 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(October 2013) |
| 7th Guards Army | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Active | 1943–1991 |
| Country |  Soviet Union |
| Branch | Soviet Ground Forces |
| Type | Army |
| Garrison/HQ | Yerevan (April 1946 – August 1992) |
| Engagements | World War II |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | |
The 7th Guards Army was a field army of the Red Army during World War II and of the Soviet Army during the Cold War.
The 7th Guards Army was formed from the 64th Army on April 16, 1943.
64th Army had originally been formed from 1st Reserve Army in July 1942, and alongside the 62nd Army, fought the German offensive during the Battle of Stalingrad to a standstill, for which it was raised to Guards status. General Lieutenant M.S. Shumilov, who had commanded the 64th Army, continued to command 7th Guards Army through the rest of the war, though he was promoted to General Colonel in October 1943.
It included the 15th, 36th, 72nd, 73rd, 78th and 81st Guards Rifle Divisions, which were incorporated in the 24th and 25th Guards Rifle Corps. As part of the Voronezh Front and the Steppe Front since July 18, 1943, the Army participated in the Battle of Kursk and the Battle for the Dnieper River from July through August, 1943. Subsequently, as part of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, it participated in the Kirovograd Offensive, and those of Uman–Botoșani, Jassy–Kishinev, Debrecen, Budapest, Bratislava and Brno, and Prague.
The 7th Guards Army was stationed in Austria as part of the Central Group of Forces briefly after the war. [1] On 1 May 1945 it comprised 23rd Rifle Corps (19th and 252nd Rifle Divisions), 25th Guards Rifle Corps (4th and 6th Guards Airborne Divisions, 25th Guards Rifle Division, 303rd Rifle Division, and 27th Guards Rifle Corps (72nd Guards, 141st, 375th, and 409th Rifle Divisions. [2] In 1946 it comprised three rifle corps totaling nine divisions, and that year General Ivan Fedyuninsky took command for a period. These formations were reassigned to the North Caucasus, Tavria and Kiev Military Districts and the Army HQ arrived at Yerevan in the Transcaucasus Military District to take control of the 75th and 261st Rifle Divisions, soon followed by the 26th Mechanised Division and the 164th Rifle Division. Postwar, in January 1946, the 72nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Division was relocated to the Transcaucasus, where it became part of the 7th Guards Army in the cities of Yerevan and Leninakan.
In the late 1980s the Army consisted of:
In November 1988 Colonel Lev Rokhlin became the commander of the 75th MRD. In early 1990 the division was transferred to the Soviet Border Troops of the KGB, and Rokhlin was promoted to major-general in February of the same year. [4] Later the division was transferred to the Azerbaijani Army, but to the representatives of the Nakhichivan government rather than authorities from the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence. [3]
The army was disbanded on August 14, 1992 in accordance with Directive of the General Staff of the Russian Federation No. 314/03/0772. [5] Some units were transferred to Armenia. Russia received the entire 127th Motor Rifle Division and some other smaller units.
Lieutenant General Fyodor Reut was the Army's last commander, from May 1991 to August 1992. [6] Most of the formations disbanded/dissolved, among them the 15th MRD, whose equipment were partly handed over to Armenia when it disbanded in 1992. The 15th MRD's traditions, honors and awards were transferred to the 5209th Weapons and Equipment Storage Base. [7] The 127th MRD later became the Russian 102nd Military Base.
The 4th Army was a Soviet field army of World War II that served on the Eastern front of World War II and in the Caucasus during the Cold War. It was disbanded after the fall of the Soviet Union, with its divisions being withdrawn to Russia and disbanded.
The 5th Combined Arms Red Banner Army is a Russian Ground Forces formation in the Eastern Military District.
A mechanised corps was a Soviet armoured formation used prior to the beginning of World War II and reintroduced during the war, in 1942.
The Russian 102nd Military Base is a Russian military base in Gyumri, Armenia, under the command of the Southern Military District of the Russian Armed Forces.
The North Caucasus Military District was a military district of the Russian Armed Forces from 1992-2010. Before 1992 it had been part of the Soviet Armed Forces since 1918. In 2010 it became the Southern Military District and lately also included the Black Sea Fleet and Caspian Flotilla.
The Far Eastern Military District was a military district of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In 2010 it was merged with the Pacific Fleet and part of the Siberian Military District to form the new Eastern Military District.
The Turkestan Military District was a military district of both the Imperial Russian Army and the Soviet Armed Forces, with its headquarters at Tashkent. The District was first created during the 1874 Russian military reform when by order of Minister Dmitry Milyutin the territory of Russia was divided into fourteen military districts. Its first commander was Konstantin Petrovich von Kaufmann, who was also Governor-General of Russian Turkestan at the time.
