The Group of Soviet Forces in Germany was a large formation of the Soviet Army that occupied East Germany from 1945 to 1991. At the beginning of 1991, the group had 338,000 troops, 4,200 tanks, 8,200 armored vehicles, 3,600 artillery pieces, 106,000 other motor vehicles, 690 aircraft, 680 helicopters, and 180 rocket systems. The Soviet occupation forces originated as the 1st Belorussian Front and the 2nd Belorussian Front, two army groups of Red Army troops that took part in the invasion of Germany in 1945 at the end of World War II. The occupation forces garrisoned East Berlin and the eastern half of Germany, and Marshal Georgy Zhukov was the first commander of the group. In 1953, the group put down uprisings in East Germany, and the Soviet troops would face off against US Army and other NATO forces in West Germany for several decades, although they never went to war. During the late 1980s, the Soviets began to withdraw from Germany on the orders of Mikhail Gorbachev, but Russian troops would remain in Germany until 1994.