Internal Troops of Russia

The Internal Troops of the Ministry for Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (VV; russian: Внутренние войска Министерства внутренних дел (ВВ), ''Vnutrenniye Voiska Ministerstva Vnutrennikh Del'') was a paramilitary force of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia from 1991 to 2016.

The Internal Troops was a gendarmerie-like force that supported the Russian police, dealt with crowd control during riots and internal conflicts, and guarded highly-important facilities such as nuclear power plants. The Internal Troops was involved in all conflicts and violent disturbances in modern Russia, including and First and Second Chechen Wars, where it fell under direct military command during wartime and fulfilled missions of local defence and rear area security. The Internal Troops consisted of both volunteers and conscripts which caused the number of active service members to fluctuate, with less than 200,000 upon their disestablishment from a peak strength of 350,000, and had experienced a shortage of officers since 1998. The final commander-in-chief of the Internal Troops was Colonel General Viktor Zolotov from 2014 to 2016.

The Internal Troops claimed descent from the Special Corps of Gendarmes of the Russian Empire founded in 1811 and entered their modern form as a paramilitary of the interior ministry of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1918. It was formed from the Russian branch of the Internal Troops of the Soviet Union in 1991 shortly before the dissolution of the Soviet Union. On 5 April 2016, the Interior Troops was officially split from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to form the basis of the National Guard of Russia.

History

Internal Troops of the Russian Empire

The Internal Troops claimed descent from the Separate Corps of Gendarmes of the Russian Empire, which began forming on 27 March 1811 as gendarmerie units of the Imperial Russian Army. The Corps evolved into a uniformed security police agency responsible for law enforcement and state security for most of the 19th century and a small part of the 20th century. The Corps also fell under the command of the Ministry of Police of the Russian Empire and the Guberniya.

Internal Troops of the Soviet Union

The modern Internal Troops of Russia were raised in 1918 by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, one of the main government bodies of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), as a paramilitary force attached to of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, the interior ministry of the RSFSR. In 1919, it was reorganized into the ''Internal Security Forces'' (''Voyska vnutrenney okhrany Respubliki'', VOHR) and transferred to the Cheka, then in 1922 into the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) in 1922. The Cheka and OGPU were the secret police agencies of the RSFSR and later the Soviet Union.

On 28 July 1988, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet when safeguarding public order”, clarifying its role in the cracking USSR. However, the Internal Troops were still a part of the Soviet Armed Forces and this state of affairs pleased no one. The Armed Forces did not want to be seen as a force of internal suppression, especially after the disastrous Afghan War. The MVD was finding itself having to extinguish increasingly frequent and violent hot spots and to cope with growing and increasingly well organised and equipped criminals. For this the MVD needed more fire power. On 21 March 1989, the Presidium decided to take the Internal Troops out of the Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defense and give them to the Internal Affairs Ministry.

Russian Internal Troops

In 1990, the establishment of the RSFSR MVD meant that the Internal Troops in the SFSR were now subordinated to the republican ministry. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991, the Internal Troops of the Soviet Union were reconstituted in the Russian Federation as the Internal Troops of Russia on 23 January 1992, with their last commander as the Soviet force, General-Polkovnik Vasily Savvin, becoming their first commander as a Russian one.
In 1997, 14 controllers of the Internal Troops were arrested for corruption and collaboration with a local clan for having stolen more than 400 kg of gold from an industry of gold in Kasimov, during the Kasimov war.

With the April 2016 foundation of the National Guard of Russia, the Internal Troops were removed from the MVD and dissolved, becoming the National Guard Forces (''Войска национальной гвардии'', ''Voyska Natsionalnoy Gvardi'') which now reported directly to the Security Council of Russia and its chairman, the President of Russia.

Legal basis

The Federal Law No.27-173 was signed into law on 6 February 1997. The law set the operational standards for the Internal Troops of the Russian Federation. The law is entitled "On the Russian Federation Ministry of Internal Affairs Internal Troops". When supporting a state-of-emergency regime, Internal Troops were paid salary increases and additional monetary payments according to federal laws and other legal acts approved by the Minister of Internal Affairs. Article 38 granted senior operational commanders the right to call in subunits of special motorized formations and military units outside their deployment areas for a period of up to one month.

The federal law also detailed the important role that the Russian Ministry of Defense played in the affairs of the MVD's Internal Troops when crises arose. For example, MOD was responsible for providing airliners for supporting Internal Troop activities during emergency situations, and conditions of armed conflicts; carrying out the stockpiling and echelon armaments and military equipment, ammunition, fuel and supplies for the mobilization deployment of the Internal Troops in wartime; and transferring arms and military equipment free of charge to the Internal Troops through support services based on special decisions of the federal government, and rendering assistance in the repair and restoration of damaged arms and military equipment.

