2nd Guards Tank Army

Soldier of the 21st Motor Rifle Division at Perleberg, East Germany, in the 1980s

After the war ended the Army, now named Second Guards 'Red Banner' Tank Army, was located with the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany with the staff in Fuerstenberg. However the only wartime formation that continued to serve with the Army was the 16th Guards Tank Division (the former 9th Guards Tank Corps). Although up to the 1970s it had retained of its wartime units – 12th Guards Tank Division (the former 12th Tank Corps) and 35th Motor Rifle Division (former 1st Mechanised Corps),[7] without considering those formations that joined the Army as early as 1946. The three last wartime divisions were replaced at the end of the 1970s – the 94th Guards, 21st (stationed at Perleburg) and 207th Motor Rifle Divisions. It also included the 5th Separate Tank Brigade.[8]

The Army was withdrawn to Samara in the Volga Military District in 1993 and changed its name into 2nd Guards Red Banner Army matching its nature of combined-arms army that same year. It holds the Fighting Banner of the 2nd Guards Tank Army in storage.[9] It was allocated the 16th and 90th Guards Tank Divisions for some years before being disbanded in 1998. 16th Guards Tank Division was reduced to a Guards weapons and equipment storage base in December 1997.[10]

The Army was reformed in 2001 as the 2nd Guards Combined Arms Army from the former Volga MD headquarters[11] and formerly consisted of the 27th Guards Motor Rifle Division and the 201st Motor Rifle Division.

In 2006 the Army conducted a large Command-Staff exercise "Southern Shield – 2006" that included a call up of some 4–5,000 reservists. The exercise proved successful and confirmed the Army's readiness status.,[11] including that of two component divisions which conducted a tactical exercise within the scope of the "Southern Shield – 2006". The tactical exercise was again conducted in 2007 by the 27th Motor Rifle Division. This division, and several other Army sub-units are today entirely staffed by service personnel serving under professional contracts.

A former commander of the 2nd Guards Tank Army, Army General Nikolai Makarov, became Chief of Material of the Armed Forces, Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation, and is now Chief of General Staff.

As of February 2008, the Army's commander was General-Major Oleg Leont'evich Makarevich (former Chief of Staff, 22nd Army, Moscow Military District).

In 2009, the 27th Division at Totskoye was converted into the 21st Guards Motor Rifle Brigade.[12]

One of the army's units is the 15th Separate Guards Berlin Motor Rifle Brigade, in Roshchinsky, Samara Oblast, equipped with BTR (Military Unit Number 90600).[13][12]

The 385th Guards Artillery Brigade was established in August 1981 from the previous 98th Guards Cannon Artillery Regiment. It returned from Planken in East Germany to Totskoye in 1993.[14]

• Lieutenant General Prokofy Romanenko (January – February 1943)
• Lieutenant General Alexei Rodin (February – September 1943)
• Colonel General Semen Bogdanov (September 1943 – July 1944 and January 1945 – 1947)
• Lieutenant General Alexei Radzievsky (July 1944 – January 1945)

• September 2001 – February 2005 Major/Lieutenant General Aleksei Ivanovich Verbitsky
• February 2005 – January 2006 Lieutenant General Aleksandr Igorevich Studenikin
• January 2006 – 2008 Major/Lieutenant General Sergei Ivanovich Skokov
• January 2008 – 2009 Major General Oleg Leontevich Makarevich
• 2009 – June 2010 Major General Hasan Bekovich Kaloev
• June 2010 – January 2014 Major General Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Zhuravlyov
• January 2014 – September 2016 Major/Lieutenant General Igor Anatolyevich Seritsky
• September 2016 – December 2017 Major General Gennady Valeryevich Zhidko
• December 2017 – December 2018 Major General Rustam Usmanovich Muradov
• December 2018 – February 2022 Major/Lieutenant General Andrey Vladimirovich Kolotovkin[15]
• February 2022 – present Major General Vyacheslav Nikolaevich Gurov

• List of Soviet military sites in Germany

• Feskov, V.I.; Golikov, V.I.; Kalashnikov, K.A.; Slugin, S.A. (2013). Вооруженные силы СССР после Второй Мировой войны: от Красной Армии к Советской [The Armed Forces of the USSR after World War II: From the Red Army to the Soviet: Part 1 Land Forces] (in Russian). Tomsk: Scientific and Technical Literature Publishing. ISBN 9785895035306.
• Nebolsin, Igor (2015). Stalin's Favorite: The Combat History of the 2nd Guards Tank Army from Kursk to Berlin. Vol. 1: January 1943–June 1944. Translated by Stuart Britton. Solihull: Helion. ISBN 9781909982154.
• Nebolsin, Igor (2016). Stalin's Favorite: The Combat History of the 2nd Guards Tank Army from Kursk to Berlin. Vol. 2: From Lublin to Berlin, July 1944–May 1945. Translated by Stuart Britton. Solihull: Helion. ISBN 9781910777794.