The Taurida Military District was a military district of the Soviet Union. It was formed from the headquarters of the

Separate Coastal Army The Separate Coastal Army (russian: Приморская армия), also translated to English as Independent Coastal Army, was an army-level unit in the Red Army that fought in World War II. It was established on July 18, 1941, by the order o ...

and the 22nd Army in the summer of 1945. The military district controlled troops on the territory of the Crimean, Kherson and

Zaporizhia Oblast Zaporizhzhia Oblast ( uk, Запорі́зька о́бласть, translit=Zaporizka oblast), also referred to as Zaporizhzhia ( uk, Запорі́жжя, links=no), is an oblast (province) of southeast Ukraine. Its capital is Zaporizhzhia. The ...

s. It was disbanded in 1956, being replaced by the

Odessa Military District The Odesa Military District (russian: Одесский военный округ, ОВО; , abbreviated ) was a military administrative division of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In 1998 most of its territory was transformed into the Southern Operat ...

History

The Taurida Military District was formed on 9 July 1945 from the headquarters of the Separate Coastal Army and the 22nd Army in

Simferopol Simferopol () is the second-largest city in the Crimean Peninsula. The city, along with the rest of Crimea, is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine, and is considered the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. However, it is ...

. It controlled troops on the territory of the

Crimean Oblast During the existence of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, different governments existed within the Crimean Peninsula. From 1921 to 1936, the government in the Crimean Peninsula was known as the Crimean Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic; ...

, Kherson Oblast and

, transferred from the Odessa and

Kharkov Military District The Kharkov Military District () was a military district of the Russian Empire, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, and the Soviet Union. Throughout its history, the district headquarters was located in the city of Kharkov in northeast ...

s. Separate Coastal Army commander Lieutenant General Kondrat Melnik took command of the district. In its early years, the district was tasked with demobilizing combat troops, reducing units to peacetime strength, rebuilding military bases,

demining Demining or mine clearance is the process of removing land mines from an area. In military operations, the object is to rapidly clear a path through a minefield, and this is often done with devices such as mine plows and blast waves. By cont ...

, and helping to rebuild the local economy. The 112th Rifle Corps, relocated from Estonia, was initially part of the district with headquarters at Kherson. After its 44th Rifle Division at Melitopol transferred to

Pavlohrad Pavlohrad (, ; , ) is a city and municipality in central east Ukraine, located within the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. It serves as the administrative center of Pavlohrad Raion. Its population is approximately . The rivers of Vovcha (runs through t ...

in the

Kiev Military District The Kiev Military District (; , abbreviated ) was a military district of the Imperial Russian Army and subsequently of the Red Army and Soviet Armed Forces. It was first formed in 1862, and was headquartered in Kiev (Kyiv) for most of its exis ...

, the corps was left with only the 123rd Rifle Division at Kherson. The corps headquarters and the 123rd Rifle Division were disbanded in April 1946. The Separate Coastal Army's 315th and 414th Rifle Divisions at

Kerch Kerch ( uk, Керч; russian: Керчь, ; Old East Slavic: Кърчевъ; Ancient Greek: , ''Pantikápaion''; Medieval Greek: ''Bosporos''; crh, , ; tr, Kerç) is a city of regional significance on the Kerch Peninsula in the east of t ...

and

Dzhankoy Dzhankoi or Jankoy is a town of regional significance in the northern part of Crimea, an internationally recognized ''de jure'' part of Ukraine, but since 2014 a ''de facto'' federal subject of the Russian Federation. It also serves as administrat ...

, respectively, were also part of the district. The 414th soon transferred to

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million p ...

. During the winter and spring of 1946, the

53rd Rifle Corps The 53rd Rifle Corps was a corps of the Soviet Red Army. It was part of the 24th Army. It took part in the Great Patriotic War. After a brief period on occupation duty in Germany after the war ended, the 17th Rifle Division (III Formation) was r ...

arrived from Poland and established its headquarters at Simferopol. It included the 126th, 235th and 263rd Rifle Divisions, based at Simferopol,

Yevpatoriya Yevpatoria ( uk, Євпаторія, Yevpatoriia; russian: Евпатория, Yevpatoriya; crh, , , gr, Ευπατορία) is a city of regional significance in Western Crimea, north of Kalamita Bay. Yevpatoria serves as the administrativ ...

and

Feodosia uk, Феодосія, Теодосія crh, Kefe , official_name = () , settlement_type= , image_skyline = THEODOSIA 01.jpg , imagesize = 250px , image_caption = Genoese fortress of Caffa , image_shield = Fe ...

