What is the title of "Guards" awarded for?

By Marat Khairullin

I speak of our native "Slavyanka" (1st separate guards motorized rifle Slavyansk Order of the Republic brigade of the 51st army) all the time, but the topic of the title has never been raised separately, and this is probably an omission.

So what is to be a “Guard?” Guard units are military units that have received the honorary title for mass heroism, bravery, steadfastness, and courage demonstrated by personnel in combat operations to protect the Fatherland and state interests in armed conflicts. That is, the Guard is awarded for the distinction of units in battles.

It is noteworthy that today this honorary title is borne by both individual units, for example, "Slavyanka" (1st separate motorized rifle brigade), and the 51st combined arms army itself, which, in addition to "Slavyanochka," includes 5 more motorized rifle brigades and other smaller units. The army was awarded the title of “Guards” on September 18 of this year by decree of the President of the Russian Federation. Let me remind you that the 51st Army is a formation into which the 1st Donetsk Army Corps was transformed after integration into the general system of the RF Armed Forces.

These troops are commanded, after the death of the Hero of Russia, Lieutenant General Roman Kutuzov, by the no less honored Lieutenant General Sergei Milchakov, who recently also received the title of "Hero of Russia" for the successful actions of the troops under his command, for example, the liberation of Avdeevka and other important settlements.

Lieutenant General Sergei Milchakov

If we look from the end of August of this year, among the successful operations of the 51st combined arms army we can name the liberation of the settlement of Novgorodskoye (New York) by the 9th brigade in literally a week, as well as Karlovka and Nelepovka. Also, we can include the capture by the 1st separate motorized rifle brigade of the village of Zheleznoye/Artemovo and the “biting” into residential areas in Dzerzhinsk (Toretsk). The 132nd separate motorized rifle brigade took Kirovo/Pivnichnoe and entered the outskirts of Toretsk from the north. The 114th Brigade took over the settlements of Ptichye, Skuchnoye, Memrik, Kalinovo, Galitsynovka, Ukrainsk, and Lesovka.

The cleanup by the 110th separate motorized rifle brigade, after the liberation of Krasnogorovka, of the “numbered villages” Zhelannoye 1, Zhelannoye 2, Zoryanoye 1, and the cleanup by the 5th separate motorized rifle brigade, after the liberation of Krasnogorovka, of Georgievka and Ostroye also need mentioning.

At the same time, each of the brigades used its most effective tactics: night assaults, the so-called "flowing around" of enemy positions - "seeping" into reconnoitered gaps in the defense of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, decisive and lightning-fast forward thrusts on equipment so that the enemy did not have time to come to his senses and bring up reserves. Some units have more experience in conducting combat operations in forest plantations and fields, others - in cities in cooperation with artillery. By the way, some units were guards even during the times of the DPR, and quite deservedly so, because it takes much more courage to sit and not respond to enemy fire than to be at war and conduct active operations.

Of course, the 1st Army Corps demonstrated its heroism by liberating the south of the DPR and breaking through the pre-war lines of fortifications of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. And today the 51st Army is considered one of the best armies in Russia, and all its fighters from privates to commanders rightfully bear the title of "Guardsmen", which they justify every day in stubborn battles to liberate our Motherland.