The 4th Guards Army was an elite Guards field army of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and the early postwar era.

History

On April 16, 1943, the Supreme Command ordered the army to be established. On May 5, 1943, the army was formed on the basis of the 24th Army in the

Steppe Military District The Steppe Military District () was a military district of the Soviet Union, formed twice. It was first formed in April 1943 during World War II near Voronezh as a strategic reserve, and after the beginning of the Battle of Kursk in July it became ...

. It included the 20th and 21st Guards Rifle and

3rd Guards Tank Corps Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (disambiguation) * Third Avenue (disambiguation) * Hig ...

. On July 3 the Army was placed in Stavka reserve, on July 18 included in the Steppe Front, and on July 23 once again put in Stavka reserve. The Army fought in decisive actions such as the

Battle of Kursk The Battle of Kursk was a major World War II Eastern Front engagement between the forces of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union near Kursk in the southwestern USSR during late summer 1943; it ultimately became the largest tank battle in history ...

, the

Second Jassy–Kishinev Offensive The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds each ...

, the struggle for central Hungary, and the

Vienna Offensive The Vienna offensive was an offensive launched by the Soviet 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts in order to capture Vienna, Austria, during World War II. The offensive lasted from 16 March to 15 April 1945. After several days of street-to-street f ...

. At the end of the war, the Fourth Guards Army was part of the

3rd Ukrainian Front The 3rd Ukrainian Front (Russian: Третий Украинский фронт) was a Front of the Red Army during World War II. It was founded on 20 October 1943, on the basis of a Stavka order of October 16, 1943, by renaming the Southweste ...

. It was disbanded in March 1947.

Part of fronts

* Steppe Front *

Voronezh Front The 1st Ukrainian Front (Russian: Пéрвый Украи́нский фронт), previously the Voronezh Front (Russian: Воронежский Фронт) was a major formation of the Soviet Army during World War II, being equivalent to a ...

2nd Ukrainian Front The 2nd Ukrainian Front (2-й Украинский фронт), was a front of the Red Army during the Second World War. History On October 20, 1943 the Steppe Front was renamed the 2nd Ukrainian Front. During the Second Jassy–Kishinev ...

Army commanders

Commanders

Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

Grigory Kulik Grigory Ivanovich Kulik ( ua, Григорій Іванович Кулик; russian: Григо́рий Ива́нович Кули́к, Grigóriy Ivánovich Kulík; 9 November 1890 – 24 August 1950), a Soviet Union, Soviet military commande ...

(7 April – 22 September 1943) * Lieutenant General

Aleksei Zygin Alexey, Alexei, Alexie, Aleksei, or Aleksey (russian: Алексе́й ; bg, Алексей ) is a Russian and Bulgarian male first name deriving from the Greek ''Aléxios'' (), meaning "Defender", and thus of the same origin as the Latin A ...

(22–27 September 1943) * Lieutenant General

Ivan Galanin Ivan Vasilievich Galanin (; –12 November 1958) was a Red Army lieutenant general during World War II. Galanin was drafted into the Red Army in 1919 and fought as an ordinary soldier in the Russian Civil War. He became an officer during the inte ...

(September 1943 – January 1944, February–November 1944) *

Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...

Alexander Ryzhov (January–February 1944) * Lieutenant General Ilya Smirnov (3–22 February 1944) *

Army General Army general is the highest ranked general officer in many countries that use the French Revolutionary System.　 In countries that adopt the general officer four rank system, it is rank of general commanding an army in the field, but in coun ...

Georgiy Zakharov Georgiy Fedorovich Zakharov (23 April 1897 – 26 January 1957) () was a Soviet general officer, mainly notable for his service in World War II. Early life Zakharov was born on April 23, 1897 in the village of Shilov, Russia (now in the ...

(November 1944 – March 1945) * Lieutenant General Nikanor Zakhvatayev (1 March 1945 – July 1945) * Colonel General Dmitry Gusev (July 1945 - March 1946) * Colonel General (May 1946- 1948)

Members of the Military Soviet (council)

This Political commissar position was intended to maintain control by the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

. *

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...

General-major Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

I.A Gavrilov * Colonel

Dmitry Shepilov Dmitri Trofimovich Shepilov (russian: link=no, Дми́трий Трофи́мович Шепи́лов, ''Dmitrij Trofimovič Šepilov''; – 18 August 1995) was a Soviet economist, lawyer and politician who served as Minister of Foreign Affai ...

* Colonel Commissar M.M. Stahursky *

V.N. Semenov *

Leonid Bocharov ( :fr:Léonid Botcharov)

Order of battle

The

order of battle In modern use, the order of battle of an armed force participating in a military operation or campaign shows the hierarchical organization, command structure, strength, disposition of personnel, and equipment of units and formations of the arme ...

for the Fourth Guards Army on May 1, 1945, was: Fourth Guards Army : 20th Guards Rifle Corps :: 5th Guards Airborne Division :: 7th Guards Airborne Division ::

80th Guards Rifle Division 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...

21st Guards Rifle Corps First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

:: 41st Guards Rifle Division :: 62nd Guards Rifle Division :: 66th Guards Rifle Division ::

69th Guards Rifle Division The 69th Guards Rifle Division was reformed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in February 1943, based on the 2nd formation of the 120th Rifle Division, and served in that role until after the end of the Great Patriotic War. It origina ...

31st Guards Rifle Corps 31 (thirty-one) is the natural number following 30 and preceding 32. It is a prime number. In mathematics 31 is the 11th prime number. It is a superprime and a self prime (after 3, 5, and 7), as no integer added up to its base 10 digits ...

4th Guards Rifle Division The 4th Guards Rifle Division was reformed as an elite infantry division on September 18, 1941, from the 1st formation of the 161st Rifle Division as one of the original Guards formations of the Red Army, in recognition of that division's partici ...

34th Guards Rifle Division The 34th Guards Rifle Division was a rifle division of the Red Army during World War II. History The 34th Guards Rifle Division was originally formed on 29 August 1942 from the 7th Airborne Corps in the Moscow Military District. It was assigned ...

40th Guards Rifle Division The 40th Guards Rifle Division was one of a series of ten Guards rifle divisions (32nd – 41st) of the Red Army formed from Soviet Airborne Troops, airborne troops in the spring and summer of 1942 in preparation for, or in response to, the German ...

:123rd Gun-Artillery Brigade :438th Antitank Regiment :466th Mortar Regiment :257th Anti-aircraft Regiment :56th Engineer-Sapper Brigade After the war for a period the 4th Guards Army joined the

Central Group of Forces The Central Group of Forces (Russian: Центральная группа войск) was a formation of the Soviet Armed Forces used to incorporate Soviet troops in Central Europe on two occasions: in Austria and Hungary from 1945 to 1955 and tr ...

in Austria until its withdrawal.

References

Article Sources

* The Red Army Order of Battle in the Great Patriotic War, Robert G. Poirier and Albert Z. Conner, Novato: Presidio Press, 1985. . *

Combat composition of the Soviet Army ''Boevoi sostav Sovetskoi armii'' ("Combat composition of the Soviet army") is an official Second World War Soviet Army order of battle published in five parts from 1963 through 1990 by the Voroshilov Academy of the General Staff and Voenizdat. ...

(official Soviet order of battle from General Staff archives), Moscow: Ministry of Defense, 1990. {{Armies of the Soviet Army G004 Military units and formations established in 1943 Military units and formations disestablished in 1947 Guards Armies