The Transcaucasian Military District, a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces, traces its history to May 1921 and the incorporation of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia into the Soviet Union. It was disbanded by being redesignated as a Group of Forces in the early 1990s after the Soviet Union collapse. The military district formed as a basis of the modern day armed forces of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia as well as unrecognized polities of Abkhazia, the Republic of Artsakh and South Ossetia.
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 13th Army was a name given to several field armies of the Soviet Union's Red Army. Later armies existed until the 1990s, and the army survived as part of the Ukrainian Ground Forces for some years.
The 37th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II.
The 13th Guards Army Corps was a corps of the Soviet Ground Forces, formed from the previous 13th Guards Rifle Corps, which saw service during the Second World War.
The 29th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army and later the Soviet Army.
The 25th Army Corps was an army corps of the Soviet Ground Forces active from 1957–1960 and 1980–89. In its first period of existence it was in the Odessa Military District, and in its second period of existence it garrisoned the remote Kamchatka region and Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of the Soviet Far East.
The 4th Guards Motor Rifle Division was a motorized infantry division of the Soviet Army during the Cold War.
The 15th Guards Rifle Division was reformed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in February, 1942, based on the 1st formation of the 136th Rifle Division, and served in that role until well after the end of the Great Patriotic War. The division had already distinguished itself during the Winter War with Finland in 1940 and had been decorated with the Order of Lenin; soon after its redesignation it also received its first Order of the Red Banner. It was in Southern Front as this time but was soon moved to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command where it was assigned to 7th Reserve Army in May, then to 28th Army in Southwestern Front in June, then to 57th Army in Stalingrad Front in July. It remained in that Army for the rest of the year, with one brief exception, until it was transferred to Don Front's 64th Army in January, 1943 during the closing stages of the battle of Stalingrad. In March this Army became 7th Guards Army and was railed to the northwest, joining Voronezh Front south of the Kursk salient. In the battle that followed the 15th Guards assisted in the defeat of Army Detachment Kempf, then took part in the summer offensive into Ukraine, winning one of the first battle honors at Kharkov. It remained in either 7th Guards or 37th Army into the spring of 1944. It saw action in the Nikopol-Krivoi Rog Offensive and was awarded the Order of Suvorov before being involved in the frustrating battles along the Dniestr River on the Romanian border. In June the division became part of 34th Guards Rifle Corps in 5th Guards Army and was redeployed north becoming part of 1st Ukrainian Front and taking part in the Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive into Poland. The 15th Guards made a spectacular advance across Poland during the Vistula-Oder Offensive and was further decorated with the Order of Kutuzov for forcing a crossing of the Oder River. It then saw action in the drive on Berlin in April and the Prague Offensive in May, winning a further battle honor and an unusual second Order of the Red Banner in the process. After the war the division did garrison duty in Austria, then in Ukraine, followed by a move in late 1947 to Crimea and the Kuban where its personnel assisted in rebuilding the local economy and infrastructure for nearly 20 years. It September 1965 it was renumbered as the "51st" and became the 2nd formation of the 51st Guards Motor Rifle Division.
The 119th Guards Rifle Division was formed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in September 1943, based on the 11th Guards Naval Rifle Brigade and the 15th Guards Naval Rifle Brigade and was one of a small series of Guards divisions formed on a similar basis. Although the two brigades had distinguished themselves in the fighting south of Stalingrad as part of 64th Army they were moved to Northwestern Front in the spring of 1943 before being reorganized. After serving briefly in 22nd Army the division was moved to reinforce the 3rd Shock Army within the large salient that Army had created behind German lines after a breakthrough at Nevel in October. In the following months it fought both to expand the salient and defend it against German counterattacks in a highly complex situation. In January 1944 it was transferred to the 7th Guards Rifle Corps of 10th Guards Army, still in the Nevel region, after which it advanced toward the Panther Line south of Lake Peipus. During operations in the Baltic states that summer and autumn the 119th Guards was awarded both a battle honor and the Order of the Red Banner for its operations in Latvia. In March 1945 it joined the Kurland Group of Forces of Leningrad Front on the Baltic coast containing the German forces encircled in northwest Latvia. Following the German surrender it was moved to Estonia where it was disbanded in 1946.
| Armies |
|
|---|---|
| Guards | |
| Tank/Mechanized | |
| Guards Tank/Mechanized | |
| Shock | |
| Cavalry | |
| Sapper |
|
| Reserve Army |
|
