The Order of Lenin Leningrad Military District () is a military district of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The district was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1968. In 2010, it was merged with the Moscow Military District, the Northern Fleet and the Baltic Fleet to form the new Western Military District. In December 2022, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu proposed to reestablish it along with the Moscow Military District, a decision confirmed in June 2023 by Deputy Chief of the General Staff Yevgeny Burdinsky. On December 17, 2023, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced plans to recreate the Leningrad Military District as a reaction to Finland joining NATO. The district was formally reconstituted on 26 February 2024 by a Presidential Decree No.141, transferring the Northern Fleet under its command.
It is one of five military districts of the Russian Armed Forces, with its jurisdiction primarily within the western central region of European Russia. The Leningrad Military District contains 11 federal subjects of Russia: the Republic of Karelia, the Komi Republic, Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Kaliningrad, Leningrad, Murmansk, Novgorod and Pskov oblasts, Saint Petersburg, and the Nenets Autonomous District. Additionally, the command contains most of Russia's islands in the Arctic Ocean, including those located in federal subjects not within the district. It lies in the Northwestern Federal District.
Military units of the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB Border Service of Russia, as well as units of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and other ministries and departments of the Russian Federation performing tasks on the territory of the district are under its operational subordination.
Colonel General Aleksandr Lapin took over as the new district's commander on 16 May 2024. On 21 September 2025, Colonel General Yevgeny Nikiforov was appointed as commander of the Leningrad Military District instead of Lapin.
History Early history The district was founded in 1864 as the Petersburg Military District in the Russian Empire during the military district reform of that year. After World War I began Saint Petersburg was renamed Petrograd and the district also changed its name to the Petrograd Military District.
The Leningrad Military District was originally formed as the Petrograd Military District after the October Revolution of 1917 up to the beginning of the formation of the Red Army. The Petrograd District was reestablished as a part of the Red Army (RKKA) by an order of the Highest Military Council of 6 September 1918. On 1 February 1924, the Petrograd military district was renamed the Leningrad Military District when the city was renamed Leningrad. The district included Leningrad, Pskov, Novgorod, Olonets, Cherepovets, and Murmansk Governorates and the Karelian SSR. In 1927 the governorates were merged into the new Leningrad Oblast, with the territory of the district remaining the same between the wars.
By 1935 the district included the 1st Rifle Corps at Novgorod with the 16th and 56th Rifle Divisions, and the 19th Rifle Corps at Leningrad with the 4th Turkestan and 20th Rifle Divisions. The 19th Rifle Corps also included the Separate Karelian Rifle Brigade and Separate Murmansk Rifle Regiment.
Markian Popov was appointed District Commander in 1939. Its main purpose was the defence of the Kola Peninsula and the northern shores of the Gulf of Finland. On the right flank it bordered with the Arkhangelsk Military District, on the left — with the Baltic MD. Among the defensive works started in the 1930s to protect the frontiers was the Karelian Fortified Region.
World War II The Winter War of 1939–40 with Finland prompted a close examination of the combat performance of the District's troops, and for the better control of the 7th and 13th Armies the North-Western Front was formed from the staff of the District on 7 January 1940. Three and a half months later the Front was dissolved back into the District headquarters.
On June 9, 1940, directive 02622ss/ov was given to the District by Semyon Timoshenko to be ready by June 12 to (a) capture the vessels of the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian Navy in their bases and/or at sea; (b) Capture the Estonian and Latvian commercial fleet and all other vessels; (c) Prepare for an invasion and landing in Tallinn and Paldiski; (d) Close the Gulf of Riga and blockade the coasts of Estonia and Latvia in Gulf of Finland and Baltic Sea; (e) Prevent an evacuation of the Estonian and Latvian governments, military forces and assets; (f) Provide naval support for an invasion towards Rakvere; (g) Prevent the Estonian and Latvian airplanes flying either to Finland or Sweden.*Petrov, Pavel (2008) (in Estonian, translated from Russian). Punalipuline Balti Laevastik ja Eesti 1939–1941. Tänapäev. . p. 154
On 22 June 1941 the District comprised the 7th Army, the 14th Army, the 23rd Army, the 1st Mechanised Corps (-), 177th Rifle Division, 191st Rifle Division, 8th Rifle Division, the 21st, 22nd, 25th, 29th Fortified Regions, Air Forces (six aviation divisions, including the 1st, 2nd, 5th, 39th, 41st, and 55th), and other formations and units.
Two days after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, on 24 June 1941, the District was reorganised as the Northern Front, and two months later, on 23 August 1941, it was split into the Leningrad and Karelian Fronts. The Front's forces efforts played a major part in resisting the German attacks during the Siege of Leningrad.
By the joint efforts of troops of the Leningrad Front, Volkhov Front, and the 2nd Baltic Front during January 1944 the Leningrad–Novgorod Offensive ended the siege of the city. Pressing home the attack, the forces of the Leningrad Front in summer and in the fall of 1944 helped seize Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The Front was reorganized under the Leningrad District into a peacetime status on 9 July 1945. Marshal Leonid Govorov took command shortly afterwards.
Cold War
The reestablished district was responsible for the Estonian SSR, Leningrad, Pskov, and Novgorod Oblasts. Initially the district controlled two combined arms armies: the 10th Guards in Estonia and the 23rd on the Karelian Isthmus. The 10th Guards Army was reduced to the 4th Guards Rifle Corps in April 1948, and that of the 23rd Army disbanded as a result of the postwar demobilization. The district was thus left with the 4th Guards Rifle Corps, the 30th Guards Rifle Corps, the 2nd Guards Tank Division, and the 1st and 2nd Machine Gun Artillery Divisions. Control of forces in the Estonian SSR, which included the 4th Guards Rifle Corps with three divisions, was transferred to the Baltic Military District on 27 January 1956.
