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41-832: The Far Eastern Military District traces its history originally to the Eastern Siberian Military District originally formed in 1918, during the Russian Civil War . Its headquarters were at Khabarovsk . Following the Soviet victory in the Civil War the Soviet forces in the area became the Special Red Banner Far Eastern Army (OKDVA) of the Far Eastern Republic . The District was first briefly formed in 1935 from those forces, but then reverted to

82-399: A former cadre MRD; the 77th Tank Division, renamed the 1008th TTC on 1 December 1987 with its headquarters at Lyalichi , Primorsky Krai ; five Fortified Regions (the 4th, 5th, 13th, 15th and 20th); the 124th (cadre) MRD, a duplicate of the 123rd Guards MRD, had been disbanded in 1987), the 15th Army (HQ Khabarovsk, with the 73rd Motor Rifle Division (HQ Komsomolsk-na-Amure, Khabarovsk Krai);

123-551: A number of smaller units. However, due to what Erickson describes as Kuznetsov's 'sticking blindly to the prewar plan', which anticipated a seaborne assault, and leaving the Perekop and Sivash approaches too thinly held, Erich von Manstein , leading the German assault, was able to push past the defenses. Therefore, the Stavka ordered that the army command be handed over to Batov. In November

164-651: The 37th Army . On 22 July, army commander Major general Nikolai Trufanov was relieved of command. As part of the Stalingrad Front (from 1–5 August), then briefly with the Southeast Front (from 6 August until 27 September), and then back with the Stalingrad Front it took part in the Battle of Stalingrad . On 31 July when it came under Stalingrad Front control it was so worn down by its previous rough handling that it

205-473: The 51st Army (HQ Yuzho-Sakhalinsk, (three divisions), and the 25th Army Corps with the 87th and 99th MRDs. In 1992 Colonel General Viktor Chechevatov , who had previously commanded the Kiev Military District , but refused to take the oath of allegiance to Ukraine, arrived as the new district commander. On 11 October 1993 the 51st Army became the 68th Army Corps . 25th Army Corps eventually became

246-746: The 77th Rifle Division , the 78th Fortified Region, artillery, armor and other support units. During these operations, the 51st Army's attacks trapped the German XXIX. Armeekorps against the Sea of Azov . The army was withdrawn to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command ( Stavka Reserve) on 20 May and relocated to the area of Polotsk and Vitebsk in Belarus. As part of the 1st Baltic Front it participated in operations clearing Latvia and Lithuania  –

287-436: The 81st Guards Motor Rifle Division , with its HQ at Bikin, Khabarovsk Krai; the 135th Motor Rifle Division (HQ Lesozavodsk, Primorskiy Krai); the 270th Motor Rifle Division , HQ Krasnaya Rechka (Khabarovsk-41), Khabarovsk Krai; the 2nd Fortified Area (Bolshoy Ussuriyskiy Island, Khabarovsk Kray) and the 17th Fortified Area (Dalnerechensk, Primorskiy Kray)); the 35th Army (HQ Belogorsk, 21 GTD; 67, 192, 265 and 266th MRDs), and

328-592: The Baltic Offensive . Leading the penetration of 1st Baltic Front into German lines, 51st Army reached the Bay of Riga on 31 July 1944, cutting off German Army Group North to the northeast of Riga . Under tremendous pressure, the Germans organized an armored counter-attack ( Doppelkopf ) from 16 to 27 August 1944 that succeeded in re-opening a 40-kilometer wide corridor through which Army Group North retreated westward into

369-726: The Courland region of Latvia. After regrouping in September 1944, the 51st Army attacked westward in October, reaching the Baltic coast north of Memel , and with other 1st Baltic Front armies, definitively cut off Army Group North in Courland, where the German force would remain for the rest of the war. Thereafter, 51st Army took up position on the far western flank of the Soviet forces arrayed against Army Group North (later renamed Army Group Courland ). Of

410-655: The Crimean Peninsula . Pavel Batov was appointed as his deputy. Professor John Erickson in The Road to Stalingrad describes Stalin's rationale for the formation of the Army during a 12 August session within the Stavka war room: Stalin and the Stavka had concluded from the German moves underway at the time that a strike on the Crimea (along with an attack on Bryansk ) was likely, and thus

451-587: The Kuril Islands . Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union , the army continued in existence as a component of the Russian Ground Forces . The army was active during two periods from 1941 until 1997. The Army was ordered formed on 14 August 1941 in the Crimea based on the 9th Rifle Corps and other units as the 51st Independent Army under Colonel General F.I. Kuznetsov , with the task of guarding

