The Kiev Military District ( ) (KMD) was a Russian military district of the Imperial Russian Army and subsequently of the Soviet Armed Forces.

History

Imperial Russian Army Formation

The Kiev Military District was a Military District, a territorial division type utilised to provide a more efficient management of army units, their training and other operations activities related to combat readiness.

Commanders

• Alexander Drenteln
• Mikhail Ivanovich Dragomirov
• Vladimir Sukhomlinov
• Nikolai Ivanov

First Red Army Formation

The District was formed after the Russian Revolution and active by 1921.

Order of Battle, 1920

In the early 1920s the District included the following divisions:

• 3rd Crimea Rifle Division
• 7th Chernigov Rifle Division
• 15th Sivashsk Division
• 24th Samaro-Simbirsk Iron Rifle Division
• 25th Chapaev Rifle Division
• 30th Irkutsk Rifle Division
• 44th Kiev Mountain Rifle Division
• 45th Volhynia Rifle Division
• 51st Perekop Rifle Division

In 1935 the eastern half of the Ukrainian Military District became the new Kharkov Military District, and at that point the Kiev Military District was probably reformed as well.

When the German Operation Barbarossa began on 22 June 1941, the then Kiev Special Military District became the Soviet Southwestern Front.

Second Formation

The District was formed again on 25 October 1943, with the Headquarters in Kiev. In June 1946, 7 oblasts of the disbanded Kharkov Military District were added to the Kiev Military District. The District now included the oblasts (provinces) of Kiev, Cherkasy, Uman, Voroshilovgrad, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Stalin, Sumy, Kharkiv and Chernihiv.

Units stationed in the District were 1st Guards Army and 6th Guards Tank Army. 69th Air Army was active from the early 1950s to at least 1964 in the district.(See :ru:Колесник, Василий Артёмович) In 1959 the 17th Air Army was relocated to the District from Mongolia to provide air support. The 60th Corps of the 8th Air Defense Army provided air defense for the District.

Disbanded

In 1991, Colonel General Viktor S. Chechevatov was dismissed as District commander for refusing to take an oath of loyalty to Ukraine.The District was disbanded after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, by 1 November 1992, and its structure utilized as the basis for the new Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and General Staff.

In 1991 the district included 6th Guards Tank Army - Dnipropetrovsk, 1st Guards Army -Chernihiv, 17th Air Army, 8th Air Defense Army and 60th Air Defence Corps.

Commanders

• Colonel General Andrei Grechko - 9 July 1945 - 25 May 1953
• Marshal of the Soviet Union Vasily Chuikov - 26 May 1953 - April 1960
• General of the Army Pyotr Koshevoy - April 1960 - January 1965
• General of the Army Ivan Yakubovsky - January 1965 - April 1967
• General-Polkovnik Viktor Kulikov - April 1967 - 1969
• General-Polkovnik G. Salmanov - April 1969 - 1975
• General-Polkovnik I. Gerasimov - 1975 - 1984
• General-Polkovnik V. Osipov - 1984 - 1989
• General-Polkovnik Boris Gromov - 1989 - January 1990
• General-Polkovnik Viktor Chechevatov - January 1990 - 1991

References