11th Guards Air Assault Brigade
military unit
The 11th Guards Air Assault Orders of Suvorov and Zhukov Brigade is an air assault brigade of the Russian Airborne Forces, currently based at Sosnovy Bor near Ulan Ude in Buryatia. The brigade was first formed in 1968 as the 11th Separate Air Assault Brigade and two of its helicopter regiments fought in the Soviet–Afghan War. Its name and designation was changed several times during its history; in 2015 it received the title Guards from President Vladimir Putin.
History
The brigade was formed as the 11th Separate Airborne Brigade on 1 August 1968 in Mogocha. Along with the 13th Separate Airborne Brigade, it was the first of many Soviet air assault brigades formed in the Cold War. It was formed from the 1st Battalion of the 113th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment of the 38th Guards Motor Rifle Division, which was renamed the 617th Separate Airborne Assault Battalion. The 696th Helicopter Regiment, 656th Separate Communications Company and the 49th Separate Airfield Technical Support company combined to form the 211th Aviation Group. The 618th and 619th Separate Airborne Assault battalions were formed from two battalions of the 52nd Motorized Rifle Division in Nizhneudinsk. The 284th Independent Artillery Battalion was formed in Mogocha during the same month. The 617th, 618th and 619th Separate Airborne Assault Battalions (OVSHB) became air assault battalions (ODSHB) in April 1969.
“11th Guards Air Assault Brigade” enters the record as military unit. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what 11th, Guards and Assault can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18394938. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1968, 2015 and 1969.
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This entry incorporates text from “11th Guards Air Assault Brigade” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.