69th Covering Brigade (Russia)

The 69th Covering Brigade (Russian: 69-я отдельная бригада прикрытия) is a unique border protection brigade of the Russian Ground Forces, stationed at Babstovo, Jewish Autonomous Oblast, and part of the 35th Army. Military Unit в/ч 61424.

The brigade traces its heritage back to the 272nd Rifle Division, which was first formed in the summer of 1941 and fought in the Continuation War with Finland north of Leningrad on the Karelian Isthmus. After Finland left the war in September 1944, the division was sent to the front again in January 1945, fighting in the East Pomeranian Offensive. Postwar, the division was relocated to Kursk, where it became a rifle brigade in 1947. Upgraded into the 272nd Division again in 1953, it was renumbered the 46th Rifle Division in 1955, became a motor rifle division in 1957, and was restored to its original World War II number in 1964. As a result of the Sino-Soviet split, the division was relocated to Babstovo in the Far East in 1967. In 1989, the division became the 128th Machine-Gun Artillery Division but was downsized into the 173rd Mobile Fortress Brigade in 1993. Converted back into the 128th Machine-Gun Artillery Division in 1997, the brigade assumed its current name in 2009 as a result of the 2008 Russian military reform.