Russian Ground Forces

The Russian Ground Forces are the land forces of the Russian Federation.

It was formed from parts of the collapsing Soviet Army in 1992. This in turn, posed many economic challenges coupled with reforms to professionalize the force during the transitional phase that Russia had to endure due to the collapse of the Soviet Union. While the Russian Ground Forces in their present form are only 15 years old, Russian officials trace their antecedents' history through the Imperial Russian era back to the time of Kievan Rus.

Since 1992 the Ground Forces have had to withdraw many thousands of troops from former Soviet garrisons abroad, while being extensively committed to the Chechen wars, and peacekeeping and other operations in the Soviet successor states (what is known in Russia as the "near abroad"). Most recently they clashed with Georgian forces in August 2008.

Structure
The ground forces organizationally consist of the military districts (Moscow Military District, Leningrad, North Caucasus, Volga-Ural, Siberian and Far Eastern), eight army headquarters, one army corps headquarters (the 68th in the Far East), tank divisions, motorized rifle divisions, artillery divisions, fortified districts, individual military units, military establishments, enterprises and organizations. The current Siberian Military District was formed by the amalgamation of the Siberian and Transbaikal Military Districts in 1998, and the Volga and Urals Military Districts were amalgamated in 2001.

Ranks and Insignia
The newly reemergent Russia retained most of the ranks of the Soviet Army with some minor changes. The principal difference from the usual Western style is some variation in generals' rank titles, in one case at least, Colonel General, derived from German usage. Most of the rank names were borrowed from existing German/Prussian, French, English, Dutch and Polish ranks upon the formation of Russian regular army in the late 1600s, and have lasted with few changes of title through the Soviet period.