Military district (Russia)

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A military district ( Russian Военный округ ; Wojenny okrug ) is a territorial area of ​​responsibility in the Russian armed forces in peacetime.

Military districts were first introduced to the Imperial Russian Army in 1862 and also existed with the Soviet Armed Forces . The division of the country into military districts changed many times in the course of Russian and Soviet history . During the German-Soviet War 1941–1945 and other military conflicts, the tasks of the military districts created primarily for peacetime were taken over by the fronts .

Military districts of the Russian Federation

Todays situation

The number of military districts is currently (2017) five. These districts are led by the United Strategic Commandos of the same name (Russian Objedinjonnoje strategitscheskoje komandowanije, OSK ), to which, in addition to the land forces , the naval and air forces deployed in the respective territories are subordinate. Except for the northern military district , the army is the dominant element in the military districts:

The Military District North is under construction and is east of the Urals by the military districts center and east supported.

history

Russian Empire

In May 1862, at the suggestion of War Minister Dmitri Milyutin , the four military districts of Kiev , Odessa , Warsaw and Vilnius were established on an experimental basis as part of his radical army reform . After satisfactory results in the following two years, a further six military districts were formed ( Kharkov , Finland , Kazan , Moscow, Riga , Saint Petersburg ) with the ukase of Tsar Alexander II of August 6, 1864, as of September 1, 1864 . Between 1865 and 1867, military districts also emerged on the periphery of the empire ( Caucasus , Orenburg , Turkestan , Western Siberia and Eastern Siberia). The entire imperial territory was thus divided into 15 military districts. From 1870, through amalgamation and reorganization, their number gradually fell back to 12. In total there were 21 different military districts in the period of the Russian Empire .

Military districts of the Russian Empire 1913
Military districts of the Russian Empire
Surname from to annotation
Amur 1884 1917 emerged from Eastern Siberia
Kharkov 1864 1888 split between Kiev and Moscow
Dvinsk 1914 1917 emerged from part of Vilna
Finland 1864 1905 Connection to Petersburg
Irkutsk 1884 1917 emerged from Eastern Siberia ; except 1899–1906: merger with Omsk to form Siberia
Kazan 1864 1917
Caucasus 1865 1917
Kiev 1862 1917
Minsk 1914 1917 emerged from Warsaw with the connection of part of Vilna
Moscow 1864 1917
Odessa 1862 1917
Omsk 1882 1917 renamed from Western Siberia ; except 1899–1906: merger with Irkutsk to form Siberia
Orenburg 1865 1881 connected to Kazan
Eastern Siberia 1865 1884 divided into Irkutsk and Amur
Petersburg 1864 1917
Riga 1864 1870 divided between Vilnius and Petersburg
Siberia 1899 1906 Merger of Omsk and Irkutsk
Turkestan 1867 1917
Western Siberia 1865 1882 renamed to Omsk
Warsaw 1862 1914 Relocation and renaming to Minsk
Vilna 1862 1914 Relocation and renaming to Dvinsk

The following territories (with their own military administration) were also assimilated to military districts:

  • Oblast of the Don Troops (Oblast Woiska Donskowo) , also a civil administrative unit in the traditional settlement area of the Don Cossacks (administrative center Novocherkassk ; 1870 to 1917)
  • Transcaspian Oblast (Sakaspijskaja oblast) , at the same time a civil administrative unit (administrative center Aßchabad ; from the separation from the military district of the Caucasus in 1890 to the incorporation into the military district of Turkestan in 1899)
  • Transamur district (Saamurski okrug ) , on the extra- territorial area along the Chinese Eastern Railway through the Empire of China (from 1912 the Republic of China ), subordinated to the Independent Border Guard (border troops of the Russian Empire) (1901 to 1917)

Note: the year 1917 for the end of the existence of military districts and areas equivalent to them stands for the end of the existence of the Imperial Russian Army or the armed forces of the Provisional Government . The command structures of these districts existed in different forms and characteristics depending on the area until the October Revolution 1917 or until the beginning of the Russian Civil War in 1918/1919, when they gradually dissolved; There are mostly no official data.

Soviet Union

In 1991 there were 15 military districts:

  • western theater of war
    • TVD West
      • Baltic military district
      • Belarus
      • Carpathians
    • TVD southwest
      • Odessa
      • Kiev
    • TVD Northwest
      • Leningrad
  • Far Eastern theater of war
    • Siberia
    • Transbaikalia
    • Far East
  • southern theater of war
    • Transcaucasus
    • North Caucasus
    • Turkestan
  • central reserve
    • Moscow
    • Volga
    • Ural

Russian Federation

Military districts of the Russian Federation until 2010

The number of military districts was reduced to six after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991/92 in 2001 (Moscow, Leningrad, North Caucasus, Volga-Urals, Siberia and the Far East, plus the special region of Kaliningrad).

On July 6, 2010, President Dmitry Medvedev signed a ukase on the reorganization of the armed forces. As of December 1, 2010, the number of military districts was reduced to four. These districts are led by the United Strategic Commandos of the same name , to which the naval and air forces deployed in the respective territories are also subordinate, while so far, apart from an attempt in the 1970s, only the land forces have been under the command of the military districts:

On April 2, 2014, the Crimean peninsula was incorporated into the South Military District.

From December 1, 2014, the United Strategic Command North began its work as the fifth military district. Initially and in its core, it consisted of the Northern Fleet , which was separated from the West Military District for this purpose . The North Military District became fully operational on December 1, 2015. It is next to the jurisdiction of the Northern Fleet also from all regions of Russia north of the Arctic Circle and gets to beyond the Arctic Circle operating units of the military districts center and east slammed shut. The military districts east and center are east of the Ural responsible for preparing for the necessary additional associations and bases in the Arctic and the Military District of North allot, including the Norilsk airport and bases near Anadyr . The easternmost area within the military district is the Chukchi Autonomous Okrug with the Chukchi Peninsula in the east. All Russian islands and coasts beyond the Arctic Circle are included in the military district, including Novaya Zemlya , the New Siberian Islands , and Wrangel Island .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Medvedev gives the army a new command structure
  2. ↑ Black Sea Peninsula Crimea incorporated into the Southern Defense District of Russia
  3. ^ Arctic Strategic Command Sever (North) Unified Strategic Command (USC). GlobalSecurity.org, July 11, 2016, accessed February 9, 2017 .
  4. ^ New drone squadron protects Russian interests in the Arctic. Siberian Times , November 23, 2015, accessed February 8, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Russia centralizes command for Arctic troops. Sputnik , December 2, 2014, accessed May 16, 2016 .