Background
The 14th Guards Army was formed as a unit of the Soviet Army circa 1956 from the 10th Guards 'Budapest' Rifle Corps, formerly part of the Odessa Military District with headquarters in Chişinău.
In the 1980s the army headquarters was moved to Tiraspol, within the then Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic. By 1991, the army was made up of four motor rifle divisions and other smaller units. Only the 59th Guards Motor Rifle Division and some smaller units, including the 1162nd Anti-Aircraft Rocket Regiment were on the left bank of the Dniester in the region of Transnistria. Other formations, including the 28th, 86th Guards, and 180th Motor Rifle Divisions, were over the border in the Ukraine and became part of the Ukrainian Ground Forces. According to the Army sources, local Transnistrians made up the great majority of its soldiers, including 51 percent of the officers and 79 percent of the draftees.
| Formation in 1989 | Formation in 1991-2 (Ukraine) |
|---|---|
| 28th Guards Motor Rifle Division (Chernomorskoe) | 28th Mechanized Brigade |
| 59th Guards Motor Rifle Division (Tiraspol) | Same - under Russian control |
| 86th Guards Motor Rifle Division (Beltsy) | Reduced to storage site and then disbanded |
| 180th Motor Rifle Division (Белгород-Днестровский) | Transferred to Ukraine and disbanded |
Read more about this topic: 14th Army Involvement In Transnistria
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“They were more than hostile. In the first place, I was a south Georgian and I was looked upon as a fiscal conservative, and the Atlanta newspapers quite erroneously, because they didn’t know anything about me or my background here in Plains, decided that I was also a racial conservative.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“... every experience in life enriches one’s background and should teach valuable lessons.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)