Far Eastern Military District

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

Far Eastern Military District
Дальневосточный военный округ
Far Eastern Military District Coat of Arms
ActiveMay 17, 1935–1938; 1945–2010
Country Soviet Union (1935–1991)
Russia (1992–December 1, 2010)
BranchSoviet Armed Forces
Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
TypeMilitary district
Part ofMinistry of Defence
HeadquartersSeryshev Street, Khabarovsk
Decorations Order of the Red Banner
Commanders
Notable commandersVasily Blyukher
Nikolay Ivanovich Krylov
Rodion Malinovsky
Dmitri Yazov

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 front commander, 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 (1st Red Banner Army), 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.

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 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 parts of Khabarovsk Krai and the Amur Oblast, transferred from the redesignating Transbaikal-Amur Military District,[3] 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.

In 1966 Headquarters 29th Army Corps, formerly the 29th Rifle Corps, arrived from Krasnodar Krai, in the North Caucasus Military District.[4] The 265th Motor Rifle Division arrived from the western end of the USSR in 1968. In mid 1969 29th Army Corps 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, 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.[5] The 83rd Air Assault Brigade arrived in Ussuryisk, Primorskiy Kray, in mid-1990, and was transferred from the VDV to the District in 1995.[6]

In 1969 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.[7]

A LuAZ military vehicle in Khabarovsk.

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, (three divisions), and the 25th Army Corps with the 87th and 99th MRDs.[8]

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. In April 2007 it was reported that ten units in the DVVO were manned by contract servicemen.[9]

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".[10] 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 the 59th Separate Tank Battalion and 385th Separate Motor Rifle Battalion. In August 2007 the 40th Brigade become a Naval Infantry brigade,[11] and in 2009 it became the 3rd Naval Infantry Regiment.

Commanders since 1945
Name Years served in position
Army General Maksim Purkayev September 1945 – January 1947
Colonel General Nikola Krylov (later Marshal of the Soviet Union) January 1947 – April 1953
Marshal of the Soviet Union Rodion Malinovsky April 1953 – March 1956
Army General Valentin Penkovskiy March 1956 – July 1961
Army General Yakov Kreizer August 1961 – December 1963
Colonel General Ivan Pavlovskiy December 1963 – April 1967
Colonel General Оleg Losik April 5, 1967 – May 1969
Army General Vladimir Тolubko May 1969 – April 1972
Army General Vasily Petrov April 1972 – May 1976
Army General Ivan Tretyak June 1976 – July 1984
Army General Dmitry Yazov July 1984 – January 1987
Colonel General Mikhail Мoiseev January 1987 – December 1988
Colonel General Viktor Novozhilov January 1989 – 1992
Colonel General Viktor Chechevatov[12] 1992–1999
Colonel General (until 2003)/Army General Yuri Yakubov 1999 – September 2006
Colonel General Vladimir Bulgakov September 2006 – 2009
Colonel General Oleg Salyukov December 2008 – 2010

Former structure c. 2008

Subordinate units

Order of the Red Star Far Eastern Military District 2010:

