Carpathian Military District

The Carpathian Military District was a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces established on May 3, 1946 on the base of the 1st Ukrainian Front, 4th Ukrainian Front, and Lviv Military District. It became part of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in 1991 and was disbanded by being redesignated the Western Operational Command in January 1998.

Two districts were formed in what was to become the district's territory in 1944-45. During May 1944 in the freed territory of the West Ukraine the Lviv Military district was activated, headed by the former deputy commander of the 2nd Ukrainian Front. In July 1945 the Carpathian military district (PriKVO) was created during from the staff of the 4th Ukrainian Front in Chernivtsi. The two districts were amalgamated on 3 May 1946 with the headquarters at Lviv. The District's territory included 10 regions of the Ukrainian SSR - Vinnytsya, Volyn, Zhytomyr, Transcarpathian, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Rivensku, Khmel'nytskiy, Ternopil, and Chernivetskyy.

Troops of the district, including 57th Air Army, took part in 'Operation Danube,' the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. The District became subordinate to the Western Strategic Direction in the late 1970s/early 80s. The 8th Tank (formed from 8th Mechanised Army in 1957, which in its turn was formed from the 18th Army circa 1945), 13th, and 38th Armies were stationed in the District for most of its existence. The 14th Air Army and 2nd Army of the Soviet Air Defence Forces were also located there. Scott and Scott reported the HQ address in 1979 as Lviv-8, Vulytsa Vatutina, Bud 12.

In September 1990, the 66th Artillery Corps was formed in Novye Belokorovichi, Zhitomir Oblast, from parts of the disbanded HQ 50th Rocket Army.^[1] It took under control the pre-existing 26th and 81st Artillery Divisions.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk appointed Lieutenant General Peter Ivanovich Shulyak (ru:Шуляк, Пётр Иванович), former commander of the 13th Army, as commander of the district on April 7, 1994, in Presidential Ukaz N 143/94.

Former Soviet and Western sources agree on an end-1980s figure of three tank divisions and nine or ten motor rifle divisions in the District. In its last years under Ukrainian control the District saw a large reduction in the number of troops within it as Ukraine reduced the 780,000 troops it had inherited from the Soviet Union to a figure more appropriate to its new needs.

Order of battle c.1988

The District's forces at the end of the 1980s included:^[2]

• 8th Tank Army (Zhytomyr)^[3]
  • 23rd Tank Training Division (Ovruch), in 1987-88 turned into a training division and in 1989 turned into a military equipment storage (6065th БХВТ)
  • 30th Guards Tank Division (Novograd-Volynsky) (now 30th Mechanized Brigade (Ukraine))
• 13th Red Banner Army (Rivne)
  • 17th Guards Motor Rifle Division (Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine)
  • 51st Guards Motor Rifle Division (Volodymyr-Volynskyi)
  • 97th Guards Motor Rifle Division
  • 161st Motor Rifle Division (Isyaslav)
• 38th Army (Ivano-Frankivsk)
  • 70th Guards Motor Rifle Division (Ivano-Frankivsk). Redesignated 857 VKhVT January 1991.
  • 128th Guards Motor Rifle Division (Mukachevo)
  • 287th Training Motor Rifle Division (Yarmolyntsi), in 1989 turned into a military equipment storage (5194th БХВТ)
• District Troops
  • 26th Artillery Division (Ternopil) ('26th-Stettin Sivashskaya twice Red Banner Order of Suvorov Artillery Division')
    • Included 897th Guards Gun Artillery Kiev Red Banner order of Bogdan Khmelnytsky Regiment, now the 11th Artillery Brigade
  • 81st Artillery Division (Vynohradiv)
  • 24th Motor Rifle Division (Lvov)
  • 66th Guards Training Motor Rifle Division
    • 128th Guards Tank Training Regt 145th, 193rd, 195th Guards MR Training Regts.
  • 117th Tank Training Division (Berdychiv)
    • 242nd (Zhitomir), 254 Guards, 286 гв Tank Training Regiments, 320th Guards Motor Rifle Training Regiment (Feskov et al. 2004 p55). Division later became the 119th District Training Centre. 242nd Tank Training Regiment later became the 95th Airmobile Brigade.
  • 8th Special Forces Brigade GRU (formed Izyaslav, Khmelnitskiy Oblast, Carpathian Military District, December 1962, to Armed Forces of Ukraine)

Commanders since World War II

The District's commanders included:

• General of the Army Andrey Yeryomenko (September 1945-October 1946),
• Colonel General Kuzma Galitsky (October 1946-November 1951),
• Marshal of the Soviet Union Ivan Konev (November 1951-March 1955),
• General of the Army Pavel Batov (1955-1958)
• General of the Army Andrei Getman (1958–1964),
• Colonel General Petr Lashchenko (1964-1967),
• Colonel General V.Z. Bisyarin (1967-1969),
• Colonel General G.I. Obaturov (01 1970-07 1973),
• General of the Army Valentyn Varennikov (07 1973-08 1979),
• General of the Army V.A. Belikov (08 1979-07 1986),
• General Colonel Viktor V. Skokov (с 07 1986)

Notes

1. ↑ http://www.ww2.dk/new/army/corps/66ak.htm
2. ↑ V.I. Feskov, K.A. Kalashnikov, V.I. Golikov, The Soviet Army in the Years of the Cold War 1945-91, Tomsk University Publishing House, Tomsk, 1994
3. ↑ Redesignated 8th Army Corps 1 December 1993. Надруковано: 'Народна армія'. – 2009. – 30 квітня via http://sammler.ru/index.php?showtopic=65121

References

• A.G. Lenskii, M.M. Tsybin, The Soviet Ground Forces in the last years of the USSR, St. Peterburg, 2001
• Scott and Scott, The Armed Forces of the Soviet Union, Westview Press, Boulder, Co., 1979
• International Institute for Strategic Studies, The Military Balance 1990-91

Further reading

• Варенников В. И. Неповторимое. В 7 томах. Часть V. Прикарпатский военный округ. — М.: Советский писатель, 2001. — 320 стр. Тираж 7000 экз. ISBN 5-265-03489-7

External links

• Armed Forces in Ivano-Frankivsk by 1991 from За матеріалами довідника А.Г.Ленского и М.М.Цыбина "Советские сухопутные войска в последний год существования СССР" (Санкт-Петербург, 2001). (Ukrainian)
• Biography of Mykhailo Kutsyn