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492-530: The Luftwaffe's Kampfgeschwader 51 destroyed the 51st Army's Headquarters, near Salsk . Dropping 100 – 250 kg bombs, a wave of Junkers Ju 88s and Heinkel He 111s destroyed the communications center, working offices of the chief-of-staff, the operational headquarters and the offices of the operational duty officer. Up to 20 buildings and personnel billets were also destroyed. Casualties among personnel were also very high. After January 1943 as part of

533-697: The Moscow Military District . In 1977, the 51st Combined Arms Army was re-formed on the basis of the staff of the 2nd Army Corps in the Far East Military District . The army was stationed on Sakhalin and in the Kuril Islands. In 1988, the composition of the 51st Combined Arms Army included: Army headquarters was located at Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk , Sakhalin Oblast . Other Army-level troops reported by Feskov et al. 2013, as of 1988, included

574-677: The Soviet Far East by the Far Eastern Direction, with the two Far East Fronts under its command, under Marshal Vasilevsky in the last days of the Second World War . In 1945, the 614th Khingan Rifle Regiment of the 396th Rifle Division "Khingan" was formed at Skovorodino, Amur Oblast . On September 10, 1945, the 1st Far East Front was disbanded by being redesignated the Primorskiy Military District , controlling

615-628: The Soviet Union , which existed between 1865—1884, 1920—1923 and 1945—1953. Between 1884-1919, it was known as the Irkutsk Military District . The East Siberian Military District was originally formed as a military district of the Russian Empire in 1864. It included the territories of the Irkutsk and Yenisei provinces, and Amur, Transbaikal, Primorsk and Yakutsk regions. On July 14, 1884, it

656-610: The 13th disbanded in 1959 and the 98th transferred to Ukraine in 1969, leaving air assault brigades as the only Airborne Forces present. Among the air assault brigades formed was the 13th , activated 8.70 in Magdagachi, Amur Oblast, and active until 1996. The 83rd Air Assault Brigade arrived in Ussuryisk, Primorskiy Kray, in mid-1990, and was transferred from the VDV to the District in 1995. In 1969

697-597: The 14th Separate Brigade of Special Designation ( Spetsnaz ) at Ussuriysk , the 5th Army , the 35th Army , HQ 68th Corps (the former 51st Army), four Motor Rifle Divisions, and four Machine-Gun/Artillery Divisions. In April 2007 it was reported that ten units in the DVVO were manned by contract servicemen. Under naval command was the North Eastern Group of Troops and Forces (Ru: Группировки войск и сил на Северо-Востоке России (ВССВ)), formed in 1998 and incorporating troops of

738-466: The 31st Anti-Aircraft Rocket Brigade with surface-to-air missiles at Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk , the 326th Engineer-Sapper Regiment also at Yuzno-Sakhalinsk; and the 1101st Separate Motor Rifle Regiment at Sokol . The 264th Artillery Brigade and 957th Anti-Tank Artillery Regiment were based at Solovevka . On 11 October 1993 the army was reorganized as the 68th Army Corps . Its 33rd Motor Rifle Division and 18th Machine Gun Artillery Division became part of

779-484: The 59th Separate Tank Battalion and 385th Separate Motor Rifle Battalion. In August 2007 the 40th Brigade become a Naval Infantry brigade, and in 2009 it became the 3rd Naval Infantry Regiment . Order of the Red Star Far Eastern Military District 2010: Eastern Siberian Military District The East Siberian Military District was a Military district of the Russian Empire and

820-725: The Far Eastern Military District, with its headquarters staff in Khabarovsk , the staff being drawn from the former Commander-in-Chief of Forces of the Far East's staff. In 1966 Headquarters 29th Army Corps, formerly the 29th Rifle Corps , arrived from Krasnodar Krai , in the North Caucasus Military District . The 265th Motor Rifle Division arrived from the western end of the USSR in 1968. In mid 1969 29th Army Corps

861-650: The Primorye Territory, and the 2nd Far Eastern Front was redesignated the Far East Military District controlling Kamchatka, Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands. In 1947 parts of Khabarovsk Krai and the Amur Oblast , transferred from the redesignating Transbaikal-Amur Military District , were added to the Far Eastern Military District. Six years later on April 23, 1953, the two districts were reunified as

