The 35th Separate Guards

Volgograd Volgograd,. formerly Tsaritsyn. (1589–1925) and Stalingrad. (1925–1961), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. The city lies on the western bank of the Volga, covering an area of , with a population ...

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

Orders of Lenin, Suvorov and Kuzov Red Banner Motor Rifle Brigade (;

Military Unit Number A Military Unit Number (Russian: войсковая часть, в/ ч; Ukrainian: військова частина, в/ ч) is a numeric alternate designation for military units in the armed forces and internal troops of post-Soviet ...

41659) is a unit 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 traces its history back to the formation of the Soviet 4th Tank Corps (later: 5th Guards Tank Corps) during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. It forms part of the 41st Combined Arms Army (CAA), and has its headquarters in a former

Strategic Rocket Forces The Strategic Rocket Forces of the Russian Federation or the Strategic Missile Forces of the Russian Federation (RVSN RF; ) is a military branch, separate combat arm of the Russian Armed Forces that controls Russia's land-based intercontinenta ...

installation at

Aleysk Aleysk () is a town in Altai Krai, Russia, located on the Aley River ( Ob's tributary), southwest of Barnaul. Population: 32,000 (1968). Administrative and municipal status Within the framework of administrative divisions, Aleysk serves a ...

Altai Krai Altai Krai (, ) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai). It borders, clockwise from the west, Kazakhstan ( East Kazakhstan Region, Abai Region and Pavlodar Region), Novosibirsk and Kemerovo, and the Altai Republic. The krai's administrative ce ...

History

4th Tank Corps

In accordance with

State Committee of Defence The State Defense Committee () was an extraordinary organ of state power in the Soviet Union during the German-Soviet War, also called the Great Patriotic War, with complete state power in the country. General scope The Soviets set up the GKO ...

(NKO) Order No. 724218сс оf 31 March 1942, the 4th

Tank Corps An armoured corps (also mechanized corps or tank corps) is a specialized military organization whose role is to conduct armoured warfare. The units belonging to an armoured corps include military staff, and are equipped with tanks and other armou ...

was established in the

Voronezh Voronezh ( ; , ) is a city and the administrative centre of Voronezh Oblast in southwestern Russia straddling the Voronezh River, located from where it flows into the Don River. The city sits on the Southeastern Railway, which connects wes ...

area in April 1942. By order of the NKO of the USSR No. 57 dated February 7, 1943, in recognition of the courage and heroism of its personnel, the 4th Tank Corps was awarded the "Guards" honorary title, and transformed into the 5th Guards Tank Corps.

5th Guards Tank Corps

In the final stages of the

Battle of Stalingrad The Battle of Stalingrad ; see . rus, links=on, Сталинградская битва, r=Stalingradskaya bitva, p=stəlʲɪnˈɡratskəjə ˈbʲitvə. (17 July 19422 February 1943) was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II, ...

, the 4th Tank Corps was awarded the honorary title "Stalingrad" by NKO Order No. 42 of 27 January 1943. The corps participated in the following operations: * the Kursk strategic defensive operation (

Battle of Kursk The Battle of Kursk, also called the Battle of the Kursk Salient, was a major World War II Eastern Front battle between the forces of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union near Kursk in southwestern Russia during the summer of 1943, resulting in ...

, from 5 July 1943 - 23 July 1943. * Belogorod-Kharkov offensive operation ( Operation Rumyantsev) 3 August 1943 - 23 August 1943. On 6 November 1943 the 5th Guards Tank Corps was awarded the honorary title "Kiev" by a

Prikaz A prikaz (; , plural: ) was an administrative, judicial, territorial, or executive bureaucracy , office functioning on behalf of palace, civil, military, or church authorities in the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the Tsardom of Russia from the 15th ...

of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. * 8/26/1943 - 09/30/1944** Sumy-Priluki Operation 8/26/1943 - 09/30/1943* Kyiv Strategic Offensive Operation (

Battle of Kiev (1943) The Second Battle of Kiev was a part of a much wider Soviet offensive in Ukraine known as the Battle of the Dnieper involving three strategic operations by the Soviet Red Army and its Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak units and one operational cou ...

) * Kyiv defensive operation, (1943), 13 November - 22 December 1943 * Dnieper–Carpathian offensive (Seizure of Right-Bank Ukraine), 12 December 1943 - 17 April 1944. ** Zhytomyr-Berdichev operation 2/24/1943 - 01/14/1944** Korsun-Shevchenko operation 1/24/1944 - 02/17/1944** Umansko-Botoshanskaya operation *

Second Jassy–Kishinev offensive The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...

, 20 August 1944 - 29 August 1944. * Debrecen Offensive (

Battle of Debrecen The Battle of Debrecen, called by the Red Army the ''Debrecen Offensive Operation'', was a battle taking place from 6 to 29 October 1944 on the Eastern Front in Hungary during World War II. The offensive was conducted by the 2nd Ukrainia ...