, respectively. The corps headquarters and the 235th Rifle Division disbanded in July 1946. At the same time the

25th Guards Rifle Corps Fifth is the ordinal form of the number five. Fifth or The Fifth may refer to: * Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as in the expression "pleading the Fifth" * Fifth column, a political term * Fifth disease, a contagious rash th ...

, formerly of the

7th Guards Army The 7th Guards Army was a field army of the Red Army during World War II and of the Soviet Army during the Cold War. History The 7th Guards Army was formed from the 64th Army on April 16, 1943. 64th Army had originally been formed from 1s ...

, arrived with headquarters at

Zaporizhia Zaporizhzhia ( uk, Запоріжжя) or Zaporozhye (russian: Запорожье) is a city in southeast Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper River. It is the administrative centre of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Zaporizhzhia has a populatio ...

from Czechoslovakia. Its

4th Guards Rifle Division The 4th Guards Rifle Division was reformed as an elite infantry division on September 18, 1941, from the 1st formation of the 161st Rifle Division as one of the original Guards formations of the Red Army, in recognition of that division's partici ...

was based at Melitopol and disbanded in summer 1946. The

25th Guards Rifle Division The 25th Guards Rifle Division 'Chapayevskaya' was a division of the Soviet Red Army. The division was reorganised and reformed several times until the collapse of the Soviet Union, when it entered service in the Ukrainian Army as the 25th Mechanis ...

was based at Zaporizhia and soon moved to

Lubny Lubny ( uk, Лубни́, ), is a city in Poltava Oblast (province) of central Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of Lubny Raion (district), the city itself is administratively incorporated as a city of oblast significance and does no ...

, being replaced by the 188th Rifle Division from the

Southern Group of Forces Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, ...

. The 113th Guards Rifle Division was based at Yevpatoriya. In the fall of 1946 the corps headquarters disbanded. In 1946, the district was reorganized. The 126th Rifle Division became the 28th Mechanized Division and four divisions became brigades, the rest being disbanded or transferred. By the spring of 1947, the district included the 28th Mechanized Division, the 7th Separate Rifle Brigade (former 315th Rifle Division), 19th Separate Rifle Brigade (former 263rd Rifle Division), 43rd Separate Guards Rifle Brigade (former 113th Guards Rifle Division) and 52nd Separate Rifle Brigade (former 188th Rifle Division). The 19th Separate Rifle Brigade was disbanded soon after. Following the end of the demobilizations of military units, the district began regular combat training for defense against an amphibious invasion and cooperation with the Black Sea Fleet. Between 1950 and 1953 the divisions became brigades again. In 1955, the 188th was redesignated as the 20th and the 315th as the 52nd. By a directive of 19 April 1956 its territory was assigned to the Odessa Military District and the district was disbanded in a process completed by 1 July. Its headquarters was reformed as the 45th Rifle Corps on 4 April.

Commanders

The military district was commanded by the following officers: * Lieutenant General Kondrat Melnik (9 July 1945–3 June 1946) * Colonel General

Markian Popov Markian Mikhaylovich Popov (; 1902–1969) was a Soviet military commander, Army General (26 August 1943), and Hero of the Soviet Union (1965). Early life Markian Popov was born in 1902 in Ust-Medvediskaya in the Don Host Oblast (now Volgograd ...

(4 June 1946–1 July 1954) * Lieutenant General Sergey Fomenko (2 July–1 September 1954) * Colonel General Ivan Lyudnikov (2 September 1954–4 April 1956)

References

Citations

Bibliography

* *{{Cite encyclopedia, title=Таври́ческий вое́нный о́круг, encyclopedia=Военная энциклопедия в 8 томах ilitary Encyclopedia in 8 volumespublisher=Voenizdat, location=Moscow, date=2003, editor-last=Ivanov, editor-first=Sergei, volume=7, language=ru, isbn=5-203-01874-X, trans-title=Taurida Military District Military districts of the Soviet Union Military units and formations established in 1945 Military units and formations disestablished in 1956