The Internal Troops of the Ministry for Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (VV; russian: Внутренние войска Министерства внутренних дел (ВВ), ''Vnutrenniye Voiska Ministerstva Vnutrennikh Del'') was a

paramilitary A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...

force of the

Ministry of Internal Affairs An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministry ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

from 1991 to 2016. The Internal Troops was a

gendarmerie Wrong info! --> A gendarmerie () is a military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term ''gendarme'' () is derived from the medieval French expression ', which translates to " men-at-arms" (literally, ...

-like force that supported the

Russian police The Police of Russia () is the national law-enforcement agency in Russia, operating under the Ministry of Internal Affairs from . It was established by decree from Peter the Great and in 2011, replacing the Militsiya, the former police serv ...

, dealt with

crowd control Crowd control is a public security practice in which large crowds are managed in order to prevent the outbreak of crowd crushes, affray, fights involving drunk and disorderly people or riots. Crowd crushes in particular can cause many hundre ...

during

riot A riot is a form of civil disorder commonly characterized by a group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property, or people. Riots typically involve destruction of property, public or private. The property targete ...

s and internal conflicts, and guarded highly-important facilities such as

nuclear power plant A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power stations, heat is used to generate steam that drives a steam turbine connected to a generator that produces ...

s. The Internal Troops was involved in all conflicts and violent disturbances in modern Russia, including and First and

Second Chechen War The Second Chechen War (russian: Втора́я чече́нская война́, ) took place in Chechnya and the border regions of the North Caucasus between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, from August 1999 ...

s, where it fell under direct military command during wartime and fulfilled missions of local defence and rear area security. The Internal Troops consisted of both

volunteer Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve ...

s and

conscript Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...

s which caused the number of active service members to fluctuate, with less than 200,000 upon their disestablishment from a peak strength of 350,000, and had experienced a shortage of

officer An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," f ...

s since 1998. The final commander-in-chief of the Internal Troops was

Colonel General Colonel general is a three- or four-star military rank used in some armies. It is particularly associated with Germany, where historically general officer ranks were one grade lower than in the Commonwealth and the United States, and was a ra ...

Viktor Zolotov Viktor Vasilyevich Zolotov (russian: Ви́ктор Васи́льевич Зо́лотов; born 27 January 1954) is the current Director of the National Guard of Russia (Rosgvardiya) and a member of the Security Council of Russia. Zolotov is ...

from 2014 to 2016. The Internal Troops claimed descent from the

Special Corps of Gendarmes The Separate Corps of Gendarmes (russian: Отдельный корпус жандармов) was the uniformed security police of the Imperial Russian Army in the Russian Empire during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Its main responsibilitie ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...

founded in 1811 and entered their modern form as a paramilitary of the

interior ministry An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministr ...

of the

Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

in 1918. It was formed from the Russian branch of the

Internal Troops The Internal Troops, full name Internal Troops of the Ministry for Internal Affairs (MVD) (russian: Внутренние войска Министерства внутренних дел, Vnutrenniye Voiska Ministerstva Vnutrennikh Del; abbreviat ...

of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

in 1991 shortly before the

dissolution of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

. On 5 April 2016, the Interior Troops was officially split from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to form the basis of the

National Guard of Russia The National Guard of the Russian Federation (russian: Федеральная служба войск национальной гвардии Российской Федерации , translit = Federal'naya sluzhba voysk natsional'noy gvard ...

History

Internal Troops of the Russian Empire

The Internal Troops claimed descent from the

Separate Corps of Gendarmes The Separate Corps of Gendarmes (russian: Отдельный корпус жандармов) was the uniformed security police of the Imperial Russian Army in the Russian Empire during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Its main responsibilitie ...

of the

, which began forming on 27 March 1811 as

units of the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army (russian: Ру́сская импера́торская а́рмия, tr. ) was the armed land force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian Ar ...

. The Corps evolved into a uniformed

security police Security police officers are employed by or for a governmental agency or corporations to provide security service security services to those properties. Security police protect facilities, properties, personnel, users, visitors and enforce cer ...

agency responsible for

law enforcement Law enforcement is the activity of some members of government who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms governing that society. The term ...

and state security for most of the 19th century and a small part of the 20th century. The Corps also fell under the command of the

Ministry of Police of the Russian Empire Ministry of Police of Imperial Russia was created in the course of Government reform of Alexander I in 1810 and existed till 1819. Ministry objectives and credentials * Carrying out recruitment in the Army; * Protection of the state stocks of th ...

and the Guberniya.

