The Transbaikal Front (russian: Забайкальский фронт) was a front formed on September 15, 1941, on the basis of the Transbaikal Military District. Initially, it included the 17th and 36th armies, but in August 1942 the 12th Air Army was added to the front, and, finally, in June–July 1945 the 39th and the 53rd armies, the

6th Guards Tank Army The 6th Guards Order of Red Banner Tank Army was a tank army of the Soviet Union's Red Army, first formed in January 1944 as the 6th Tank Army,Glantz (Companion), p. 66. and disbanded in Ukraine in the 1990s after the dissolution of the Soviet Un ...

, and the Soviet Mongolian Cavalry Mechanized Group under Issa Pliyev. From September 1941 to January 1945, the Transbaikal Front sent to the Soviet fronts in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

about 300,000

personnel Employment is a relationship between two party (law), parties Regulation, regulating the provision of paid Labour (human activity), labour services. Usually based on a employment contract, contract, one party, the employer, which might be a co ...

, 1,440 tanks, and 2,230 guns. On November 1, 1941, the Front included the 17th Army with the 36th and 57th Motor Rifle Divisions and the 61st Tank Division, and four air divisions (two fighter, one bomber, and the 84th Mixed Aviation Division), the 36th Army with the 94th Rifle Division, the 210th Rifle Division, the 51st Cavalry Division, and the 31st and 32nd

Fortified Region A fortified district or fortified region (russian: Укреплённый район, Укрепрайон, ukreplyonny raion, ukrepraion) in the military terminology of the Soviet Union, is a territory within which a complex system of defense fo ...

s, the 111th Tank Division, two independent tank battalions, and the 89th Assault Aviation Division. Front troops included the 209th Rifle Division. On May 1, 1945, the Front included the 17th Army with the 85th Rifle Corps (36th and 57th Motor Rifle Divisions), the 284th Rifle Division, another rifle unit, significant numbers of artillery units, the 61st Tank Division, the 36th Army with the

86th Rifle Corps The 86th Rifle Corps () was a rifle corps of the Red Army and later the Soviet Army. Formed in 1943 as part of the 36th Army of the Transbaikal Front, the corps spent the next two years as a garrison unit. World War II In recognition of it ...

( 94th and

298th Rifle Division The 298th Rifle Division () was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II, formed three times. The division was first formed in the summer of 1941 and was destroyed in the Bryansk pocket in the fall of that year. ...

s), the 209th, 210th,

278th Rifle Division The 278th Rifle Division () was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II, formed three times. The division was first formed in the summer of 1941 and destroyed in the Bryansk pocket in the fall of that year. Ref ...

s, and 31st Fortified Region, and the 2nd Rifle Corps ( 103rd, 275th,

292nd Rifle Division The 292nd Rifle Division () was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II, formed three times. The division was first formed in the summer of 1941 and was destroyed near Leningrad in the fall of that year. Reforme ...

s) plus at front level the 293rd Rifle Division,

59th Cavalry Division The 59th Quartermaster Company is a bulk petroleum company designed to provide semi-portable storage for of fuel and to provide distribution of fuel to military units within a specified geographic area while deployed overseas. Its secondary missi ...

, and other units.

Soviet invasion of Manchuria

The armies and corps of the front under

Rodion Malinovsky Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky (russian: Родио́н Я́ковлевич Малино́вский, ukr, Родіо́н Я́кович Малино́вський ; – 31 March 1967) was a Soviet military commander. He was Marshal of the Sov ...

participated in the

Soviet invasion of Manchuria The Soviet invasion of Manchuria, formally known as the Manchurian strategic offensive operation (russian: Манчжурская стратегическая наступательная операция, Manchzhurskaya Strategicheskaya Nastu ...

during August 1945 defeating the

Kwantung Army ''Kantō-gun'' , image = Kwantung Army Headquarters.JPG , image_size = 300px , caption = Kwantung Army headquarters in Hsinking, Manchukuo , dates = April ...

of the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emper ...

. The fighting had lasted for only about a week when Japan's Emperor

Hirohito Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...

read the

Gyokuon-hōsō The was a radio broadcast of surrender given by Japanese Emperor Hirohito (Shōwa) on August 15, 1945. It announced to the Japanese people that the Japanese Government had accepted the Potsdam Declaration demanding the unconditional surrender o ...

on August 15 and declared a ceasefire in the region on August 16. Soviet forces were already penetrating deep into Manchukuo by that time. They continued their largely unopposed advance into Manchukuo's territory, reaching

Mukden Shenyang (, ; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly known as Fengtian () or by its Manchu name Mukden, is a major Chinese sub-provincial city and the provincial capital of Liaoning province. Located in central-north Liaoning, it is the provinc ...

Changchun Changchun (, ; ), also romanized as Ch'angch'un, is the capital and largest city of Jilin Province, People's Republic of China. Lying in the center of the Songliao Plain, Changchun is administered as a , comprising 7 districts, 1 county and 3 ...

, and

Qiqihar Qiqihar () is the second-largest city in the Heilongjiang province of China, in the west central part of the province. The built-up (or metro) area made up of Longsha, Tiefeng and Jianhua districts had 959,787 inhabitants, while the total populat ...

by August 20. At the same time, Mengjiang was invaded by the Red Army and its Mongol allies, with Guihua quickly taken. The Emperor of Manchukuo (and the former Emperor of China),

Puyi Aisin-Gioro Puyi (; 7 February 1906 – 17 October 1967), courtesy name Yaozhi (曜之), was the last emperor of China as the eleventh and final Qing dynasty monarch. He became emperor at the age of two in 1908, but was forced to abdicate on 1 ...

, was captured by the Soviet Red Army and sent to Chita. After the operation on October 9, 1945, the Transbaikal Front was disbanded and reorganized into the Transbaikal-Amur Military District.

Commander-in-chiefs of the front

Mikhail Kovalyov Mikhail Prokofievich Kovalyov (russian: Михаил Прокофьевич Ковалёв; – 31 August 1967) was a Soviet military officer. Mikhail Kovalyov was born to family of a peasants in stanitsa Bryukhovetskaya, Kuban Oblast. In 191 ...

(July 1941 – July 1945) *

(July–October 1945)

References

{{Fronts of the Red Army in World War II Soviet fronts Military units and formations disestablished in 1945