, image = Great emblem of the 56th Guards Air Assault Brigade.svg , dates = 1943–present , country = (1943–1991)
, branch = Great emblem of the Russian Airborne Troops

Great emblem of the Russian Airborne Troops

Airborne Troops , type = Airborne forces , size = Brigade , garrison = Feodosia, Crimea, Ukraine , battles =

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

* Battle of the Dnieper * Vienna Offensive

Soviet–Afghan War The Soviet–Afghan War was a protracted armed conflict fought in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. It saw extensive fighting between the Soviet Union and the Afghan mujahideen (alongside smaller groups of anti-Soviet ...

First Chechen War The First Chechen War, also known as the First Chechen Campaign,, rmed conflict in the Chechen Republic and on bordering territories of the Russian FederationФедеральный закон № 5-ФЗ от 12 января 1995 (в реда� ...

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 ...

, decorations =

Order of the Patriotic War The Order of the Patriotic War (russian: Орден Отечественной войны, Orden Otechestvennoy voiny) is a Soviet military decoration that was awarded to all soldiers in the Soviet armed forces, security troops, and to partisan ...

, 1st class , battle_honours = Don Cossack , commander1 = , notable_commanders =

Vitaly Raevsky Vitaliy Anatoliovich Raevskiy (February 25, 1949 – 17 November 2014) was a Ukrainian major general of the reserves, who formerly formed and commanded all of the Ukrainian Airmobile Forces and before then was in the Soviet Airborne Troops. Earl ...

The 56th Guards Air Assault Regiment is an airborne regiment of the

Russian Airborne Troops The Russian Airborne Forces (russian: Воздушно-десантные войска России, ВДВ, Vozdushno-desantnye voyska Rossii, VDV) are the airborne forces branch of the Russian Armed Forces. It was formed in 1992 from units of ...

. Based at Feodosia in

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

, the regiment is part of the

7th Guards Mountain Air Assault Division , image = Great emblem of the 7th Guards Mountain Air Assault Division.svg , image_size = 200 , caption = 7th Guards Mountain Air Assault Division great emblem , dates ...

. It was formed in 2021 from the 56th Guards Airborne Brigade, based at Kamyshin. The brigade was first formed in 1979 and fought in the

, the First Chechen War and the

History

The 56th Separate Guards Air Assault Brigade was formed on 1 October 1979 in Chirchiq from the disbanded

105th Guards Airborne Division The 105th Guards Airborne Division () was an airborne division of the Soviet Airborne Troops. The division was originally formed as the 12th Guards Airborne Division as part of the 38th Guards Airborne Corps in December 1943. In December 1944, i ...

's 351st Guards Airborne Regiment. The new brigade inherited battle honors from that unit. On 13 December, the brigade was transferred to Termez in preparation for deployment to

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. On 27 December, the brigade's 4th Airborne Battalion crossed the Afghan border and secured Salang Pass. The 3rd Air Assault battalion was airlifted by helicopter into Afghanistan and captured Rabat-Mirza-Kushka Pass on the next day. Between 13 and 14 January 1980, the brigade crossed the border and concentrated at Kunduz. At the same time, the 3rd Air Assault Battalion moved to

Kandahar Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a List of cities in Afghanistan, city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population ...

. In February, the 4th Airborne Battalion was transferred to Charikar but was moved back to Kunduz in the same year. The 2nd Air Assault Battalion was attached to the

70th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade The 70th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade was a Soviet Ground Forces mechanized infantry brigade of the Soviet–Afghan War. During the war, it was based in Kandahar. First Formation The brigade was formed on 1 March 1980 in Kandahar from the ...

in March. In December 1981, the brigade was moved to

Gardez , settlement_type =City , image_skyline =gardez_paktya.jpg , imagesize = , image_caption =The Bala Hesar fortress in the center of Gardez City , image_flag = , flag_size = , image_sea ...

. The brigade was reequipped with the BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle in 1985. On 5 April, it was awarded the

1st class. It fought in Operation Magistral from December 1987 to January 1988. In June 1988, the brigade crossed the border back into

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the sout ...

during the

Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan The final and complete withdrawal of Soviet combatant forces from Afghanistan began on 15 May 1988 and ended on 15 February 1989 under the leadership of Colonel-General Boris Gromov. Planning for the withdrawal of the Soviet Union (USSR) from t ...

