2nd Rifle Corps

2nd Rifle Corps
Active	1st formation: September 1922–August 1941; 2nd formation: May 1942–November 1945;
Country	Soviet Union
Branch	Red Army
Type	Infantry
Engagements	World War II ; 1st formation:; Battle of Bialystok–Minsk ; 2nd formation:; Soviet invasion of Manchuria ;
Commanders
Notable; commanders	1st formation:; Vitovt Putna ; Vasily Kuznetsov ; 2nd formation:; Anton Lopatin ;

Last updated September 24, 2019

The 2nd Rifle Corps was an infantry corps of the Red Army during the interwar period and World War II, formed twice.

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, frequently shortened to Red Army, was the army and the air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after 1922, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The army was established immediately after the 1917 October Revolution. The Bolsheviks raised an army to oppose the military confederations of their adversaries during the Russian Civil War. Beginning in February 1946, the Red Army, along with the Soviet Navy, embodied the main component of the Soviet Armed Forces; taking the official name of "Soviet Army", until its dissolution in December 1991. The former official name Red Army continued to be used as a nickname by both sides throughout the Cold War.

Interwar period Period between the end of World War I and the beginning of World War II

In the context of the history of the 20th century, the interwar period was the period between the end of the First World War in November 1918 and the beginning of the Second World War in September 1939. This period is also colloquially referred to as Between the Wars.

World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from more than 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 70 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.

First formation

It was formed in September 1922 as the 2nd Army Corps in accordance with orders dated 10 June, 18 July, and 12 September, headquartered at Moscow in the military district named for the city. It was redesignated as the 2nd Rifle Corps by an order of 8 March 1923. By 1935 it was named in honor of Vladimir Triandafillov and included the 2nd Corps Artillery Regiment at Ryazan and the 84th Rifle Division (Territorial) at Tula.^[1] Relocated to Kalinin in the Belorussian Military District during 1936, the corps became part of the Kalinin Military District upon the creation of the latter in July 1938, relocating to Velikiye Luki. After the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states, the 2nd Rifle Corps relocated to the Baltic Special Military District, where it was stationed at Libava, Karya-Osta, and Dvinsk in Latvia.^[2] By May 1941 it had been transferred to Bielsk Podlaski in the Western Special Military District.

Moscow is the capital and most populous city of Russia, with 13.2 million residents within the city limits, 17 million within the urban area and 20 million within the metropolitan area. Moscow is one of Russia's federal cities.

Moscow Military District formerly part of the armed forces of the Russian Federation

The Moscow Military District was a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In 2010 it was merged with the Leningrad Military District, the Northern Fleet and the Baltic Fleet to form the new Western Military District.

Vladimir Kiriakovitch Triandafillov was a Soviet military commander and theoretician.

When Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, began on 22 June, the corps, under the command of Major General Arkady Yermakov (who became commander on 29 July 1940),^[3] was part of the Western Special Military District, with the 100th and 161st Rifle Divisions assigned.^[4] Corps support units included the 10th Separate Communications and the 5th Separate Sapper Battalions. With the 13th Army of the Western Front, the 2nd Rifle Corps participated in the Battle of Bialystok-Minsk near the Minsk and Slutsk Fortified Regions during late June and early July 1941.^[5]^[6] The corps was disbanded on 20 August.^[2]^[7]

Operation Barbarossa was the code name for the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, which started on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. The operation stemmed from Nazi Germany's ideological aim of conquering the western Soviet Union so that it could be repopulated by Germans, and to also use some Slavs as a slave labour force for the Axis war effort and to annihilate the rest according to Generalplan Ost, and to acquire the oil reserves of the Caucasus and the agricultural resources of Soviet territories.

Arkady Nikolayevich Yermakov was a Soviet Army lieutenant general.

The 100th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II, formed twice.

