The 69th Guards Motor Rifle Krasnoe Selo Order of Lenin Red Banner Division (,

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02511) is a

formation Formation may refer to: Linguistics * Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes * Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes Mathematics and science * Cave formation or speleothem, a secondary ...

of the

Russian Ground Forces The Russian Ground Forces (), also known as the Russian Army in English, are the Army, land forces of the Russian Armed Forces. The primary responsibilities of the Russian Ground Forces are the protection of the state borders, combat on land, ...

. It is stationed in the

Leningrad Military District The Order of Lenin Leningrad Military District () is a military district of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The district was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1968. In 2010, it was merged with the Moscow Military District, the Northern ...

, in the village of Kamenka, Vyborgsky District, Leningrad Oblast. It includes various components: air defense, artillery battalion, infantry and tank battalions. The late brigade was expanded into the 69th Guards Motor Rifle Division in May 2024.

History

Division in the World War II

The division traces its history to the 70th Territorial Rifle Division formed in Kuibyshev in 1934. After 22nd June 1941, the division fought near

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

, in

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

and Kurland. The division was with the

6th Guards Army The 6th Guards Army was a Soviet Guards formation which fought against Nazi Germany during World War II under the command of General Ivan Chistyakov. The Army's chief of staff was General Valentin Antonovich Penkovskii. The 6th Guards Army was ...

of the Kurland Group,

Leningrad Front The Leningrad Front () was formed during the 1941 German approach on Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) by dividing the Northern Front into the Leningrad Front and Karelian Front on August 27, 1941. History The Leningrad Front was immediately ...

in May 1942. On 16 October 1942, for holding the "Nevsky Pyatachok", it was transformed into the 45th Guards Order of Lenin Rifle Division (45th Guards Rifle Division). On January 19, 1944, in heavy fighting, it captured the settlement of

Krasnoe Selo Krasnoye Selo (, lit. ''Red (or beautiful) village''). Г. П. Смолицкая. "Топонимический словарь Центральной России". "Армада-Пресс", 2002 is a municipal town in Krasnos ...

and played a decisive role in lifting the

siege of Leningrad The siege of Leningrad was a Siege, military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the city of Leningrad (present-day Saint Petersburg) in the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front of World War II from 1941 t ...

during the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

offensive Offensive may refer to: * Offensive (military), type of military operation * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative * Fighting words, spoken words which would have a tendency to cause acts of violence by the ...

. Later in 1945, the 45th Guards Division liberated

Vyborg Vyborg (; , ; , ; , ) is a town and the administrative center of Vyborgsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Karelian Isthmus near the head of Vyborg Bay, northwest of St. Petersburg, east of the Finnish capital H ...

and participated in the operation to destroy

Army Group Courland Army Group Courland () was a Nazi Germany, German Army Group on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front. It was created from remnants of the Army Group North, blockade, isolated in the Courland Peninsula by the advancing Soviet Army for ...

in the

Courland Pocket The Courland Pocket was a Pocket (military), pocket located on the Courland Peninsula in Latvia on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front of World War II from 9 October 1944 to 10 May 1945. Army Group North of the ''Wehrmacht'' were ...

of Latvia. During the Great Patriotic War, 20 soldiers of the division became Heroes of the Soviet Union. In 1944, the 45th Guards Rifle Division was located in the village of Kaukyarvi in the Vyborg District on the former Mannerheim Line, which was stormed by units of the 45th Division during the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-1940 and

Continuation War The Continuation War, also known as the Second Soviet–Finnish War, was a conflict fought by Finland and Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union during World War II. It began with a Finnish declaration of war on 25 June 1941 and ended on 19 ...

. It was part of the 30th Guards Leningrad Red Banner Rifle Corps for the rest of the existence of the USSR.

Division after World War II

On 25 June 1957 the 45th Guards Rifle Division became the 45th Guards Motor Rifle Division. In 1992, the division received peacekeeping status. After that, the division's peacekeeping battalion, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Kremlev, spent 5 months in the

Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic Transnistria, officially known as the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic and locally as Pridnestrovie, is a landlocked breakaway state internationally recognized as part of Moldova. It controls most of the narrow strip of land between the Dni ...

in the area of Dubossary and Rybnitsa. Between 1992 and 1994, it carried out peacekeeping and separation missions in the Georgian-Abkhazian, Georgian-Ossetian armed conflicts,

Yugoslav War The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and insurgencies that took place from 1991 to 2001 in what had been the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFR Yugo ...

and the

civil war in Tajikistan The Tajikistani Civil War,, group=pron also known as the Tajik Civil War, began in May 1992 and ended in June 1997. Regional groups from the Garm and Gorno-Badakhshan regions of Tajikistan rose up against the newly formed government of Preside ...

