| The 51st Mechanized Brigade is a formation of the Ukrainian Ground Forces

Ukrainian Ground Forces

The Ukrainian Ground Forces are the land force component of the Military of Ukraine. They were formed from Soviet Army formations, units, and establishments, including three military districts , that were on Ukrainian soil when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990-92.Between the fall of the USSR and...

.

The Brigade drawns its history from the 51st Guards Rifle Division, which was formed from the 76th Rifle Division

76th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)

The Soviet 76th "K. E. Voroshilov" Division known also as the 76th Armenian Mountain Division, was a Soviet infantry fighting unit of the Red Army that fought on the Eastern Front during the Second World War. The 76th was made up primarily of Armenians from the newly established Soviet Socialist...

 mid way through the Second World War. In late 1942 the 76th Rifle Division decimated the German force holding and protecting Kletskaya, a key industrial city with numerous metal works factories. For it, the division was promoted to Guards

Russian Guards

Guards or Guards units were and are elite military units in Imperial Russia, Soviet Union and the Russian Federation. The tradition goes back to the retinue of a knyaz of medieval Kievan Rus' and the streltsy, the Muscovite harquebusiers formed by Ivan the Terrible by 1550...

 (Советская Гвардия) status on November 23, 1942 and became known as the 51st Guards Rifle Division.

Stalingrad, Kursk, the Baltic: 1943–1945

In November 1942, the newly renamed Division was sent back to Stalingrad where it helped encircle and trap the attacking German 6th and 4th Panzer Armies during Operation Uranus

Operation Uranus

Operation Uranus was the codename of the Soviet strategic operation in World War II which led to the encirclement of the German Sixth Army, the Third and Fourth Romanian armies, and portions of the German Fourth Panzer Army. The operation formed part of the ongoing Battle of Stalingrad, and was...

. For its participation in the battle of Stalingrad, the unit was decorated with the Order of Lenin

Order of Lenin

The Order of Lenin , named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union...

. In the summer of 1943, it was sent to complement tanks and other armored vehicles during the Battle of Kursk

Battle of Kursk

The Battle of Kursk took place when German and Soviet forces confronted each other on the Eastern Front during World War II in the vicinity of the city of Kursk, in the Soviet Union in July and August 1943. It remains both the largest series of armored clashes, including the Battle of Prokhorovka,...

 in Ukraine, once again retaking the cities of Belgorod

Belgorod

-Twin towns/sister cities:Belgorod is twinned with: Wakefield, England, United Kingdom Herne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia Opole, Poland Vyshhorod, Ukraine Kharkiv, Ukraine-External links:...

 and Bogodouqovye. From Kursk, the division was sent northward to push back German Army Groups Center and North. Under the command of General Ivan Bagramyan, the 1st Baltic Front commander, it liberated the Belorussian cities of Vitebsk

Vitebsk

Vitebsk, also known as Viciebsk or Vitsyebsk , is a city in Belarus, near the border with Russia. The capital of the Vitebsk Oblast, in 2004 it had 342,381 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth largest city...

 and Polotski. Continuing its advance to the west, the 51st Guards Division took part in pushing Army Group North out of the former Soviet republics the Soviet Union had annexed in 1940, Latvia

Latvia

Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

 and Lithuania

Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

.

Its sacrifice and courage in recapturing Vitebsk were recognized as it was bestowed with the honorary title of Vitebskyan in October 1944. One of the division's artillerymen Aramais Sarkisyan was killed in combat in Belorussia on June 25, 1944 and was recognized as a Hero of the Soviet Union

Hero of the Soviet Union

The title Hero of the Soviet Union was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded personally or collectively for heroic feats in service to the Soviet state and society.-Overview:...

, the highest honorary title for individuals in the Soviet Union. In the Latvian province of the Courland

Courland

Courland is one of the historical and cultural regions of Latvia. The regions of Semigallia and Selonia are sometimes considered as part of Courland.- Geography and climate :...

 peninsula was the final bastion of Army Group Courland

Army Group Courland

Army Group Courland was a German Army Group on the Eastern Front which was created from remnants of the Army Group North, isolated in the Courland peninsula by the advancing Soviet Army forces during the 1944 Baltic Offensive of the Second World War. The army group remained isolated until the end...

