The 37th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Don Cossack Budapest Red Banner Order of the Red Star Brigade named after Ye. A. Shchadenko is a motor rifle brigade 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, ...

(

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 ...

69647). It is stationed at

Kyakhta Kyakhta (, ; , ; , ) is a town and the administrative center of Kyakhtinsky District in the Republic of Buryatia, Russia, located on the Kyakhta River near the Mongolia–Russia border. The town stands directly opposite the Mongolian border to ...

Buryatia Buryatia, officially the Republic of Buryatia, is a republic of Russia located in the Russian Far East. Formerly part of the Siberian Federal District, it has been administered as part of the Far Eastern Federal District since 2018. To its nort ...

, part of the

36th Combined Arms Army The 36th Combined Arms Army is a combined arms ( field) army of the Russian Ground Forces, part of the Eastern Military District ( 05776). History The army was formed in 1997 from the 55th Army Corps at Borzya in the Siberian Military Dist ...

of the

Eastern Military District The Order of the Red Banner Eastern Military District ( Russian: Восточный военный округ) is a military district of Russia. It is one of the five military districts of the Russian Armed Forces, with its jurisdiction wi ...

. The brigade fought 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 ...

and 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 ...

Components

Due to its location in Kiakhta in

, this

brigade A brigade is a major tactical military unit, military formation that typically comprises three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment. Two or more brigades may constitute ...

has a high percentage of Buryat and other ethnic minority servicemen, many of whom adhere to

Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism is a form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Mongolia. It also has a sizable number of adherents in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, including the Indian regions of Ladakh, Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, D ...

. As a result, by 2021 it was the only Russian military unit with a Buddhist lama serving as a

military chaplain A military chaplain ministers to military personnel and, in most cases, their families and civilians working for the military. In some cases, they will also work with local civilians within a military area of operations. Although the term ''cha ...

. The brigade included more than 200 tracked vehicles and more than 100 wheeled vehicles in 2013. According to 2015 data, the brigade was equipped with 40

T-72B3 The T-72 is a Soviet-designed main battle tank that entered production in 1973. It replaced the T-54/55 series as the workhorse of Soviet tank forces (while the T-64 and T-80 served as the Soviet high-technology tanks). In front-line Russian serv ...

, 1 T-72BK, 120

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

, 15

MT-LB The MT-LB (, literally "multi-purpose towing vehicle light armored") is a Soviet Union, Soviet multi-purpose, fully amphibious vehicle, amphibious, tracked Armoured fighting vehicle, armored fighting vehicle in use since the 1970s. It was also ...

, 18 BM 2B17-1

Tornado-G The Tornado is a family of multiple rocket launchers of 122 to 300mm calibre developed by NPO Splav for the Russian Ground Forces with the aim to replace previous multiple rocket launchers. Variants of the system, which include the Tornado-G and ...

, 36 2S3M Akatsiya 152 mm howitzers, 18 × 120 mm mortar

2S12 Sani The 2S12 "Sani" ("sleigh") (GRAU index 2S12) is a 120 mm heavy mortar system used by the Russian Army and other former Soviet states. First fielded in 1981, the 2S12 is a continued development on the towed mortars first used in World War I ...

, 6 × 100 mm

MT-12 Rapira 2A19 or T-12 is a Soviet-designed 100-mm anti-tank gun. It was the first anti-tank gun to adopt a smoothbore barrel, and to introduce modern armor piercing shot, like the APFSDS. It uses long projectiles that are more powerful than its caliber ...

, 12 9K114 Shturm-S, 36

BTR-80 The BTR-80 () is an 8×8 wheeled Amphibious vehicle, amphibious armoured personnel carrier (APC) designed in the Soviet Union. It was adopted in 1985 and replaced the previous vehicles, the BTR-60 and BTR-70, in the Soviet Army. It was first de ...

, 12 BM 9A33BM2(3) Osa, 6 BM 9A34(35) Strela-10, and 6 ZSU 23-4 Shilka.

History

On 1 June 2009, the 5th Guards Tank Division became the 37th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade, as part of the

2008 Russian military reform The 2008 Russian military reform (), often referred to as the Serdyukov reform () after its originator, Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, was a major structural reorganisation of the Russian Armed Forces that began in 2009. Significant refo ...

s. The 5th Guards Tank Division (Second Formation) itself dated to 1965, and its predecessor

5th Guards Cavalry Corps The 5th Guards Don Cossack Cavalry Corps () was a cavalry corps of the Red Army during World War II. History The corps was formed on 19 November 1942 as the 5th Guards Don Cossack Cavalry Corps, assigned to the Northern Group of Forces of the ...

to 1942.

Donbas (2014-2022)

Elements of the brigade fought in the

and were located in the Northern operational area in February 2015. The 37th's troops fought in the

Battle of Debaltseve The Battle of Debaltseve was a military confrontation in the city of Debaltseve, Donetsk Oblast, between the pro-Russian separatist forces of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), and the Ukrainian Armed Forc ...

during this time, where their heavy equipment and weaponry was crucial to the defeat of Ukrainian forces in the battle. In September 2016, a conscript from the brigade was run over by a Kamaz truck while sleeping during an exercise. A large number of incidents and deaths in the brigade were reported during the 2010s, including two court cases involving beatings by superiors, suicides, and accidental shootings. Conscripts of the brigade repeatedly complained to the Commissioner for Human Rights of Buryatia regarding extortion by the unit before their demobilization, poor clothing, and inadequate medical care.

Russian invasion of Ukraine

The brigade was committed to the

. Elements of the brigade participated in the Kyiv offensive. On 23 March, Ukrainian journalist Roman Tsimbalyuk posted a video showing brigade commander Colonel Yuri Medvedev being evacuated after having been run over by his own troops due to reportedly being dissatisfied with the about 50 percent casualties that the unit had suffered during their fight at the battle of Makariv. Colonel Medvedev later died in hospital. This was widely repeated by Western intelligence officials as a sign of widespread Russian demoralization during the war. After the Russian retreat from Kyiv Oblast, the brigade was deployed to eastern Ukraine. On 20 April, residents of Kyakhta, the city of the unit's garrison, purchased a quadrocopter UAV to be sent to the brigade in Ukraine using funds from a donation drive. Elements of the 37th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade are suspected of participation to war crimes in Motyzhyn near Bucha during the

. On 31 March 2024, the Ukrainian 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade claimed to have repelled the 37th Guards Brigade near

Avdiivka Avdiivka (, ; , ) is a city in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. The city is located in the centre of the oblast, just north of the regional centre, Donetsk. The large Avdiivka Coke Plant is located in Avdiivka. The city had a population of before th ...

, forcing it to be withdrawn, and claimed to have "eliminated" 1,300 Russian soldiers and 30 units of equipment over the past month.In March, Russian Armed Forces lost 30 vehicles and 1300 personnel in Avdiivka sector - 47th Brigade press officer
/ref>

Structure

The brigade includes:

Notes

References

* https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/12/world/europe/russia-war-military-putin.html - NYT story about impact of war on the brigade's home town. {{Brigades of the Russian Ground Forces Mechanised infantry brigades of Russia Military units and formations of Russia in the war in Donbas Military units and formations of Russia in the Russian invasion of Ukraine