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Russia recreates Taman and Kantemyrovskaya divisions

The divisions receive back their historical names, and they will take part in the upcoming Victory Day Parade on Red Square

Photo ITAR-TASS

Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, May 4 (Itar-Tass) - Russias’ Defence Minister has issued an order to recreate earlier disbanded Taman and Kantemyrovskaya divisions, the defence ministry’s press service reported on Saturday.

The bases for their formation are, respectively, the 5th Separate Motorized and the 4th Tank Brigade, which will include a number of other military units. The divisions receive back their historical names, and they will take part in the upcoming Victory Day Parade on Red Square, where they will carry their new military banners.

Currently, the personnel of these compounds are receiving new weapons and military equipment, the ministry said.

The Taman Division was formed in July 1940. During the Great Patriotic War, it took part in the famous Battle of Smolensk in 1941. Then, it participated in the Orel-Bryansk defence operation, in battles of Kursk and Tim, in the battle for the Caucasus, in the Novorossiisk-Taman, Kerch-Eltigensky, Crimea, Belarus, Baltic and East-Prussian operations. The division finished its fighting way on April 17, 1945 on the Samland Peninsula.

In 1999, the division took part in the anti-terrorist operation in Chechnya as a part of the Joint Group of Federal Forces in the North Caucasus.

In the course of the military reform in May 2009, the division was reorganised into the 5th Motorized Rifle Brigade of the Moscow Military District.

The Kantemyrovskaya division was formed in June of 1942 in Stalingrad. Its first fight was during the liberation of the village Kantemirovka, after which the division gets its name; it participated in the battle near the Middle Don, in the Belgorod-Kharkov sector of the Kursk Bulge, during liberation of a number of cities of the right-bank Ukraine. Its forces were among the first of those who reached the Elbe River, they participated in the capture of Dresden, made a rapid raid in Czechoslovakia and ended up their fighting mission in the outskirts of Prague.

The soldiers participated in the peacekeeping operations in South Ossetia, in Kosovo, and in the counter-terrorist operation in Chechnya.

In the course of the military reform of 2008-2009, it was reformed into the 4th Independent Tank Brigade.

The Defence Ministry said that, as part of the orders from the Russian president, contained in his annual address to the Federal Assembly, the defence authority revives the names and the other most famous regiments, military units of the previous eras.

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