  • Combat formations:
  • Missile and Artillery formations:
    • 20th Guards Missile Brigade "Berlin", in Spassk-Dalny
    • 107th Missile Brigade "Mozir", in Birobidzhan
    • 165th Artillery Brigade "Prague", in Nikolskoye
    • 305th Artillery Brigade, in Ussuriysk
    • 338th Guards MLRS Brigade "Nevsko-Dvinskaya", Novosisoyevka
    • 7020th Artillery Reserve Base "Kharbin", in Ussuriysk
    • 7021st Artillery Reserve Base, in Nikolskoye
  • Air-defence formations:
    • 5th Army
      • 8th Air-defence Missile Brigade "Shavlinskaya" equipped with the Buk missile system
      • 641st Air-defence Command Center
    • 35th Army
      • 71st Air-defence Missile Brigade equipped with the Buk missile system
      • 643rd Air-defence Command Center
  • Radar formations:
    • 76th Independent Radio Technical Brigade, in Vyatskoye
    • 94th Independent Radio Technical Battalion, in Ussuriysk (5th Army)
    • 1889th Independent Radio Technical Battalion, in Belogorsk (35th Army)
  • Engineering formations:
    • 37th Engineer Regiment (35th Army)
    • 58th Engineer Regiment (5th Army)
    • 2463rd Independent Engineer Battalion, in Ussuriysk
    • 7027th Engineer Reserve Base
  • NBC-defence formations:
    • 16th Independent NBC-defence Brigade, in Galkino
    • 70th Independent Flamethrower Battalion, in Razdolnoye
    • 122nd Independent NBC-defence Battalion, in Ussuriysk (5th Army)
    • 135th Independent NBC-defence Battalion, in Khabarovsk (35th Army)
  • Signal formations:
    • 17th Independent Electronic Warfare Brigade
    • 104th (Communications Hub) Signal Brigade "Kluzh", in Khabarovsk
    • 106th (Territorial) Signal Brigade
    • 54th Signal Regiment (35th Army)
    • 86th Signal Regiment (5th Army)
    • 156th Independent (Rear) Signal Battalion

Notes
  1. "Приказ Народного Комиссара Обороны СССР, No. 0107" [People's Commissar of Defence of the USSR, Order No. 107]. 28 June 1938. Archived from the original on 3 February 2016.
  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 East Front. Disbanded 23.4.53.
  3. Holm, Transbaikal Military District
  4. "35th Combined Arms Army". www.ww2.dk. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  5. Holm, 13th Air Assault Brigade
  6. Michael Holm, 83rd Air Assault Brigade
  7. Holm, Michael. "43rd Army Corps". www.ww2.dk. Retrieved 2016-02-02.
  8. Feskov, V.I.; K.A. Kalashnikov; V.I. Golikov (2004). The Soviet Army in the Years of the 'Cold War' (1945-1991). Tomsk: Tomsk University Press. ISBN 5-7511-1819-7.
  9. AVN Military New Agency 5 April 2007 (see talk page)
  10. Keir Giles, Russian Regional Commands, Conflict Studies Research Centre, April 2006
  11. "Морской пехоты ТОФ - прибыло" [Pacific Fleet Naval Infantry - Arrived]. mil.ru (in Russian). 23 October 2007. Archived from the original on 17 December 2007. Retrieved 17 December 2007.
  12. 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 Archived 2007-03-20 at the Wayback Machine
  13. "81st Guards Motorised Rifle Division". www.ww2.dk. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  14. "Части российской армии" [Parts of the Russian Army] (in Russian). Vad777. Archived from the original on 8 February 2012. Retrieved 8 February 2012.

See also

References
  • V.I. Feskov, Golikov V.I., K.A. Kalashnikov, and S.A. Slugin, The Armed Forces of the USSR after World War II, from the Red Army to the Soviet (Part 1: Land Forces). (В.И. Слугин С.А. Вооруженные силы СССР после Второй Мировой войны: от Красной Армии к Советской (часть 1: Сухопутные войска)) Tomsk, 2013.
  • Scott and Scott, The Armed Forces of the Soviet Union, Eastview Press, 1979
  • IISS, The Military Balance 2006

Further reading
  • Soviet Military Encyclopedia
  • Военная энциклопедия: В 8 томах. 3: «Д» - Квартирьер. М.: Воениздат. Председатель Главной редакционной комиссии Грачёв П. С. 1995. pp. 8–9. ISBN 5-203-00748-9.
  • Tretyak, I.M., ed. (1985). Краснознамённый Дальневосточный [Far Eastern Red Banner] (in Russian). Moscow: Voenizdat.
  • Краснознамённый Дальневосточный. М.: Воениздат. Сунцов Н.П., Телешенко А.И., Хвостиков М.П. 1971. p. 344.
  • Краснознаменный Дальневосточный военный округ. 90 лет в боевом строю. — Хабаровск: Суворовский натиск, 2008. — 190 с.
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