Second formation

The corps was reformed in May 1942 under the command of Major General Daniil Petrov from 28 May.^[3] Corps support units included the 10th Separate Communications and 967th Separate Sapper Battalions, as well as the 1999th Military Postal Station.^[8] In January 1945, the corps, directly subordinated to the headquarters of the Transbaikal Front comprised the 103rd, 275th, 292nd and 293rd Rifle Divisions;^[9] in June the 293rd would be reassigned as a separate rifle division in 36th Army.^[10] During August it fought in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria. The corps was disbanded in November 1945.^[11]

The Transbaikal Front was a front formed on September 15, 1941 on base of the Transbaikal Military District. Initially, it included the 17th and 36th armies, but in August 1942 the 12th Air Army was added to the front, and, finally, in June–July 1945 the 39th and the 53rd armies, the 6th Guards Tank Army, and the Soviet Mongolian Cavalry Mechanized Group under Issa Pliyev.

The 103rd Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army, formed three times. It was first formed in 1939. It was converted into a motorized division and fought in the Yelnya Offensive. After being converted back to a rifle division it was destroyed in the Battle of Vyazma. The division reformed in early 1942 but was destroyed during the Second Battle of Kharkov. It was reformed a third time in the Far East in summer 1942 and participated in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria.

The 293rd Rifle Division began service as a standard Red Army rifle division shortly after the German invasion. It served in the defense of Kiev, and managed to escape encirclement, spending the winter along the front near Kursk. It fought in the unsuccessful Soviet offensive on Kharkov in May, 1942. In the early summer the division fought along the Don River against the German offensive, and after rebuilding in the Battle of Stalingrad, where it played a leading role in the encirclement and destruction of German Sixth Army, for which it was raised to Guards status as the 66th Guards Rifle Division as the battle was still ongoing. A second 293rd was raised a few months later and won distinction against the Japanese in Manchuria in August 1945.

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References

Citations

↑ "Дислокация войсковых частей, штабов, управлений, учреждений и заведений Рабоче-Крестьянской Красной Армии по состоянию на 1 июля 1935 года" [Stationing of military units, headquarters, directorates, institutions and establishments of the Red Army as of 1 July 1935](PDF) (in Russian). Moscow: 4th Directorate of the Staff of the Red Army. 1 July 1935. p. 14.
1 2 Dvoinykh, Kariaeva & Stegantsev 1993, p. 19.
1 2 Main Personnel Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union 1964, p. 7.
↑ See also Glantz, Stumbling Colossus, 114.
↑ Minsk Minsk fortified region - general information
↑ Battle of Minsk
↑ Pokrovsky 1956, p. 5.
↑ Pokrovsky 1956, p. 6.
↑ Gurkin et al. 1990, p. 38.
↑ Sharp 1996, p. 110.
↑ Feskov et al 2013, p. 565.

Bibliography

Dvoinykh, L.V.; Kariaeva, T.F.; Stegantsev, M.V., eds. (1993). Центральный государственный архив Советской армии [Central State Archive of the Soviet Army] (in Russian). 2. Minneapolis: Eastview Publications. ISBN 1879944030.
Feskov, V.I.; Golikov, V.I.; Kalashnikov, K.A.; Slugin, S.A. (2013). Вооруженные силы СССР после Второй Мировой войны: от Красной Армии к Советской [The Armed Forces of the USSR after World War II: From the Red Army to the Soviet: Part 1 Land Forces] (in Russian). Tomsk: Scientific and Technical Literature Publishing. ISBN 9785895035306.
Gurkin, V.V.; et al. (1990). Боевой состав Советской армии: Часть V (Январь—сентябрь 1945 г.) [Combat Composition of the Soviet Army, Part V (January–September 1945)](PDF) (in Russian). Moscow: Voenizdat.
Main Personnel Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union (1964). Командование корпусного и дивизионного звена советских вооруженных сил периода Великой Отечественной войны 1941–1945 гг [Commanders of Corps and Divisions in the Great Patriotic War, 1941–1945] (in Russian). Moscow: Frunze Military Academy.
Pokrovsky, A. P. (1956). "Перечень № 4. Управлений корпусов, входивших в состав действующей армии в годы Великой Отечественной войны 1941—1945 гг" [List (Perechen) No. 4: Corps headquarters, part of the active army during the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945] (in Russian). Moscow: Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union.
Sharp, Charles C. (1996). The Soviet Order of Battle World War II: An Organizational History of the Major Combat Units of the Soviet Army. 10: "Red Swarm", Soviet Rifle Divisions Formed From 1942 to 1945. West Chester, Ohio: George F. Nafziger. OCLC 39214254.

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