18th Guards Motor Rifle Division

Infobox Military Unit
unit_name= 133rd Rifle Division (I Formation) (1939-42)
18th Guards Rifle Division (1942-45)
30th Guards Mechanised Division (1957-1965)
18th Guards Motor Rifle Division (1965-present(?))


caption=
dates= 1939 - Present
country= Russia
allegiance=
branch= Russian Ground Forces
type= Division or brigade
role= Motor Rifle
size=
command_structure=
current_commander=
garrison=
ceremonial_chief=
colonel_of_the_regiment=
nickname=
patron=
motto=
colors=
march=
mascot=
decorations=
battles= East Prussian Offensive
notable_commanders=
anniversaries=The 18th Guards Motor Rifle Division was formed originally as 133rd Rifle Division at Novosibirsk in 1939, redesignated as 18th Guards Rifle Division in 1942 with the 51, 53, 58 Guards Rifle Regiments and 52 Guards Artillery Regiment. The division fought in the East Prussian Offensive. The unit became 30th Guards Mechanised Division in 1945 as part of the 11 Guards Army. In 1965 it was renumbered as 18th Guards MRD. It seems to have been stationed in the Kaliningrad enclave with 11th Guards Army before entering Czechoslovakia in 1968, joining the Central Group of Forces.

In 1991 the Division was withdrawn back to Gusev in the Kaliningrad Oblast. The Division is now at cadre strength, as part of the third-line reserves of the Russian Ground Forces. However there is one Russian chat-forum report that the Division has been reorganised as 79th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade. [http://www.soldat.ru/forum/frame.html?gb=3&page=56&id=26462&referer_query=gb%3D3%26page%3D56 , August 2006] As the 280th Guards MR Regiment was the last reported unit in the area, in 2002, the 79th Brigade may have inherited its awards and honorific names.

tructure (1990s)

*210th Motor Rifle Regiment;
*275th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment;
*278th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment;
*280th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment;
*52nd Guards Artillery Regiment;

Honorifics are Insterburgskaya Krasnoznamennaya of Order of Suvorov.

ources

*Feskov et al, The Soviet Army in the period of Cold War, Tomsk University Press, Tomsk, 2004