| 122nd Guards Rifle Division (28 June 1945 – 1946) | |
|---|---|
| Active | 28 June 1945 – 1946 |
| Country |  Soviet Union |
| Branch |  Red Army |
| Type | Division |
| Role | Infantry |
| Garrison/HQ | Tartu |
| Decorations |  Order of Lenin  Order of the Red Banner |
| Battle honours | Estonian |
The 122nd Guards Rifle Division was an elite infantry division of the Red Army. It was formed in June 1945 from the 2nd formation of the 249th Estonian Rifle Division. The division was stationed in Estonia and disbanded in 1946.
The division was formed on 28 June 1945 from the re-designated 249th Estonian Rifle Division. On the same date the entire 8th Estonian Rifle Corps was raised to Guards status as the 41st Guards Rifle Corps. On its formation the 122nd Guards inherited the honorific title and decorations of the 249th, [1] with its full title being 122nd Guards Rifle Estonian, Order of Lenin, Order of the Red Banner Division. [2] Col. August Yulianovich Feldman was in command of the 249th up to the German surrender and likely continued in command of the 122nd Guards until he was appointed deputy commander of the 41st Guards Corps.
This re-designation took place nearly two months after V-E Day, but before the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, so technically the 122nd Guards can be considered a wartime formation, although it did not see combat in Manchuria. The division was stationed in Tartu and was disbanded there in 1946. [2]
The 1st Red Banner Army was a Red Army field army of World War II that served in the Soviet Far East.
The 110th Rifle Division was a formation of the Soviet Union's Red Army during the course of World War II, which was formed, dissolved, and re-formed three times throughout the war.
The Baltic Military District was a military district of the Soviet armed forces in the Baltic states, formed briefly before the German invasion during the World War II. After end of the war the Kaliningrad Oblast was added to the District's control in 1946, and the territory of Estonia was transferred back to the Baltic Military District from the Leningrad Military District in 1956. The Baltic Military District was disbanded after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and reorganised into the North Western Group of Forces, which ended its existence after withdrawal of all Russian troops from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on 1 September 1994.
The 52nd Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army during the Russian Civil War, the interwar period, World War II, and the Cold War, formed once during the Russian Civil War and three times during the existence of the Soviet Union.
A rifle corps was a Soviet corps-level military formation during the mid-twentieth century. Rifle corps were made up of a varying number of rifle divisions, although the allocation of three rifle divisions to a rifle corps was common during the latter part of World War II.
The 8th Estonian Rifle Corps was a formation in the Red Army, created on 6 November 1942, during World War II.
The 25th Army was a Red Army field army of World War II that served in the Russian Far East.
The 36th Army was a military formation of the Red Army and the Soviet Ground Forces, formed twice.
The 17th Guards Rifle Division was created on March 17, 1942, from the first formation of the 119th Rifle Division, in recognition of that division's stalwart defense against German Army Group Center in the Battle of Moscow, and in the subsequent strategic offensive that threw the German forces back from the capital. The 17th Guards continued a record of distinguished service through the rest of the Great Patriotic War. It became the 123rd Guards Motor Rifle Division in 1957 and converted into the 129th Guards Machine-Gun Artillery Division in 1989. In 2001, it was converted to the 17th Guards Motor Rifle Division and became the 70th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade in 2009. The brigade is currently based in Ussuriysk.
The 249th Rifle Division was raised in 1941, within days of the German invasion, as a standard Red Army rifle division, and served for the duration of the Great Patriotic War in that role. The division was formed twice, first from a cadre of NKVD soldiers that went on to become the 16th Guards Rifle Division after distinguishing themselves in the fighting for Toropets during the Soviet counteroffensive in the winter of 1941-42. The second formation was largely made up of ethnic Estonians and was known as the 249th Estonian Rifle Division. It fought under that name for the duration, and shortly after the German surrender became the 122nd Guards Rifle Division.
The 118th Estonian Guards Rifle Division was an elite infantry division of the Red Army and later the Soviet Army. It was formed following the German surrender in June 1945 from the 2nd wartime formation of the 7th Estonian Rifle Division. The division became a brigade in 1946 and became a division again in 1950. It was disbanded in 1956.
The 38th Guards Airborne Corps was an airborne corps of the Soviet airborne. It was activated during World War II in August 1944 and became a rifle corps in December of that year. The corps fought in the Vienna Offensive and the Prague Offensive during the spring of 1945. After the end of the war, it was converted back into an airborne corps. The corps served at Tula until its 1955 disbandment when the Soviet airborne was reorganized.
The 22nd Rifle Corps was a corps of the Red Army, formed thrice. It was initially formed from the Estonian Army after the Soviet occupation of that country in June 1940. The corps was destroyed during the Baltic Operation. After large-scale desertions of its troops, the corps disbanded in September 1941. Its soldiers were used in construction battalions in the Urals, where many of them died. The corps was reformed in November 1942 with the Transcaucasian Front. It fought in the Dnieper–Carpathian Offensive, Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive, Sandomierz–Silesian Offensive and the Prague Offensive during the war. The corps was disbanded in the summer of 1945. Reformed in 1949 in the Transcaucasian Military District, it was disbanded in 1956.
The 292nd Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II, formed three times.
The 277th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's Red Army and later the Soviet Army, formed twice.
The 56th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army and later the Soviet Army of the Soviet Union, formed three times.
The 264th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II, formed three times.
The 366th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army during World War II, formed twice.
The 209th Rifle Division was formed as an infantry division of the Red Army after a motorized division of that same number was destroyed in the first weeks of the German invasion of the Soviet Union. It served through nearly the remainder of the war on a quiet sector in Transbaikal Front, mostly as part of 36th Army. During July 1945, in the leadup to the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, it was transferred to 17th Army, still in Transbaikal Front. This Army was in the second echelon of the invading forces and saw very little, if any, actual combat, but the division was nevertheless given a battle honor. It had been disbanded by mid-1946.
