15th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade

, image = File:Great emblem of the 15th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade.svg
, image_size = 200px
, alt = 15th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade shoulder sleeve insignia
, caption = Shoulder sleeve insignia
, dates = 1 February 2005Present
, country =
, allegiance =
, branch =
, type = Mechanized infantry (peacekeeping)
, command_structure = 2nd Guards Combined Arms Army, Central Military District
, role =
, size = Brigade
, garrison = Roshchinsky, Volzhsky District, Samara Oblast
, equipment = Torn-MDM radio intelligence system
, battles = United Nations peacekeeping
Abkhaz–Georgian conflict
2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
, decorations =
, current_commander = Lieutenant Colonel Andrei Sergeevich Marushkin
, identification_symbol =
, identification_symbol_label = Unit badge

The 15th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Alexandria (Peacekeeping) Brigade (russian: 15-я отдельная гвардейская мотострелковая Александрийская бригада) (миротворческая), translit=15-ya otdel'naya gvardeyskaya motostrelkovaya Aleksandriyskaya brigada (mirotvorcheskaya), Military Unit Number 90600, is a unit in the Russian Ground Forces. It is the only peacekeeping brigade in the Russian Armed Forces. The formation is part of the 2nd Guards Combined Arms Army of the Central Military District. It is based in Roshchinsky in Volzhsky District of Samara Oblast.

Its former honorifics were Berlin Red Banner Order of Kutuzov.

Pre-history

The predecessor of the brigade is the 76th Guards Rifle Regiment, which was repeatedly renamed and reorganized.

The regiment traces its history back to the 75th Naval Rifle Brigade, formed during the Great Patriotic War from 29 October 1941 to December 1941,List No. 7 in Novokazalinsk in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic.

On 17 March 1942, by order of the People's Commissar of Defence (NKO USSR) No. 78, the 75th Naval Rifle Brigade was awarded a Guards title, and on 18 March 1942 converted into the 3rd Guards Rifle Brigade. However, two months later, in May 1942, the brigade was reorganized into the 27th Guards Rifle Division, and all the units, formed as part of this military formation, as well as the division itself, inherit the Guards honorary name of their "ancestor" - the 3rd Guards Rifle Brigade.

One of these guards military units was the 76th Guards Rifle Regiment, formed in the same period as part of the 27th Guards Rifle Division, on the basis of one of the rifle battalions of the former 3rd Guards Rifle Brigade. Subsequently, for the courage and heroism shown by its personnel during the Battle of Berlin, (11 June 1945) the regiment was awarded the honorary title "Berlin."

On 5 October 1945 it is transformed into the 69th Guards Mechanised Berlin Red Banner Order of Kutuzov Regiment; and in 1957 into the 243rd Guards Motor Rifle Berlin Red Banner Order of Kutuzov Regiment (Military Unit Number 47290). With the 27th Guards Rifle Division, from 1957 the 27th Guards Motor Rifle Division, it served for decades in East Germany as part of the 8th Guards Army, Group of Soviet Forces in Germany.

In 1991, the 27th Guards Motor Rifle Division was withdrawn from the Western Group of Forces and redeployed to Totskoye in the Volga-Ural Military District. On 17 June 1991 the 243rd Guards Motor Rifle Regiment was renamed as the 589th Guards Motor Rifle Berlin Red Banner Order of Kutuzov Regiment (Military Unit Number 32056), as part of the same 27th Guards Motor Rifle Division.

Twenty-first century

The current brigade was formed on 1 February 2005 by redesignation of the 589th Guards MRR, in accordance with a directive of Minister of Defence Sergei Ivanov given on 30 December 2004. It was designed to participate in international peace and security missions under the auspices of the United Nations. From December 2005 to November 2008, the peacekeeping brigade carried out tasks of maintaining peace in the zone of the Abkhaz–Georgian conflict. Servicemen of the brigade have also been part of the peacekeeping contingents by decision of the President of Russia under the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Reported to have reached 100% contract service composition in 2005. In April 2008 the brigade was visited by the Minister of Defence of Japan. In August 2008 one unit took part in the Russo-Georgian War.

In 2011, the brigade was presented with a new type of battle banner. On 4 November 2019, the brigade was given the honorary title Alexandria'','' and a copy of the regimental standard of the 5th Alexandria Hussar Regiment of the 5th Cavalry Division of the Imperial Russian Army was awarded to the brigade. The title makes it one of several Armed Forces formations that honor formations of the Imperial era, and its Soviet-era honorifics were removed.

The brigade was awarded the honorary Guards title on 9 May 2022 in celebration of Victory Day for its "mass courage and heroism in the defense of the fatherland and state interests in military conflicts," the new title being 15th Separate Guards Alexandriyskaya Motor Rifle Brigade.

War in Ukraine

In 2014, reports from open sources claimed the presence of servicemen from the brigade in the Donbass during the Russo-Ukrainian War and the War in Donbass. In August, units of the brigade reportedly took part in the battles near Georgiyivka in the Lutuhyne Raion. At a briefing on 11 March 2015, the ATO headquarters stated that units of the 15th brigade were operating in the Luhansk Oblast, and on 17 April, the Chief of the Ukrainian General Staff Viktor Muzhenko

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