51st Mechanized Brigade (Ukraine) - Postwar

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. Its honours and awards were taken over by the 29th Guards Rocket Division of the Strategic Rocket Forces.

In late 1947 the 15th Guards Rifle Division was relocated from the Austrian city of Vladimir-Volyn and Lyuboml. In the postwar years the unit's soldiers helped civilians rebuild postwar economy, harvest, were involved in the construction of irrigation systems in the Kuban and the Crimea. In September 1965, an Order of the Minister of Defense of the Soviet Union commemorating the 51st Guards Rifle Division, which staunchly took the first blows the German-Soviet war, the 15th Guards Rifle Division was given the number "51" and the honorary title of "Perekopskaya", becoming the 51st Guards Motor Rifle Division (second formation). It remained as part of the 13th Army in the Carpathian Military District since the late 1940s (when it was reassigned from the disbanding Fifth Guards Army) until the fall of the Soviet Union.

In 1988 the division comprised the 170th Tank Regiment, 44th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment, 47th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment, 50th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment, 43rd Guards Artillery Regiment, and 59th Anti-Aircraft Rocket Regiment, plus smaller units.

On January 19, 1992 personnel of the division took the oath of allegiance to the Ukrainian people. In September 1999 in the framework of the 800th anniversary of the Volyn-Galician Principality and to mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Division received from the President of Ukraine, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma Battle Flag and the honorary title of "Volyn".

After the fall of the Soviet Union, during the 1990s, the 13th Army 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.

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