Internal Troops of the Soviet Union

The modern

of Russia were raised in 1918 by the

All-Russian Central Executive Committee The All-Russian Central Executive Committee ( rus, Всероссийский Центральный Исполнительный Комитет, Vserossiysky Centralny Ispolnitelny Komitet, VTsIK) was the highest legislative, administrative and r ...

, one of the main

government bodies A government or state agency, sometimes an appointed commission, is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, such as an administratio ...

of the

(RSFSR), as a

force attached to of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, the

of the RSFSR. In 1919, it was reorganized into the ''Internal Security Forces'' (''Voyska vnutrenney okhrany Respubliki'', VOHR) and transferred to the

Cheka The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission ( rus, Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия, r=Vserossiyskaya chrezvychaynaya komissiya, p=fsʲɪrɐˈsʲijskəjə tɕrʲɪzvɨˈtɕæjnəjə kɐˈmʲisʲɪjə), abbreviated ...

, then in 1922 into the

Joint State Political Directorate The Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU; russian: Объединённое государственное политическое управление) was the intelligence and state security service and secret police of the Soviet Union f ...

(OGPU) in 1922. The Cheka and OGPU were the

secret police Secret police (or political police) are intelligence, security or police agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, religious, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic ...

agencies of the RSFSR and later the

. On 28 July 1988, the

Presidium of the Supreme Soviet The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (russian: Президиум Верховного Совета, Prezidium Verkhovnogo Soveta) was a body of state power in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).MVD when safeguarding public order”, clarifying its role in the cracking USSR. However, the Internal Troops were still a part of the

Soviet Armed Forces The Soviet Armed Forces, the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union and as the Red Army (, Вооружённые Силы Советского Союза), were the armed forces of the Russian SFSR (1917–1922), the Soviet Union (1922–1991), and t ...

and this state of affairs pleased no one. The Armed Forces did not want to be seen as a force of internal suppression, especially after the disastrous Afghan War. The MVD was finding itself having to extinguish increasingly frequent and violent hot spots and to cope with growing and increasingly well organised and equipped criminals. For this the MVD needed more fire power. On 21 March 1989, the Presidium decided to take the Internal Troops out of the Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defense and give them to the Internal Affairs Ministry. Internaltroops

Russian Internal Troops

In 1990, the establishment of the RSFSR MVD meant that the Internal Troops in the SFSR were now subordinated to the republican ministry. With the

at the end of 1991, the Internal Troops of the Soviet Union were reconstituted in the Russian Federation as the Internal Troops of Russia on 23 January 1992, with their last commander as the Soviet force, General-Polkovnik Vasily Savvin, becoming their first commander as a Russian one. In 1997, 14 controllers of the Internal Troops were arrested for corruption and collaboration with a local clan for having stolen more than 400 kg of gold from an industry of gold in

Kasimov Kasimov (russian: Каси́мов; tt-Cyrl, Касыйм;, Ханкирмән,Ханкирмән, Хан-Кермень, means "Khan's fortress" historically Gorodets Meshchyorsky, Novy Nizovoy) is a town in Ryazan Oblast, Russia, located on the ...

, during the Kasimov war. With the April 2016 foundation of the

, the Internal Troops were removed from the MVD and dissolved, becoming the National Guard Forces (''Войска национальной гвардии'', ''Voyska Natsionalnoy Gvardi'') which now reported directly to the

Security Council of Russia The Security Council of the Russian Federation (SCRF or Sovbez; russian: Совет безопасности Российской Федерации (СБРФ), Sovet bezopasnosti Rossiyskoy Federatsii (SBRF)) is a constitutional consultative bo ...

and its chairman, the

President of Russia The president of the Russian Federation ( rus, Президент Российской Федерации, Prezident Rossiyskoy Federatsii) is the head of state of the Russian Federation. The president leads the executive branch of the federa ...

Legal basis

The Federal Law No.27-173 was signed into law on 6 February 1997. The law set the operational standards for the Internal Troops of the Russian Federation. The law is entitled "On the Russian Federation Ministry of Internal Affairs Internal Troops". When supporting a state-of-emergency regime, Internal Troops were paid salary increases and additional monetary payments according to federal laws and other legal acts approved by the Minister of Internal Affairs. Article 38 granted senior operational commanders the right to call in subunits of special motorized formations and military units outside their deployment areas for a period of up to one month. The federal law also detailed the important role that the

Russian Ministry of Defense The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation (russian: Министерство обороны Российской Федерации, Минобороны России, informally abbreviated as МО, МО РФ or Minoboron) is the govern ...

played in the affairs of the MVD's Internal Troops when crises arose. For example, MOD was responsible for providing airliners for supporting Internal Troop activities during emergency situations, and conditions of

armed conflict War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regul ...

s; carrying out the stockpiling and echelon armaments and military equipment, ammunition, fuel and supplies for the mobilization deployment of the Internal Troops in wartime; and transferring arms and military equipment free of charge to the Internal Troops through support services based on special decisions of the federal government, and rendering assistance in the repair and restoration of damaged arms and military equipment.

