Russian 4th Guards Kantemirovskaya Tank Division
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The 4th Guards "Kantemirovskaya" Tank Division (Cyrillic: гвардейская танковая Кантемировская дивизия, Guards Tank Kantemirovskaya Division), more usually known as the Kantemirovskaya Division or Kantemir Division, is an elite armoured division of the Russian Army. It is one of the key formations of the Moscow Military District, constituting part of the 20th Army under Lt. General Andriy Tretyak. It is one of the Russian Army's 'constant readiness' divisions, with at least 80% manpower and 100% equipment holdings at all times. Currently, it is headquartered, and all of its units are based, in the town of Naro-Fominsk, 70km south-west of Moscow.
[edit] Post-war and recent history
The Division was converted from the previous 4th Guards Tank Corps after the end of World War II. That formation had formed part of Marshal Ivan Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front during the war, taking part in the southern assault on Berlin in April 1945. It was formed from the previous 17th Tank Corps, and gained its 'Guards' designation after its efforts in Operation Little Saturn, in which it had captured Kantemirovka. In autumn 1945 the Division returned to the Moscow area and has been stationed there ever since.
The division was one of the two major Ground Forces divisions deployed in Moscow in August 1991 as part of the attempted hardline coup against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. The coup's failure strengthened Boris Yeltsin's position in the Russian SFSR, and soon afterwards in the Russian Federation, of which he became President. The Kantemirovskaya Division, together with the Tamanskaya Division which had also taken part in the coup but ended up supporting Yeltsin, was to form the basis of a de facto Praetorian Guard for Yeltsin throughout the 1990s, securing his political power throughout the time he was President. During the most serious crisis of Yeltsin's premiership, the 1993 constitutional crisis, the Kantemir Division was one of several key divisions that had given their reluctant support to Yeltsin by October 4th, the decisive point in the crisis.
Units of the division took part in the First Chechen War. In the early 1990s, the division came under the command of the famous 1st Guards Tank Army, along with the 144th Motor Rifle Division. The 1st GTA had relocated from the former East Germany to Smolensk when Soviet troops left Germany at the beginning of the 90s; it was disbanded in 1998, as was the 144th MRD. Thereafter the Kantemirovskaya Division came under the command of the 20th Army.
On 9th May 2005, 8 T-80BV tanks from the division took part in the parade in Moscow to mark the 60th anniversary of VE-day. On 27th December the same year, the division was visited by Sergei Ivanov, the Russian defence minister. Most recently, in early 2006, the division's 13th Tank Regiment participated, along with other 20th Army units, in the joint Russian-Belorussian "Shield of Union" military exercises.
[edit] Subordinate units and fighting strength
As of 2006, the Kantemirovskaya Division consisted of the following units:
- 12th Tank Regiment, Naro-Fominsk
- 13th Tank Regiment, Naro Fominsk
- 14th Tank Regiment, Naro-Fominsk
- 423th Motorised Regiment, Naro-Fominsk
- 538th Air Defence Regiment, Naro-Fominsk
- 275th Artillery Regiment, Naro-Fominsk
- 137th Independent Intelligence Battalion, Naro-Fominsk
- 413rd Independent Communications Battalion, Naro-Fominsk
- 996th Independent Electronic Warfare Battalion, Naro-Fominsk
- 616th Independent Chemical Battalion, Naro-Fominsk
The division's principal vehicles are the T-80 main battle tank and the BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle; it also makes limited use of the BTR-80 and MT-LB armoured personnel carriers, as well as the 2S19 Msta-S self-propelled artillery system and BM-21 Grad MLRS.
