Far Eastern Military District

Far Eastern Military District
Дальневосточный военный округ

Far Eastern Military District Coat of Arms
Active May 17, 1935 - 2010
Country  Soviet Union (1935 - 1991)
Russia Russia (1992 - December 1, 2010)
Branch Russian Ground Forces
Type Military district
Part of Ministry of Defence
Headquarters Seryshev Street, Khabarovsk
Decorations
Order of the Red Banner
Commanders
Current
commander		 General-Polkovnik Oleg Salyukov

The Far Eastern Military District (Russian: Дальневосточный военный округ) was a military district of the Russian Ground Forces. In 2010 it was merged with the Pacific Fleet and part of the Siberian Military District to form the new Eastern Military District.

History

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 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,[1] after Blyukher's torture and death at the hands of the NKVD during the Great Purge.

In August 1941, the commander of the Separate Red Banner Far Eastern Army (OKVDA), General of the Army I. R. Apanasenko was tasked to send to the west several divisions, including tank formations. Almost at the same time in October - November, were sent to the West: the 58th Tank Division of General AA Kotljarova, 61st Tank Division - Colonel BM Skvortsov, 60th Tank Division - Major-General A. Popova and 112th Tank Division.

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 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.

On September 10, 1945, the 1st Far Eastern Front was disbanded by being redesignated the Primorskiy Military District, controlling the Primorye Territory,[2] and the 2nd Far Eastern Front was redesignated the Far East Military District controlling Kamchatka, Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands. In 1947 the Khabarovsk territory and the Amur area were added to the Far Eastern Military District. Six years later on April 23, 1953, the two districts were reunified as 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.

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 (ru:37-й гвардейский воздушно-десантный корпус) had the 13th, 98th, and 99th Guards Airborne Divisions, but the 13th was disbanded in 1959 and the other divisions disbanded by the end of the 1970s, 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.[3] The 83rd Air Assault Brigade arrived in Ussuryisk, Primorskiy Kray, in mid-1990, and was transferred from the VDV to the District in 1995.[4]

In 1969 on the staff of the 51st Combined Arms Army was formed on the basis of the staff of the 2nd Army Corps. At the end of the 1980s the composition of the 51st combined arms Army of the Far-Eastern military district included:

Toward the end of the 1980s the District included the 5th Army (HQ Ussuriysk, seven divisions), the 15th Army (HQ Khabarovsk, four divisions), the 35th Army (HQ Belogorsk, six divisions), and the 51st Army (HQ Yuzho-Sakhalinsk, including 25th Army Corps with the 87th and 99th MRDs, and four other divisions).[6]

On 11 October 1993 the 51st Army became the 68th Army Corps. 25th Army Corps eventually became the headquarters of Ground and Coastal Defence Forces of the new North-Eastern Group of Troops and Forces in the Chukotka area.

Far Eastern Military District after absorption of Sakha Republic

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 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. The structure of the 83rd Airborne Brigade at Ussuriysk is unclear; it has incorporated a tank battalion is in the past. With the brigade for certain at present are the 635/654 or 954/598 Separate Airborne Battalions (опдб), a Guards artillery battalion, and support units.[7] In April 2007 it was reported that ten units in the DVVO were manned by contract servicemen.[8]

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 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".[9] It included the 40th Motor Rifle Brigade on the Kamchatka peninsula, which appears to be at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and includes the 59th Separate Tank Battalion and 385th Separate Motor Rifle Battalion. In August 2007 the 40th Brigade become a Naval Infantry brigade,[10] and in 2009 it became the 3rd Naval Infantry Regiment.

Commanders Since 1945

September 1945 - January 1947- Army General M.A. Purkayev,
January 1947 - April 1953- Colonel General N.I. Krylov (later Marshal of the Soviet Union),
April 1953 - March 1956- Marshal of the Soviet Union R.Ya. Malinovsky,
March 1956 - July 1961- Army General V.A. Penkovskiy,
August 1961 - December 1963- Army General Ya. G. Kreyzer,
December 1963 - April 1967- Colonel General I.G. Pavlovskiy,
April 5, 1967 - May 1969- Colonel General О.А. Losik,
May 1969 - April 1972- Army General Vladimir Тolubko,
April 1972 - May 1976- Army General V.I. Petrov,
June 1976 - July 1984- Army General I.M. Tretyak,
July 1984 - January 1987- Army General D.T. Yazov,
January 1987 - December 1988- Colonel General M.A. Мoiseev,
January 1989 - 1992- Colonel General V.I. Novozhilov,
1992–1999- Colonel General V.S. Chechevatov[11]
1999 - September 2006- Colonel General (until 2003) / Army General Yu.N. Yakubov,
September 2006 - 2009- Colonel General V.V. Bulgakov,
December 2008 - 2010 - Colonel General Oleg Salyukov

Former Structure c. 2008

Subordinate units

Order of the Red Star Far Eastern Military District 2010:

Notes

  1. ↑ See the Russian language order on the subject at http://rkka.ru/handbook/doc/okdva-280638.htm
  2. ↑ Commanders were Marshal of the Soviet Union Kirill Afanasevich Meretskov, 30.10.45 - 3.6.47; and Colonel General Sergey Biryuzov, 3.6.47 - 23.4.53. This district, Michael Holm writes, was formed on 30.10.45 in Voroshilov (1957 Ussuriysk), Primorskiy Kray, from HQ 1st Far Eastern Front. Disbanded 23.4.53.
  3. ↑ Holm, 13th Air Assault Brigade
  4. ↑ Holm, http://www.ww2.dk/new/vdv/83odshbr.htm
  5. ↑ Форум
  6. ↑ Feskov et al. 2004
  7. ↑ brinkster.com, Far East Military District page, mid-2007
  8. ↑ AVN Military New Agency 5 April 2007 (see talk page)
  9. ↑ Keir Giles, Russian Regional Commands, Conflict Studies Research Centre, April 2006
  10. ↑ Архив новостей
  11. ↑ Previously commanded the Kiev Military District, but "...refused to take the oath of allegiance to Ukraine,..." (Moscow POSTFACTUM in English 1616 GMT 1 May 92). (More recently noted in KZ 8 Oct 92 p.1) Persons - NUPI
  12. ↑ http://www8.brinkster.com/vad777/russia/grand_force/grand_force_chasti.htm

See also

References

External links