. After its return from Afghanistan, the brigade was based in

Ýolöten Ýolöten (russian: Ёлoтен, tk, یوْلؤتن Ёлөтен) is a city and capital of Ýolöten District, Mary Province, Turkmenistan. The city is located in the delta of the Murghab River, 55 kilometers southeast of Mary. It was granted the ...

The brigade became the 56th Guards Airborne Brigade in 1989. In January and February 1990, the brigade was deployed to

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

to patrol the border as a result of the

Baku pogrom The Baku pogrom ( hy, Բաքվի ջարդեր, ) was a pogrom directed against the ethnic Armenian inhabitants of Baku, Azerbaijan SSR. From January 12, 1990, a seven-day pogrom broke out against the Armenian civilian population in Baku during ...

. On 1 June, the brigade was transferred to the Soviet airborne and renamed the 40th Separate Airborne Brigade. The newly renamed brigade was transferred to

Fergana Fergana ( uz, Fargʻona/Фарғона, ), or Ferghana, is a district-level city and the capital of Fergana Region in eastern Uzbekistan. Fergana is about 420 km east of Tashkent, about 75 km west of Andijan, and less than 20 km fr ...

a week later to conduct security operations. After the

Dissolution of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

, the brigade was moved to the

North Caucasus The North Caucasus, ( ady, Темыр Къафкъас, Temır Qafqas; kbd, Ишхъэрэ Къаукъаз, İṩxhərə Qauqaz; ce, Къилбаседа Кавказ, Q̇ilbaseda Kavkaz; , os, Цӕгат Кавказ, Cægat Kavkaz, inh, ...

in Karachay-Cherkessia. The brigade was given the designation Don Cossack on 22 April 1994. Between December 1994 and October 1996, the brigade fought in the

. In 1997, it was renamed the 56th Guards Airborne Regiment. In August 1999, a battalion sized task force of the regiment was deployed to fight in the

. After being withdrawn from Chechnya in November 2004, the regiment once again became the 56th Guards Airborne Brigade on 1 May 2009 and in July 2010 was designated as the 56th Guards Airborne Brigade (Light). In 2013, it became part of the

. In January 2016, VDV commander General Colonel Vladimir Shamanov announced that a new range near Kamyshin would be built in the spring of that year due to the higher intensity of combat training. In 2021 it was indicated that the brigade would be redeployed to Crimea and reformed as a regiment. In mid-2021 it relocated from Kamyshin in

Volgograd Oblast Volgograd Oblast (russian: Волгогра́дская о́бласть, ''Volgogradskaya oblast'') is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (an oblast) of Russia, located in the Volga region, Volga region of Southern Russia. Its adminis ...

, Russia to Feodosia in Crimea. These circumstances explain a lot of the poor facilities, chaos, and undermanning described in Pavel Filatyev's memoir text. In November, 2021 it was confirmed that the new regiment would become a component of the 7th Guards Mountain Air Assault Division effective as of December 2021.

Component Units 2021

* Airborne battalion * 2nd Air assault battalion * 3rd Air assault battalion * Tank battalion * Reconnaissance battalion * Artillery battalion * Anti-aircraft battery * Anti-tank battery * Rifle (sniper) company * Electronic warfare company * Signals company * Engineer company * Landing support company * Medical company * Maintenance company * Material support company * RCB company * Brigade command company

Commanders

* Alexander Petrovich Plokhikh (1980–1981) * Mikhail Karpushkin (1981–1982) * Viktor Arsentevich Sukhin (1982–1983) * Viktor Matveevich Chizhikov (1983–1985) *

(1985–1987) * Valery Evnevich (1987–1990) * Alexander Sotnik (1990–1995) * Sergei Mishanin (1995–1996) * Rustam Aliev Stepanenko (1996–1997) * Pavel Kirsi * Igor Timofeyev * Alexander Vitalievich Lebedev (2012–2014) * Alexander Valitov (August 2014–March 2018) * Colonel Yevgeny Nikolayevich Tonkikh (March 2018–March 2020) * Colonel Andrey Vladimirovich Kondrashkin (March 2020–present)

References

{{Russian Airborne Troops Regiments of the Russian Airborne Troops Military units and formations of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine