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7th Guards Airborne (Mountain)
Red Banner Order of Kutuzov 2nd Degree Division

The 7th Guards Airborne-Assault (Mountain) Division, nick name „Cherkassy“ is a military formation of the Russian Airborne troops. At some point after 1990 the division was given the 'Mountain' designation. A whole regiment of the 7th 'Cherkassy' Guards Air-Assault Division is the 108th "Kuban Cossack' Guards Airborne Regiment. Currently, the Division performs the tasks of training and combat and combat activities in accordance with the plan of preparation for its intended purpose.

The 7th Guards Airborne is one unit that has quite the reputation for getting the job done. Its soldiers fought in Eastern Europe in World War II, after which they were based in Kaunas, Lithuania. The division participated in the suppression of the Hungarian Uprising in 1956, as well as in Operation Danube that had been designed to crush the Prague Spring in 1968, in 1988-1989 division's units participated in the Baku massacre of Azeris. Based in Novorossisk, Russia, since 1993, it has also taken part in various counter-insurgency operations in the Caucasus region. The division took part in the Russian-Chechen war, first in a failed operation to storm capital Jokhar (former Grozny), and then in the mountains of Chechnya.

Since the inception of the Division 10 people were awarded the title of hero of the Soviet Union. More than 2 thousand paratroopers were awarded orders and medals. For the successful implementation of the combat tasks, courage, bravery and heroism of the 18 soldiers awarded the title Hero of Russia.

Units and subunits are in permanent deployment points and are carrying out planned combat training activities planned in the formation training plan for the year. The coordination of units and units is being improved, and the level of individual training of military personnel serving under contract as sergeants and soldiers is increasing. Preparations are underway for divisional, regimental command and staff exercises, and battalion tactical exercises. Combat firing of platoons and squads is carried out regularly.The level of professional training of contract military personnel is being increased during scheduled classes in reconnaissance, engineering, sapper, physical, combat, and medical training; classes in airborne training allow military personnel to jump from military transport aircraft with confidence and confidence. At the same time, military personnel of the formation take an active part in carrying out anti-terrorist activities, in cooperation with other law enforcement agencies, and are involved in garrison and guard duties.

In everyday life, military personnel serving under contract as sergeants and soldiers are involved in performing household work, establishing internal order in dormitories and in the territory assigned to units, and also improving the facilities of the training and material base .

Accommodation for contract servicemen in all military units of the formation is provided in cabin-type dormitories, each residential block of which includes an entrance hall, two rooms (for 3 people each) furnished with modern furniture, a toilet, washbasin, shower, and dryer. On the floors of the dormitory there are rooms for washing uniforms and utility rooms.

Military personnel under a contract are given the right to rent housing within the city (garrison) and at the same time they are paid compensation for sub-renting housing for a family. Military personnel serving under a contract as a sergeant and having entered into a second contract for military service have the right to participate in the savings-mortgage housing system for military personnel.

In all garrisons where units of the formation are located, it is planned to build separate housing for family military personnel for the next 3 years. Currently, a cultural and leisure center is being built in the Novorossiysk garrison to provide leisure for military personnel, and a 144-apartment residential building for family military personnel has been commissioned.

7th Guards Airborne (Mountain) - Order of Battle

During the Cold War, a Soviet Airborne Division typically had around 8,500 men, including artillery and combat support. The division was made up of lightly armed troops with lightly armored vehicles. The division's value was in its special training and mobility provided by long-range aircraft.

The division was part of the Immediate Reaction Force, which was mostly made up of the VDV. The Rapid Deployment Forces were the heavy portion of the division and were based on tanks, motorized rifle, and heavy artillery. By 1969, the Soviet investigation of a variety of air assault methods had produced detailed conclusions. Although recognizing that airborne (parachute) could still operate successfully, Soviet theorists highlighted the conditions that made their use difficult.

Parachute forces required special training and equipment to perform their mission, a mission, moreover, that depended on favorable weather conditions for success. Also to land an airborne force of sufficient size, parachute troops had to secure a suitable landing area. Because of the requirements of modern aircraft, such areas were often in scarce supply. Because the means of delivery usually dispersed airborne forces over a considerable area during landing, assembling men and equipment before beginning combat missions took a long time. Past experiences continually illustrated these difficulties, and exercises indicated the persistence of this problem.

