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106th Guards Airborne Division

The 106th Guards "Tula" Red Banner Twice Order of Kutuzov Airborne Division, more generally referred to as the Tula Division, is one of the four airborne divisions - along with the 7th "Cherkassk", 76th "Pskov" and 98th "Svirsk" Guards - that make up the bulk of the Russian airborne forces, the VDV (Russian: "Vozdushno-desantnye voyska"). At the moment the 106 Airborne Division is stationed in Tula, Ryazan and Naro-Fominsk. Division Headquarters is in Tula.

Modern Russian airborne divisions are considerably smaller formations, in manpower terms, than their American counterparts (the 82nd Airborne and 101st Air Assault); typically, they number around over 5,000 men. The Tula Division was until 2005 the exception to this rule, numbering over 7,000 men. The reason for this was that it included 3 Parachute Landing Regiments, whereas the other 3 VDV divisions had only two such regiments. In 2005, however, the 119th Parachute Landing Regiment was disbanded and the division was thus bought essentially into line with the other 3 divisions.

137 Guards airborne Kuban Cossack regiment of the Order of the Red Star 106 Guards Airborne

137th Airborne Regiment

As of 2006, the subordinate units of the division are as follows:

• 51st Parachute Landing Regiment, Tula
• 137th Parachute Landing Regiment, Ryazan
• 1182nd Artillery Regiment, Efremov
• 107th Independent Air Defence Regiment, Donskoy
• 322nd Independent Engineer Battalion, Tula
• 731st Independent Communications Battalion, Tula
• 43rd Independent Repair Battalion, Tula
• 110th Independent Transport Squadron, Tula

On June 11, 1943 the 7th and 17th Guards Airborne Brigades were formed in the Moscow Military District. The number of troops across the units was 5,800. During the Great Patriotic War, a strong group of the Airborne Troops (VDV) was on the 4th Ukrainian Front (4th, 6th and 7th Guards. Vdbr), which would apply in the liberation of Crimea.

In December 1943, 4 and 7 Guards. vdbr were relocated to the Moscow Military District. January 15, 1944 in accordance with the order of the commander of the Red Army Airborne Stupino, Moscow region based on the 4th, 7th and 17th Separate Guards vdbr was formed 16th Guards Airborne Division (Airborne Division). In August 1944. 16th Guards Airborne Division was relocated in Old Roads Mogilev region and August 9, 1944 joined the newly formed 38th Guards Airborne Corps (TPC). In October 1944, the 38th Guards WEC joined the newly formed separate Guards Airborne Army.

December 8, 1944 a separate Guards Airborne Army was reorganized into the 9th Guards Army, 38th Guards WEC became the 38th Guards Rifle Corps. Order of the Supreme Commander of December 18, 1944 16th Guards Airborne Division reorganized into the 106th Guards Rifle Division (RD) of the 38th Guards Rifle Corps. 4th Guards. Separate Airborne Brigade was reorganized into the 347th Guards Rifle Regiment, 7th gv.ovdbr - to 351-th Guards Rifle Regiment, 17th gv.ovdbr - 355 Guards Rifle Regiment.

The 106th Guards Rifle Division took a baptism of fire during the Vienna operation, participated in the liberation of Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia. April 26, 1945 for the breakthrough of a fortified line of defense and mastering the entire city Mor personnel received the thanks of the Supreme Commander and the first division was awarded the Order - Order of Kutuzov II degree. Since April 26 is a holiday connection.

All active participants in fighting for the liberation of Vienna were awarded established at the time the medal "For the capture of Vienna." 38th Guards Rifle Corps received the honorary title of "Vienna" and the 106th Guards Rifle Division was awarded a second Order - Order of the Red Banner. April 16, 1945, continuing the fighting, the division took possession of Wilhelmsburg. Continuous fighting continued until April 25. By the end of the day units were withdrawn from the battlefield and in full force concentrated in the outskirts of Vienna.

On May 5th Division was alerted, to march to the Austro-Czechoslovak border and changed the 107th Infantry Division. Going into contact with the enemy, May 8, she crossed the border into Czechoslovakia and immediately took possession of Znojmo. All personnel received the thanks of the Supreme Commander. On May 9, and all units of the division continued fighting to prosecute enemy. It was necessary to get him to surrender. Division marched in pursuit of the enemy, and for three days was fought 80-90 km. May 11, 1945 the vanguard of the division came out to p. Vlatva and 3.5 km northeast of the village met with parts Oleshnya U.S. 5th Panzer Army.

Only Division during the Great Patriotic War was awarded government awards 7401 soldier, and three were awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. This included foreman Rybakov NS, Senior Lieutenant Polyakov VT and senior lieutenant Selishchev VP

After the war, on the basis of the Decision of the Council of Ministers on June 3, 1946 and the directives of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR 7 June 946 to June 15, 1946 106th Guards Rifle Red Banner Order of Kutuzov Division was reorganized into the 106th Air Guard Airborne Red Banner Order of Kutuzov Division.

Since July 1946 the division stationed in Tula and was part of the 38th Guards Airborne Corps Vienna. Based on the directives of the General Staff on January 21, 1955 to April 25, 1955 106th Guards Airborne Division withdrew from the 38th Guards Airborne Corps Vienna, in 1956, was disbanded. Division became directly responsible to the commander of the Airborne and moved to a new state trehpolkovogo composition with cropped in each battalion Parachute Regiment.

