Kiev Military District


The Kiev Military District was a military district of the Imperial Russian Army and subsequently of the Red Army and Soviet Armed Forces. It was first formed in 1862, and was headquartered in Kiev for most of its existence.

Imperial Russian Army formation

The Kiev Military District was an imperial military district, a territorial division type utilised to provide more efficient management of army units, their training and other operations activities related to combat readiness. The district originally covered the Kiev Governorate, Podolia Governorate, and Volhynia Governorate.
Assigned formations included the 10th Army.
In 1888, the Kharkov Military District was merged into the Kiev Military District.
With the start of World War I the district was transformed into the 3rd Army. In April 1917, Poltava and Kursk governorates were transferred under the administration of the Moscow Military District.
After the October Revolution in Petrograd, the district came under jurisdiction of the Ukrainian People's Republic and existed until the early February 1918 advance of the Petrograd-Moscow Russian Red Guards forces of the Antonov's Task Force that was charged by Vladimir Lenin to "fight counter-revolution in the Southern Russia", but was in fact invading Ukraine in what would become known as the Ukrainian–Soviet War.
The district was not reinstated during the brief Bolshevik period in 1918 nor after the establishment of the independent Ukrainian State.

Commanders in the Russian Empire

Commanders

The district was reinstated on March 12, 1919, and then again disbanded on August 23, 1919, with the advance of Denikin's forces.

Kiev Military Region

The Kiev Military Region was formed by Denikin's forces on August 31, 1919, but already on December 14, 1919, its forces were retrieved and merged with the Forces of Novorossiysk Region. Commander of the military district was Abram Dragomirov.

Soviet Armed Forces of Ukraine and Crimea formation

The District was formed again in January 1920 as part of the Russian SFSR Armed Forces stationed in Ukraine.
In the early 1920s, the District included the following divisions:
In April 1922 the Kiev Military District was merged with the Kharkov Military District into the South-Western Military District. In June 1922 it was renamed Ukrainian Military District.
The 6th Rifle Corps was formed on the orders of the Commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Crimea number 627/162 from May 23, 1922, in Kiev, part of Kiev and Kharkov Military District.

Commanders

On May 17, 1935 the Ukrainian Military District was split between the Kharkov Military District and the Kiev Military District.
13th Rifle Corps was reformed in the district by a District order of December 1936, and its headquarters was established at Bila Tserkva.
On July 26, 1939, the district was renamed into the Kiev Special Military District.
On February 20, 1941, the district formed the 22nd Mechanized Corps in the 5th Army (Soviet Union), the 16th Mechanized Corps in the 12th Army, and the 9th [Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union)|9th mechanized Corps], the 24th mechanized Corps, the 15th mechanized Corps, and the 19th Mechanized Corps in the reserve of the district. Air-defence forces within the District included the 36th Fighter Aviation Division of the PVO located at Vasylkiv.
When the German Operation Barbarossa began on 22 June 1941, on the basis of the Kiev Special Military District was created the Soviet Southwestern Front that completely integrated the district on September 10, 1941.

Commanders

The District was formed again on 25 October 1943, with the Headquarters in Kiev. In June 1946, seven oblasts of the disbanded Kharkov Military District were added to the Kiev Military District. The district now included the oblasts of Kiev, Cherkasy, Uman, Voroshilovgrad (historically and now Luhansk), Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Stalino (now Donetsk), Sumy, Kharkiv and Chernihiv.
Units stationed in the District were the 1st Guards Army and 6th Guards Tank Army. 69th Air Army was active from the early 1950s to at least 1964 in the district. In 1959, the 17th Air Army was relocated to the District from Mongolia to provide air support. The 60th Corps of the 8th Air Defense Army provided air defence for the District.
The 43rd Rocket Army of the Strategic Rocket Forces was formed at Vinnytsia within the District's boundaries in 1960. It comprised the 19th Rocket Division, 37th Guards Rocket Division, 43rd Rocket Division, 44th Rocket Division, and the 46th Rocket Division. The 43rd Rocket Army's last commander was Colonel-General Vladimir Alekseevich Mikhtyuk, who served from 10 January 1991 to 8 May 1996, when it was finally disbanded.
Also in the district in 1988 was the 72nd Central Artillery Weapons Base at Krasnograd.
From 1980 to 1988 the 17th Air Army was known as the Air Forces of the Kiev Military District. Then-Colonel Nikolay Antoshkin was chief of staff of the VVS KVO at the time of the Chernobyl disaster, and led helicopter operations to respond to the accident, dropping tonnes of sand and lead onto the exposed reactor core. He was quickly promoted to general-mayor rank, and awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union.
In 1991 the district included the 6th Guards Tank Army, 1st Guards Army, 36th Motor Rifle Division, 48th Motor Rifle Division, 48th Guards Tank Training Division, 9th independent Special Forces Brigade GRU, 17th Air Army, and the 60th Air Defence Corps of the 8th Air Defence Army. Among the district's air force units were the Chernihiv Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots at Chernihiv.
Also located within the district's boundaries but responsible to HQ South-Western Strategic Direction was the 23rd independent Landing-Assault Brigade, at Kremenchuk, Poltava Oblast.
In 1991, Colonel General Viktor S. Chechevatov was dismissed as District commander for refusing to take an oath of loyalty to Ukraine.
The District was disbanded after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, by 1 November 1992, and its structure utilized as the basis for the new Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and General Staff (Ukraine)|General Staff].

Commanders

Commanders