The 16th Rifle Corps was a corps of the

Soviet 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 Peop ...

, formed twice. It took part in the Soviet invasion of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

in 1939 and destroyed in the

Baltic Operation The Baltic strategic defensive operation () encompassed the operations of the Red Army from 22 June to 9 July 1941 conducted over the territories of the occupied Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia in response to the offensive launched by the Wehrm ...

during

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along ...

. Reformed in 1942, the corps fought through the rest of the war on the Eastern Front, and was disbanded immediately postwar.

History

First formation

The corps was formed in November 1922 at

Saratov Saratov ( , ; , ) is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative center of Saratov Oblast, Russia, and a major port on the Volga River. Saratov had a population of 901,361, making it the List of cities and tow ...

, part of the

Volga Military District The Volga Military District (PriVO) was a military district of the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation that existed from 1918 to 1989 and 1992 to 2001. The district headquarters was located at Kazan, Saratov and Kuibyshev (Samara) at differen ...

. It was relocated to

Orsha Orsha (; , ; ) is a city in Vitebsk Region, Belarus. It is situated on the fork of the Dnieper, Dnieper River and Arshytsa River, and it serves as the administrative center of Orsha District. As of 2025, it has a population of 101,662. History ...

in October 1923 and

Bryansk Bryansk (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Bryansk Oblast, Russia, situated on the Desna (river), Desna River, southwest of Moscow. It has a population of 379,152 at the 2021 census. Bryans ...

in November, becoming part of the

Western Military District The Western Military District () was a Military districts of Russia, military district of Russia, in existence from 2010 until its abolishment as a unitary military command on February 26, 2024, succeeded by the newly reconstituted Moscow Mil ...

. In January 1924, the corps received the honorific "named for the Bryansk Proletariat", but on 19 November was renamed the 16th Belorussian Territorial Rifle Corps and became a territorial unit after relocating to

Mogilev Mogilev (; , ), also transliterated as Mahilyow (, ), is a city in eastern Belarus. It is located on the Dnieper, Dnieper River, about from the Belarus–Russia border, border with Russia's Smolensk Oblast and from Bryansk Oblast. As of 2024, ...

in October. In 1929, the corps was converted back into a regular unit. The 16th Corps fought 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 September 1939, occupying what became western Belarus. It became part of the 11th Army by 22 June 1941, under the command of Major General Mikhail Mikhailovich Ivanov. The corps fought against

, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, from 22 June 1941, and was disbanded in August.

Second formation

The second formation became part of the 18th Army, 56th Army and 33rd Army. In 1945 it consisted of the 323rd Rifle Division, 339th Rifle Division, and 383rd Rifle Division as part of the 33rd Army. It was disbanded in July 1945.

Organization

1939: * 2nd Rifle Division *

100th Rifle Division The 100th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II, formed twice. In November 1923 in the Belaya Tserkov area of the Ukrainian Military District, the 45th Territorial Rifle Division was establish ...

1941: ( 11th Army, North-Western Front) * 5th Rifle Division *

33rd Rifle Division The 33rd Rifle Division was a rifle division of the Red Army and Soviet Army, formed twice. The division was formed in 1922 at Samara and moved to Belarus in the next year. It fought in the Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939 and in the O ...

* 188th Rifle Division

References

Citations

Bibliography

* {{Soviet Union corps Rifle corps of the Soviet Union Military units and formations disestablished in 1945 Military units and formations of the Soviet invasion of Poland