Siberian Military District
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The Siberian Military District is a Military district of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In 1998, seven years after the fall of the Soviet Union, the District as it is today was formed by the amalgamation of the previous Siberian and Trans-Baikal Military Districts, and on their merger gave up the vast Sakha Republic (or Yakutia) to the expanded Far East Military District. The Trans-baikal Military District was originally formed in 1935 from portions of the previous Irkutsk Military District, and during the war years, from September 1939, was active as the Trans-baikal Front.
The original Siberian Military District was created in June 1924 with the consolidation of the Western, Central and Eastern Siberian Military Districts, which were the original Imperial Military Districts of the Czarist regime. In June 1941 the District was host to two Army Corps, the 52nd and 53rd. The 52nd, with its HQ in Novosibirsk along with the 133rd Rifle Division, additionally had the 166th Rifle Division at Barabinsk and the 178th Rifle Division at Omsk. The 53rd Army Corps at Krasnoyarsk, where the 119th Rifle Division was stationed, also included the 107th Rifle Division at Barnaul and the 91st Rifle Division at Achinsk.
Immediately after the end of World War II, on July 9, 1945, to facilitate the demobilisation process, the Siberian Military District was divided into the Western and Eastern Siberian Miltary Districts. The Western Siberian Military District was headquartered at Novosibirsk, and created from HQ 8th Army, covered the Tyumen Oblast, the Omsk Oblast, Novosibirsk, the Tomsk Oblast, the Kemerovo Oblast and Altay. The Eastern Siberian District was located at Irkutsk and created from HQ 50th Army. The Eastern Siberian District was disbanded in 1953 with its region being split between the Western Siberian District and the Trans-baikal Military District. In 1956 the Western Siberian Military District was again renamed the Siberian Military District
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[edit] District Forces Today
The 41st Army was formed from the headquarters of the former Siberian Military District at Novosibirsk while the new district’s headquarters were established at Chita (the former Trans-baikal HQ). It is likely safe to assume that the 41st Army controls all the field formations of the previous Siberian Military District, while the 36th Army, at Borzya, and the 29th Army, recently upgraded from the former 57th Army Corps at Ulan-Ude, control the forces in the former Trans-baikal District.
The IISS lists the district as having a total of one tank, two motor-rifle and one machine-gun artillery divisions, two motor-rifle and one air assault brigades. The 2nd Tank Division, previously active in the District having moved from the Leningrad Military District in the 1960s, disbanded in 2001-3. Also, while the 21st Guards 'Tagenrog' Motor Rifle Division, withdrawn from Germany to the former Siberian Military District, was apparently partially re-equipped with the T-90 MBT in the mid 1990s, in 2000 it was apparently disbanded. Constant readiness formations in the District include the 74th Motor Rifle Brigade.
[edit] Commanders During the Cold War
[edit] Western Siberian MD
- General Lieutenant V.I. Kurdyumov Курдюмов (до 101946),
- General of the Army Andrei Yeremenko (10 1946-11 1953)
[edit] Siberian MD
- генерал-полковник N.P. Pukhov (1953-071957)
- General Colonel Pyotr Koshevoy (071957-041960),
- General Colonel G V Baklonov (05 1960-1964),
- General Colonel S.I. Ivanov (1964-1968),
- General Colonel V.F. Tolubko( 1968-05 1969)
- General Colonel М Г Хомуло (05 1969-12 1978)
- General Colonel B.V. Snetkov (01 1979-11 1981)
- General Colonel Н И Попов (11 1981-09 1984)
- General Colonel В А Востров (09 1984-7)
- General Colonel НВ Калинин (7-07 1987)
- General Colonel Б Е Пьянков (04 1988-08 1991)
- General Lieutenant V.A. Koplov (с 09 1991)
- Nikolai Kormiltsev (12/1998-3/2001)
- General Vladimir Boldyrev (5/2001-12/2002)
- Nikolai Makarov (12/2002-)
[edit] Sources
- Feskov et al, The Soviet Army during the Period of the Cold War, Tomsk University Press, 2004
- Greg Austin and Alexey Muraviev, The Armed Forces of Russia in Asia, Tauris, 2000
- Routledge for the IISS, The Military Balance 2006, p.160