As the attention of the Soviet leadership began to shift towards their ability to project force overseas, the need for a rapidly deployable force to spearhead large-scale operations became apparent and the VDV was once again built up as such an air assault force. The Tula Division, from that point until the present day, was to be one of the most frequently-used elements of it. Two of its regiments took part in the Soviet war in Afghanistan. As nationalist unrest grew in the southern republics of the USSR throughout the end of the 1980s, the division was deployed to Baku, Azerbaijan, in 1988 and to Fergana, Uzbekistan, in 1990. Throughout this time the division was commanded by General Alexander Lebed.

In 1991, an attempted coup against the Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev took place in Moscow. As the coup faltered, and the plotters lost the initiative while support for Boris Yeltsin, the President of the Russian SFSR, grew, the plotters called in reinforcements from the Tula Division, in the form of a battalion from the 137th Parachute Landing Regiment. When they arrived, Lebed stated that he had orders to secure the Parliament building, where Yeltsin's supporters were barricaded. He did not, however, give the order for his men, equipped with BMD armoured vehicles, to launch an attack. This may have been because at that point in the coup, the Tamanskaya Division was in the process of switching its own allegiance from the plotters to the parliamentarians, but whatever Lebed's rationale, the episode helped to boost his own public profile immensely. Following the failure of the coup and the collapse of the Soviet Union, in 1992, he was appointed commander of the Russian 14th Army in Moldova.

In 1994, the Russian Army was ordered into the breakaway southern republic of Chechnya by Yeltsin, then President of the Russian Federation, after the refusal of the separatist government to surrender to Moscow's authority, beginning the First Chechen War. Battalions of the Tula Division were attached to 'Group West' (the western element of the three-pronged invasion of Chechnya). They took part, in December that year, in the first Battle of Grozny, helping to capture the city's central railway station, which had proved to be one of the most difficult and costly strategic points in Grozny for the Russians to capture.

In March 1995, the battalions were transferred to the command of 'Group North' and continued fighting, notably around Argun. In May, they withdrew from Chechnya. The division's losses in the first war are unclear: 36 of its soldiers have been confirmed killed in action, but the number missing in action is around 200.

The Second Chechen War began in 1999. With Moscow determined to avoid a repeat of the quagmire that the first war had become, the Russian force committed in 1999 was larger, better equipped and better organised. The Tula Division's contribution to that force was the 51st and 119th Parachute Landing Regiments. Its losses in this war were still considerable but less than in the first: 67 of its soldiers were reported either killed or missing in action. For its actions in the second campaign, the Tula Division was awarded the MoD Pennant.

In 2001, after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, paratroopers from the division were sent to Afghanistan to evacuate the staff of the Russian embassy in Kabul, so as to ensure their safety in the face of the American military campaign in support of the Northern Alliance's advance towards the city.

Regiments of the 106th Guards Airborne Division, in conjunction with the 77th Special Marine Brigade and the 45th Special Task Airborne Regiment, formed the "Mountain-Group" of Russian forces that fought Chechen rebels in 2003-2004.

As of 2005, its commanding officer was Major-General Andrey Serdyukov [not to be confused with Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov]. A command-post exercise (CPX) of the 106th Airborne Division, with parachute jumping and live fire, was held in the Ryazan region from 21 to 25 March 2005. The goal of the CPX was to train in parachuting and waging hostilities behind the enemy lines, ensuring the division's mobility and fulfilling tasks in unknown terrain, as well as interacting with the Air Force.

Military transport planes and assault aviation of the Air Force took part in the CPX. Field firing was held at the Dubrovichi range of the Airborne Troops on March 25. This large number of tasks to be fulfilled during the CPX was designed to ensure the fulfillment of immediate development and training tasks of the Airborne Troops.

Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov reported to President Putin about the beginning of a large exercise of the Airborne Troops and the Air Force in the Central Federal District. The exercise "involved the 106th Airborne Division and fighter, assault, bombing and military transport aircraft," Ivanov said at a conference of the president with cabinet members. According to the minister, about 3,000 servicemen and 300 hardware will take part in the exercise.

It was announced in July 2007 that the former Chief of Airborne Troops at Training Center Number 242, Major-General Yevgeniy Ustimov, would became the commander of the 106th Guards Airborne Division.

The 106th Guards Airborne Division of the Red-Banner Order of Kutuzov held military drills on 03 March 2011 in the Ryazan Region. One of the stages of command post exercises involving the 106th Guards Airborne Division was held in the Ryazan Region on March 3. During the maneuvers at the drop zone in the town of Novinki, about 800 soldiers and 12 items of military hardware were parachuted from an IL-76. Combat units included six airborne combat vehicles, three NONA self-propelled mortar systems, and two wheeled vehicles – a fuel tanker and a platform with additional materiel and ammunition.

According to an 02 April 2014 article in Vedomosti, a number of Russian forces could be sent to join possible operations in Ukraine. These include units from the Kantemirov 4th Guards Tank Division and the 2nd Guards Motorized Infantry Division from the Moscow region; the 76th Guards Airborne Assault Division from Pskov; the 31st Guards Airborne Assault Brigade from Ulyanovsk; the 106th Guards Airborne Assault Division from Tula; and the 23rd independent Motorized Infantry Brigade from Samara. In all likelihood, this list also includes Special Forces of the Main Intelligence Directorate. These are practically all of Russia's elite units.