1944–1992 The Division was founded in January 1944 as the 16th Guards Airborne Division, and from then until the end of the
Second World War fought in
Hungary,
Austria and
Czechoslovakia (including in Prague), mostly with
38th Guards Rifle Corps of
9th Guards Army. It became the 106th Guards Rifle Division in December 1944, as all the original VDV
divisions and
brigades were being reconstituted as Guards Rifle formations. The Division's honorifics are 'Red Banner, Order of Kutuzov', though an early Western writer reported them as 'Dneipr-Transbaikal' seemingly incorrectly, at one point in its history. On 7 June 1946, the 106th Guards Rifle Division was converted to an airborne division at Tula, part of the new 38th Guards Airborne Corps. On 1 October 1948, the division's 347th Guards Air Landing Regiment was used to form the
11th Guards Airborne Division. It was replaced by the new 51st Guards Air Landing Regiment, which became an airborne unit in 1949. On 5 May 1955, the
137th Guards Airborne Regiment joined the division from the disbanded 11th Guards Airborne Division. On 6 January 1959, the 110th Separate Military-Transport Aviation Squadron was formed with the division, equipped with ten
Antonov An-2 transports. On 15 August 1960, the 205th Guards Artillery Regiment became the 845th Separate Guards Artillery Battalion. At the same time, the 351st Guards Airborne Regiment transferred to the
105th Guards Airborne Division and was replaced by the 105th's 331st Guards Airborne Regiment. On 27 April 1962, the 845th Separate Guards Artillery Battalion became the 1182nd Guards Artillery Regiment. According to
Felshtinsky and
Pribylovsky, after the newspaper report FSB officers descended on Pinyayev’s unit, accused them of divulging a state secret and told them, "You guys can't even imagine what serious business you’ve got yourselves tangled up in." The regiment later sued publishers of
Novaya Gazeta for insulting the honour of the Russian Army, since there was no Private Alexei Pinyayev in the regiment, according to their statement. A report aired by
ORT in March 2000 and created by journalist Leonid Grozin and operator Dmitry Vishnevoy accused
Novaya Gazeta of lying. According to Grozin and Vishnevoy, there is no storehouse at the test range of the 137th Regiment. Alexei Pinyaev has admitted meeting with Pavel Voloshin, but claimed that he was merely asked to confirm a pre-conceived story. At an
FSB press conference in 2001, Private Pinyayev stated that there was no hexogen in the 137th Airborne Regiment and that he was hospitalised in December 1999 and no longer visited the test range.
2004 onwards of the 106th Division On 26 April 2004, the Tula Division celebrated its 60th
anniversary. In August 2014 the division's
137th Guards Airborne Regiment participated in the
war in Donbas. On 13 August 2015, the division was given the honorific name "Tula". The division took part in the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine but withdrew to Belarus at the end of March to be redeployed in
Valuyki at the Eastern war theatre. Both the 51st Regiment and the 137th Regiment took part in the
battle of Bakhmut. On 15 July 2023,
Major general Vladimir Seliverstov, the Divisions commander, was dismissed of his command after appealing to the Russian military command for better conditions for his troops. On 4 July 2025, the division was awarded the
Order of Suvorov. == Composition ==