The Siberian Military District was a Military district of the Russian Ground Forces. The district was originally formed as a military district of the Russian Empire in 1864. In 1924 it was reformed in the Red Army. After the end of World War II the district was split into the Western and Eastern Siberian Military Districts. In 1956 the district was reformed. In 2010 it was divided between the two newly formed Central and Eastern Military Districts.
History
The Siberian Military District was originally formed in 1864, as the Western Siberian Military District, being one of the ten original military districts of the Russian Empire. It was renamed the Omsk Military District in 1882, until renamed again Western Siberian Military District in 1918-1919.
The Siberian Military District was created in June 1924 with the consolidation of the Western, Central and Eastern Siberian Military Districts, which had become the Imperial Military Districts in the area. In June 1941 the District was host to the 24th Army, under Lieutenant General Stepan Kalinin, which comprised two Rifle Corps, the 52nd and 53rd. The 52nd, with its headquarters in Novosibirsk along with the 133rd Rifle Division, additionally had the 166th Rifle Division at Barabinsk and the 178th Rifle Division at Omsk. The 53rd Rifle Corps at Krasnoyarsk, where the 119th Rifle Division was stationed, also included the 107th Rifle Division at Barnaul and the 91st Rifle Division at Achinsk.
Among the many, many formations the district raised during the Second World War was the 75th Cavalry Division, formed in September and October 1941.
Immediately after the end of World War II, on July 9, 1945, to facilitate the demobilisation process, the Siberian Military District was divided into the Western and Eastern Siberian Military Districts. The Western Siberian Military District was headquartered at Novosibirsk, and created from HQ 8th Army, covered the Tyumen Oblast, the Omsk Oblast, Novosibirsk, the Tomsk Oblast, the Kemerovo Oblast and Altay. The Eastern Siberian District was located at Irkutsk and created from HQ 50th Army. The Eastern Siberian District was disbanded in 1953 with its region being split between the Western Siberian District and the Transbaikal Military District. On January 4, 1956 the Western Siberian Military District was again renamed the Siberian Military District.
In 1959 the 74th Temryukskaya Red Banner Motor Rifle Division (74-я мотострелковая Темрюкская Краснознамённая дивизия) (в/ч 77087) at Krasnoyarsk was disbanded, with two units joining the 85th Motor Rifle Division.
In 1968 the 33rd Army Corps was transferred into the district from the Turkestan Military District, establishing its headquarters at Kemerovo. The 13th Motor Rifle Division at Biysk was assigned to it. Among the mobilisation divisions formed in the district from the late 1970s was the 167th Motor Rifle Division, whose equipment storage area was co-located with the barracks of the 13th MRD.
The 242nd Motor Rifle Division was established at Abakan in 1972.
In 1974 for their great contributions to the cause of strengthening the defence of the Soviet State and its armed protection, successes in combat and political training, the Transbaikal Military District was rewarded with the Order of Lenin, and the Siberian Military District with the Order of the Red Banner.
The 33rd Army Corps disbanded in July 1991 and its personnel and assets were absorbed by the arriving 28th Army Corps from Czechoslovakia. General Major Nikolai Loktionov remained in command of the merged formation, having been appointed as the 33rd Army Corps commander in June 1991.
In August 1992, the 21st Motor Rifle Division, withdrawn from the 2nd Guards Tank Army in East Germany, was moved to Omsk. In October 1992, the 300th Guards Parachute Regiment of the 98th Guards Airborne Division at Kishinev in the Odessa Military District was split out of the division and sent to Abakan. In the city of Abakan, four years later, the 300th Guards Parachute Regiment was reorganised as the 100th independent Guards Airborne Brigade, but was then disbanded circa 1998.
In 1998, seven years after the fall of the Soviet Union, the District absorbed most of the territory and responsibilities of the former Transbaikal Military District, retaining the name Siberian Military District, but on their merger gave up the vast Sakha Republic (also known as Yakutia) to the expanded Far Eastern Military District.