The 12th Army was a

field army A field army (also known as numbered army or simply army) is a military formation in many armed forces, composed of two or more corps. It may be subordinate to an army group. Air army, Air armies are the equivalent formations in air forces, and ...

of the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

formed multiple times during the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Civil War & Polish-Soviet War

The 12th Army (

1st Formation) of the Soviet

was first formed from Soviet forces in the north-eastern Caucasus in 1918. The 12th Army (

2nd Formation) was formed from the 1st and 3rd Ukrainian Red Armies in central Ukraine in the summer of 1919. In July 1920 Simon Aralov was chief of

intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as t ...

with this unit. it was disbanded in 1920.

Second World War

The 12th Army (1st Formation) (RKKA) of the Soviet

was formed from the Southern (Cavalry-Mechanised) Army Group of the Kiev Special Military District during 1939–40.http://victory.mil.ru/rkka/units/03/26.html 12th Army (Russian) It was then involved in the

Soviet invasion of Poland The Soviet invasion of Poland was a military conflict by the Soviet Union without a formal declaration of war. On 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Second Polish Republic, Poland from the east, 16 days after Nazi Germany invaded Polan ...

in 1939. It entered the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

as part of the

Soviet Southwestern Front The Southwestern Front was a front of the Red Army during the Second World War, formed thrice. It was first created on June 22, 1941 from the Kiev Special Military District. The western boundary of the front in June 1941 was 865 km long, f ...

, comprising the *

13th Rifle Corps The 13th Rifle Corps () was a rifle corps of the Red Army, first formed in 1922. On October 12, 1922, the Corps began forming in the Turkestan Front. Alexander Todorsky became the corps commander. The corps participated in the suppression of the B ...

(including the 44th, 58th, and

192nd Rifle Division Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number) * One of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (1987 film), a 1987 science fiction film * ''19-Nineteen'', a 2009 South Korean film * ''Dician ...

s) *

17th Rifle Corps The 17th Rifle Corps was a corps of the Red Army and later the Soviet Army, formed three times. It was first formed in 1922 in the Soviet Far East before relocating to Ukraine two years later. It fought in the Soviet invasion of Poland and was des ...

( 60th Mountain, 69th Mountain, and

164th Rifle Division The 164th Rifle Division was originally formed as an infantry division of the Red Army in the Byelorussian Military District, based on the ''shtat'' (table of organization and equipment) of the previous September. In January 1940 it was moved north ...

s), * 16th Mechanised Corps ( 15th, 39th Tank Divisions, 240th Mechanised Division) * 10th, 11th and 12th Fortified Regions, and artillery, engineering and other units. It participated in the frontier battle to the west of

Stanislau Ivano-Frankivsk (, ), formerly Stanyslaviv, Stanislav and Stanisławów, is a city in western Ukraine. It serves as the administrative centre of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast as well as Ivano-Frankivsk Raion within the oblast. Ivano-Frankivsk also host ...

. In the second half of July as part of the

Soviet Southern Front The Southern Front was a front, a formation about the size of an army group of the Soviet Army during the Second World War. The Southern Front directed military operations during the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina in 1940 an ...

it conducted defensive fights in the direction of

Uman Uman (, , ) is a city in Cherkasy Oblast, central Ukraine. It is located to the east of Vinnytsia. Located in the east of the historical region of Podolia, the city rests on the banks of the Umanka River. Uman serves as the administrative c ...

. During the

Battle of Uman The Battle of Uman (15 July – 8 August 1941) was the World War II German offensive in Uman, Uman, Ukraine against the 6th Army (Soviet Union), 6th and 12th Army (Soviet Union), 12th Soviet Armies. In a three-week period, the Wehrmacht encircle ...

, the Twelfth Army was caught in a huge encirclement south of

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

along with the 6th Army. Thus the army's headquarters was disbanded on 10 August 1941, after the battle. The 12th Army was reformed in August 1941 as part of the

on the basis of 17th Rifle Corps. On 1 September 1941 its structure included 270th and 274th Rifle Divisions, the 11th Tank Division, 268th and 374th Corps Artillery Regiments, 64th and 181st Fighter Aviation Regiments, and a number of separate formations. The Army defended the left bank of the Dnepr around

Zaporozhye Zaporizhzhia, formerly known as Aleksandrovsk or Oleksandrivsk until 1921, is a city in southeast Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper River. It is the administrative centre of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Zaporizhzhia has a population of ...

