The 46th Rifle Division was a rifle division 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 ...

History

The division was formed in 1923 as a territorial unit, assigned to the

14th Rifle Corps 14 (fourteen) is a natural number following 13 and preceding 15. In relation to the word "four" ( 4), 14 is spelled "fourteen". In mathematics * 14 is a composite number. * 14 is a square pyramidal number. * 14 is a stella octangula number ...

of the Ukrainian Military District. Based in

Kiev Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Ky ...

, it included the 136th, 137th, and 138th Rifle Regiments. Its regiments received the honorifics Pre-Dnieper, Kiev, and Pereyaslavl, respectively, by 1930. Reorganized as a

cadre Cadre may refer to: *Cadre (military), a group of officers or NCOs around whom a unit is formed, or a training staff *Cadre (politics) In political contexts a cadre (, , ) consists of a person recognized as a capable militant within a political ...

unit in 1931, it became part of the

Kiev Military District The Kiev Military District (; , abbreviated ) was a military district of the Imperial Russian Army and subsequently of the Red Army and Soviet Armed Forces. It was first formed in 1862, and was headquartered in Kiev ( Kyiv) for most of its ...

when the Ukrainian Military District was split on 17 May 1935. The division transferred to the Zhitomir Army Group of the Kiev Special Military District on 26 July 1938 during another reorganization. The 46th was soon transferred to

Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat and mn, Эрхүү, ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 617,473 as of the 2010 Census, Irkutsk is the 25th-larges ...

, assigned to the

Transbaikal Military District The Transbaikal Military District (russian: Забайкальский военный округ) was a military district of first the Soviet Armed Forces and then the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, formed on May 17, 1935 and included the ...

. It was reorganized under peacetime tables of organization and equipment with an authorized strength of 6,000 personnel in April 1940. When

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named afte ...

, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, began on 22 June 1941, the division was assigned to the

32nd Rifle Corps The 32nd Rifle Corps was a corps of the Red Army during World War II, formed twice. Each formation was a distinct unit, unrelated to the other. First formation The corps headquarters formed in the Transbaikal Military District in September 1939 ...

of the 16th Army of the Transbaikal Military District, and still stationed in Irkutsk. It was commanded by Major General Alexander Filatov at the time. Sent west, it was wiped out during the Battle of Smolensk in July. The division was reformed at

Ufa Ufa ( ba, Өфө , Öfö; russian: Уфа́, r=Ufá, p=ʊˈfa) is the largest city and capital city, capital of Bashkortostan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Belaya River (Kama), Belaya and Ufa River, Ufa rivers, in the centre-n ...

after July 1941, but was destroyed in the Volkhov Pocket during June 1942. It was again reformed from the

1st Rifle Division NKVD The 1st Rifle Division NKVD was a division of the NKVD of the Soviet Union during World War II. History The 1st Rifle Division NKVD was formed in August 1941 from the 3rd, 7th, 33rd and 102nd Border Guard Detachments and the 7th and 33rd NKVD Rif ...

at Vaskelevo, and fought at Lutsk and Danzig. The 46th was part of the

2nd Shock Army The 2nd Shock Army (russian: 2-я Ударная армия) was a field army of the Soviet Union during the Second World War. This type of formation was created in accordance with prewar doctrine that called for Shock Armies to ''overcome diffi ...

of the

2nd Belorussian Front The 2nd Belorussian Front ( Russian: Второй Белорусский фронт, alternative spellings are 2nd Byelorussian Front) was a military formation, of Army group size, of the Soviet Army during the Second World War. Soviet army g ...

in May 1945. When the

Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany The Western Group of Forces (WGF),. previously known as the Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany (GSOFG). and the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (GSFG),. were the troops of the Soviet Army in East Germany. The Group of Soviet Occupati ...

was formed in August 1945, the division was with the

109th Rifle Corps 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

of the 2nd Shock Army. In 1955, the division was reformed from the

272nd Rifle Division 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion, mythology, s ...

with the

13th Guards Rifle Corps In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. The interval can be also described as a compound sixth, spanning an oct ...

Kursk Kursk ( rus, Курск, p=ˈkursk) is a city and the administrative center of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kur, Tuskar, and Seym rivers. The area around Kursk was the site of a turning point in the Soviet–German stru ...

. It became the 46th Motor Rifle Division on 25 June 1957. On 17 November 1964 it became the

272nd Motor Rifle Division 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion, mythology, s ...

References

Citations

Bibliography

* {{Soviet Union divisions 1945–57 046 ru:46-я стрелковая дивизия (1-го формирования)