The helicopter, however, solved part of the problem and provided greater flexibility to operational planners. As articulated in 1969, the ideal tactical air assault unit was the motorized rifle battalion reinforced to be able to conduct long-term combat in the enemy rear, independently, if necessary, and free from the requirements of fire support from front units. Besides motorized rifle battalions per forming the usual helicopter air assaults, task-organized companies and even platoons could conduct such missions as seizing enemy nuclear delivery means, destroying command facilities, and disorganizing the enemy rear.

The first BMD (Boevaia Mashina Desantnaia) armored personnel carriers were observed in Red Square during the 1973 parade cemmorating the October Revolution. The BMD provided the Soviet airborne with a quantum improvement in firepower and mobility. Even aore important, the introduction of the BMD significantly increased the airborne’s survivability against its age old nenesis, the tank.

Each brigade in the division had 3,000 men and included:

• Four airborne battalions
• A mortar battalion
• An antiaircraft machine-gun company
• Reconnaissance, sapper, and signal companies

Military units and subunits of the 7th dsh d(g) are located in five garrisons. In all garrisons there are municipal preschool institutions (nurseries, kindergartens) where children of military personnel, schools are placed in order of priority, and there are also opportunities for employment of wives of military personnel, both in civilian personnel positions in units of the formation, and in municipal city institutions, enterprises and etc.

Organisation 2010

• 108th Guards Parachute Regiment (Novorossiysk, Krasnodar Kray)
• 247th Air-Landing Assault Regiment (Stavropol, Stavropol Kray)
• 1141st Guards Artillery Regiment (Anapa, Krasnodar Kray)
• 162nd independent Guards Reconnaissance Company (Novorossiysk, Krasnodar Kray) - military unit: 96686
• 30th independent Anti-Aircraft Missile Battalion (Novorossiysk, Krasnodar Kray)
• 743rd independent Guards Communications Battalion (Novorossiysk, Krasnodar Kray) - military unit: 96527
• 629th independent Engineering Battalion (Temryuk, Krasnodar Kray) - military unit: 96404
• 1681st independent Material Supply Battalion (Anapa, Krasnodar Kray) - military unit: 75302
• 6th independent Equipment Maintenance and Recovery Battalion (Novorossiysk, Krasnodar Kray) - military unit: 75327
• 185th independent Military-Transport Aviation Squadron (Krymsk, Krasnodar Kray)

7th Guards Airborne (Mountain) - History

7-th guards Airborne Division was formed on the basis of the 322-guards parachute landing Regiment order of Kutuzov guards 8 Airborne Corps in Polotsk, Belarusian military district. In accord with the instructions of the commander of the 4th Guards Army, the XX Guards Rifle Corps was to take up a defensive line by 1500 hours on 19 August 1943. The configuration of the corps was double-echelon. On the defensive in the first were the 7th and 8th Guards Airborne Divisions and in the second the 5th Guards Airborne Division. The 7th Guards Airborne Division consisting of the 18th, 21st and 29th Airborne Regiments, the 10th Guards Artillery Regiment, the 8th Guards Separate Antitank Battalion and the 466th Mortar Regiment of the RVGK [Reserve Supreme High Command] which had been attached from the army reserve deployed along the line of Veseloye, Prokopenko.

In the evening of 19 August and the night of 20 August, the airborne troops of the 7th Guards Airborne Division under the command of Gen M.G. Mikeladze fought stubbornly against the enemy 7th Panzer Division. Regardless of superiority in tanks and assault guns, the enemy was unable to advance to the east. The men of the antitank artillery and antitank riflemen let the enemy combat vehicles come within range of direct firing and destroyed them with accurate fire, while the airborne troops with small arms fire cut the infantry off from the tanks and caused it great damage. The guardsmen boldly engaged the tanks which had broken through, destroying them with antitank grenades and Molotov cocktails. In the morning of 20 August, the corps received the orders: with the forces of the 7th and 8th Guards Airborne Divisions and cooperating units of the III Guards Tank Corps with support from the attack aviation of the 2d Air Army, to launch a meeting attack against the advancing enemy grouping reinforced by units of the 11th and 19th Panzer Divisions which had been committed to battle.

