Each district was intended to command combat formations, as well as act as a military-administrative organ on a regional scale - 'the War Ministry on a local level'.

The official Russian Defence Ministry site notes the combat actions of the 20th, 21st, 24th, 25th, 26th, and 27th Rifle Divisions which took place on the eastern front of the war, as well as other formations and units.

After the end of the Civil War the armed forces were reduced and the Ural Military District disbanded, on 21 April 1922.

The Ural Military District was recreated on 17 May 1935 with its staff located at Sverdlovsk, amid the international tensions caused by the Nazis' rise to power in Germany and the Japanese occupation of Manchuria.

During the war, the city of Kuybyshev (now Samara) served as the alternate capital of the Soviet Union, and the Urals area became the biggest arsenal in the country, with many factories relocated from the west.

As part of the massive demobilisation exercise of 1945-6 the Kazan Military District was briefly reformed, encompassing the Tatar, Udmurt, Mari and Chuvash ASSRs.

[3] During the Cold War the district's air forces included the Chelyabinsk Higher Military Aviation School for Navigators.

[6] By a Decree of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 15 January 1974, for their large contributions to the strengthening the defence power of the state and its armed protection both the Volga and Ural military districts were rewarded with the Order of the Red Banner.

From 1992 the two districts received large numbers of units and formations returning from the former groups of forces (including the Second Guards Tank Army, and the 16th[7] and 90th Guards Tank Divisions from the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany) and the ex-Soviet republics, the reception of which required enormous effort on behalf of the District HQs and the regional administrations.