Everything about The Moscow Military District totally explained
The
Moscow Military District is a
military district of the
Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
General of the Army Vladimir Bakin has commanded the District since June 6, 2005.
History
In the beginning of the second half of the 19th century Russia officials realized the need for re-organization of the
Russian Army to meet new circumstances. During May 1862, the War Ministry, headed by
Army General Dmitry Milyutin, introduced to Tsar
Alexander II of Russia proposals for the reorganization of the army, which included the formation of fifteen military districts. A tsarist edict of
6 August 1864, announced in a Defence Minister’s order on 10 August of the same year, established ten military districts, including
Moscow. The District’s territory then comprised 12 provinces:
Vladimir,
Vologda,
Kaluga,
Kostroma, Moscow,
Nizhniy Novgorod,
Ryazan,
Smolensk,
Tambov,
Tver,
Tula, and
Yaroslavl. The District was intended as a reinforcement source for troops and equipment, being some distance from the frontier, rather than an operational area.
The District dispatched five infantry and a cavalry division south to the
Russo-Turkish War of 1877-8, as well as sending another division to the
Caucasus area. This force totaled around 30,000 men and 20,000 horses. Over 80,000 men were also called into reserve units. The District also housed 21,000 Turkish prisoners of war. During the
First World War over a million men were stationed in the district. Much of the garrison was involved in the
October Revolution of 1917, and consequent establishment of a
Soviet regime in the cities of
Bryansk, Vladimir,
Voronezh, Kaluga,
Nizhniy Novgorod,
Orel, Tver, Yaroslavl. By a resolution of the Moscow military revolutionary committee on, N.I. Muralyov was assigned the as the new commander of the district.
In the period of the
Civil War and military intervention in Russia 1917 - 22 the District prepared military personnel for all the fronts and supplied the
Red Army with different forms of armament and allowances. From June to the middle of September of 1919 the District conducted 33 callups totalling more than 500 thousand people. In Moscow the 1 Moscow Rifle Division,
Warsaw revolutionary regiment, and 2nd revolutionary regiment were formed, and
Latvian forces were brought to the Latvian Rifle Division. In Voronezh two cavalry divisions were formed, two rifle divisions and two rifle regiments in
Nizhniy Novgorod, and the
16th Rifle Division in Tambov.
After the end of Civil War in the troops of region were demobilized, as a result of which their number was reduced from 580,000 (at the end of 1920) to 85,000 in January 1923, and the District was reorganised on a peacetime basis. In the 1920s the District had 10 rifle divisions: the
1st Moscow Proletariat Red Banner Rifle Division (first formed either in December 1924 or at the beginning of 1927), the
6th Оrlovskaya; the 14-я Владимирская; the 17-я Нижегородская; the 18-я Ярославская; the 19-я Воронежская; the 48-я Тверская; the 55-я Курская; the 81 -я Калужская; and the 84th Тульская. Autumn manoeuvres began to be conducted yearly. In the beginning of the 1930 tanks started to be introduced, including the MS or
T-18,
T-26,
T-27,
BT,
T-28, and the heavy
T-35. In 1930 the first mechanized brigade in the Soviet Army was formed in the district.
The
Russian Ground Forces' official site notes that the first tactical parachute landing took place in the District on
2 August 1930.
In World War II the District formed three
fronts, 23
armies, 128 divisions, and 197 brigades, an approximate total of 4.5 million men. In 1944-5 alone the District sent to the front 1,200,000 soldiers. From summer 1945 to summer 1946, in order to supervise the demobilisation process, the District was subdivided into four: the Moscow,
Voronezh,
Gorki (where the
324th Rifle Division was probably demobilised), and
Smolensk Military Districts (
33rd Army, home from Germany, formed Smolensk MD headquarters in late 1945). General
Kirill Moskalenko took command of the District in 1953.
On
22 February 1968, for the large contribution to the cause of strengthening the defense of the state, for its' successes in combat and political training, and in view of the 50th anniversary of the Soviet Army, the District was awarded the Order of Lenin.
In 1979 Scott and Scott reported the HQ address as being Moscow, A-252, Chapayevskiy Per., Dom 14.
