Baltic Military District

Baltic Military District
Active	11 July 1940 - September 1991
Country	Soviet Union
Type	Military district
Headquarters	Riga
Engagements	World War II
Commanders
Notable commanders	Hovhannes Bagramyan, Aleksandr Gorbatov

The Baltic Military District (Прибалтийский военный округ (ПБВО)) was a military district of the Soviet armed forces in the occupied Baltic states, formed briefly before the German invasion during the World War II. After end of the war the Kaliningrad oblast was added to the District's control in 1946, and the territory of Estonia was transferred back to the Baltic Military District from the Leningrad Military District in 1956. The Baltic Military District was disbanded after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and reorganised into the North Western Group of Forces, which ended its existence after withdrawal of all Russian troops from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on 1 September 1994.

Initially the Baltic Military District was created by order of the USSR People's Commissar of Defence on 11 July 1940, and located in Riga. This was after the Soviet occupation of the Baltic States but before they were forcibly legally absorbed into the Soviet Union. On August, 17th, 1940 it became the Baltic Special Military District.

Personnel of the Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian Armies were incorporated into the Red Army as the 22nd, 24th, and 29th Territorial Rifle Corps respectively. However they were notoriously unreliable and defected in large numbers to the Germans after June 1941.

In 1941 the District (which became the North-Western Front on the outbreak of war) consisted of the:

3rd Mechanised Corps was also located within the district at Vilnius.

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