, from the end of September to the beginning of December, 1941. It participated in the

Donbas The Donbas (, ; ) or Donbass ( ) is a historical, cultural, and economic region in eastern Ukraine. The majority of the Donbas is occupied by Russia as a result of the Russo-Ukrainian War. The word ''Donbas'' is a portmanteau formed fr ...

defensive,

Rostov Rostov-on-Don is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East European Plain on the Don River, from the Sea of Azov, directly north of t ...

defensive and offensive, in January, 1942 in the Barvenkovo–Lozovaya Offensive operations, in the subsequent conducted defensive fights in Donbas and on Northern Caucasus (part of the

Battle of the Caucasus The Battle of the Caucasus was a series of Axis and Soviet operations in the Caucasus as part of the Eastern Front of World War II. On 25 July 1942, German troops captured Rostov-on-Don, opening the Caucasus region of the southern Soviet ...

). In the middle of April 1942 the 261st Rifle Division under Colonel A.M. Ilyin, the 4th Rifle Division (Colonel

Ivan Rosly Ivan Pavlovich Rosly (; 28 June 1902 – 15 October 1980) was a Soviet Army lieutenant general and a Hero of the Soviet Union who held division, army and corps command during World War II. Early life and prewar service A Russian, Ivan Pavlovich ...

), the 74th Rifle Division under General F.E.Sheverdin, the 176th Rifle Division (General Vladimir Martsinkevich) and 54th Tank Brigade under Colonel K.S. Minarov were assigned to the Army. It was later in 1942 reorganised as a defensive zone HQ, but then reformed again by conversion of the previous

5th Tank Army The 5th Tank Army is the name of several Soviet units during World War II (not to be confused with the 5th Guards Tank Army). Its first formation occurred on 5 June, 1942, commanded by Major-General Alexander Lizyukov, serving under the Bryansk ...

in mid April 1943.Glantz, 2005, p.231, Poirier and Conner, p.38 It joined the Southwestern Front. Its structure included the 172nd, 203rd, 244th, 333rd and 350th Rifle Divisions and other formations. In April – July the Army was in Front reserve, and then participated in the Donbas and Zaporozhye offensive operations. In November the army HQ was disbanded, with its forces transferred to other armies.

Commanders

First formation

*Komandarm

Ivan Tyulenev Ivan Vladimirovich Tyulenev (; 28 January 189215 August 1978) was a Soviet military commander, one of the first to be promoted to the rank of General of the Army in 1940. Biography Tyulenvev was born into a soldier's family in the Simbirsk Go ...

(September 1939) *Komkor Filipp Parusinov (October 1939 – 10 March 1941) *Major General

Pavel Ponedelin Pavel Grigoryevich Ponedelin (; 4 March 1893 Moscow 25 August 1950) was a Soviet general executed after World War II for being taken prisoner by the Germans. Early life He fought in World War I in the Imperial Russian Army before going over t ...

(11 March – 10 August 1941) POW

Second formation

*Major 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 ...

(25 August 1941 – 16 October 1941) *Major General Konstantin Koroteyev (17 October 1941 – 5 April 1942) *Major General

Andrei Grechko Andrei Antonovich Grechko (; ; – 26 April 1976) was a Soviet military commander and Marshal of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. He served as the Soviet minister of defence from 1967 to 1976. Born to a Ukrainian peasant family near Rosto ...

(5 April – 3 September 1942) *Colonel Aleksandr Sokolski (4–13 September 1942) *Lieutenant General Nikolai Kirichenko (13–20 September 1942)

Third formation

*Lieutenant-General Ivan Shlemin (20 April – 19 May 1943) *Major-General

Alexei Danilov Alexey ( ; ), is a Russian and Bulgarian male given name derived from the Greek ''Aléxios'' (), meaning "Defender", and thus of the same origin as the Latin Alexius. Similar Ukrainian and Belarusian names are romanized as Oleksii (Олек ...

(20 May – 30 October 1943).

References

*Grechko A., " fight for Caucasus ", 2nd edition, Moscow, 1973 *Grechko A., " years of war ", Moscow, 1976 *Arshanyan, " Operations of 12th army in an initial stage of war ", Military-Historical Journal, 1973, No. 6 *http://samsv.narod.ru/Arm/a12/arm.html {{Armies of the Soviet Army

012 012 may refer to: * Tyrrell 012, a Formula One racing car * The dialing code for Pretoria Pretoria ( ; ) is the Capital of South Africa, administrative capital of South Africa, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive br ...

Military units and formations established in 1919 Military units and formations disestablished in 1943 1939 establishments in the Soviet Union