13th Army (Soviet Union)
Encyclopedia
The 13th Army was a name given to several field armies
Field army
A Field Army, or Area Army, usually referred to simply as an Army, is a term used by many national military forces for a military formation superior to a corps and beneath an army group....

 of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

's Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

, first created during the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...

. Later armies existed until the 1990s, and the army survived as part of the Ukrainian Ground Forces
Ukrainian Ground Forces
The Ukrainian Ground Forces are the land force component of the Military of Ukraine. They were formed from Soviet Army formations, units, and establishments, including three military districts , that were on Ukrainian soil when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990-92.Between the fall of the USSR and...

 for some years.

Russian Civil War

It was first formed from the Kursk direction group of forces which was later assigned the group under leadership of I.S. Kozhevnikov arriving from the frontlines of the First World War. After its assignment to the Southern Front
Soviet Southern Front
The Southern Front was a Front - a roughly Army group sized formation - of the Soviet Army during the Second World War. The Southern Front directed military operations during the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina in 1940, and then was formed twice after the June 1941 German...

 in December 1918 it was renamed as the Donetsk group of forces in February 1919, and in March reformed as the 13th Army. The Army under command of the V.I. Selivachev group until September, together with the 8th Army, while the Southern Front was renamed as the Southwestern
Soviet Southwestern Front
The Southwestern Front was a name given to a Front by the Imperial Russian Army during the First World War, by the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic during the Russian Civil War, and by the Red Army during the Second World War.The Southwestern Front in this article describes several...

 in January 1920. In September 1920 it was assigned to the newly created Southern Front at that time fighting against Vrangel.

During the Civil War the Army's force structure was highly dynamic with most subunits operating as part of operational groups. These included Special (reserve) group (two regiments and a battery), Left group (two divisions, cavalry and infantry brigades), Shock group (Latvian division, Cossack cavalry brigade and separate brigade), and Perekopskaya group (Latvian and 3rd divisions, 8th cavalry division, Nesterov group, and later 52nd division and 85th brigade of the 29th division). This group fought on the approaches to Crimea, and experienced many changes, at one time including a group of armoured trains and the 1st Cavalry corps, but was eventually split between the Ekaterinoslav direction group of forces and the 6th Army. The rest of the 13th fought towards the southern coast of the Black sea between Perekop and north-east of Odessa. In October 1920 the army lost many of its units to the 2nd Cavalry Army, and in November of the same year it was merged into the 4th Army. Its last location of headquarters was in the city of Slavyansk.

This first 13th Army participated in operations spanning an area from southern Kursk gubernia to Crimea, fought Denikin, the Don nationalist Cossacks and Vrangel, participated in the offensive into Donbass, and its defence, and in the counter-offensive in Southern Tavria.

Russo-Finnish War

The 13th Army was created again at the end of December 1939 as a separate 13th Army in the course of the Soviet advance into the Karelian Ishtmus when the 7th Army was split into two, and also renamed separate, after being substantially reinforced. As part of the 1940 February Vyborg offensive they were coordinated by the North Western Front in Leningrad, both armies were able to breach either first or second defensive positions in the Mannerheim Line
Mannerheim Line
The Mannerheim Line was a defensive fortification line on the Karelian Isthmus built by Finland against the Soviet Union. During the Winter War it became known as the Mannerheim Line, after Field Marshal Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim. The line was constructed in two phases: 1920–1924 and...

, but were unable to breach the main position. The separate 13th Army was allocated three of the eight rifle corps assigned to the operation.

Second World War

The 13th Army (Ist formation) headquarters
Headquarters
Headquarters denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top of a corporation taking full responsibility managing all business activities...

 was formed in May 1941 in the Western Special Military District, starting on May 5 in Mogilev
Mogilev
Mogilev is a city in eastern Belarus, about 76 km from the border with Russia's Smolensk Oblast and 105 km from the border with Russia's Bryansk Oblast. It has more than 367,788 inhabitants...

 in accordance with the decision of Central Committee of the Communist Party and Sovnarkom of the USSR No.1113-460cc. dated 23 April 1941 In the beginning of June General-Leytenant Piyotor Filatov arrived to take command. From the beginning of Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...

 the Army included the 21st Rifle Corps, 50th Rifle Division, the 8th Anti-Tank Artillery Brigade and a number of other separate units. From the end of June 1941 the Army conducted defensive operations in the Minsk Fortified Region, on the Borisov direction and on the Dnieper river
Dnieper River
The Dnieper River is one of the major rivers of Europe that flows from Russia, through Belarus and Ukraine, to the Black Sea.The total length is and has a drainage basin of .The river is noted for its dams and hydroelectric stations...

. The formation conducted operations as part of the Soviet Western Front
Soviet Western Front
The Western Front was a Front of the Red Army, one of the Red Army Fronts during the Second World War. This sense of the term is different from the more general usage of military front which indicates a geographic area in wartime, although a Soviet Front usually operates within designated...

 and the Soviet Central Front
Soviet Central Front
The Central Front was a Front of the Soviet Army during the Second World War.The Central Front describes either of two distinct organizations during the war...

. Parts of the Army held up the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...

 advance for almost three weeks near Mogilyev. The 172nd Rifle Division under General Romanov especially distinguished itself in the combat. Parts of the Army participated in the Battle of Smolensk
Battle of Smolensk (1941)
The Battle of Smolensk was a largely successful encirclement operation by the German Army Group Centre's 2nd Panzer Group led by Heinz Guderian and the 3rd Panzer Group led by Hermann Hoth against parts of four Soviet Fronts during World War II...

