The Army became the Soviet Far East Front in June 1938,[1] after Blyukher's torture and death at the hands of the NKVD during the Great Purge.

In August 1941, the front commander, General of the Army I. R. Apanasenko was tasked to send to the west several divisions, including tank formations.

[citation needed] The Soviet invasion of Manchuria was launched against the Japanese held region of Manchukuo, the Japanese protectorates of Inner Mongolia and Korea, and several Japanese-claimed islands from the Soviet Far East by the Far Eastern Direction, with the two Far East Fronts under its command, under Marshal Vasilevsky in the last days of the Second World War.

On September 10, 1945, the 1st Far East Front was disbanded by being redesignated the Primorskiy Military District, controlling the Primorye Territory,[2] and the 2nd Far Eastern Front was redesignated the Far East Military District controlling Kamchatka, Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands.

There were originally a corps headquarters and three divisions of the Soviet Airborne Forces (VDV), active in the district after the war.

[5] The 83rd Air Assault Brigade arrived in Ussuryisk, Primorskiy Kray, in mid-1990, and was transferred from the VDV to the District in 1995.

The North-Eastern Group was established in Kamchatka in 1998 "primarily because of the remoteness of the zone of responsibility in the North-East from the controlling structures, the Far East Military District, and the Pacific Fleet".