5th Army (Russia) - Postwar

Postwar

After the victory over Japan, the 5th Army remained in the Far East, and was the most powerful army in the Far East Military District throughout the entire postwar period. After the disbandment of the 9th Mechanised Army and the 25th Army in 1957, 5th Army's composition was supplemented by a whole series of divisions, including the divisions that became, after many redesignations, 277th Motor Rifle Division and 123rd Guards MRD. In the 1970s and 1980s, the 81st Guards MRD and the 199th MRDs became part of the 5th Army. There were also several fortified regions attached. General Igor Rodionov, later the Russian Minister of Defence, commanded the Army from 1983 to 1985.

The 5th Army still exists today, with headquarters at Ussuriysk, but has seen much reorganisation and reductions. On 29 November 2000 the then Far East Military District commander, General Colonel Yuri Yakubov, was reported in Vremya Novostei as saying that only 'four fully-staffed operational regiments and several operational divisions' in the district were combat ready. In addition, the last exercise for reserve divisions was run in 1985. One regiment at Yekaterinoslavka was reported in October 1999 as being the only 100% manned regiment in 35th Army so it could be guessed that during the 1999–2000 time period the remaining three full-strength regiments were with the 5th Army.

In 2007 Russian reports described the army as consisting of the 81st Guards (Bikin) and 121st (Sibirtsevo) Motor Rifle Divisions, the 127th (Segreevka) and 129th (Barabash) MGADs, the 130th Machine-Gun Artillery Division (Lesozavodsk), 20th Rocket Brigade (Spassk-Dalniy) (OTR-21 Tochka SSM), 719th Multiple Rocket Launcher Regiment (Pokrovka), 958th Anti-Tank Artillery Regiment, and other smaller combat and support formations.