| Transcaucasian Military District | |
|---|---|
 Location of the Transcaucasian Military District (red) in the Soviet Union, 1991 | |
| Active | 1935 – September 1992 or December 1992 |
| Country | Soviet Union |
| Type | Military district |
| Part of | Soviet Armed Forces |
| Headquarters | Tbilisi |
| Engagements | World War II |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | |
TheTranscaucasian Military District, amilitary district of theSoviet Armed Forces, traces its history to May 1921 and the incorporation ofArmenia,Azerbaijan, andGeorgia into the Soviet Union. It was disbanded by being redesignated as a Group of Forces in the early 1990s, after theSoviet Union collapsed. The military district formed as a basis of the modern day armed forces ofArmenia,Azerbaijan, andGeorgia as well as unrecognized polities ofAbkhazia andSouth Ossetia.
The Transcaucasian Military District was originally formed from theRed Army's Separate Caucasian Army, which became the Red Banner Caucasian Army in August 1923. On 17 May 1935, theRed Banner Caucasus Army was redesignated the Transcaucasian Military District. The Georgian, Armenian, and Azerbaijani national formations, plus units from the11th Soviet Red Army, all joined the new district about this time.
In July 1936 the District's formations and units received designations according to the countrywide numbering scheme and became: the9th (formerly 1st Caucasus) Mountain Rifle Division, named for the Central Executive Committee of theGeorgian SSR; the20th (formerly 3rd Caucasus) Mountain Rifle Division; the47th (former 1st) Georgian Mountain Rifle Division, named for Joseph Stalin; the63rd (former 2nd) Georgian Mountain Rifle Division, named for Mikhail Frunze; the76th Armenian Mountain Rifle Division, named after Comrade Voroshilov, and the77th Аzerbaijani Mountain Rifle Division, named for Grigoriy Ordzhonikidze.[1]
On 22 June 1941 the District consisted of the3rd (4th,20th, and47th Rifle Divisions),23rd Rifle Corps (136th and138th Rifle Divisions) and40th Rifle Corps (9th and31st Rifle Division), the28th Mechanised Corps, which included the 6th and 54th Tank Divisions and the236th Motorised Division, five unattached divisions – the 63rd,76th, and77th Rifle, the17th Mountain Cavalry Division and the24th Cavalry Division, and three fortified regions.[2]
On 1 August 1941 the46th Army was formed from the 3rd Rifle Corps headquarters.45th Army was formed from the 23rd Rifle Corps. 45th and 46th Armies guarded the Turkish border. The44th Army was formed from the 40th Rifle Corps and the47th Army formed from the27th Mechanized Corps. Both armies were deployed on the Iranian border. On 23 August, the military district became theTranscaucasus Front. District headquarters was subordinated to the front's military council and directed the formation of new units. It was disbanded on 14 September 1941.
On 28 January 1942, the military district was reformed when theCaucasian Front was divided into the Transcaucasian Military District and theCrimean Front. The district was commanded byIvan Tyulenev and included the 45th and 46th Armies, as well as 4 rifle divisions and a rifle brigade. On 28 April 1942, the district became the second formation of the Transcaucasian Front.
On 9 July 1945, the Tbilisi and Baku Military Districts were formed from the Transcaucasian Front. Tbilisi Military District Headquarters was in Tbilisi and was formed from the Transcaucasian Front headquarters. The district controlled forces in theGeorgian andArmenian SSRs. The district was commanded by Colonel GeneralSergei Trofimenko, former27th Army commander. The headquarters of the Baku Military District was formed from69th Army headquarters and was located in Baku. The district controlled forces in theAzerbaijan SSR andDagestan ASSR. It was commanded by Colonel generalVladimir Kolpakchi, former 69th Army commander. In October 1945,Army GeneralIvan Maslennikov took command.[3] On 15 November 1945, control of forces in theNakhichevan ASSR was transferred from the Tbilisi Military District to the Baku Military District. Lieutenant GeneralMikhail Ozimin became Tbilisi Military District commander in April 1946.[4] In May 1946, both districts became part of the Transcaucasus Military District (ZakVO), commanded by Maslennikov.[5]
Sometime in the first half of 1946, a new air army, the 7th, was established in the Baku Military District.[6] The air army was given the designation 7th Air Army, taking up a previous designation of a formation which was becoming the 3rd Air Army of theLong Range Aviation in the Far East. Initially it included the8th Guards Fighter Aviation Division;309th Fighter Aviation Division; 236th and 259th Fighter Aviation Divisions; the3rd Guards Fighter Aviation Corps with the 13th and 14th Guards Fighter Aviation Divisions; the 188th Bomber Aviation Division; and the 199th Assault Aviation Division, disbanded April 1946. In February 1949 the 7th Air Army was redesignated the 62nd Air Army. As of 2 January 1950 the 7th Air Army became part of theBaku Air Defence Region, and quickly thereafter became the 42nd Fighter Air Army of theAir Defence Forces.
