242nd Training Centre The 242nd Training Centre of the Airborne Forces ( 242 TC VDV ) is a brigade - sized training formation of the Russian Airborne Troops . To prepare sergeants and junior specialists for airborne units in accordance with a directive of the Commander Soviet Ground Forces , the 4th Training Airborne Division was formed in July – October 1960 in Ostrov and Cheryokha , in Pskov Oblast . Division personally formed while Deputy Commander of Airborne Troops , Lieutenant - General VF Margelov . The formation ' s birthday is 17 September . The vast majority of officers had experience in training units of the liquidated at the same time , the regimental schools , 131 officers - from the participants of the Great Patriotic War . The division consisted of three training Airborne Regiments ; 301st and 304th Training Airborne Regiments - Ostrov , 302 - Cheryokha / Череха , a training artillery regiment ( 1120th , Ostrov ) and other units . The division ' s regiments were the heirs of the regiments with the corresponding WWII numbers : 301st and 304th were part of the 100th Guards Airborne Division / Rifle Division , аnd the 302nd had been part of the 98th Guards Airborne Division / Rifle Division . However , for unclear reasons , the division was soon renamed the 44th . Also the regiment numbering changed : instead of , respectively , the 302nd and 304th , the 226th and 285th regiments appeared ( no longer associated historically with the VDV ) . While it was not clear whether the division was formed as a Guards formation , when it became the 44th , it was not just not a Guards formation , but the only non - Guards formation in the Soviet Airborne Forces . The regiments were not Guards units either . In September 1961 , available stocks , weapons , military equipment , and the bulk of the division were moved to the Lithuanian SSR . The Divisional Headquarters and the 301st Regiment were established at Gaižiūnai , the 304th Regiment at Rukla ( 8 km south - east of Jonava ) , and the 1120th Training Artillery Regiment in the city of Prienai ( 28 km south of Kaunas ) . Apparently , after the relocation , the division and its regiments were renumbered . The division thus became the 44th Airborne Ovruch Red Banner Order of Suvorov and Bogdan Khmelnitsky Division ( 44 воздушно - десантная Овручская Краснознаменная орденов Суворова и Богдана Хмельницкого дивизия ) . This apparently meant the division had inherited the honours of the wartime 4th Guards Airborne Division , which was given the title ' Ovruch ' in November 1943 . The 4th Guards Airborne Division , formed from the 1st Airborne Corps at Moscow in December 1942 , fought at Kursk , Orel , Zhitomir , Korsun , Targul Frumos , Debrecen , and Budapest . Of the old airborne division in Cheryokha remained only the 226th Training Airborne Regiment which stayed there until 1969 , when it was also transferred to Lithuania . On 1 December 1987 in accordance with the order of the Ministry of Defence of the Soviet Union of 18 August 1987 , the 44th Training Airborne Division was renamed the 242nd Airborne Training Centre . In accordance with the directive of the Defense Ministry on 13 . 11 . 92 , the Airborne Training Centre was removed from the Republic of Lithuania to Omsk in Russian territory . Shortly after the relocation , the 301st Training Airborne Regiment was disbanded , and the 1120th Training Artillery Regiment was moved to Ishim in Tyumen Oblast . The training centre headquarters is currently located in the village of Svetloe ( ' Bright ' ) in the Omsk Oblast . In the years since its relocation to Omsk the formerly division - sized formation has shrunk to the size of a brigade . Michael Holm reports the Centre disbanded on 30 November 2009 .