Russian Army Order of Battle - 1996
As of 1996 the ground forces included sixty-nine divisions: seventeen armored, forty-seven motorized infantry, and five airborne. Many of these divisions were "cadre" units, equipped with all the heavy armament of a full-strength motor-rifle or tank division, while having only skeleton personnel strength. The officers and men of a cadre division focused primarily on maintaining the equipment in working condition. During wartime mobilization, such a division should be beefed up to full manpower strength; however, in peacetime a cadre division is unfit for any combat. In late 1996 Defense Minister Igor Rodionov order the disbanding of two of Russia's remaining five airborne divisions.
As of 1996 the Ground Forces of the Russian Federation were estimated to number approximately 670,000 officers and enlisted personnel. Of that number, about 170,000 were contract volunteer enlistees and warrant officers, and about 210,000 were conscripts. Presumably, the remaining 290,000 were commissioned officers, suggesting that some 43 percent of ground forces personnel were officers. These figures strongly suggest that most of the notional "divisions" of the Russian Army consisted of a base, equipment, and officers, but no more than a handful of soldiers to actually operate equipment.
A very large number of the sixty-nine divisions that were nominally part of the Russian Army as of 1996 were deployed in the Siberian, Transbaikal and Far Eastern Military Districts. With the growing entente between China and Russia, and the agreements between these and other Central Asia countries on conventional force reductions in the region, it may be assumed that most of these units were at cadre status by the mid-1990s.
By 1997 the total strength of the ground forces was at an all time low of 400,000 men and officers. Presumably much of the reduction was the result of officers retiring from military service. Under the new defense policy document signed by President Yeltsin on 1 August 1998, the number of divisions in the regular armed forces was to be reduced to ten. These were to be full-strength, high-readiness Ground Forces divisions, one of which will be specifically trained in peacekeeping operations. The divisions, deployed in various parts of the country, would engage exclusively in combat training. This initiative presumably was intended to bring the notional order of battle of the ground forces into closer alignment with the actually existing state of affairs.
The actual order of battle of the Russian Army as of 2000 remains quite uncertain. It might be reasonable to assume that the units named in the following table remain active, with some degree of combat potential, while almost all of those units that were unidentified [ie, "UI"] as of 1996 have either been stood down, or remain only nominally in existence.
Military District Army Division Headquarters Northwestern [ex-Northern/Leningrad] St. Petersburg 76th Guards Airborne Division Chernigovskaya Pskov 56th District Training Center 6th Combined Arms Army 30th Army Corps 45th Motorized Rifle Division 107th Motorized Rifle Division UI Motorized Rifle Division UI Motorized Rifle Division UI Motorized Rifle Division Western [ex-Moscow ] Moscow 1st Combined Arms Army 22d Combined Arms Army 20th Army Corps 4th Guards Tank Division Kantemir Moscow UI Tank Division UI Tank Division UI Tank Division UI Tank Division (training) 2nd Guards Motorized Rifle Division Taman Moscow UI Motorized Rifle Division UI Artillery Division 98th Guards Airborne Division Ivanovo 106th Guards Airborne Division Tula Southwestern [ex-North Caucasus] Rostov-na-Donu 7th Guards Airborne Division Novorossiysk 36th Guards Airborne Division 21st Airborne Brigade Cossack Stavropol 56th Airborne Brigade Volgodonsk 58th Combined Arms Army Vladikavkaz 19th Motorized Rifle Division 8th Army Corps UI Motorized Rifle Division 67th Army Corps reserves UI Army Corps Central Asian [ex-Volga & Urals] Yekaterinburg 104th Guards Airborne Division Scorpion [now 31st BDE] Ulyanovsk 31st Airborne Brigade [ex-104th Division] Ulyanovsk UI Tank Division UI Tank Division (training) 20th Guards Motorized Rifle Division Volgograd 27th Guards Motorized Rifle Division Totskoye 34th Motorized Rifle Division UI Motorized Rifle Division 469th District Training Center 2d Combined Arms Army 16th Tank Division 90th Tank Division Siberian [ex Siberian + Transbaikal] Novosibirsk UI Combined Arms Army UI Combined Arms Army UI Combined Arms Army UI Army Corps 11th Airborne Brigade Ulan-Ude 100th Airborne Brigade Abakan UI Tank Division UI Tank Division UI Tank Division UI Tank Division (training) UI Motorized Rifle Division UI Motorized Rifle Division UI Motorized Rifle Division UI Motorized Rifle Division UI Motorized Rifle Division UI Motorized Rifle Division UI Motorized Rifle Division UI Motorized Rifle Division UI Motorized Rifle Division UI Motorized Rifle Division (training) UI Artillery Division UI Artillery Regiment UI Machine Gun-Artillery Division UI Machine Gun-Artillery Division Far Eastern Khabarovsk UI Combined Arms Army UI Combined Arms Army UI Combined Arms Army UI Combined Arms Army UI Army Corps UI Tank Division UI Tank Division UI Tank Division (training) UI Motorized Rifle Division UI Motorized Rifle Division UI Motorized Rifle Division UI Motorized Rifle Division UI Motorized Rifle Division UI Motorized Rifle Division UI Motorized Rifle Division UI Motorized Rifle Division UI Motorized Rifle Division UI Motorized Rifle Division UI Motorized Rifle Division UI Motorized Rifle Division (training) UI Motorized Rifle Division (training) UI Artillery Division UI Machine Gun-Artillery Division UI Machine Gun-Artillery Division UI Machine Gun-Artillery Division UI Machine Gun-Artillery Division UI Machine Gun-Artillery Division 83rd Airborne Brigade Ussuriysk UI Airborne Brigade Operational Groups of Forces Tajikistan 201st Motorized Rifle Division Dushanbe Transcaucasus 128th Motorized Rifle Division Akhalkalaki 145th Motorized Rifle Division Batumi Northwest Kaliningrad 11th Independent Army UI Tank Division UI Motorized Rifle Division UI Motorized Rifle Division Turkmenistan UI Army Corps UI Motorized Rifle Division UI Motorized Rifle Division UI Motorized Rifle Division (training) Dnestr Region 14th Combined Arms Army 180th Motor Rifle Division Belgorod Airborne Troops Caucasus 7th Guards Airborne Division Novorossiysk Caucasus 36th Guards Airborne Division Northern 76th Guards Airborne Division Chernigovskaya Pskov Moscow 98th Guards Airborne Division Ivanovo Volga 104th Guards Airborne Division Scorpion [now 31st BDE] Ulyanovsk Moscow 106th Guards Airborne Division Tula Transbaikal 11th Airborne Brigade Ulan-Ude N.Caucasus 21st Airborne Brigade Cossack Stavropol Volga 31st Airborne Brigade [ex-104th Division] Ulyanovsk N.Caucasus 56th Airborne Brigade Volgodonsk Far Eastern 83rd Airborne Brigade Ussuriysk Siberian 100th Airborne Brigade Abakan