardroom so they were comfy).

I was thinking of Glamorgan Barracks Duisburg, now demolished I think. But the last pictures I saw, on this site, showed it looking very dilapidated and overgrown.
In my time there it was buzzing and very well kept up and, for a barracks, certainly compared with the Victorian slum barracks in UK from whence we came, pleasant to live in.

I was with FRG at 12Inf Wksp in Mercer Bks. in the mid '60's and had the opportunity to revisit Mercer in June this year, not in the same condition as the 'Ruskie' barracks but sad condition never the less.
Mercer/Imphal Bks June 2011

Interesting to see the Russians leaving Grimma. I went through that place in 1994 and we stopped outside that barracks. It was derelict and covered in Russian graffiti. Grimma was well named because it was grim. I'm sure it is much changed these days.

I was in Berlin between 92 and 95 doing maintenance at RAF Gatow initially then handing over the Barracks and MQ.

When we left the MQ and moved into Edinburgh House before the dependants were shipped to our next postings (we were moved out early due to East Germans trying to gain access and with to few personnel living on the estates to ensure safety of wives and kids), the Stadt was very happy to just take over the MQ whether clean or not, furnished or not.

We spent some time with the Russian Forces in their Barracks while we were removing sections of the wall and they were stripping buildings of all fittings and removing MT Sheds (wriggly tin and steel frame types) for their barracks they were going to.