14th Army involvement in Transnistria
The involvement of the Soviet Army's 14th Guards Army in the conflict in Transnistria was extensive and contributed to the outcome, which left the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic with de facto independence from the Republic of Moldova.
Fourteenth Guards Army was formed as a formation of the Soviet Army circa 1956 from 10th Guards 'Budapest' Rifle Corps, and formed part of the Odessa Military District.[1] In 1990-91 it was headquartered in Tiraspol, in the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic, and 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.[2] According to Russian sources, local Transnistrians made up the great majority of the 14th Guards Army’s soldiers, including 51 percent of the officers and 79 percent of the draftees.[3]
Even before the outbreak of armed conflict in 1992, the 14th Guards Army counted among its officers and enlisted men a number of supporters of Transnistrian independence from Moldova. The commanding officer of the army until 1992, General G. I. Iakovlev, participated in the founding of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR), served in the PMR Supreme Soviet and accepted the position as the first chairman of the PMR Department of Defense.[4]
On 15 January 1992 Iakovlev was replaced as commander of the 14th Army with the more neutral Iurii Netkachev.[5]
On 23 March 1992, the Commander-in-Chief of the CIS Armed Forces, Yevgeny Shaposhnikov, signed a decree authorising the transfer of military equipment of 14th Guards Army units stationed on the right bank of Dniester to the Republic of Moldova. This military equipment had constituted a majority of the materiel utilized by the Moldovan army in the ensuing War of Transnistria. A second decree, issued two weeks later, on 2 April by Boris Yeltsin, transferred the 14th Guards Army under Russian jurisdiction. [6]
While the official policy of the Russian Federation early after the outbreak of widespread armed conflict in 1992 was one of neutrality, many soldiers of the 14th Army had defected to the PMR armed forces and actively participated in the fighting. Furthermore, a considerable amount of the army’s materiel was taken by or given to the PMR armed forces.[7]
With the near disintegration of the army during the heaviest fighting in and around Tighina (Bender/Bendery) during June 1992, Netkachev was quickly replaced with General Aleksandr Lebed. Under the command of Lebed, Russian troops following the orders of the Russian general openly entered the conflict on the side of the PMR separatists and quickly ended the conflict with a massive artillery salvo that obliterated the Moldovan forces concentrated in Gerbovetskii forest.[8] According to at least one Moldovan source, 112 Moldovan soldiers were killed by the unexpected Russian artillery salvo aimed at the Gerbovetskii staging ground.
Since the end of the conflict, Russian forces have remained in the region as a peacekeeping force, but the 14th Guards Army itself was replaced in April 1995 formally by the Operational Group of Russian Forces in Moldova[9], which comes under the command of the Moscow Military District. The force is now around 1500 strong, and according to Kommersant-Vlast in 2005 consisted of the 8th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade, the 1162nd Anti-Aircraft Rocket Regiment, 15th Signals Regiment, and other support units.[10] However, soldat.ru forum discussion in 2006-7 reports that the Brigade itself has been disbanded and replaced by (two?) independent battalions.
See also
Notes
- ^ See also http://politicom.moldova.org/stiri/eng/20998/
- ^ Feskov et al, 2004, The Soviet Army in the period of the Cold War, Tomsk University Press. Other formations, including the 28th, 86th Guards, and 180th Motor Rifle Divisions, were over the border in Ukraine and became part of the Ukrainian Ground Forces.
- ^ Edward Ozhiganov, “The Republic of Moldova: Transdniester and the 14th Army,” in Managing Conflict in the Former Soviet Union: Russian and American Perspectives, Alexei Arbatov, et al. eds. (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1997), 179.
- ^ Anna Volkova, Lider (Tiraspol’: [s.n.], 2001), 56. Available online at: http://www.olvia.idknet.com/soderjanie.htm
- ^ Igor Smirnov, Zhit’ na nashei zemle. (Moscow: Sovetskii pisatel’, 2001), 62.
- ^ Mikhail Bergman, Вождь в чужой шкуре. (Russian)
- ^ The flow of Red Army men and materiel to PMR armed forces was widely reported in the CIS press at the time. See for ex., Nezavisimaya Gazeta, June 18, 1992 trans. in FBIS, June 19, 1992, 63; and Radio Rossii, June 20, 1992, trans. in FBIS, June 22, 1992, 62.
- ^ Kazakov, Anatolii Mikhailovich. Krovavoe leto v benderakh – zapiski pokhodnogo atamana. http://artofwar.ru/k/kazakow_a_m/text_0420.shtml (in Russian)
- ^ http://www.rand.org/pubs/conf_proceedings/CF129/CF-129.chapter4.html
- ^ http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?DocsID=548978, 21 February 2005
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