6th Guards Tank Army The 6th Guards Order of Red Banner Tank Army was a tank army of the Soviet Union ' s Red Army , first formed in January 1944 and disbanded in Ukraine in the 1990s after the dissolution of the Soviet Union . Initially commanding the 5th Mechanised Corps and the 5th Guards Tank Corps , the 6th Tank Army ' s first major operation was the suppression of the Korsun - Cherkassy Pocket in January – February 1944 . It then fought in the Iassy - Kishinev Offensive during August 1944 before gaining a Guards title in September 1944 . Under its new title , it was soon engaged in the Battle of Debrecen on the 2nd Ukrainian Front , before fighting against the Germans during Operation Frühlingserwachen in January 1945 . Pushing west , the tank army moved south of Vienna , Austria and pivoted to the north in a wide encircling maneuver that cut Vienna off from the rest of the German " Reich " . At the end of the war , one of its subordinate formations , the 2nd Guards Mechanised Corps , ended operations in the area of Benešov , Czechoslovakia , on 9 May 1945 . The 6th Guards Tank Army was then moved to the Transbaikal Military District in order to take part in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria . The army , under the command of Colonel General Andrei Kravchenko spearheaded the Transbaikal Front ' s offensive against the Japanese Kwantung Army on 9 August 1945 . The 6th Guards Tank Army consisted of the 5th Guards Tank Corps , and 7th and 9th Guards Mechanised Corps , and many smaller formations , in all , a total of 1 , 019 tanks and self - propelled gun s . For this operation , the tank army was restructured such that the infantry , artillery , and armored components were much more balanced than they had been during the war against the Germans . This was the first example of what proved to be the standard Soviet mechanized army organization during the Cold War . During the Soviet invasion of Manchuria , the Army was operating as part of the Transbaikal Front , and during the " Khingano - Mukden Operation " , as it was known to the Soviets , the Army was tasked to advance 800 kilometers . It was stationed in Mongolia , reporting to the Transbaikal Military District , for 15 years after the war . The friendship with China of those days and the Nikita Khrushchev military reductions changed the fate of the Army , and in 1959 it was relocated to Dnipropetrovsk in the Kiev Military District . Toward the end of the 1980s it retained three Guards Tank Divisions - the 17th , 42nd ( the former 42nd Rifle Division ) and the 75th ( formerly the 75th Guards Rifle Division - though Lenskii disagrees and calls this division the 14th Guards Tank ) . On 11 November 1990 , following the disbandment of the 75th ( or 14th ) Guards Tank Division , the reorganisation of the 42nd Guards Tank Division as the 5359th Base for Storage of Weapons and Equipment , and the arrival of the 93rd Guards Motor Rifle Division from the Southern Group of Forces , the Army had on hand 462 main battle tank s , all T - 64 s , 228 BMP s and BTRs , 218 other pieces of equipment of various types , and five helicopters ( with the 16th Separate Mixed Aviation Squadron at Podgorodnoe ) . After the dissolution of the Soviet Union it became part of the Ukrainian Ground Forces . In March 1992 Major General Vladimir Shkidchenko returned home to become the army ' s commander . ( Edict No 161 March 18 , 1992 ) He was promoted to Lieutenant General by Edict 642 / 92 of 31 December 1992 . ( http : / / zakon . nau . ua / doc / ? uid = 1081 . 1357 . 0 ) Shkidchenko was released from command of the 6th Guards Tank Army by Presidential Edict No . 220 / 93 June 19 , 1993 , to be appointed to another post . The first reference to the 6th Army Corps , the successor formation , appears in Ukaz N 350 / 93 of the President of Ukraine on 21 August 1993 . Thus it appears the 6th Guards Tank Army was disbanded by redesignation sometime between June and August 1993 . Today in Ukrainian service the 6th Army Corps is still based at Dnipropetrovsk and consists of several brigades , including the 17th Armored Brigade and the 93rd Mechanized Brigade .