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The Kalinin Front was a major formation of the
Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...
active in the Eastern Front of
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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, named for the city of Kalinin. It was formally established by
Stavka The ''Stavka'' (Russian and Ukrainian: Ставка) is a name of the high command of the armed forces formerly in the Russian Empire, Soviet Union and currently in Ukraine. In Imperial Russia ''Stavka'' referred to the administrative staff ...
directive on 17 October 1941 and allocated three armies: 22nd, 29th Army and 30th. In May 1942, the Air Forces of the Kalinin Front were reorganised as the
3rd Air Army 3rd Air Army (3 VA) was an Air Army of the Soviet Armed Forces during the Second World War. It was formed May 16, 1942, in accordance with a People's Commissariat for Defence order of 5 May 1942 on the basis of the Air Forces of the Kalinin Front ...
, comprising three fighter, two ground attack, and one bomber division. In November 1942 the Kalinin Front, along with the
Western Front Western Front or West Front may refer to: Military frontiers * Western Front (World War I), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (World War II), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (Russian Empire), a maj ...
, launched Operation Mars against the German defenses in the Rzhev/Vyaz'ma salient. The 3rd Shock Army, now allocated to Kalinin Front, started the operation on 24 November by attacking Third Panzer Army at
Velikiye Luki Velikiye Luki ( rus, Вели́кие Лу́ки, p=vʲɪˈlʲikʲɪjə ˈlukʲɪ; lit. ''great meanders''. Г. П.  Смолицкая. "Топонимический словарь Центральной России". "Армада-� ...
, and the next day the Kalinin and Western Fronts assaulted the entire perimeter of the Rzhev salient. The offensive involved the 41st, 22nd, 39th, 31st,
20th 20 (twenty; Roman numeral XX) is the natural number following 19 and preceding 21. A group of twenty units may also be referred to as a score. In mathematics *20 is a pronic number. *20 is a tetrahedral number as 1, 4, 10, 20. *20 is the ba ...
, and
29th 29 (twenty-nine) is the natural number following 28 and preceding 30. Mathematics * 29 is the tenth prime number, and the fourth primorial prime. * 29 forms a twin prime pair with thirty-one, which is also a primorial prime. Twenty-nine is also ...
Armies from both Fronts. The Front was then involved in the
Battle of Velikiye Luki The Battle of Velikiye Luki, also named Velikiye Luki offensive operation (russian: Великолукская наступательная операция), started with the attack by the forces of the Red Army's Kalinin Front against the W ...
in January–March 1943. The 3rd Air Army supported both the Rzhev/Sychevka and the Velikiye Luki operations, but then appears to have been shifted to Northwestern Front briefly to cover the Demyansk bridgehead. During the Nevel-
Haradok Haradok ( be, Гарадок, - russian: Городок, Gorodok, pl, Horodek) is a town in the Vitebsk Region of Belarus with the population of 34,700 people. Approximately 14,000 people reside in the town itself around 30,000 people reside w ...
operation, from 6 October—31 December 1943, the Front (which changed names halfway through) consisted of
3rd 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) * H ...
and 4th Shock, 11th Guards and 43rd Armies, plus the 3rd Air Army. Its initial strength was 198,000 men. The losses amounted to 43,551 dead and missing and 125,351 wounded and sick.G. F. Krivosheev, Russia and the USSR in the wars of the 20th century: losses of the Armed Forces. A Statistical Study, (in Russian), via axishistoryforum a

It was renamed the 1st Baltic Front in October 1943.


Commanders

*Colonel-General Ivan Konev (October 1941 - August 1942) *Lieutenant-General, from November 1942, Colonel-General Maksim Purkayev (August 1942 - April 1943) *Colonel-General, since August 1943, Army General Andrey Yeryomenko (April - October 1943)


References

{{Fronts of the Red Army in World War II Soviet fronts Military units and formations established in 1941 Military units and formations disestablished in 1943