By 1946 the 2nd Guards Artillery Division had arrived at Pushkin, which would be its headquarters for nearly the next fifty years.Michael Holm, 2nd Guards Artillery Division The 13th Air Army was the district air force component and was redesignated as the 76th Air Army in 1949. General-Colonel of Aviation Fyodor Polynin was the first commander of the 76th Air Army. Apart from a brief period when the air army was redesignated the Air Forces of the Leningrad Military District from 1980 to 1988, the 76th Air Army would be active in the region until 1998.
In Arkhangelsk, Arkhangelsk Oblast, the 44th Special Rifle Corps was activated on 22 June 1956 from HQ Arkhangelsk Military District.
The 2nd Guards Tank Division was transferred to the district from the Estonian SSR in 1958, based at Garbolovo and Vladimirsky Lager.
In June 1957 44th Special Rifle Corps was renamed the 44th Special Army Corps. Three years later it comprised the 69th and 77th Motor Rifle Divisions. In August 1961, it was renamed the 44th Army Corps.
In May 1960 the Northern Military District, controlling forces in the Karelian and Komi ASSRs, and Arkhangelsk, Murmansk and Vologda Oblasts, was subsumed into the Leningrad Military District. Accordingly, Headquarters Northern Military District became Headquarters 6th Combined Arms Army. That year, the 37th Guards Motor Rifle Division of the 30th Guards Army Corps was reorganized as the district's motor rifle training division, returning to its wartime designation as the 63rd Guards in 1964. In the late 1960s the 14th Separate Machine Gun Artillery Regiment of the 30th Guards Army Corps was used to create the mobilization 37th Motor Rifle Division.
In 1962 the troops of the district participated in Operation Anadyr, the Soviet military deployment to Cuba that resulted in the Cuban Missile Crisis. As a result of tensions with China in the late 1960s, the headquarters of the 44th Army Corps, 2nd Guards Tank Division, the 279th Motor Rifle Regiment of the 54th Motor Rifle Division and other units were sent to the Far East. In 1967 the 44th Army Corps was moved to the Transbaikal Military District and established its headquarters at Ulan Ude. New units were formed to replace them, with the 26th Army Corps headquarters replacing the 44th, and a reshuffling of units to replace the 279th Regiment: the 221st Guards Motor Rifle Regiment of the 77th Guards Motor Rifle Division replaced the 279th in the 54th Motor Rifle Division. In turn the new 481st Motor Rifle Regiment was formed to complete the 77th Guards. During the 1970s and 1980s the 6th Combined Arms Army and the 30th Guards and 26th Army Corps were based in the territory of the district.
General, later Marshal, Sergei Sokolov assumed command in 1965. Marshal Sokolov later became the Minister of Defence in 1984. On 22 February 1968, in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the Soviet Army and for its successes in combat and in political training, the District was awarded the Order of Lenin.
On 3 June 1968 the District was placed on alert. The Norwegian Army raised its alert levels in response. Within a couple of days the mobilized forces in the Leningrad region reached 11,000 soldiers, 4,000 naval infantry, 210 tanks, 500 troop transports, 265 self-propelled cannons, 1,300 logistics transports, 50 helicopters and 20 Antonov An-12 transport aircraft, all of which were staged in the Petchenga-Murmansk area near Norway. On the evening of 7 June, the Norwegian Garnisonen i Sør-Varanger garrison heard the noise of powerful engines coming from the manoeuvres along the entire Soviet front of the Norwegian-Soviet border. Actual observations were not possible over the border in the dark. On that same night the GSV commanding officer ordered all GSV reserve forces to report to their emergency muster locations. The Soviet demonstration of strength lasted until 10 June, when the Soviet forces stood down.
In 1979, Scott and Scott reported the headquarters address as Leningrad, L-13, Pod'ezdnoy Per., Dom 4.
In 1988 the district's forces were reported as consisting of the 6th Army (Petrozavodsk) with the 54th (Alakurtti), 111th (Sortavala) and 131st Motor Rifle Divisions, plus three zero-strength mobilisation divisions at Petrozavodsk, Alakurtti, and Nagornyy; the 26th Army Corps at Arkhangelsk, formed in 1967, with the 69th (Vologda) and 77th Guards Motor Rifle Divisions (Arkhangelsk), the 258th Separate Helicopter Squadron at Luostari/Pechenga airfield near Luostari,Holm, 258th Independent Helicopter Squadron and other smaller units; the 30th Guards Leningrad Red Banner Army Corps at Vyborg, with the 45th Guards Motor Rifle Division, the 64th Guards Motor Rifle Division, and the 37th Motor Rifle Division (a mobilisation division, the double of the 63 MRTD) at Chernaya Rechka; and the 63rd Guards Training Motor Rifle Division, and the 76th Guards Airborne Division, under district control. At Garbolovo ([60 20 14N, 30 29 55E]) there was the 36th Air Assault Brigade (effectively an airmobile brigade), which had been activated in autumn 1979.
By 1990 the district included 60,000 servicemen, 822 tanks, 2,000 armored fighting vehicles, 1,100 guns, mortars and MLRS systems, and 100 helicopters.
Forces in 1990