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Russian Army Order of Battle - 1996

As of 1996 the ground forces included sixty-nine divisions: seventeen armored, forty-seven motorized infantry, and five airborne. Many of these divisions were "cadre" units, equipped with all the heavy armament of a full-strength motor-rifle or tank division, while having only skeleton personnel strength. The officers and men of a cadre division focused primarily on maintaining the equipment in working condition. During wartime mobilization, such a division should be beefed up to full manpower strength; however, in peacetime a cadre division is unfit for any combat. In late 1996 Defense Minister Igor Rodionov order the disbanding of two of Russia's remaining five airborne divisions.

As of 1996 the Ground Forces of the Russian Federation were estimated to number approximately 670,000 officers and enlisted personnel. Of that number, about 170,000 were contract volunteer enlistees and warrant officers, and about 210,000 were conscripts. Presumably, the remaining 290,000 were commissioned officers, suggesting that some 43 percent of ground forces personnel were officers. These figures strongly suggest that most of the notional "divisions" of the Russian Army consisted of a base, equipment, and officers, but no more than a handful of soldiers to actually operate equipment.

A very large number of the sixty-nine divisions that were nominally part of the Russian Army as of 1996 were deployed in the Siberian, Transbaikal and Far Eastern Military Districts. With the growing entente between China and Russia, and the agreements between these and other Central Asia countries on conventional force reductions in the region, it may be assumed that most of these units were at cadre status by the mid-1990s.

By 1997 the total strength of the ground forces was at an all time low of 400,000 men and officers. Presumably much of the reduction was the result of officers retiring from military service. Under the new defense policy document signed by President Yeltsin on 1 August 1998, the number of divisions in the regular armed forces was to be reduced to ten. These were to be full-strength, high-readiness Ground Forces divisions, one of which will be specifically trained in peacekeeping operations. The divisions, deployed in various parts of the country, would engage exclusively in combat training. This initiative presumably was intended to bring the notional order of battle of the ground forces into closer alignment with the actually existing state of affairs.

The actual order of battle of the Russian Army as of 2000 remains quite uncertain. It might be reasonable to assume that the units named in the following table remain active, with some degree of combat potential, while almost all of those units that were unidentified [ie, "UI"] as of 1996 have either been stood down, or remain only nominally in existence.

Military DistrictArmyDivisionHeadquarters
Northwestern [ex-Northern/Leningrad]St. Petersburg
76th Guards Airborne Division Chernigovskaya Pskov
56th District Training Center
6th Combined Arms Army
30th Army Corps
45th Motorized Rifle Division
107th Motorized Rifle Division
UI Motorized Rifle Division
UI Motorized Rifle Division
UI Motorized Rifle Division
Western [ex-Moscow ]Moscow
1st Combined Arms Army
22d Combined Arms Army
20th Army Corps
4th Guards Tank Division KantemirMoscow
UI Tank Division
UI Tank Division
UI Tank Division
UI Tank Division (training)
2nd Guards Motorized Rifle Division Taman Moscow
UI Motorized Rifle Division
UI Artillery Division
98th Guards Airborne Division Ivanovo
106th Guards Airborne Division Tula
Southwestern [ex-North Caucasus] Rostov-na-Donu
7th Guards Airborne Division Novorossiysk
36th Guards Airborne Division
21st Airborne BrigadeCossackStavropol
56th Airborne BrigadeVolgodonsk
58th Combined Arms Army Vladikavkaz
19th Motorized Rifle Division
8th Army Corps
UI Motorized Rifle Division
67th Army Corps
reserves
UI Army Corps
Central Asian [ex-Volga & Urals]Yekaterinburg
104th Guards Airborne Division Scorpion [now 31st BDE]Ulyanovsk
31st Airborne Brigade[ex-104th Division]Ulyanovsk
UI Tank Division
UI Tank Division (training)
20th Guards Motorized Rifle Division Volgograd
27th Guards Motorized Rifle Division Totskoye
34th Motorized Rifle Division
UI Motorized Rifle Division
469th District Training Center
2d Combined Arms Army
16th Tank Division
90th Tank Division
Siberian [ex Siberian + Transbaikal]Novosibirsk
UI Combined Arms Army
UI Combined Arms Army
UI Combined Arms Army
UI Army Corps
11th Airborne BrigadeUlan-Ude
100th Airborne BrigadeAbakan
UI Tank Division
UI Tank Division
UI Tank Division
UI Tank Division (training)
UI Motorized Rifle Division
UI Motorized Rifle Division
UI Motorized Rifle Division
UI Motorized Rifle Division
UI Motorized Rifle Division
UI Motorized Rifle Division
UI Motorized Rifle Division
UI Motorized Rifle Division
UI Motorized Rifle Division
UI Motorized Rifle Division (training)
UI Artillery Division
UI Artillery Regiment
UI Machine Gun-Artillery Division
UI Machine Gun-Artillery Division
Far Eastern Khabarovsk
UI Combined Arms Army
UI Combined Arms Army
UI Combined Arms Army
UI Combined Arms Army
UI Army Corps
UI Tank Division
UI Tank Division
UI Tank Division (training)
UI Motorized Rifle Division
UI Motorized Rifle Division
UI Motorized Rifle Division
UI Motorized Rifle Division
UI Motorized Rifle Division
UI Motorized Rifle Division
UI Motorized Rifle Division
UI Motorized Rifle Division
UI Motorized Rifle Division
UI Motorized Rifle Division
UI Motorized Rifle Division
UI Motorized Rifle Division (training)
UI Motorized Rifle Division (training)
UI Artillery Division
UI Machine Gun-Artillery Division
UI Machine Gun-Artillery Division
UI Machine Gun-Artillery Division
UI Machine Gun-Artillery Division
UI Machine Gun-Artillery Division
83rd Airborne BrigadeUssuriysk
UI Airborne Brigade
Operational Groups of Forces
Tajikistan
201st Motorized Rifle DivisionDushanbe
Transcaucasus
128th Motorized Rifle DivisionAkhalkalaki
145th Motorized Rifle DivisionBatumi
NorthwestKaliningrad
11th Independent Army
UI Tank Division
UI Motorized Rifle Division
UI Motorized Rifle Division
Turkmenistan
UI Army Corps
UI Motorized Rifle Division
UI Motorized Rifle Division
UI Motorized Rifle Division (training)
Dnestr Region
14th Combined Arms Army
180th Motor Rifle DivisionBelgorod
Airborne Troops
Caucasus7th Guards Airborne Division Novorossiysk
Caucasus36th Guards Airborne Division
Northern76th Guards Airborne Division Chernigovskaya Pskov
Moscow98th Guards Airborne Division Ivanovo
Volga104th Guards Airborne Division Scorpion [now 31st BDE]Ulyanovsk
Moscow106th Guards Airborne Division Tula
Transbaikal11th Airborne BrigadeUlan-Ude
N.Caucasus 21st Airborne BrigadeCossackStavropol
Volga31st Airborne Brigade[ex-104th Division]Ulyanovsk
N.Caucasus 56th Airborne BrigadeVolgodonsk
Far Eastern 83rd Airborne BrigadeUssuriysk
Siberian 100th Airborne BrigadeAbakan


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