6th Guards Motor Rifle Division


The 6th Guards Motor Rifle Vitebsk-Novgorod Twice Red Banner Division was a Soviet motor rifle division, which after the end of World War II was stationed on the Polish territory as part of Northern Group of Forces. It was the second formation of the 6th Guards Motor Rifle Division, and drew its history from the 90th Guards Rifle Division.

History

In an exchange of numbers, the 6th Guards Lvov Motor Rifle Division in Germany in 1985 became the 90th Guards Tank Division, while the 90th Guards Tank Division became the 6th Guards Motor Rifle Division. The division in Poland disbanded a tank regiment and formed a motor rifle regiment, while the division in Germany formed a tank regiment.
Division headquarters was located in the town of Borne Sulinowo.
In November 1985, the 65th Separate Air Assault Battalion was formed from the division's 126th Separate Guards Reconnaissance Battalion in Białogard. Between May and November 1986, the battalion was expanded to form the 83rd Separate Air Assault Brigade under the command of Colonel V.M. Sinitsyn.
The Division withdrew from Poland in 1992 and was moved to Tver in the Moscow Military District where it became the 166th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade. Between January and July 1996 it fought in the First Chechen War. In 1997 the brigade was disbanded and converted into the 70th Guards Base for Storage of Weapons & Equipment. The 70th VkhVT was finally disbanded in 1998.
The 90th Guards Tank Division was reformed by December 2016 in the Central Military District, carrying on the lineage of the 90th Guards Rifle Division. The division inherits the awards and history of the 6th Guards Motor Rifle Division, the former 90th Guards Rifle Division. The formation was founded in accordance to the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Armed Forces and regulation of the Russian Defence Minister dated September 13, 2016. The division is based in the Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk Regions.
On June 30, 2018, an ukaz of President Vladimir Putin officially conferred the honorifics Guards Vitebsk-Novgorod upon the division, while the 6th Tank Regiment became the 6th Guards Lvov Tank Regiment and the 400th Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment received the honorific Transylvania.

Composition

1985

The division was composed of the following units.
Equipment in 2018: T-72A/B/BA/B3, BMP-2, BTR-82A, Grad MLRS, TOS-1, 2S12, 2S3.

Commanders