, image = , dates = 1 December 1997present , country = , branch = , type =

Mechanized infantry Mechanized infantry are infantry units equipped with armored personnel carriers (APCs) or infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) for transport and combat (see also mechanized force). As defined by the United States Army, mechanized infantry is di ...

, command_structure =

6th Combined Arms Army The 6th Army is a field army of the Red Army and the Soviet Army that was active with the Russian Ground Forces until 1998. It appears to have been reformed in 2010 as the 6th Combined Arms Army. It was first formed in August, 1939 in the Kiev S ...

Western Military District The Western Military District (russian: Западный военный округ, Zapadnyy voyennyy okrug) is a Military districts of Russia, military district of Russia. It is one of the five military districts of the Russian Armed Forces, ...

, garrison = Kamenka,

Leningrad Oblast Leningrad Oblast ( rus, Ленинградская область, Leningradskaya oblast’, lʲɪnʲɪnˈgratskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ, , ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). It was established on 1 August 1927, a ...

, battles =

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

, decorations = , battle_honours = , current_commander = Colonel (Guards) Sergei Maksimov , identification_symbol = , identification_symbol_label = The 138th Guards Separate Motor Rifle Brigade (138th MRB) (russian: 138-я отдельная гвардейская мотострелковая бригада) is a

formation Formation may refer to: Linguistics * Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes * Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes Mathematics and science * Cave formation or speleothem, a secondar ...

of the

Russian Ground Forces The Russian Ground Forces (russian: Сухопутные войска �ВSukhoputnyye voyska V}), also known as the Russian Army (, ), are the land forces of the Russian Armed Forces. The primary responsibilities of the Russian Ground Forces ...

. It is stationed in the

, in the village of

Kamenka, Vyborgsky District, Leningrad Oblast Kamenka (russian: Ка́менка; fi, Kaukjärvi) is a rural locality (a logging depot settlement) in Vyborgsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, it is located on the Karelian Isthmus to the west of Kirillovskoye railway station. Populati ...

. It is Military unit No. 02511. It includes various components: air defense, artillery battalion, infantry and tank battalions.

45th Guards Rifle Division

The brigade traces its history to the 45th Guards Rifle Division of the Second World War. The 45th Guards Rifle Division was formed from the

70th Rifle Division The 70th Rifle Division () was an infantry division of the Red Army and briefly of the Soviet Army, formed twice. Formed in 1934 at Samara, the division was transferred to the Leningrad Military District in the late 1930s and fought in the Wint ...

, and fought near

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, in

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

and Kurland. The division was with the

6th Guards Army The 6th Guards Army was a Soviet Guards formation which fought against Nazi Germany during World War II under the command of General Ivan Chistyakov. The Army's chief of staff was General Valentin Antonovich Penkovskii. The 6th Guards Army was ...

of the Kurland Group,

Leningrad Front The Leningrad Front (russian: Ленинградский фронт) was formed during the 1941 German approach on Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) by dividing the Northern Front into the Leningrad Front and Karelian Front The Karelian Front ...

in May 1945. On 25 June 1957 the 45th Guards Rifle Division became the 45th Guards Motor Rifle Division. In December 1997 the 45th Guards Krasnosel'skaya, Order of Lenin Red Banner Motor Rifle Division named for A.A. Zhdanov became the 138th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade.

138th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade

In 1994-1995 a force from the 129th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment with 45 T-80 tanks was deployed to

Groznyy Grozny ( rus, Грозный, p=ˈgroznɨj; ce, Соьлжа-ГӀала, translit=Sölƶa-Ġala), also spelled Groznyy, is the capital city of Chechnya, Russia. The city lies on the Sunzha River. According to the 2010 census, it had a pop ...

. The brigade was deployed for operations during the

Second Chechen War The Second Chechen War (russian: Втора́я чече́нская война́, ) took place in Chechnya and the border regions of the North Caucasus between the Russia, Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, from Augus ...