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902-683: The Southern Front, that became the 4th Ukrainian Front on 20 October 1943, the 51st Army took part in the Rostov, Donbass (August–September 1943), Melitopol (September–November 1943) and the 1944 Crimean offensive operation . On 1 June 1943 the 2nd Guards Breakthrough Artillery Division was part of the 51st Army. On 1 April 1944, 51st Army included the 1st Guards Rifle Corps ( 33rd Guards , 91st and 346th Rifle Divisions ), 10th Rifle Corps ( 216th , 257th , and 279th Rifle Divisions ), 63rd Rifle Corps ( 263rd , 267th , and 417th Rifle Divisions ),

943-513: The Wehrmacht launched an operation to dislodge them from the peninsula. The army fought in the Battle of Stalingrad during the winter of 1942–43, helping to defeat German relief attempts. From late 1944 to the end of the war, the army fought in the final cutting-off of German forces in the Courland area next to the Baltic. Inactivated in 1945, the army was activated again in 1977 to secure Sakhalin and

984-727: The West Siberian and Zabaikalsky military districts. 51st Army (Russia) The 51st Army was a field army of the Red Army that saw action against the Germans in World War II on both the southern and northern sectors of the front. The army participated in the Battle of the Kerch Peninsula between December 1941 and January 1942; it was destroyed in May 1942 with other Soviet forces when

1025-712: The army moved from the Baltic States to the Urals with almost all its forces. In July 1945, the army headquarters became the headquarters of the Ural Military District . The army's 63rd Rifle Corps ( 77th , 279th and 417th Rifle Divisions ) became part of the district. Its 10th Rifle Corps (87th, 91st and 347th Rifle Divisions) became part of the Kazan Military District . The 1st Guards Rifle Corps (53rd Guards, 204th and 267th Rifle Divisions) became part of

1066-862: The army was evacuated from the Taman Peninsula and it joined the Transcaucasian Front (briefly known as the Caucasian Front after 30 December 1941). The army participated in the Kerch-Feodosiya landing operation in December 1941 – January 1942 alongside the 44th Army . 51st Army was originally planned to be the Kerch arm of the assault, but delays caused by bad weather and a schedule change prompted by renewed German attacks on Sevastopol resulted in 51st Army troops being landed at Capes Sjuk and Chroni during

1107-617: The commander of 51st Army, Major-General N.I. Trufanov, organized a local offensive operation on the right flank with the forces of three rifle divisions, and moved to the north bank of the Aksay River, on the eve of the Kotelnikovo offensive operation, which eventually defeated the German efforts made as part of Operation Winter Storm to relieve the Sixth Army in Stalingrad. On 30 January 1943,

1148-773: The district was abolished. The territory and troops were transferred to the Siberian Military District . On July 9, 1945, the East Siberian Military District was created for the third time, as part of the Irkutsk Region, Krasnoyarsk Territory, the Yakutsk Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and the Tuva Autonomous District. On June 30, 1953, the district was disbanded with the transfer of territory and troops to

1189-522: The force were evacuated. After the evacuation 51st Army joined the North Caucasian Front at Kuban. In July, Marshal Budenny received orders to combine the Southern Front and North Caucasian Front into a single formation retaining the title of North Caucasian Front, and 51st Army joined the 'Don group' of that front under General Lieutenant Rodion Malinovsky , along with the 12th Army and

1230-454: The formation of an Independent Army in the Crimea had been decided upon. Thus Kuznetsov was summoned, and after a discussion, he was sent south to take up his new command. The army's initial forces included the 9th Rifle Corps, the 271st and 276th Rifle Divisions , the 40th , 42nd and 48th Cavalry Divisions , and the 1st , 2nd , 3rd and 4th irregularly formed Crimean Rifle divisions (later converted into regular rifle divisions) and

1271-731: The former 25th Army Corps. The North-Eastern Group was established in Kamchatka in 1998 "primarily because of the remoteness of the zone of responsibility in the North-East from the controlling structures, the Far East Military District, and the Pacific Fleet". It was based on the headquarters of the Kamchatka Flotilla . It included the 40th Motor Rifle Brigade on the Kamchatka peninsula, which appeared to be at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and includes

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1312-403: The headquarters of Ground and Coastal Defence Forces of the new North-Eastern Group of Troops and Forces in the Chukotka area. The District gained the vast Sakha Republic from the disbanding Transbaikal Military District following reorganisation in the late 1990s, which also saw the disbandment of the 15th and 51st Armies. After that 1998 reorganisation, forces within the District included

