Northern Section of the Screen Detachments

The Northern Section of the Screen Detachments was a part of the Red Army's curtain forces created to protect Petrograd after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. It existed from March to September 1918.

Formation

After the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on the basis of the resolution of the of March 3, 1918 and the directive of the Supreme Military Council of March 5, 1918, the curtain forces were created to cover the internal regions of Soviet Russia from a possible invasion by troops from the Imperial German Army.
The included detachments operating in the Ostrov-Staraya Russa and Polotsk-Velizh-Bely strips.
On March 14, 1918, the was merged with the, and its management was entrusted to the headquarters of the Petrograd Defense District, which became known as the Headquarters of the Petrograd Defense District and the Northern Section of the Screen Detachments.
The troops were stationed in the following area:

To the south was the Nevel-Velikiye Luki-Ostashkov-Bologoye railway line;
To the west and northwest were Narva, the Narva River, Lake Peipus, Pskov, Staraya Russa, the Mezhduozerny and Karelian Isthmuses, and the Gulf of Finland;
To the east was Borovichi, the Mologa River, and Vologda.

Composition of the NSCD

March–June

By order of the Military Council of the Petrograd Defense District and the Northern Section of the Screen Detachments, the formation of seven territorial military districts began within the district.
The first two districts created in March were:

Gatchina ;
Luzhsky.

The next five districts were formed already in April:

In June, the Olonetsky section was added to them.

Plan

In April 1918, the district headquarters developed a plan to form 11 infantry divisions. In accordance with the plan, and following orders from the district Military Council, the following sections began to be reorganized:

Karelsky — to the corps ;
Yamburgsky — to the Gatchina division;
Novgorodsky — to the corps ;
Starorussky and Novorzhevsky — to the divisions of the same name. The Novorzhevsky Rifle Division later became the Pskov Rifle Division.

Additionally, corps were to be formed in Petrograd and Bezhetsk.
The Supreme Military Council included this plan in its plan for the formation of regular units of the Red Army, abolishing the corps link.
On September 11, 1918, in connection with the creation of the Northern Front, the headquarters of the was disbanded, and the troops and commands were used to form the 6th and 7th armies of the Northern Front.

Military Council

The was headed by a Military Council, which included a military commander and two commissars. The Military Council oversaw the formation of Red Army units and subunits from the local population, which were used in the or sent to other areas.

Military leaders

Political commissars of the

P. P. Torgushin ;
A. I. Kovrigin ;
Mikhail Lashevich ;
Ivar Smilga ;
L. M. Glezarova.