Soviet 2nd Rifle Division
Encyclopedia
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The Soviet 2nd Rifle Division was an rifle
Infantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...
division
Division (military)
A division is a large military unit or formation usually consisting of between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, and in turn several divisions typically make up a corps...
that served during The Great Patriotic War
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
. Originally formed in 1919 from the 1st Ryazansk Rifle Division, the division was twice destroyed and reformed during the war. The division contained two or three rifle regiment
Regiment
A regiment is a major tactical military unit, composed of variable numbers of batteries, squadrons or battalions, commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel...
s.
Formed at Moscow, September 1918. Fought at Ufa on the Eastern Front, April–July 1919. Fought against Yudenich with the 7th Army, October–December 1919. Fought in the Polish Campaign in the Western Front, May–August 1920, and against Bulak-Balakhovich, October 1920.
Second World War
During the war there were four distinct formations that bore the title of 2nd Rifle Division.1st Formation
Formed in 1919 in the Belorussian Military District. On 22 June 1941 the division was part of the 10th Army10th Army (Soviet Union)
The 10th Army of the Soviet Union's Red Army was a field army active from 1939 to 1944.The Army was formed in September 1939 in the Moscow Military District, and then deployed to the Western Special Military District...
and took up defensive positions on the right flank of the army stationed in the Bialystok "bulge". The division escaped from the Bialystok pocket only to be annihilated by the German army in a pocket west of Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...
in early July 1941. The division was removed from the Soviet order of battle on 24 July 1941 and officially disbanded on 19 September 1941.
- 13th Rifle Regiment
- 200th Rifle Regiment
- 261st Rifle Regiment
- 164th Light Artillery Regiment
- 243rd Howitzer Regiment
- 70th Antitank Battalion
- 94th Antiaircraft Battalion
- 320th Sapper Battalion
- 91st Medical Battalion
The full honorific title of the division was the 2nd Belorussian
Byelorussian SSR
The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic was one of fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union. It was one of the four original founding members of the Soviet Union in 1922, together with the Ukrainian SSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic...
Red Banner Rifle Division in the name of M.V. Frunze
Mikhail Frunze
Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze was a Bolshevik leader during and just prior to the Russian Revolution of 1917.-Life and Political Activity:Frunze was born in Bishkek, then a small Imperial Russian garrison town in the Kyrgyz part of Turkestan, to a Moldovan medical practitioner and his Russian wife...
.
2nd Formation
Formed from a Moscow militiaMilitia
The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...
division on 26 September 1941, the second formation served in the 32nd Army. It was encircled and destroyed by the Germans in the Vyazma
Vyazma
Vyazma is a town and the administrative center of Vyazemsky District of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Vyazma River, about halfway between Smolensk and Mozhaysk. Throughout its turbulent history, the city defended western approaches to the city of Moscow...
pocket in October, 1941. This formation was disbanded on 27 December 1941.
- 1282nd Rifle Regiment
- 1284th Rifle Regiment
- 1286th Rifle Regiment
3rd Formation
Formed in SevastopolSevastopol
Sevastopol is a city on rights of administrative division of Ukraine, located on the Black Sea coast of the Crimea peninsula. It has a population of 342,451 . Sevastopol is the second largest port in Ukraine, after the Port of Odessa....
fortress on 23 November 1941 from the dismounted 2nd Cavalry Division, this formation served with the Separate Coastal Army
Separate Coastal Army
The Separate Coastal Army was an army-level unit in the Red Army that fought in the World War II. It was ordered to be established on July 18, 1941 by the order of the Southern Front from the forces of 9th Army’s Coastal Group and was stood up on July 20, 1941....
and was renamed the 109th Rifle Division on 29 January 1942.
- 383rd Rifle Regiment (formed from NKVD Border Troops)
- 1330th Rifle Regiment (reservists)
- Mixed Rifle Regiment (Border Troops plus dismounted cavalry)
- 51st Artillery Regiment (from Corps troops)
4th Formation
Commenced forming in ArkhangelskArkhangelsk
Arkhangelsk , formerly known as Archangel in English, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina River near its exit into the White Sea in the north of European Russia. The city spreads for over along the banks of the river...
on 21 December 1941, this incarnation of the division served to the end of the war and earned the honorific title of 2nd Masuria
Masuria
Masuria is an area in northeastern Poland famous for its 2,000 lakes. Geographically, Masuria is part of two adjacent lakeland districts, the Masurian Lake District and the Iława Lake District...
n Rifle Division. It finished the war as part of the 81st Rifle Corps in the 3rd Belorussian Front
3rd Belorussian Front
The 3rd Belorussian Front was a Front of the Soviet Army during the Second World War...
. With the 81st Rifle Corps, it was withdrawn to the Eastern Ural Military District immediately after the war, and disbanded soon afterwards.
- 13th Rifle Regiment (II)
- 200th Rifle Regiment (II)
- 261st Rifle Regiment (II)
External links and Sources
- Feskov et al., The Soviet Army in the period of the Cold War, Tomsk University Press, 2004
- Journal of the Soviet Army