), 6 October 1944 - 28 October 1944. * Budapest Offensive *

Vienna Offensive The Vienna offensive was an offensive launched by the Soviet 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts in order to capture Vienna, Austria, during World War II. The offensive lasted from 16 March to 15 April 1945. After several days of street-to-street figh ...

3/16/1945 - 04/15/1945* Bratislava–Brno offensive (at its final stage) * Prague Offensive 5/06/1945 - 05/11/1945*

Soviet invasion of Manchuria The Soviet invasion of Manchuria, formally known as the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation or simply the Manchurian Operation () and sometimes Operation August Storm, began on 9 August 1945 with the Soviet Union, Soviet invasion of the Emp ...

8/09/1945 - 09/02/1945** Khingan-Mukden offensive operation 8/09/1945 - 09/02/1945 On 14 September 1945, the corps was reorganized into a division.

5th Guards Tank Division

On 14 September 1945, on the basis of the order of the NKO of the USSR No. 0013 dated June 10, 1945, the corps, within the overall

demobilization Demobilization or demobilisation (see American and British English spelling differences, spelling differences) is the process of standing down a nation's armed forces from combat-ready status. This may be as a result of victory in war, or becaus ...

process, was reorganised as the 5th "Stalingradsko-Kievskaya Order of Lenin Red Banner orders of Suvorov and Kutuzov" Guards Tank Division (First Formation). Immediately after the war the division was part of the 6th Guards Tank Army. From September 1945 to June 1957 the division formed part of the

6th Guards Tank Army The 6th Guards Order of Red Banner Tank Army was a tank army of the Soviet Union's Red Army, first formed in January 1944 as the 6th Tank Army,Glantz (Companion), p. 66. and disbanded in Ukraine in the 1990s after the dissolution of the Soviet U ...

(briefly 6th Guards Mechanised Army).

122nd Guards Motor Rifle Division

On 29 June 1957 the 5th Guards Tank Division became the 122nd Guards Motor Rifle Division. From 1976 to 1989 it formed part of the 36th Army. When the

41st Guards Rocket Division The 41st Guards Rocket Division () was a division of the Soviet and Russian Strategic Rocket Forces, active from 1961 to 2001. The division traced its lineage to the formation of the Red Army's 68th Anti-Aircraft (AA) Artillery Division during ...

of the

disbanded in 2001, "for a long time" there was no decision on the future use of the empty

military garrison, containing housing, a school, three kindergartens, a swimming pool, and "an enormous amount of equipment that was discarded outside the city limits." "The maintenance of these facilities turned out to be too expensive for the small city of Aleysk." But a decision was made "at the beginning of summer id-2001" A motor rifle division of the

Siberian Military District The Siberian Military District was a Military district of the Russian Ground Forces. The district was originally formed as a military district of the Russian Empire in 1864. In 1924 it was reformed in the Red Army. After the end of World War II the ...

was to arrive to replace the SRF personnel. Later the division was identified as the 122nd Guards. Thus the 122nd Guards MGAD became a motor-rifle division.

35th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade

In 2009 (June) the division became the 35th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade. The brigade allegedly took part in the

war in Donbas The war in Donbas, or the Donbas war, was a phase of the Russo-Ukrainian War in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine. The war Timeline of the war in Donbas (2014), began in April 2014, when Russian separatist forces in Ukraine, Russian para ...

in 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 ...

in 2014.

Invasion of Ukraine

Major Leonid Shchotkin, a deputy battalion commander in the 35th Brigade, was reportedly captured in

Chernihiv Chernihiv (, ; , ) is a city and municipality in northern Ukraine, which serves as the administrative center of Chernihiv Oblast and Chernihiv Raion within the oblast. Chernihiv's population is The city was designated as a Hero City of Ukraine ...

by Ukrainian forces on 26 February 2022. Ukrainian forces claimed to have captured the commander of a tank platoon of the 35th Brigade after repelling an attempted Russian breakthrough near

on 27 February. A member was of the brigade was sentenced to imprisonment in a Ukrainian court for allegedly robbing and threatening to kill a civilian in the village of ,

Chernihiv Oblast Chernihiv Oblast (), also referred to as Chernihivshchyna (), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in northern Ukraine. The capital city, administrative center of the oblast is the city of Chernihiv. There are 1,511 sett ...

in early March 2022. After the brigade began to take part in the

2022 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 ...

, messages from relatives revealed that the brigade had suffered heavy losses near Chernihiv., see also MediaZona In February 2025, the brigade suffered a heavy loss with a Ukrainian missile strike on their headquarters in occupied

Donetsk Donetsk ( , ; ; ), formerly known as Aleksandrovka, Yuzivka (or Hughesovka), Stalin, and Stalino, is an industrial city in eastern Ukraine located on the Kalmius River in Donetsk Oblast, which is currently occupied by Russia as the capita ...

wiping out the entire command.

Commanders

* Guards Major General Grigoriy Rostislavovich Tyurin * Guards Colonel Andrey O. Shelukhin * Guards Colonel Oleg Vladmirovich Kurygin