7th Guards Army
Encyclopedia
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...
's 7th Guards Army was re-designated from the Soviet 64th Army on April 16, 1943.
64th Army had originally been formed from 1st Reserve Army in July 1942, and alongside the 62nd Army
62nd Army (Soviet Union)
The 62nd Order of Lenin Army was a field army established by the Soviet Union's Red Army during the Second World War. Formed as the 7th Reserve Army as part of the Stavka Reserve in May 1942, the formation was designated as the 62nd Rifle Army the following month...
, fought the German offensive during the Battle of Stalingrad
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. The battle took place between 23 August 1942 and 2 February 1943...
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
Voronezh Front
The Voronezh Front was a front of the Soviet Union's Red Army during the Second World War. The name indicated the primary geographical region in which the Front first fought, based on the town of Voronezh on the Don River....
and the Steppe Front
Steppe Front
The Steppe Front and later the 2nd Ukrainian Front was a Front , effectively an Army group sized formation, of the Soviet Army during the Second World War...
since July 18, 1943, the Army participated 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,...
and the Battle for 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...
from July through August, 1943. Subsequently, as part of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, it participated in the Kirovograd Offensive, and those of Uman
Umanskyi Raion
Uman Raion is a raion in the westernmost corner of Cherkasy Oblast of central Ukraine. Its administrative center is Uman with 88,730 inhabitants....
and Botoşani
Botosani
Botoșani is the capital city of Botoșani County, in northern Moldavia, Romania. Today, it is best known as the birthplace of many celebrated Romanians, including Mihai Eminescu and Nicolae Iorga.- Origin of the name :...
, Iassy-Kishinev, Debrecen
Battle of Debrecen
The Battle of Debrecen, called by the Red Army the Debrecen Offensive Operation, was conducted by the 2nd Ukrainian Front on the Eastern Front of World War II...
, Budapest
Battle of Budapest
The Siege of Budapest centered on the Hungarian capital city of Budapest. It was fought towards the end of World War II in Europe, during the Soviet Budapest Offensive. The siege started when Budapest, defended by Hungarian and German troops, was first encircled on 29 December 1944 by the Red Army...
, Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
and Brno
Brno
Brno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...
, and Prague
Prague Offensive
The Prague Offensive was the last major Soviet operation of World War II in Europe. The offensive, and the battle for Prague, was fought on the Eastern Front from 6 May to 11 May 1945. This battle for the city is particularly noteworthy in that it ended after the Third Reich capitulated on 8 May...
.
The 7th Guards Army was stationed in Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
as part of the Central Group of Forces
Central Group of Forces
The Central Group of Forces was a Soviet military formation used to control Soviet troops in Central Europe on two occasions: in Austria and Hungary from 1945-55 and troops stationed in Czechoslovakia after the Prague Spring of 1968....
briefly after the war. In 1946 it comprised three rifle corps totaling nine divisions, and that year General Ivan Fedyuninsky
Ivan Fedyuninsky
Ivan Ivanovich Fedyuninsky was a Soviet military leader and Hero of the Soviet Union .Fedyuninsky was born into a peasant family near Tugulym in the Urals. He finished the village school in 1913 and was apprenticed to a painter and decorator. He joined the Red Army in 1919...
took command for a period. These formations were reassigned to the North Caucasus
North Caucasus Military District
The North Caucasus Military District was a military district of the Russian Ground Forces, which became in 2010 the Southern Military District and lately also includes the Black Sea Fleet and Caspian Flotilla....
, Tavria and Kiev
Kiev Military District
The Kiev Military District was a Russian unit of military-administrative division of the Imperial Russian Army and subsequently of the Ukrainian Army, RKKA, and Soviet Armed Forces...
Military Districts and the Army HQ arrived at Yerevan
Yerevan
Yerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country...
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. In the late 1980s the Army consisted of:
- 15th Motor Rifle Division (former 15th Rifle Division15th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)The 15th Rifle Division was a military formation of the Red Army formed by renaming the Red Army's Inzensk Revolutionary Division on 30 April 1919...
) – Kirovakan - 75th Motor Rifle Division (former 75th Rifle Division) – NakhichevanNakhichevanThe Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic is a landlocked exclave of Azerbaijan. The region covers 5,363 km² and borders Armenia to the east and north, Iran to the south and west, and Turkey to the northwest...
, Category "C" with 5-10% manning - 127th Motor Rifle Division (former 261st Rifle Division) – Leninakan, ArmeniaArmeniaArmenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
(now 102nd Military Base102nd Military BaseThe Russian 102nd Military Base is a Russian military base in Gyumri, Armenia, part of the Transcaucasian Group of Forces. It was formerly the Soviet Army's 127th Motor Rifle Division of the Soviet Seventh Guards Army. The base is about north of the Armenian capital, Yerevan.The 102nd Military...
) - 164th Motor Rifle Division (former 164th Rifle Division) - Yerevan
It was disbanded circa 1989-92 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union was the disintegration of the federal political structures and central government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , resulting in the independence of all fifteen republics of the Soviet Union between March 11, 1990 and December 25, 1991...
.