The successful actions of the airborne divisions from the XX Guards Rifle Corps in the course of the meeting engagements to the southeast of Akhtyrka became possible to the rapid deployment of the units of the 7th and 8th Guards Airborne Divisions and to the skillful configuration of their battle formations. In assessing the actions of the XX Guards Rifle Corps and the 7th Guards Airborne Division in this fighting, MSU G.K. Zhukov wrote in his memoirs: "In the fierce engagement for Akhtyrka, the formations of the XX Guards Rifle Corps under the command of Gen N.I. Biryukov and units of Gen M.G. Mikeladze particularly distinguished themselves...."(

The fighting ended in Trežbon' May 12, 1945 (Czechoslovakia). On April 26, 1945 for the exemplary job command on the front connection was awarded the order of Kutuzov (3rd class), it announced 6 thanks of the Commander-in-Chief, 2065 soldiers, sergeants and officers were rewarded for fighting the orders and medals of the USSR. April 26 by order of the Minister of defence of the USSR set the day.

On October 14, 1948, the Division was relocated to Kaunas and Mariâmpol' of the Lithuanian SSR. In 1956, the Union participated in the Hungarian events, and in 1968, Czechoslovak. Units of the Division were the first in the airborne troops (VDV) mastered making parachute jumps from an-8, an-12, an-22, IL-76, tried out some new parachute systems d-5, d-6. The personnel Division for the first time committed to dropping after the flight at the height of 6-8 thousand. m using oxygen devices.

David E. Johnson, Adam Grissom and Olga Oliker at the RAND Corporation told the story of the 7th in the Prague Spring. In 1968 the 7th Guards Airborne Division was tasked with the critical mission of decapitating the Czechoslovakian government in Prague. The Soviet operational plan for the invasion of Czechoslovakia called for VDV parachute and air-landing operations at multiple locations within Czechoslovakia and cross-border attacks by Warsaw Pact forces. The invasion began on the evening of August 20. At approximately 8:30 p.m., a Soviet Air Force air-control aircraft, in deceptive Aeroflot markings, landed at Prague’s Ruzyne airport. This airplane and its crew were on hand to provide air-traffic control for the arrival of the 7th Guards Airborne Division in the event that the airport’s own control tower was knocked out during the coming military action. At 3:37 am, under the cover of MiG-21 fighters, the 7th Guards Airborne Division started air-landing at the Ruzyne airport. In short order, one of its assault companies sealed off the airport while KGB special operations team took over the airport’s control tower.

With the airport secured, further elements of the 7th Guards Airborne Division began arriving every 30 seconds. By 4:30 a.m., special assault groups, composed of elements of the division’s reconnaissance company and the 108th Guards Paratrooper Regiment, had taken two objectives. One column took the presidential palace in Prague and arrested Ludwig Svoboda, President of Czechoslovakia. The other column of paratroopers, led by KGB personnel, took the Czechoslovakian Communist Party headquarters in Prague. There, they arrested Secretary Dubcek and some two dozen other top government officials.

Marines connection has been to participate in major exercises and maneuvers as a "shield-76", "Neman" zapad-81, 84-West», «Dozor-86 ", etc. For their high combat skills during exercises zapad-81 "Division was awarded the Pennant of the Minister of Defense of the USSR" for courage and military prowess. During the past three exercises were dropping combat vehicles together with their crews. On May 4, 1985 for successes in combat and political training and in connection with the 40-th anniversary of victory in the great patriotic war, the Division was awarded the order of the red banner of labour.

In the period from 1979 to 1989. the vast majority of divisional officers and warrant officers have conducted international duty in the Republic of Afghanistan. Many of them were awarded State prizes.

A schedule for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Lithuania was signed on 8 September 1992 during the Russian-Lithuanian negotiations. The withdrawal was to be completed by 31 August 1993. This totally applied to the Airborne Troops. Absolutely everyone had been provided with separate apartments. The air field and the parachute jumping area permitted training up to 10,000 men simultaneously. Nearly 250 rail flat cars were required to redeploy each regiment. Nearly 1,200 families resided in the garrison. Units were withdrawn to sites that had not been prepared and, as happened many times, requests for release into the reserve will begin to rain down. There would be practically no compulsory service soldiers or sergeants in the subunits by spring 1993.