. In 1994–1995, soldiers of the 45th Guards Motor Rifle Division took part in the

First Chechen War The First Chechen War, also referred to as the First Russo-Chechen War, was a struggle for independence waged by the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria against the invading Russia, Russian Federation from 1994 to 1996. After a mutually agreed on treaty ...

. Guardsmen of the 129th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment with 80 tanks under the command of Guards Colonel Alexander Borisov and the 133rd Separate Guards Tank Battalion carried out tasks to restore constitutional order. The fiercest clashes took place in Battle of Grozny and

Khankala Khankala (, ) is a settlement in Groznensky District of the Chechen Republic, Russia, located to the east of Grozny Grozny (, ; ) is the capital city of Chechnya, Russia. The city lies on the Sunzha River. According to the 2021 Russian ...

. In December 1997, in connection with the military reform of the

Russian Armed Forces The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, commonly referred to as the Russian Armed Forces, are the military of Russia. They are organized into three service branches—the Russian Ground Forces, Ground Forces, Russian Navy, Navy, and Russi ...

, the new

Minister of Defense A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divid ...

Igor Sergeyev Igor Dmitriyevich Sergeyev (; 20 April 1938 – 10 November 2006) was a Soviet and later Russian military officer who was Minister of Defense of Russia from 22 May 1997 to 28 March 2001. Before that he was the commander of the Strategic Rocket ...

created from the 45th Guards Motor Rifle Division the 138th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Krasnoselskaya Order of Lenin, Red Banner Brigade, which inherited the orders, honorary titles, historical form, military glory and all the traditions of the unit. In 1999-2000, the brigade, as part of the Zapad group, operated in the

Second Chechen War Names The Second Chechen War is also known as the Second Chechen Campaign () or the Second Russian Invasion of Chechnya from the Chechens, Chechen insurgents' point of view.Федеральный закон № 5-ФЗ от 12 января 19 ...

. In early February 2000, units of the brigade blocked the village of Katyr-Yurt in the

Achkhoy-Martan Achkhoy-Martan (, , ''Jaşxoy-Marta'' or Тӏехьа-Март, ''Theẋa-Mart'') is a town and the administrative center of Achkhoy-Martanovsky District, Chechnya. Administrative and municipal status Municipally, Achkhoy-Martan is incorporate ...

district during Operation Wolf Hunt, which involved pursuing the surviving gangs after the storm of Grozny. The brigade then proceeded through the Asinovskoye Gorge further south into the mountainous terrain. The brigade was deployed in other operations during the war, in which, along with other

units, its personnel was reported to have behaved badly at times. A 22-year-old woman in Ingushetia was shot by drunken soldiers from the brigade scavenging for alcohol. The deployment of a tank battalion of the brigade was apparently halted when it was discovered that soldiers had been selling the explosive from their tanks'

reactive armour Reactive armour is a type of vehicle armour used in protecting vehicles, especially modern tanks, against shaped charges and hardened kinetic energy penetrators. The most common type is ''explosive reactive armour'' (ERA), but variants include ...

. For both Chechen wars, four fighters of the 138th Brigade were awarded the title

Hero of Russia Hero of the Russian Federation ( rus, Герой Российской Федерации, p=ɡʲɪˈroj rɐˈsʲijskəj fʲɪdʲɪˈratsɨɪ), also unofficially called Hero of Russia ( rus, Герой России, p=ɡʲɪˈroj rɐˈsʲiɪ), is ...

. In March 2010 Leningrad Military District commander General Lieutenant Nikolai Bogdanovsky said, regarding problems with the command and violence in the 138th at Kamenka: ". . . we haven't managed to complete fully tasks connected with discipline–in particular, in the 138th Kamenka Brigade the commander, chief of staff, and assistants for armaments and socialization work were dismissed because of events there. Now the situation is normalising, we are trying not to repeat past mistakes." Since 1 September 2010, in connection with the liquidation of the

, it has become part of the newly created

Western Military District The Western Military District () was a Military districts of Russia, military district of Russia, in existence from 2010 until its abolishment as a unitary military command on February 26, 2024, succeeded by the newly reconstituted Moscow Mil ...

Russian invasion of Ukraine

Since February 2022, the 138th Brigade has taken part in the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

. According to ''

Helsingin Sanomat , abbreviated ''HS'' and colloquially known as , is the largest subscription newspaper in Finland and the Nordic countries, owned by Sanoma. Except after certain holidays, it is published daily. Its name derives from that of the Finnish capital ...

