The 17th Rifle Division was an

infantry division A division is a large military unit or Formation (military), formation, usually consisting of between 10,000 and 25,000 soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades; in turn, several divisions typically mak ...

of the Soviet Union's

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 ...

during World War II.

First Formation

The division was first formed on 23 October 1918 from the 1st Vitebsk Rifle Division and 2nd Smolensk Rifle Division by the order of the Military council of the Smolensk Defensive Region. The division participated in 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 ...

in Lithuania, Ukraine and Belorussia. After the civil war the division participated in the

Polish–Soviet War The Polish–Soviet War (14 February 1919 – 18 March 1921) was fought primarily between the Second Polish Republic and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, following World War I and the Russian Revolution. After the collapse ...

. The division was stationed along the Brezina River in 1920. The division was garrisoned at

Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət, t=Lower Newtown; colloquially shortened to Nizhny) is a city and the administrative centre of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast an ...

(renamed Gorky in 1932) from 1920 to 1939. In 1939 the division was broken up and used to form three divisions, the new 17th, 136th and the 137th Rifle Divisions. The new 17th Rifle Division, formed from the 49th Rifle Regiment, continued the traditions of the original 17th.

Composition

* 49th Rifle Regiment * 50th Rifle Regiment * 51st Rifle Regiment * 17th Artillery Regiment The division was maintained on a reduced status until December 1939 when the division was brought to full strength for the

Winter War The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peac ...

with Finland. The division returned to Gorky in April 1940. In June 1940 the division was moved to the Lithuanian border and assigned to the Belorussian Military District. Assigned to 21st Rifle Corps, 10th Army when the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 and located in the Vitebsk and Polotsk area. By the end of June the division was surrounded in the area east of Minsk. Though the division was destroyed in late June 1941 it was not officially disbanded until 19 September 1941.

Composition

* 55th Rifle Regiment * 271st Rifle Regiment * 278th Rifle Regiment * 20th Artillery Regiment * 35th Howitzer Regiment (never formed) * 390th Howitzer Regiment (added April 1940)

Second Formation

Reformed from the 17th Moscow People's Militia Rifle Division on 26 October 1941. Assigned to the 33rd Army, Reserve Front. In November 1941 it was assigned to the 43rd Army, Western Front where it participated in the Moscow Counteroffensive. The division remained in the Western Front until the summer of 1943. In late July 1943 the division participated in the Orel Strategic Counter-offensive Operation and in late August was transferred to the

Bryansk Front The Bryansk Front () was a Front (military formation), major formation of the Red Army during the World War II, Second World War. First Formation (August - November 1941) General Andrei Yeremenko was designated commander of the Front when it fi ...

. Reassigned to the 53rd Rifle Corps, 48th Army,

1st Belorussian Front The 1st Belorussian Front (, ''Pervyy Belorusskiy front'', also romanized " Byelorussian"), known without a numeral as the Belorussian Front between October 1943 and February 1944, was a major formation of the Red Army during World War II, bein ...

in February 1944. The division stayed with this Corps and Army until the end of the war. In June 1944 the division took part in

Operation Bagration Operation Bagration () was the codename for the 1944 Soviet Byelorussian strategic offensive operation (), a military campaign fought between 22 June and 19 August 1944 in Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Byelorussia in the Eastern ...

and the liberation of

Bobruisk Babruysk (, ) or Bobruysk (, ; , ) is a city in Mogilev Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Babruysk District, though it is administratively separated from the district. It is situated on the Berezina River. Babruysk o ...

, Belorussia. From February to April 1945 the division participated in the East Prussian Offensive ending the war there as part of the occupation forces assigned to the

Northern Group of Forces The Northern Group of Armed Forces (; ) was the military formation of the Soviet Army (Russian Ground Forces starting 1992) stationed in Poland from the end of Second World War in 1945 until 1993 when they were withdrawn in the aftermath of the fa ...

. After a brief period on occupation duty the division was returned to the Soviet Union in 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 ...

Yoshkar-Ola Yoshkar-Ola (Mari language, Mari and ) is the capital city of Mari El, Russia. Yoshkar-Ola means “red city” in Meadow Mari language, Mari and was formerly known as Tsarevokokshaysk () before 1919, as Krasnokokshaysk () between 1919 and 1927 ...

where it was reorganized as the 1st Rifle Brigade as part of the 53rd Rifle Corps. It was disbanded in March 1947.Feskov et al 2013, p. 148

Composition

* 1312th Rifle Regiment * 1314th Rifle Regiment * 1316th Rifle Regiment * 980th Artillery Regiment

Commanders

* Colonel Pyotr Sergeyevich Kozlov (4 July–10 October 1941) * Colonel Mikhail Pavlovich Safir (11–16 October 1941) * Colonel Pyotr Sergeyevich Kozlov (16–21 October 1941) * ''

Kombrig () is an abbreviation of Commanding officer of the brigade (), and was a military rank in the Soviet Armed Forces of the USSR from 1935 to 1940. It was also the designation to military personnel appointed to command a brigade sized formation (X ...

'' Stepan Ivanovich Lyubarsky (21–24 October 1941) * '' General-mayor'' Dmitry Mikhailovich Selezynov (24 October 1941–24 September 1942) * Colonel Ivan Leontyevich Ragulya (25–30 September 1942) * Lieutenant Colonel Matvey Kononenko (30 September–7 October 1942) * Colonel Ivan Leontyevich Ragulya (8 October 1942–14 September 1943, promoted to ''general-mayor'' 14 February 1943) * Colonel Pavel Stepanovich Romanenko (15 September 1943–6 January 1944) * Colonel Viktor Aleksandrovich Ivanov (7 January–9 May 1944) * Lieutenant Colonel Aleksandr Pavlovich Lukin (10 May–24 October 1944, promoted to colonel 15 August) * Colonel Andrey Feoktistovich Grebnev (25 October 1944–20 February 1945) * Colonel Pyotr Ivanovich Skachkov (21–27 February 1945) * Colonel Andrey Fekotistovich Grebnev (28 February–31 July 1945) * Colonel Mikhail Pavlovich Serebrov (21 July 1945–January 1946) * ''General-mayor'' Ivan Vasilyevich Mokhin (February–September 1946)

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * {{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017

017 017 may refer to: * DOL-017, GameCube console * '' Global Underground 017'', DJ mix album * Road FC 017, 2014 Mixed Martial Arts event * Swift 017.n, racing car * Tyrrell 017, Formula One racing car See also * 17 (disambiguation) Seventeen o ...

Military units and formations awarded the Order of the Red Banner Military units and formations of the Soviet Union in the Winter War ru:17-я стрелковая дивизия (1-го формирования)