Selective section of troops within the Russian and Soviet army, and in some post-Soviet states
Also known as Russian Guards · Russian Imperial Guards · Soviet Guards · Guards units
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Guards or Guards units were elite military units of Imperial Russia prior to 1917–18. The designation of Guards was subsequently adopted as a distinction for various units and formations of the Soviet Union and the modern Russian Federation. The tradition goes back to a chieftain's druzhina of medieval Kievan Rus' and the streletskoye voysko, the Muscovite harquebusiers formed by Ivan the Terrible by 1550. The exact meaning of the term "Guards" varied over time.