'', social media sources claim the brigade with two battle groups of approximately 800 men was fighting in battle of Kharkiv. Local inhabitants of Kamenka interviewed by ''Helsingin Sanomat'' claim the brigade has suffered losses and hundreds of soldiers were wounded; however, the paper was unable to verify the claims. On 20 March 2022, Ukraine claimed that 10 servicemen in the 138th were being investigated for refusing to fight and encouraging others in the unit to return home. Elements of the brigade were routed in the battle of Kharkiv and were withdrawn into Russia. At the end of 2023, the brigade was in the north of the

Luhansk Oblast Luhansk Oblast (; ), also referred to as Luhanshchyna (), is the easternmost Administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) of Ukraine. Its administrative center is the city of Luhansk. The oblast was established in 1938 and bore the n ...

, participating in the defense of Kreminna and in the attempts of Russian forces to attack on

Kupyansk Kupiansk or Kupyansk (, ; , ) is a city in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Kupiansk Raion. It is also an important railroad junction for the oblast. Kupiansk hosts the administration of Kupiansk urban hromada, o ...

. On 1 May 2024, the 138th Brigade was transformed into the 69th Guards Motor Rifle Krasnoselskaya Order of Lenin, Red Banner Division while retaining the historical form, honorary name, awards and military glory. It has been reported that the division was deployed to fight in the

2024 Kharkiv offensive On 10 May 2024, the Russian Armed Forces began an offensive operation in Ukraine's Kharkiv Oblast, shelling and attempting to breach the defenses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the direction of Vovchansk and Kharkiv. ''The Guardian'' reported ...

and in

Vovchansk Vovchansk (, ; ) is a destroyed city in Chuhuiv Raion, Kharkiv Oblast, northeastern Ukraine. It hosts the administration of . The Vovcha river, a tributary of the Donets river, runs through the city. Vovchansk had a population of However, th ...

Structure

;Command structure in 2024 *Division HQ *667th Guards Leningrad Motor Rifle Regiment; *697th Guards Leningrad Motor Rifle Regiment; *708th Guards Leningrad Red Banner Motor Rifle Regiment; *133rd Guards Idritsky Red Banner, Order of Suvorov Tank Regiment; *Division Artillery Group **486th Guards Leningrad Red Banner Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment; **383rd Rocket Artillery Battalion; **1525th Anti-Tank Artillery Battalion; *247th Guards Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment; *49th Guards Engineer Battalion; *511th Separate Electronic Warfare Battalion; *Reconnaissance battalion; *Medical battalion; *Command (communications) battalion; *Repair and recovery battalion; *Logistics battalion; *Commandant's company; *NBC protection company; *UAV company; *Orchestra.

Commanders

# Major-General Mikhail Malofeyev (21.11.1997 – 15.7.1999) # Major General Igor Turchanyuk (05.8.1999 – 07.7.2000) # Colonel Bagir Yusuf oglu Fatulayev (temporarily filled the post of 08.07.2000 – 21.09.2000) # Major General Anatoli Elkin (22.9.2000 – 22.02.2002) # Major General

Andrey Serdyukov Andrey Nikolaevich Serdyukov (; born 4 March 1962) is a Russian Airborne Forces colonel general who was commander of the Russian Airborne Forces from 2016 to 2022. He also commanded the Operational Group of the Russian Armed Forces in Syria f ...

(temporarily filled the post in 10.03.2002, has been appointed 11.7.2002 – 09.6.2004) # Major-General Vladimir Genrikhovich Tsilko (22.6.2004 – 14.6.2005) # Colonel Alexander Romanenko (14.6.2005 – 24.4.2008) # Colonel Vladimir Frolov (temporarily filled the post of 25.4.2008 – 19.6.2008) # Colonel Alibek Navruzbekovich Aslanbek (20.6.2008 – 10.2009) # ... # Colonel (Guards) Sergei Maksimov (2021-2024)

Heroes of Russia

* Lieutenant Colonel Gerasimov, Vadim Sergeevich, commander of a motorized rifle battalion, 2022, (posthumous). * Guards Senior Lieutenant Efimov, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich, deputy company commander of a reconnaissance battalion, 2022, (posthumous). * Guards Senior Lieutenant Sorokin, Oleg Gennadyevich, deputy commander of the 4th motorized rifle company for military-political work of the 2nd motorized rifle battalion, 2023, (posthumous). * Guards Senior Lieutenant Paschenko, Aleksey Sergeevich, Deputy Company Commander, 2023 (posthumously).

References

External links

*http://russiandefpolicy.wordpress.com/2009/12/10/ - hazing incidents in 2009 *https://russiandefpolicy.blog/2019/11/13/krasnoselskaya-brigade/ - sketch profile, 2019 {{Russian divisions Divisions of Russia Military units and formations established in 1934 Mechanised infantry brigades of Russia Military units and formations of Russia in the Russian invasion of Ukraine