, in which, along with other

units, its personnel was reported to have behaved badly at times. A 22-year-old woman in Ingushetia was shot by drunken soldiers from the brigade scavenging for alcohol. The deployment of a tank battalion of the brigade was apparently halted when it was discovered that soldiers had been selling the explosive from their tanks'

reactive armour Reactive armour is a type of vehicle armour that reacts in some way to the impact of a weapon to reduce the damage done to the vehicle being protected. It is most effective in protecting against shaped charges and specially hardened kinetic ener ...

. In March 2010 Leningrad Military District commander General Lieutenant Nikolai Bogdanovskiy said, regarding problems with the command and violence in the 138th at Kamenka: “. . . we haven’t managed to complete fully tasks connected with discipline–in particular, in the 138th Kamenka Brigade the commander, chief of staff, and assistants for armaments and socialization work were dismissed because of events there. Now the situation is normalising, we are trying not to repeat past mistakes.” The 45th Guards Motor Rifle Division was a separate formation from the

45th Rifle Division (Soviet Union) The 45th Rifle Division was a Red Army infantry division formed originally during the Russian Civil War that fought in World War II and then served through the Cold War in the Leningrad Military District. The division was originally formed 16 Ju ...

- ''not'' a

Guards unit Guards units (russian: Гвардия, translit=Gvardiya) were elite units and formations in the Soviet Armed Forces that continue to exist in the Russian Armed Forces and other post-Soviet states. These units were awarded Guards status after ...

- that was the predecessor to the district's 200th Motor Rifle Brigade, based at Pechenga in

Murmansk Oblast Murmansk Oblast (russian: Му́рманская о́бласть, p=ˈmurmənskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ, r=Murmanskaya oblast, ''Murmanskaya oblast''; Kildin Sami: Мурман е̄ммьне, ''Murman jemm'ne'') is a federal subject (an oblast) of ...

. According to the Finnish newspaper ''

Helsingin Sanomat ''Helsingin Sanomat'', abbreviated ''HS'' and colloquially known as , is the largest subscription newspaper in Finland and the Nordic countries, owned by Sanoma. Except after certain holidays, it is published daily. Its name derives from that of ...

'' article, two battle groups of approximately 800 men each from the brigade had been sent to participate in the

. According to ''Helsingin Sanomat'', social media sources claim the brigade fighting in Battle of Kharkiv. Local inhabitants of Kamenka interviewed by ''Helsingin Sanomat'' claim the brigade has suffered losses and hundreds of soldiers were wounded; however, the paper was unable to verify the claims. On 20 March 2022, Ukraine claimed that 10 servicemen in the 138th were being investigated for refusing to fight and encouraging others in the unit to return home. Elements of the brigade were routed in the Battle of Kharkiv and were withdrawn into Russia.

Commanders

# Major-General Mikhail Malofeyev (21.11.1997 – 15.7.1999) # Major General Igor Turchanyuk (05.8.1999 – 07.7.2000) # Colonel Bagir Yusuf oglu Fatulayev (temporarily filled the post of 08.07.2000 – 21.09.2000) # Major General Anatoli Elkin (22.9.2000 – 22.02.2002) # Major General

Andrey Serdyukov Andrey Nikolaevich Serdyukov (; born 4 March 1962) is a Russian Armed Forces colonel general and commander of the Russian Airborne Troops from 2016 to 2022. Serdyukov served in the Soviet Airborne Forces as a junior officer and rose to battalion ...

(temporarily filled the post in 10.03.2002, has been appointed 11.7.2002 – 09.6.2004) # Major-General Vladimir Genrikhovich Tsilko (22.6.2004 – 14.6.2005) # Colonel Alexander Romanenko (14.6.2005 – 24.4.2008) # Colonel Vladimir Frolov (temporarily filled the post of 25.4.2008 – 19.6.2008) # Colonel Alibek Navruzbekovich Aslanbek (20.6.2008 – 10.2009 ) # ... # Colonel (Guards) Sergei Maksimov (since 2021)

Notes

External links

*http://russiandefpolicy.wordpress.com/2009/12/10/ - hazing incidents in 2009 *https://russiandefpolicy.blog/2019/11/13/krasnoselskaya-brigade/ - sketch profile, 2019 {{Brigades of the Russian Ground Forces Mechanised infantry brigades of Russia Military units and formations of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine