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Guards (Russian: гвардия) or Guards units (Russian: гвардейские части, gvardeyskiye chasti) were and are elite military units in Imperial Russia, Soviet Union and the Russian Federation. The tradition goes back to the retinue of a knyaz (his druzhina) of medieval Kievan Rus' and the streltsy, the Muscovite harquebusiers formed by Ivan the Terrible by 1550. The exact meaning of the term "Guards" varied over the time.

Main article: Russian Imperial Guard

In Russia, Russian Imperial Guard units ("Leib-Guards", лейб-гвардия, leyb-gvardiya) derived from German 'Leibwaechter'(life-guards), and intended to provide for security of the sovereign were created by Peter the Great in 1690s from the Prussian practice. At the beginning of the twentieth century it consisted of 13 infantry, 4 rifle and 14 cavalry regiments and some other units. They were abolished in 1918.

Main articles: Red Guards (Russia) and White Movement

Red Guards (Russian: Krasnaya Gvardiya) were armed groups of workers formed during the Russian Revolution of 1917. They were the main strike force of the Bolsheviks. They were created in March 1917 at industrial enterprises by Factory and Plant Committees and by Bolshevik party cells. When the Soviet Red Army was formed in 1918, the Red Guards became the Army Reserve and the basis for the formation of regular military detachments.

The White Guard (Russian: Belaya Gvardiya) or White Army (Belaya Armiya, whose members were called belogvardeytsy), comprised both the political and military forces of the Russian White Movement, which opposed the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution and fought against the Red Army during the Russian Civil War from 1918 to 1921.

Badge of Belarusian Guards units

Main article: Guards unit

Guards units (Russian: Гвардия, Gvardiya) are elite units and formations in the armed forces of the former Soviet Union, Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. These units were awarded guards status after distinguishing themselves in service, and are considered to have elite status. The guards designation originated during the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45.

The tradition of Guards units persists in the regular militaries of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine, and in the separate National or Republican Guard branches of several post-Soviet states.