20th Guards Army The 20th Guards Army , ( originally designated as the 4th Tank Army , 4th Guards Tank Army in 1945 , 4th Guards Mechanised Army in 1946 , and the 20th Guards Army in 1960 within the Soviet Red Army ) , is a field army , since 1991 , part of the Russian Ground Forces . 1st Formation ( 4th Tank Army ) . It was first formed within the Stalingrad Front from July 1942 and incorporated the 22nd and 23rd Tank Corps , one rifle division , one tank brigade , and the 8th Separate Fighter Air Brigade , under the command of Major Gen . Kryuchenkin . It was committed to battle without being fully formed , as the German Wehrmacht had broken through . The Army attempted to stop the German 6th Army , but was not successful and lost a large number of tanks . On 1 August 1942 official Soviet records show the Army as comprising the 22nd Tank Corps ( 133rd , 173rd , 176th , and 182nd Tank Brigades plus the 22nd Motor Rifle Brigade ) , the 18th and 205th Rifle Divisions , an independent brigade , and two artillery regiments . In August 1942 it fought on the southern approaches to Stalingrad , having conducted some successful counterattacks against units of the German 48th Panzer Corps . 4th Tank Army later came under command of Gen . K . K . Rokossovsky ' s Don Front . On 22 October Kryuchenkin was replaced by Gen . P . I . Batov . The much diminished army was re - designated the 65th Army on 27 October , and served for the duration under Batov ' s command . 2nd Formation ( 4th Tank Army ) . On 15 July 1943 , after an abortive attempt to form the Army for a second time had been called off in February , it was reformed as 4th Guards Tank Army drawing on the headquarters of the previous 19th Cavalry Corps . Initially the new army consisted of 11th and 30th Ural Volunteer Tank Corps and 6th Guards Mechanised Corps . Its first operation as 4th Tank Army , under General Vasily Badanov , was at Orel , the counterattack ( Operation Kutuzov ) on the northern side of the Kursk bulge after the German defeat at the Battle of Kursk proper . John Erickson writes that ' . . at 1100 on 26 July , two of Badanov ' s corps ( 11th Tank and 6th Guards Mechanised ) put in a ragged attack towards Bolkhov . For the next few hours , under the very gaze of Bagramyan [ commander of 11th Guards Army , whose sector 4th Tank was attacking through ] and Badanov , both corps were heavily battered by the concealed German tanks and assault guns . ' It took part in the winter battles in the Ukraine in 1944 ( Proskurov - Chernovits ) , then the L ’ vov - Sanodmierz Operation in the summer . It then participated in the Lower Silesia , Upper Silesia , Berlin , and Prague operations . In the last days of the war , it achieved Guards status by an order of the NKO dated March , 17th , 1945 ( Krasnaya Zvezda ) . Cold War . It was initially part of the Soviet occupation forces in Czechoslovakia , but was then moved to eastern Germany . In the first days of the Soviet occupation of eastern Germany , it had its headquarter at Eberswalde and consisted of the 5th and 6th Guards Mechanised Corps and the 10th Guards Tank Corps . From 1946 to 1957 the Army was named 4th Guards Mechanised Army . It was renamed 20th Guards Army in 1960 , and served for many years as part of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany . It took part in the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 . In the 1980s it controlled the 25th Tank Division ( HQ Vogelsang , disbanded 1989 ) , 32nd Guards Tank Division ( HQ Juterbog , disbanded 1989 ) , 90th Guards Tank Division ( HQ Bernau , withdrawn to Chernorech ' e in the Volga Military District , early 1990s ) , the 35th Motor Rifle Division ( HQ Krampnitz , disbanded in 1992 in Germany ) , the 6th Guards Separate Motor Rifle Brigade at Berlin - Karlhorst ( withdrawn to Kursk ) and many combat support and service support units , including two surface - to - surface missile brigades , a SAM brigade , an engineer - sapper brigade , and two helicopter regiments . After the fall of the Soviet Union 20th Guards Army was withdrawn to Voronezh in the Moscow Military District . Post Cold War . In June 2006 elements of the Army took part in the " Shield of Union " joint Russian - Belorussian exercises . ( Warfare . ru )