Formed in 1962 as the 6th Separate Brigade of Protection after the Berlin Crisis of the previous year increased tensions, the unit was soon renamed the 6th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade. Directly subordinated to the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (GSFG), the brigade helped protect East Berlin and provided troops for ceremonial duties in the city. In event of a conflict, the brigade was to invade West Berlin, with the help of National People's Army units stationed in and around Berlin. In 1982, the brigade inherited the lineage of the 60th Guards Rifle Division's 185th Guards Rifle Regiment, and became an elite Guards unit, also receiving the honorifics "Berlin Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky". The brigade was the last Soviet Army unit to leave Germany after its reunification, in 1994, and was withdrawn to Kursk, where it became a motor rifle regiment of the 10th Guards Tank Division in 1997. Fighting in both the First and the Second Chechen War, the unit was disbanded in 2009.