The 51st Army was a field army of the Red Army that saw action against the Germans in World War II on both the southern and northern sectors of the front. In particular, it was involved in the Crimean debacle of May 1942, and the final cutting-off of German forces in the Courland area next to the Baltic. Inactivated in the 1950s, the army was activated again in the 1960s to secure the Soviet Union's border with China. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the army continued in existence as a component of the Russian Ground Forces. The army was active during two periods from 1941 until 1993.