General organisation

Despite being subordinated to civilian MVD authority, Internal Troops were a paramilitary force with a centralized system of

ranks Rank is the relative position, value, worth, complexity, power, importance, authority, level, etc. of a person or object within a ranking, such as: Level or position in a hierarchical organization * Academic rank * Diplomatic rank * Hierarchy * H ...

, command, and service. The Chief Commander and Staff of the troops reported only to Ministry of Internal Affairs, maintaining their separate chain of command. The Chief Commander was concurrently First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs. VV units in the Soviet Union were predominantly formed up of

s drafted by the same system as for the

Soviet Army uk, Радянська армія , image = File:Communist star with golden border and red rims.svg , alt = , caption = Emblem of the Soviet Army , start_date ...

. Modern Internal Troops in Russia, as in Ukraine, experienced a slow transition to the contract personnel system. VV officers were trained in both own special academies and the Army's military academies. The main kinds of Internal Troops were field units, various facility-guarding units, special motorized units,

riot control Riot control measures are used by law enforcement, military, paramilitary or security forces to control, disperse, and arrest people who are involved in a riot, unlawful demonstration or unlawful protest. If a riot is spontaneous and irratio ...

and patrol units, and

special forces Special forces and special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equi ...

like Rus. Since the 1980s, spetsnaz units were created within the VV to deal with terrorism and hostage crises. Fields units were essentially light

motorized infantry Motorized infantry is infantry that is transported by trucks or other motor vehicles. It is distinguished from mechanized infantry, which is carried in armoured personnel carriers or infantry fighting vehicles, and from light infantry, which ca ...

, similar to respective regular army units by their organization and weapons. They and the special forces have been heavily engaged in the armed conflicts in Chechnya and the broader

North Caucasus The North Caucasus, ( ady, Темыр Къафкъас, Temır Qafqas; kbd, Ишхъэрэ Къаукъаз, İṩxhərə Qauqaz; ce, Къилбаседа Кавказ, Q̇ilbaseda Kavkaz; , os, Цӕгат Кавказ, Cægat Kavkaz, inh, ...

Districts and formations

The organization of the Russian Internal Troops comprised headquarters, military units, military training institutions and the institutions for Internal Troops activities, and maintenance and administration bodies. The largest units were located in all major cities.Neil Baumgardner
Russian Armed Forces Order of Battle
see bottom of page. Internal Troops districts: * Northwestern District * Moscow Orshansko-Hingansky Order of the Red Banner District * North Caucasus District * Privolzhsky District * Ural District * Siberian District * Eastern District Military units under direct subordination: * A separate rapid deployment division (

ODON Odon may refer to: ;People * Odon Bacqué, American politician and non-fiction writer * Odon of Greater Poland, duke of Greater Poland * Odon de Pins, Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller * Jorge Odón, Argentine mechanic and inventor ;Pla ...

). This formation, also known as the Dzerzhinsky Division and based near Moscow, was the most well-known formation of the Internal Troops. * The Central Communications * Engineering Center * Intelligence Directorate Internal Troops under the Intelligence Chief-Deputy Chief of Staff of the Internal Troops.

Commanders-in-Chief

Commanders-in-chief of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia since 1991: * Colonel General Vasily Savvin (1991-1992) * General of the Army

Anatoly Kulikov Anatoly Sergeyevich Kulikov (russian: Анатолий Серге́евич Кулико́в, born September 4, 1946 in Aigursky, Stavropol Krai, Russian SFSR) is a Russian General of the Army, former Interior Minister of Russia (1995–1998). I ...

(1992-1995) * Colonel-General Anatoly Romanov (1995) * Colonel-General Anatoly Shkirko (1995-1997) * Colonel-General Leonty Shevtsov (1997-1998) * Colonel-General Pavel Maslov (1998-1999) * Colonel-General Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov (1999-2000) * General of the Army Vyacheslav Tikhomirov (2000-2004) * General of the Army Nikolay Rogozhkin (2004-2014) * General of the Army

(2014—2016)

Missions

* Security – to guard "key" state institutions (except for the

Kremlin The Kremlin ( rus, Московский Кремль, r=Moskovskiy Kreml', p=ˈmɐˈskofskʲɪj krʲemlʲ, t=Moscow Kremlin) is a fortified complex in the center of Moscow founded by the Rurik dynasty. It is the best known of the kremlins (Ru ...