On 1 May 1955 Soviet forces opposite Eastern Turkey included 13th Mountain Rifle Corps in Georgia (two mountain, one rifle divisions); 7th Guards Combined Arms Army in Armenia with 19th Mountain Rifle Corps (two mountain divisions) and 22nd Rifle Corps with 26th Mechanised Division and two rifle divisions. Further away was4th Combined Arms Army in Azerbaijan, with five more divisions, of which two were mechanised.[7]
In 1979 Scott and Scott reported the District' headquarters address as Tbilisi-4, Ulitsa Dzneladze, Dom 46. The District became part of the Southern Direction, headquartered inBaku and including the North Caucasus andTurkestan Military Districts, in the late 1970s and early 1980s.[8]
In 1988, dispositions within the District were as follows:
In addition, the104th Guards Airborne Division of theSoviet Airborne Forces was stationed atKirovabad, directly subordinated to VDV Headquarters.[18][19] The division was withdrawn to Ulyanovsk and this process was in progress by spring 1993.
The 75th Motor Rifle Division was reassigned to theKGB Border Guards in January 1990. On September 23, 1991, on the basis of the directive of the General Staff of August 28, 1991 No. 314/3/042Sh, it was returned to the Ministry of Defence.
In February 1992, Russian PresidentBoris Yeltsin sent GeneralBoris Gromov, First Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, and AdmiralVladimir Chernavin, Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, to negotiate military issues with Azerbaijan. As a result, Azerbaijan received a helicopter squadron, the Baku Combined Arms Command School, and a large part of theRear Services (combat service support) units of the Fourth Army.[20]
TheSoviet Air Forces' presence in the district consisted of the 34th Air Army. It was established in Tbilisi as the 11th Air Army in 1946, redesignated as the 34th Air Army in 1949, redesignated the Air Forces of the Transcaucasian Military District (VVS ZKVO) in 1980, and then given the name 34th Air Army again in 1988.[21] It was made up of the36th Bomber Aviation Division,283rd Fighter Aviation Division and six independent aviation regiments, totaling twelve aviation regiments.[22] The formation'sMilitary Unit Number was 21052.
TheSoviet Air Defence Forces had the19th Army of Air Defence Forces located in the District.
By Ukaz No. 260 of thePresident of the Russian Federation of 19 March 1992 the Soviet Transcaucasian Military District and theCaspian Flotilla were transferred to the jurisdiction of theRussian Federation.[26]
On 26 September 1992 the district was disbanded.[5][27] Another, earlier report said on 1 January 1993, the District became the Group of Russian Forces in the Transcaucasus (Russian Группа российских войск в Закавказье – ГРВЗ; GRVZ).[28] After many of the divisions listed above had disbanded[29] or become part of the former republics' armed forces, in the mid 1990s the GRVZ's dispositions were:
General Major Aleksander Studenikin, former deputy commander of theMoscow Military District's 20th Army, commanded the Group in 2004 with General (Major?) Andrei Popov as his deputy.[31]
The Russian presence at Vaziani was withdrawn in the late 1990s and an agreement over the withdrawal of the 12th and 62nd Bases by 2007–08 was made in 2005.[32] The Akhalkalaki 62nd base was officially transferred on schedule to Georgia on 27 June 2007.[33] The12th Military Base in Batumi was transferred earlier than scheduled; scheduled for February 2008, it was transferred on 13 November 2007. The 'Zvezda' command post (probably the former District war headquarters) in the town ofMtskheta, just north of Tbilisi, was handed over by early September 2005.[34] Due to theespionage conflict between Russia and Georgia, the Transcaucasus Group of Forces headquarters in Tbilisi was closed down ahead of schedule. Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov said that 387 servicemen and 484 civilians would leave early.[35][36] Lenta.ru referred toRian.ru.
Even after the GRVZ was totally withdrawn, Russian troops continue to remain in peacekeeping roles inAbkhazia andSouth Ossetia, de jure parts of Georgia. There are about 1,600 men on the Abkhazian-Georgian boundary (serving alongsideUNOMIG) and a battalion in South Ossetia. According to the Russian authorities, theGudauta military base is also now used by the peacekeeping forces, but no international monitoring has ever been allowed there.