General organisation

Despite being subordinated to civilian MVD authority, Internal Troops were a paramilitary force with a centralized system of ranks, command, and service. The Chief Commander and Staff of the troops reported only to Ministry of Internal Affairs, maintaining their separate chain of command. The Chief Commander was concurrently First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs. VV units in the Soviet Union were predominantly formed up of conscripts drafted by the same system as for the Soviet Army. Modern Internal Troops in Russia, as in Ukraine, experienced a slow transition to the contract personnel system. VV officers were trained in both own special academies and the Army's military academies.

The main kinds of Internal Troops were field units, various facility-guarding units, special motorized units, riot control and patrol units, and special forces like Rus. Since the 1980s, spetsnaz units were created within the VV to deal with terrorism and hostage crises. Fields units were essentially light motorized infantry, similar to respective regular army units by their organization and weapons. They and the special forces have been heavily engaged in the armed conflicts in Chechnya and the broader North Caucasus.

Districts and formations

The organization of the Russian Internal Troops comprised headquarters, military units, military training institutions and the institutions for Internal Troops activities, and maintenance and administration bodies. The largest units were located in all major cities.Neil Baumgardner
Russian Armed Forces Order of Battle
see bottom of page.

Internal Troops districts:
* Northwestern District
* Moscow Orshansko-Hingansky Order of the Red Banner District
* North Caucasus District
* Privolzhsky District
* Ural District
* Siberian District
* Eastern District

Military units under direct subordination:
* A separate rapid deployment division ( ODON). This formation, also known as the Dzerzhinsky Division and based near Moscow, was the most well-known formation of the Internal Troops.
* The Central Communications
* Engineering Center
* Intelligence Directorate Internal Troops under the Intelligence Chief-Deputy Chief of Staff of the Internal Troops.

Commanders-in-Chief

Commanders-in-chief of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia since 1991:

* Colonel General Vasily Savvin (1991-1992)
* General of the Army Anatoly Kulikov (1992-1995)
* Colonel-General Anatoly Romanov (1995)
* Colonel-General Anatoly Shkirko (1995-1997)
* Colonel-General Leonty Shevtsov (1997-1998)
* Colonel-General Pavel Maslov (1998-1999)
* Colonel-General Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov (1999-2000)
* General of the Army Vyacheslav Tikhomirov (2000-2004)
* General of the Army Nikolay Rogozhkin (2004-2014)
* General of the Army Viktor Zolotov (2014—2016)

Missions

* Security – to guard "key" state institutions (except for the Kremlin and the highest echelons of the government which are guarded by the Federal Protective Service (FSO)), nuclear facilities, special storage depots and military bases.
* National defence – to conduct rear area security operations and all military operations within national borders, counter-intelligence authority in wartime.
* Prisoner transport – in Soviet times, also guarded and operated the Gulag camps. Today: convict convoyage and transport. Security and operation of prisons have been performed by the Federal Penitentiary Service since its creation in 1994.
* Public order – to assist the Russian Police for riot control operations when OMON units are not available.
* Border control – to assist the Russian Federal Border Service in the protection of the State border of the Russian Federation.
* Military police functions.
* Counter-terrorist operations (VV special forces units such as Vityaz and Rus).
* Possible counterweight to the regular military, especially during the Soviet era.

Equipment

Internal Troops' equipment included:

Transportation

* BTR-80
* BTR-70
* BMP-2
* BRDM-2
* GAZ-2330 Tigr
* BPM-97
* GAZ Vodnik
* Ural-4320
* UAZ-469

Weaponry

* A wide variety of Soviet- and Russian-made small arms and crew-served weapons.

Shoulder patches

See also

* Awards of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia
* National Guard of Russia

References

Further reading

* Galeotti, Mark. "Russia's Interior Troops on the rise." Jane's Intelligence Review 9 (1997): 243-246.

* Galeotti, Mark. ''Russian Security and Paramilitary Forces since 1991''

External links

Russian Internal Troops official website

* https://ponarseurasia.org/wp-content/uploads/attachments/pm_0045-6.pdf

{{Authority control

Defunct gendarmeries
Defunct law enforcement agencies of Russia
Military of Russia
Military units and formations disestablished in 2016
Military units and formations established in 1988
Military units and formations established in 1811