and the highest echelons of the government which are guarded by the Federal Protective Service (FSO)), nuclear facilities, special storage depots and military bases. * National defence – to conduct rear area security operations and all military operations within national borders,

counter-intelligence Counterintelligence is an activity aimed at protecting an agency's intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering information and conducting activities to prevent espionage, sabotage, assassinations or ot ...

authority in wartime. * Prisoner transport – in Soviet times, also guarded and operated the

Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the State Political Directorate, GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= ...

camps. Today: convict convoyage and transport. Security and operation of prisons have been performed by the

Federal Penitentiary Service The Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN, Russian: Федеральная служба исполнения наказаний (ФСИН), ''Federalnaya Sluzhba Ispolneniya Nakazaniy'') is a federal agency of the Ministry of Justice of Russia ...

since its creation in 1994. * Public order – to assist the

Russian Police The Police of Russia () is the national law-enforcement agency in Russia, operating under the Ministry of Internal Affairs from . It was established by decree from Peter the Great and in 2011, replacing the Militsiya, the former police serv ...

for

operations when

OMON OMON (russian: ОМОН – Отряд Мобильный Особого Назначения , translit = Otryad Mobil'nyy Osobogo Naznacheniya , translation = Special Purpose Mobile Unit, , previously ru , Отряд Милиции Осо� ...

units are not available. * Border control – to assist the Russian Federal Border Service in the protection of the State border of the Russian Federation. *

Military police Military police (MP) are law enforcement agencies connected with, or part of, the military of a state. In wartime operations, the military police may support the main fighting force with force protection, convoy security, screening, rear rec ...

functions. *

Counter-terrorist Counterterrorism (also spelled counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, incorporates the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, business, and intelligence agencies use to combat or el ...

operations (VV special forces units such as Vityaz and Rus). * Possible counterweight to the regular military, especially during the Soviet era.

Equipment

Internal troops ABS-40 riot control vehicle

Internal Troops' equipment included:

Transportation

BTR-80 The BTR-80 (russian: бронетранспортёр, bronyetransportyor, literally "armoured transporter") is an 8×8 wheeled amphibious armoured personnel carrier (APC) designed in the USSR. It was adopted in 1985 and replaced the previous ...

BTR-70 The BTR-70 is an eight-wheeled armored personnel carrier (russian: бронетранспортер/ ''Bronetransporter'', or literally "Armoured Transporter") originally developed by the Soviet Union during the late 1960s under the manufacturing ...

BMP-2 The BMP-2 (''Boyevaya Mashina Pekhoty'', , literally "combat machine/vehicle (of the) infantry") is an amphibious infantry fighting vehicle introduced in the 1980s in the Soviet Union, following on from the BMP-1 of the 1960s. Development hist ...

BRDM-2 The BRDM-2 (''Boyevaya Razvedyvatelnaya Dozornaya Mashina'', Боевая Разведывательная Дозорная Машина, literally "Combat Reconnaissance/Patrol Vehicle") is an amphibious armoured scout car used by states that we ...

* GAZ-2330 Tigr * BPM-97 *

GAZ Vodnik Vodnik ( utomotive number GAZ-3937 and its modified version GAZ-39371 is a Russian high-mobility multipurpose military vehicle manufactured by GAZ. It is a "heavy modification" of the civil GAZ-2330 "Tigr". Its name comes from the Russian "� ...

Ural-4320 The Ural-4320 is a general purpose off-road 6×6 vehicle, produced at the Ural Automotive Plant in Miass, Russia for use in the Russian army. Introduced in 1976, it is still in production today. The wheel arrangement for the Ural-4320 was design ...

UAZ-469 The UAZ-469 is an off-road military light utility vehicle manufactured by UAZ. It was used by Soviet and other Warsaw Pact armed forces, as well as paramilitary units in Eastern Bloc countries. In the Soviet Union, it also saw widespread service ...

Weaponry

* A wide variety of Soviet- and Russian-made small arms and crew-served weapons.

Shoulder patches

References

External links

Russian Internal Troops official website
* https://ponarseurasia.org/wp-content/uploads/attachments/pm_0045-6.pdf {{Authority control Defunct gendarmeries Defunct law enforcement agencies of Russia Military of Russia Military units and formations disestablished in 2016 Military units and formations established in 1988 Military units and formations established in 1811

History

Internal Troops of the Russian Empire

Internal Troops of the Soviet Union

Russian Internal Troops

Legal basis

General organisation

Districts and formations

Commanders-in-Chief

Missions

Equipment

Transportation

Weaponry

Shoulder patches

See also

References

Further reading

External links