Soviet Guards

Guards (Russian: гвардия) or Guards units (Russian: гвардейские части, gvardeyskiye chasti) were elite military units of Imperial Russia prior to 1917-18. The designation of Guards was subsequently adopted as a distinction for various units and formations of the Soviet Union and the modern Russian Federation. The tradition goes back to the a chieftain's druzhina of medieval Kievan Rus' and the Marksman Troops (Стрелецкое Войско), the Muscovite harquebusiers formed by Ivan the Terrible by 1550. The exact meaning of the term "Guards" varied over time.

In the Russian Empire, Imperial Russian Guard units (also lifguard or life-guard, лейб-гвардия, leyb-gvardiya), derived from German Leibgarde (en: lifeguard or life-guard), were intended to ensure the security of the sovereign, initially, that of Peter the Great in the 1690s. These were based on the Prussian Royal Life Guards. During the 19th century the Imperial Russian Guard regiments were not exclusively composed of Russian troops, but also included Lithuanian, Finnish and Ukrainian units.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Imperial Guards consisted of 13 infantry, 4 rifles and 14 cavalry regiments, artillery, engineers and transport, making up a separate entity within the army of three divisions. During the Brusilov Offensive the 1st and 2nd Guards' numbers were supplemented with line army corp and from September 1916 were known as the 'Special Army'.

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