The Primorsky (Maritime Provinces) Military District was formed on September 30, 1945 on the territory of Primorsky Krai (territory of the former Ussuri Oblast), from HQ 1st Far East Front.[1] Under its control also were the troops stationed on the territory of North Korea (25th Army) and the Kwantung Peninsula (39th Army). The district headquarters was in the city of Voroshilov (Ussuriisk).[2] Troops stationed in Primorsky Krai were the 5th and 35th Armies. Air support was provided by the 9th Air Army. The 35th Army, the 17th Rifle Corps and the 105th, 187th, 190th, 231st, 235th, 335th, 345th, 363rd, 365th and 366th Rifle Divisions were disbanded. The 5th Army's two tank divisions, the 2nd and 3rd, were the only Soviet tank divisions in the Far East. The 25th Army's 39th and 88th Rifle Corps were disbanded in August 1946. Also during the summer of 1946, 39th Army's 91st Guards, 252nd, 338th and 358th Rifle Divisions were converted into the 4th, 25th and 26th Guards Machine Gun Artillery Brigades. In 1947, these became the 25th Guards Machine Gun Artillery Division. 39th Army's 113th Rifle Corps disbanded in January 1947. 25th Army pulled out of North Korea in 1948 and was stationed in southern Primorsky Krai on Sino-North Korean border and on the coast of the Peter the Great Gulf. By 1948, the army only included the 10th Mechanized and 40th Rifle Divisions, as its other units had all disbanded before 1948.[3]
Headquarters 25th Army: 10th Mechanized (ex10th Mechanized Corps (Military Unit Number 71516) and 40th Rifle Divisions were in what is now North Korea. Michael Holm's research suggests that by April 1946, the 3rd Tank Division had joined the 25th Army, located at Pokrovka in Primorskiy Krai. It was part of the 25th Army there until 1957.[5]
^The 7th Mechanised Division, a redesignation of the World War II 7th Mechanised Corps, appears to have been at Port Arthur but moved in 1955 to Voroshilov. Disbanded 12 April 1957. V.I. Feskov et al 2013, Table 5.2.1, p.204-5.
V.I. Feskov, Golikov V.I., K.A. Kalashnikov, and S.A. Slugin (2013). The Armed Forces of the USSR after World War II, from the Red Army to the Soviet (Part 1: Land Forces). (Вооруженные силы СССР после Второй Мировой войны: от Красной Армии к Советской (часть 1: Сухопутные войска)).Tomsk. Improved version of 2004 work with many inaccuracies corrected.