58th Rifle Division

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58th Rifle Division
58th Mountain Rifle Division
Active1931 – 1941
CountryFlag of the Soviet Union.svg  Soviet Union
Branch Red Army flag.svg Red Army
Type Infantry and Mountain Infantry
SizeDivision

The 58th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army formed during the interwar period. Its second formation during World War II gained the Oder honorific.

Contents

History

The 58th Rifle Division was formed in 1931 at Cherkasy. [1] Its first recorded commander and commissar was Vasily Polyakov, who took the position in April 1932. Polyakov transferred to command the 96th Rifle Division in December 1933, [2] and was replaced by assistant division commander Grigory Kaptsevich (who received the rank of kombrig in 1935 when the Red Army introduced personal ranks). During the 1935 Kiev Military District maneuvers, the division took on the role of an airborne division as a demonstration as the Red Army did not yet include airborne divisions. Kaptsevich was arrested during the Great Purge on 13 August 1937 and ultimately executed. [3]

The division was headquartered at Cherkasy as part of the Kiev Military District. It participated in 1940 in the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. After that, it remained at peacetime strength until January 1941 when it was re-formed as the 58th Mountain Rifle Division.

The 58th Mountain Rifle Division was surrounded and destroyed along with other parts of the 6th and 12th armies. Its commander, Major General Nikolay Proshkin, was captured and died in January 1942 in a prisoner of war camp, Commissar M. Pozhidaev disappeared without a trace. The division was disbanded on September 19, 1941.

Organization on Formation

The division was first formed in 1932 as the 58th Rifle Division. In Cherkasy the division had the following structure:

Organization on Disbandment

Organization of the division before it was destroyed during the Uman pocket: [4] [5]

Commanders

The division had a number of divisional commanders, including: [6] [7]


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References

Citations

  1. Milbakh, Negoda & Churakov 2020, p. 23.
  2. Cherushev & Cherushev 2014, pp. 198–199.
  3. Cherushev & Cherushev 2014, pp. 108–109.
  4. "Soviet Mountain Rifle Division, 22 June 1941". niehorster.org. Retrieved 2019-02-09.
  5. "58 ГОРНО СТРЕЛКОВАЯ ДИВИЗИЯ". bdsa.ru. Retrieved 2019-02-09.
  6. "Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия". www.rkka.ru. Retrieved 2019-02-10.
  7. "58-я Одерская Краснознаменная стрелковая дивизия". rkka.ru. Retrieved 2019-10-08.

Bibliography