 10 July to 10 September 1941. During September and October 1941 the Army was operating as part of the Bryansk Front
Bryansk Front
The Bryansk Front was a Front of the Soviet Army during the Second World War.General Andrei Yeremenko was designated commander of the Front when it first formed in mid-late August 1941, comprising, in Erickson's words, 'on paper two armies, 50th and 13th, with eight rifle divisions each, three...

 and included the 6th Rifle Division
6th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)
The 6th Rifle Division was a Soviet military unit. They participated in several battles, most notably the Soviet westward offensive of 1918–1919 and Estonian War of Independence. From their inception the unit saw combat and had three periods of active service...

.

The Army fought as part of the Soviet Central Front
Soviet Central Front
The Central Front was a Front of the Soviet Army during the Second World War.The Central Front describes either of two distinct organizations during the war...

 in the Battle of Kursk
Battle of Kursk
The Battle of Kursk took place when German and Soviet forces confronted each other on the Eastern Front during World War II in the vicinity of the city of Kursk, in the Soviet Union in July and August 1943. It remains both the largest series of armored clashes, including the Battle of Prokhorovka,...

 in July 1943 under General N.P.Pukhov, numbering four corps with twelve rifle divisions (including the 75th Guards Rifle Division
75th Guards Rifle Division
The 75th Guards Rifle Division was a Red Army infantry division during World War II and afterwards, which later became the 75th Guards Tank Division and was finally disbanded in the 1990s.-Background:The Division was formed in the Tula area in September 1942 on the basis of units of the 13th...

). The Army finished its war service in Germany within the 1st Ukrainian Front
1st Ukrainian Front
The 1st Ukrainian Front was a front—a force the size of a Western Army group—of the Soviet Union's Red Army during the Second World War.-Wartime:...

 in 1945, consisting of the 24th Rifle Corps (117th Rifle Division, 380th Rifle Division, 395th Rifle Division), 27th Rifle Corps (6th Guards Rifle Division and 121st Guards Rifle Division), 102nd Rifle Corps (147th Rifle Division and 172nd Rifle Divisions, which took part in the Battle of Halbe
Battle of Halbe
The Battle of Halbe lasted from April 24 - May 1, 1945 was a battle in which the German Ninth Army, under the command of Colonel General Theodor Busse was destroyed as a fighting force by the Red Army during the Battle for Berlin....

), 17th Artillery Division, and many other smaller artillery and other formations.

Soviet Army

The Army, which was awarded the Order of the Red Banner
Order of the Red Banner
The Soviet government of Russia established the Order of the Red Banner , a military decoration, on September 16, 1918 during the Russian Civil War...

 after the Soviet victory, was located for the entire postwar period in the Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...

 and Carpathian Military District
Carpathian Military District
The Carpathian Military District was a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces from 1945 after the conclusion of the Second World War to 1990-91. It became part of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in 1991 and was disbanded by being redesignated the Western Operational Command later in the 1990s.Two...

s, initially comprising three Rifle Corps
Rifle corps (Soviet)
A rifle corps was a Soviet military organization of 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.Unlike army corps formed by Germany...

 with a total of 9 rifle divisions. From 1947 to 1949 it was commanded by General Issa Pliyev
Issa Pliyev
Issa Alexandrovich Pliyev was a Soviet military commander, Army General , twice Hero of the Soviet Union , Hero of the Mongolian People's Republic . Member of the CPSU since 1926. He was an ethnic Ossetian....

 who was a renowned commander of several Cavalry mechanized group
Cavalry Mechanized Group
A cavalry-mechanized group was a type of military formation used in the Red Army during World War II against Germany and Japan.- Organization :...

s during the war. It was for much of this period headquartered at Rivne
Rivne
Rivne or Rovno is a historic city in western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Rivne Oblast , as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Rivne Raion within the oblast...

. Almost all its divisions were Guards formations: the 17th, 51st, 97th
97th Mechanized Brigade (Ukraine)
The 97th Mechanized Brigade was a rifle, and then a motor-rifle division of the Soviet Union's Army, before becoming a mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, based in Slavuta in western Ukraine....

 (the former 40th, 15th, and 97th
97th Mechanized Brigade (Ukraine)
The 97th Mechanized Brigade was a rifle, and then a motor-rifle division of the Soviet Union's Army, before becoming a mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, based in Slavuta in western Ukraine....

 Rifle Divisions). Only the 24th
24th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)
style="float: right; clear: right; background-color: transparent"| The 24th Samaro-Ulyanovsk Division was a rifle, then a motor-rifle division of the Red Army of the USSR...

 (subsequently resubordinated to Military District control) and the 161st Rifle Division were not Guards, but both were renowned combat formations. On the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the army, its facilities and most of the equipment was transferred to the newly-sovereign Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

.

Ukrainian Army

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence chose to retain the Army and its formations for some time, but during a later reorganisation of the Ukrainian Ground Forces
Ukrainian Ground Forces
The Ukrainian Ground Forces are the land force component of the Military of Ukraine. They were formed from Soviet Army formations, units, and establishments, including three military districts , that were on Ukrainian soil when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990-92.Between the fall of the USSR and...

 the Army was substantially reduced in size and renamed the 13th Army Corps.

Sources, References, and See also

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