The District's dispositions at the end of the 1980s were:
- 13th Guards Army Corps
- 60th Tank Division
- 206th Motor Rifle Division, Tambov
- District Troops
Commanders 1945-91
General Colonel Артемьев (P A Artemyev) (until 1947 and 1949-06/1953)
Marshal of the Soviet Union Kirill Meretskov (1947-1949)
Marshal of the Soviet Union Kirill Moskalenko (06 1953-10 1960)
Мarshal of the Soviet Union Nikolay Ivanovich Krylov (10 1960-04 03 1963)
General A P Белобородое (A R Beloborodoe) (05 03 1963-1968)
General Colonel ЕФ Ивановский (E F Ivanovsky) (1968-1972)
General V L Gororov (1972-1980)
General П Г Лушев (P G Lyshev) (1980-06 1985)
General В М Архипов (V M Arkhipov) (A (06 1985-08 1988)
General К А Кочетов (K A Kochetov) (08 1988-05 1989)
General Colonel Н В Калинин (N V Kalinin) (05 1989-09 1991)
General Lieutenant V М Toporov (09 1991-17 05 1992)
The 1990s and Today
With the collapse of the USSR the District became for the first time in its history a boundary district and thus a new priority was put on building up combat forces within it, rather than the training and capital garrison focus of the Soviet period.
In the early 1990s the District received the headquarters of the First Guards Tank Army from the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany. It was relocated to Smolensk, and consisted of the 4th Guards Tank Division and 144th Guards Motor Rifle Division (at Yelnya). However the Army's headquarters disbanded later in the 1990s, along with the 144th Guards MRD.
The 22nd Army Headquarters was reformed from 13th Army Corps in the early 1990s, to control the new 3rd Motor Rifle Division among other formations. The 22nd Army had previously been inactive for a long period; it was last operational immediately after the war (when it participated in the Second Rzhev-Sychevka Offensive in late 1942) when its HQ along with the 109th Rifle Division arrived in the South Ukraine in May 1945. In the Northern summer of 1945, together with the headquarters of the Independent Coastal Army, located in the Crimea, it was reorganised as the new but shortlived Tavricheskiy Military District.
After several years as a direct reporting formation, the Operational Group of Russian Forces in Moldova was realigned under the command of the Moscow Military District in 1998. Previously the Fourteenth Guards Army (it was renamed in April 1995), forces and individuals from this command played a major part in the early 1990s in establishing and maintaining the trans-Dnestr separatists of the Transnistria as a viable de facto state.
The District has around 75,000 troops assigned and consists of:
2nd Tamanskaya Guards Motor Rifle Division, гвардейская мотострелковая Таманская дивизия
34th Guards Artillery Division, гвардейская артиллерийская дивизия
27th Sevastopolskaya Guards Motor Rifle Brigade, мотострелковая бригада
112th Rocket Brigade (Shuya) (Tochka SSM)
20th Guards Army, 20-я армия
22nd Army, 22-я армия, Nizhni Novgorod
- 3rd Vislenskaya Motor Rifle Division, мотострелковая Вислянская дивизия
- 50th Rocket Brigade (Shuya) (Tochka SSM)
- 211th Artillery Brigade (Mulino)
- 918th Multiple Rocket Launcher Regiment (Mulino)
- Base for Storage of Weapons and Equipment (Tver) (ex 166th Motor Rifle Brigade)
- other units
Operational Group of Russian Forces in Moldova (Tiraspol) (formerly Fourteenth Guards Army)
- (two?) separate battalions, formerly from the 8th Guards MR Brigade
16th Spetsnaz Brigade, 16-я бригада спецназа
a division-sized weapons and equipment storage base at Yelnya, the former 144 Guards MRD
16th Air Army
other formations and units
Formations of the Airborne Forces, including the 98th Guards Airborne Division and Russian 106th Guards Tula Airborne Division, also are based within the District's boundaries, but report directly to VDV headquarters.
Army General Vladimir Bakin was the former chief of staff - first deputy commander-in-chief of forces of the Volga-Ural Military District.
Sources
Official Russian website - http://www.mil.ru/848/1045/1272/1365/1362/1890/index.shtml
Kommersant-Vlast, 'Vys Rossiya Armia'. http://www.kommersant.ru/k-vlast/get_page.asp?page_id=2005769-22.htm, 14 May 2002
IISS Military Balance
Harriet Fast Scott and William F Scott, The Armed Forces of the USSR, Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, 1979.
see also http://samsv.narod.ru/Arm/a22/arm.html for the wartime history of the 22nd Army.
References and Notes
Further Information
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