. Despite repeated attempts to take the region, the German units resisted and successfully fended off Red Army offensives. In May 1945, the 51st Division was sent to Courland where it managed to isolate the forces remaining at the peninsula. On May 8, 1945 the remainder the garrison surrendered. The 51st division passed through approximately 7,000 kilometers of former Soviet territory and liberated over 600 towns and cities from the Axis occupying forces. Twenty-one men in the division were recognized as Heroes of the Soviet Union.

The division's final wartime honorary title was '51 Guards Rifle Vitebsk Order of Lenin, Red Banner Division Armenian in the name of Voroshilov.'

Postwar

The 51st Guards MRD (first formation) was formed after the Second World War from the 51st Guards Rifle Division but disbanded in the late 1950s in the Baltic Military District

Baltic Military District

The Baltic Military District was a military district of the Soviet armed forces, formed briefly before the German invasion, and then reformed after World War II and disbanded after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991....

.

The 51st Guards Motor Rifle Division seems to have been formed, for the second time, when the 15th Guards MRD was redesignated the 51st Guards MRD in 1965. It remained as part of the 13th Army in the Carpathian Military District

Carpathian Military District

The Carpathian Military District was a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces from 1945 after the conclusion of the Second World War to 1990-91. It became part of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in 1991 and was disbanded by being redesignated the Western Operational Command later in the 1990s.Two...

 since the late 1940s (when it was reassigned from the disbanding Fifth Guards Army) until the fall of the Soviet Union. After the fall of the Soviet Union, during the 1990s, the 13th Army

13th Army (Soviet Union)

The 13th Army was a name given to several field armies of the Soviet Union's Red Army, first created during the Russian Civil War...

 was redesignated the 13th Army Corps.

Some 400 reservists will be added to the brigade's personnel in time of war to bring troop numbers up to war time strength. The median age of the reserves, which in 2005 consisted of 440 officers, sergeants, and soldiers, is 25–30 years old.

Brigade Order of Battle

• 50th Separate Armor Battalion
• 44th Mechanized Regiment
• 47th Mechanized Regiment
• 170th Mechanized Regiment
• 11th Engineer Battalion (Brovary
  Brovary
  Brovary is a city in Kiev Oblast in northern Ukraine, an eastern suburb of the country's capital, Kiev. It is the administrative centre of the Brovarskyi Raion . Brovary is an ancient town, firstly mentioned in 1630. Its name translated from Ukrainian means "brewers"...
  
  )
• 21st Separate Reconnaissance Battalion
• 309th Combat Service Support Battalion
• 43rd Artillery Regiment
• 59th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment
• 25th Signal Battalion
• 24th Field Training Site(Range)

Awards

• 1942 received the Order of Lenin
  Order of Lenin
  The Order of Lenin , named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union...
  
  
• ??? received the Order of the Red Banner
  Order of the Red Banner
  The Soviet government of Russia established the Order of the Red Banner , a military decoration, on September 16, 1918 during the Russian Civil War...
  
   (2)
• ??? received the Order of Suvorov
  Order of Suvorov
  The Order of Suvorov is a Soviet award, named after Aleksandr Suvorov , that was established on July 29, 1942 by a decision of the Presidium of Supreme Soviet of the USSR. This decoration was created to award senior army personnel for exceptional leadership in combat operations...
  
  
• ??? received the Order of Kutuzov
  Order of Kutuzov
  The Order of Kutuzov is a Soviet and Russian military award, named after famous Russian Field Marshal Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov ....
  
  

Sources and references

• Feskov et al., The Soviet Army during the Period of the Cold War, Tomsk
  Tomsk
  Tomsk is a city and the administrative center of Tomsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Tom River. One of the oldest towns in Siberia, Tomsk celebrated its 400th anniversary in 2004...
  
  University, 2004
• http://www.mil.gov.ua/index.php?part=armament&lang=en
• http://www.volyn.com.ua/?rub=32&article=0&arch=657