Since August 1993, the Division deployed on the territory of the North Caucasus military district. In 1993-1996. military units and units 7 GW. report performing peacekeeping missions in Abkhazia. From January 1995 to April 2004, a combined airborne battalion of the Division with the means of strengthening the task performed to restore constitutional order in the Chechen Republic.

From February 1998 to September 1999, the military manoeuvre Group (VMG) 7th report fulfilled the task to combat terrorists in the Botlikh district of Dagestan, r.. In August 1999, the 7th VMG report first made a hit by Chechen militants, invading the Botlikhsky district. From 1999 to April 2004, the Division had participated actively in the anti-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus. For his courage and heroism while performing combat tasks during the counter-terrorist operation was awarded more than 2.5 thousand. paratroopers Division.

In August 2008 Russian forces coerced Georgia into peace. The decisive role in the operation was played not by the motorised infantry stationed in the conflict zone but by paratroopers. In Abkhazia, the situation in that region was largely stabilised thanks to the paratrooper assault battalion of the 108 Airborne Assault Regiment, which had been flown in from Novorossiysk. When we seized the electronic scenarios envisaged by the Georgian military, the initial plan was to attack not South Ossetia but Abkhazia. The reinforcement of the peacekeeping group with an airborne battalion by agreement with the Abkhazia leadership virtually saved that state.

The 7th Guards Airborne-Assault Division was hastily deployed to southern Dagestan in September 2012. The division includes 6,000 soldiers. The transfer of the division came amid reports that Moscow is considering the possibility of launching large-scale military operations in the Caucasus Emirate.

Mid-March 2014 saw a strengthening of Russian forces in the Crimea (notably with paratroopers from the 7th Guards Airborne Division from Novorossisk) and further pressure on the relatively few Ukrainian forces there.

On 02 February 2019 the commander of the Airborne Forces, Colonel-General Andrey Serdyukov, in Novorossiysk, presented to the command and personnel the new commander of the 7th Guards Airborne Assault Order of the Red Banner Orders of Suvorov and Kutuzov, 2nd degree of the division. During the solemn ceremony, the commander of the Airborne Forces accepted the battle flag of the formation from the hands of the guards, Major General Roman Breus, who had commanded the division since 2014, and handed it over to the new commander - guards colonel Andrey Sukhovetsky.

At a solemn rally, Colonel General Andrei Serdyukov said: “Comrade soldiers, sergeants, ensigns and officers, dear veterans and dear guests! By Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of December 25, 2018 No. 743, a worthy, competent, combat-experienced officer - Guards Colonel Andrei Alexandrovich Sukhovetsky was appointed to the position of division commander.

"Throughout their combat path, the guardsmen of the 7th Airborne Assault Division have always been an example of courage and military prowess, more than once proving their devotion to the Motherland in practice. During the Great Patriotic War, in the course of carrying out a special government task in Azerbaijan, in the mountains of Afghanistan, in the North Caucasus, in the course of operations to force Georgia to peace, return the Crimea, the paratroopers of the 7th division showed high professionalism, mutual assistance and unparalleled heroism."

On February 28, 2022, while performing a combat mission during a special operation in Ukraine, Major General Andrey Sukhovetsky, Deputy Commander of the 41st Combined Arms Army of the Russian Ground Forces, heroically died. Andrei Alexandrovich Sukhovetsky was drafted into the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in 1991. Since then, he devoted his life to serving the Motherland, courageously stood up for its defense, with honor ensured the inviolability of its interests.

Fulfilling his military duty to the Fatherland, Major General Sukhovetsky participated in hostilities on the territory of the Republic of Abkhazia in 1995-1998, on the territory of the North Caucasus region in 1999-2000, on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic in 2018 and 2019. In February 2019, Andrey Alexandrovich was appointed commander of the 7th Guards Airborne Assault Red Banner, Orders of Suvorov and Kutuzov Division (mountain) and served in this post until November 2021. For military merit, Major General Sukhovetsky was awarded two Orders of Courage, the Order of Military Merit, the Medal for Courage and many other state awards of the Russian Federation.