| 53rd Rifle Division | |
|---|---|
| Active | I Formation: 1931–1946 II Formation: 1955 |
| Country |  Soviet Union |
| Branch | Red Army |
| Type | Infantry |
| Engagements | World War II |
| Decorations |
|
| Battle honours | Novoukrainka (1st formation) named for Friedrich Engels (1st formation |
The 53rd Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army that served from the early 1930s to the immediate postwar period following World War II.
The 53rd was formed in 1931 as a territorial division; Ivan Boldin became its first commander and military commissar in April of that year, and would hold that position until December 1934. [1] It was stationed in the Volga Military District with the 12th Rifle Corps. By 1935, the division was headquartered at Engels and included the 157th Rifle Regiment at Engels, the 158th Rifle Regiment at Krasny Kut, the 159th Rifle Regiment at Pugachyov, and the 53rd Artillery Regiment at Pugachyov. [2] On 8 July 1937 it received the honorific "named for Friedrich Engels". Before the war it became part of the 21st Army in the Gomel Region of the Western Special Military District. [3]
Poirer and Connor, in their 1985 Red Army Order of Battle, say that the division fought at Yelnya, on the Dnieper River, at Uman and Targul Frumos. For its actions in the capture of Jassy, the division was awarded the Order of the Red Banner on 15 September 1944. [4] The division was with 46th Army of the 2nd Ukrainian Front in May 1945.
The division was disbanded on 30 June 1946 in the Odessa Military District with the 34th Rifle Corps of the 40th Army. [5] [6]
In 1955, the division was reformed from the 318th Rifle Division with the 3rd Rifle Corps at Uzhhorod, inheriting the honorifics "Novorossiysk Order of Suvorov". On 9 September 1955, it became the 39th Mechanized Division. [7] The division received personnel and equipment from the disbanded 13th Guards Mechanized Division in fall 1955 and on 4 December became the 39th Guards Mechanized Division. [8]
The 78th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army, formed in 1932, in Novosibirsk, in the Siberian Military District. After being used to provide cadres for new divisions, in September 1939 the division was reformed for the second time. In 1940 the division was transferred to Khabarovsk in the Far Eastern Front.
The 101st Rifle Division was a unit of the Soviet Red Army initially formed as a mountain rifle division on 28 August 1938 within the 2nd Separate Red Banner Army in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky city.
The 27th Rifle Division was a tactical unit in the Red Army of Soviet Russia and then the Soviet Union, active between 1918 and 1945. First formed during the Russian Civil War on November 3, 1918, as part of 5th Red Army. Commanded by Vitovt Putna, it was transferred to the 16th Red Army in 1920, and took part in the Polish–Soviet War. Defeated in the battles of Radzymin and Ossów, it practically ceased to exist.
The 2nd Rifle Corps was an infantry corps of the Red Army during the interwar period and World War II, formed twice.
The 22nd Motor Rifle Division named for Atamyrat Niyazov is a division of the Turkmenistan Ground Forces. It traces its history to the 344th Rifle Division, an infantry division of the Red Army and the Soviet Ground Forces during World War II and the Cold War.
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 83rd Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army during World War II.
The 34th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army during and before World War II. The division was formed in 1923. It fought in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in August 1945. Postwar, it became the 11th Machine Gun Artillery Division.
The 389th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Union during World War II.
The 313th Rifle Division was a standard Red Army rifle division formed on July 15, 1941 in the Udmurt ASSR before being sent to the vicinity of Leningrad, first in the 7th Separate Army east of Lake Ladoga, and later in 32nd Army of Karelian Front, where it spent most of the war facing the Finnish Army in East Karelia. In consequence the division saw relatively uneventful service on this mostly quiet front until the summer of 1944, when it took part in the offensive that drove Finland out of the war. When this was accomplished, the division was redeployed to take the fight into Poland and then into the German heartland in the winter and spring of 1945. It ended the war north of Berlin after compiling a very distinguished record of service.
The 280th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II, formed twice. It was first formed in the summer of 1941 and destroyed in the Bryansk pocket in the fall of 1941. The division was reformed in late December, and served throughout the war before being disbanded in 1946.
The 3rd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Division was an anti-aircraft artillery division of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II.
The 5th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Division was an anti-aircraft artillery division of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II.
The 85th Rifle Corps was a rifle corps of the Red Army and later the Soviet Army.
The 69th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Division was an anti-aircraft artillery division of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II and the early postwar period.
The 366th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army during World War II, formed twice.
The 172nd Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army during World War II, formed thrice.
The 12th Rifle Corps was an infantry corps of the Red Army during the interwar period and World War II, formed four times.
The 215th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army during World War II that continued to serve in the Soviet Army during the early years of the Cold War. It was the successor to a motorized division of that same number that was destroyed during the Battle of Kiev in September 1941.
The 108th Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment was an air defense regiment of the Ukrainian Air Force, based at Zolotonosha until its 2012 disbandment. The regiment began as the 22nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Division of the Red Army formed during World War II.
 Divisions of the Soviet Union 1945–1957 | |||||||
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| Airborne divisions | |||||||
| Artillery divisions |
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| Cavalry divisions | |||||||
| Infantry divisions |
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| Mechanised |
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| Tank divisions |
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| Other | |||||||