1353-573: The night of 26–27 December 1941. The 44th and 51st Armies then formed the Crimean Front under General Dmitri T. Kozlov , formally established on 28 January 1942, which hammered repeatedly at Von Manstein's Eleventh Army . On 1 February 1942, 51st Army comprised the 138th and 302nd Mountain Rifle Divisions , the 224th , 390th , and 396th Rifle Divisions , the 12th Rifle Brigade, 83rd Naval Infantry Brigade, 105th Separate Mountain Rifle Regiment, 55th Tank Brigade, 229th Separate Tank Battalion, artillery units, and other support units. A German offensive

1394-407: The same time in October - November, the 58th Tank Division of General AA Kotljarova (1st Red Banner Army); 60th Tank Division - Major-General A. Popova; and the 112th Tank Division were all sent to the West. The Soviet invasion of Manchuria was launched against the Japanese held region of Manchukuo , the Japanese protectorates of Inner Mongolia and Korea, and several Japanese-claimed islands from

1435-465: The six major battles for Courland , 51st Army's only real progress was during the first Courland battle, from 15 to 22 October 1944, in which the army pushed some ten kilometers north against bitter resistance of the German III. SS-Panzerkorps . Thereafter, the front lines in this area of the Courland front changed little. After 9 May 1945 it accepted the capitulation of the German Army Group Courland. Order of Battle 1 May 1945: During June 1945,

1476-753: The staff of the 51st Combined Arms Army was formed on the basis of the staff of the 2nd Army Corps. Around 1988 the composition of the 51st Combined Arms Army of the Far Eastern Military District included: In 1969 the 43rd Army Corps moved from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to Birobidzhan . Toward the end of the 1980s the District included the 5th Army (HQ Ussuriysk, 29th Motor Rifle Division, HQ Kamen-Rybolov, Primorskiy Kray; 40th Motor Rifle Division HQ Smolyaninovo-1, Primorskiy Kray; 123rd Guards Motor Rifle Division, Barabash, Primorskiy Kray; 199th Motor Rifle Division, HQ Krasnyy Kut, Primorskiy Kray; 277th Motor Rifle Division, HQ Sergeevka , Primorskiy Kray ; 475th Territorial Training Center, HQ Shkotovo, Primorskiy Kray,

1517-460: The title Special Red Banner Far Eastern Army, under Marshal of the Soviet Union Vasily Blyukher , while still functioning as a military district. The Army became the Soviet Far East Front in June 1938, after Blyukher's torture and death at the hands of the NKVD during the Great Purge . In August 1941, the front commander, General of the Army I. R. Apanasenko was tasked to send to the west several divisions, including tank formations. Almost at

1558-416: Was divided into two separate military districts : the Irkutsk Military District and the Amur Military District , which existed until 1919, when the Red Army conquered Siberia. After the arrival of the Red Army, a new East Siberian Military District of the Red Army was formed on March 15, 1920 on the territory that included the Tomsk, Yenisei, Irkutsk provinces and the Yakutsk region. In January 1923,

1599-543: Was launched against the Front on 8 May 1942. Army commander Lieutenant General Vladimir Nikolayevich Lvov was killed by bomb fragments on 11 May while changing his command post. The offensive concluded around 18 May 1942 with the near complete destruction of Soviet defending forces, which Erickson attributes to bickering between Kozlov and the Front commissar, Lev Mekhlis , and a trail of incompetent actions. Three armies (44th, 47th, and 51st), 21 divisions, 176,000 men, 347 tanks, and nearly 3,500 guns were lost. The remains of

1640-422: Was only 3,000 men strong. It was attacked on the same day by the 4th Panzer Army , which was able to break through. During Operation Uranus , the counterattack from Stalingrad, the 4th Mechanized Corps began its attack from the 51st Army's sector. In early December, 51st Army was deployed to cover the Kotelnikovo approaches against German relief attempts by the LVII. Panzerkorps . On 24–25 December 1942,

1681-410: Was redesignated 35th Army . Two more divisions, one a new activation (the 192nd Motor Rifle Division ) were added to the new army in 1969. There were originally a corps headquarters and three divisions of the Soviet Airborne Forces (VDV), active in the district after the war. 37th Guards Airborne Corps had the 13th , 98th , and 99th Guards Airborne Divisions , but the 99th was disbanded in 1956,

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