Eastern Border District



The Red Banner Eastern Border District (Краснознамённый Восточный пограничный округ) (KВPO) - was a military-administrative district of the KGB Border Guard. The district had its headquarters in Almaty. It guarded the western part of the Chinese-Soviet border and a small section of the Afghan-Soviet border along the Wakhan District, after which began the terrain of the Red Banner Central Asian Border District.

On May 28, 1918, the Decree on the creation of the border guard of the Soviet Republic was signed. After the end of the Civil War, the Turkestan Border Division was created by the end of 1920. In November 1920, this division was deployed from the Caspian Sea to the Altai Mountains. The Turkestan border division included regiments, brigades and cavalry squadrons, each covering an area of responsibility for the state border.

In 1923, during the reform of border troops, border departments were created as part of border guard units created under administrative-territorial units (provinces). These formations were subordinate to the head of the border guard unit of the plenipotentiary representative of the State Political Directorate (GPU) provincial detachments. In February 1924, in the course of further reform of the border troops, border detachments and commandant's offices were created on the basis of border departments and border units, which included border outposts.

After the German Operation Barbarossa began in July 1941, massive numbers of the border and Internal Troops of the NKVD were sent to the Active Army (the troops fighting on the frontline). For example, by June 26, 1941, 31 commanders of the Zaysan border detachment were appointed to the corresponding positions in the 942nd Infantry Regiment, 268th Rifle Division, which at the end the following month entered into battle as part of the 8th Army.

In 1991 the Border Troops numbered ten Border Districts. The troops of the Eastern Border District included:

Land units:


 * 134th Kurchumskiy Border Detachment (134-й ПОГО) — Kurshim, Kazakh SSR
 * 50th Zaysanskiy Краснознаменный Border Detachment (50-й ПОГО) — Zaysan, Kazakh SSR
 * 30th Makanchinskiy Краснознаменный Border Detachment (30-й ПОГО) — Makanchi, Kazakh SSR
 * 130th Uch-Aaralskiy Border Detachment (130-й ПОГО) — Usharal, Kazakh SSR
 * 49th Panfilovskiy Краснознаменный Border Detachment (49-й ПОГО) — Zharkent, Kazakh SSR
 * 132nd Chundzhinskiy Border Detachment (132-й ПОГО) — Chundzha, Kazakh SSR
 * 29th Przhevalskiy Border Detachment (29-й ПОГО) — Karakol, Kirghiz SSR
 * 96th Narynskiy Border Detachment (96-й ПОГО) — Naryn, Kirghiz SSR
 * 131st Oshskiy Border Detachment (131-й ПОГО) — Osh, Kirghiz SSR
 * 35th Murghabskiy Border Detachment (35-й ПОГО) — Murghab, Tajik SSR

Naval units: (no naval units)

Air units:


 * 10th Separate Aviation Regiment (10-й ОАП) — Almaty – Burunday Airfield
 * 22nd Separate Aviation Squadron (22-я ОАЭ) — Usharal Airfield