The 25th Army Corps was an army corps of the

Soviet Ground Forces The Soviet Ground Forces () was the land warfare service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces from 1946 to 1992. It was preceded by the Red Army. After the Soviet Union ceased to exist in December 1991, the Ground Forces remained under th ...

active from 1957–1960 and 1980–89. In its first period of existence it was in the

Odessa Military District The Odessa Military District (; , abbreviated ) was a military administrative division of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This district consisted of Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, Moldavia and five Oblasts of Ukraine, Ukrainian oblasts of Odesa ...

, and in its second period of existence it garrisoned the remote

Kamchatka The Kamchatka Peninsula (, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and western coastlines, respectively. Immediately offshore along the Pacific ...

region and

Chukotka Autonomous Okrug Chukotka ( ; ), officially the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, is the easternmost federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia. It is an Autonomous okrugs of Russia, autonomous okrug situated in the Russian Far East, and shares a border wi ...

of the

Soviet Far East The Russian Far East ( rus, Дальний Восток России, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in North Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent, and is coextensive with the Far Eastern Fe ...

World War II

First formation

The predecessor 25th Rifle Corps appears to have begun 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 ...

in transit to the Kiev Fortified Region as part of the 19th Army, formed just before the war began. It comprised the

127th Rifle Division 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, the

134th Rifle Division 134th may refer to: *134th (2/1st Hampshire) Brigade, formation of the Territorial Force of the British Army *134th (Loyal Limerick) Regiment of Foot, infantry regiment of the British Army, created in 1794 and disbanded in 1796 * 134th Air Refuelin ...

, and the 162nd Rifle Division on 22 June 1941. From 19 June to 16 July, it was commanded by Major General . The 25th Corps' deputy commander was ''

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 ...

Alexander Gorbatov Alexander Vasilyevich Gorbatov (; 21 March 1891 – 7 December 1973) was a Russian and Soviet officer who served as an officer in the Imperial Russian Army during the First World War and as a colonel-general in the Red Army during the Secon ...

, who had been recently released from the

Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

. Bonn and Glantz say the 25th Rifle Corps was active from June–July 1941 (first formation).

Second formation

The corps was reformed in February 1943, and had five commanders during the war.Keith E. Bonn, Slaughterhouse, 2005, 341. On 25 December 1944 it formed part of the 69th Army, with the

4th Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'', a 1972 Soviet drama ...

, 41st, 77th Guards, and 415th Rifle Divisions. 4th Rifle Division within the corps took part in the fighting for the

Puławy Puławy (, also written Pulawy) is a city in eastern Poland, in Lesser Poland's Lublin Voivodeship, at the confluence of the Vistula and Kurówka River, Kurówka Rivers. Puławy is the capital of Puławy County. The city's 2019 population was Cen ...

bridge in Poland in January 1945, and was much weakened. Feskov et al 2013 indicates that on 10 July 1945, the corps, with 274th, 328th, and 370th Rifle Divisions, was part of 69th Army, in the

Group of Soviet 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 Occupation ...

, which had been formed the day before. However, the corps along with the remainder of 69th Army was disbanded in the summer of 1945.

Postwar

82nd Rifle Corps existed until 13 June 1955, when it was renamed 25th Rifle Corps, which included

20th Rifle Division The 20th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Red Army, formed three times. The first formation of the division lasted from 1919 to 1921 and fought during the Russian Civil War before its downsizing into a brigade. The brigade be ...

Zaporizhia 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 ...

. On 25 June 1957 the corps was renamed 25th Army Corps (AK). Its headquarters was in Nikolayev with the

28th Guards Motor Rifle Division Eighth is ordinal form of the number 8, eight. Eighth may refer to: * One eighth, , a fraction (mathematics), fraction, one of eight equal parts of a whole * Eighth note (quaver), a musical note played for half the value of a quarter note (crotche ...

, 34th Guards Motor Rifle Division, 93rd Motor Rifle Division (

, 5.57 – March 1959) and the 95th Motor Rifle Division in the late 1950s. Disbanded 6.60.

Cold War in the Far East

The corps was reformed in February 1980 in

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (, ) is a city and the administrative center of Kamchatka Krai, Russia. It is located in the Far East of the country and lies along the coast of Avacha Bay by the Pacific Ocean, nearby Khalaktyrskoye Lake. As of the 202 ...

as part of the

Far Eastern Military District The Far Eastern Military District () was a military district of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In 2010 it was merged with the Pacific Fleet and part of the Siberian Military District to form the new Eastern Military District. Histo ...

, under the command of Major General (promoted to Lieutenant General 16 December 1982) Alexey Tyurin. Between 1984 and 1985 its commander was Major General

Anatoly Kostenko Lieutenant-General Anatoly Ivanovich Kostenko ( Belarusian: Анатоль Іванавіч Касценка; born on 27 January 1940) was the Minister of Defence of Belarus from 28 July 1994 – 6 June 1995. He was preceded by Paul Kozlowski a ...

. The corps was disbanded in the summer of 1989.

Order of Battle in the 1980s

Authoritative Russian forum sources (Soldat.ru) report that in 1984 the corps comprised 22 MRD (Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky), 23rd Independent Motor Rifle Brigade (Gudym or Anadyr), and 138th Independent Motor Rifle Regiment (Magadan). Questions remain over a putative 101st Motor Rifle Division. At the end of the 1980s the composition of the 25th Army Corps of the Far East Military District included: Other corps-level troops reported by Feskov et al. 2013, as of 1988, included the 240th (Chapaevka) and 280th Separate Engineer-Sapper Bаttalions (Ugolnye Kopi), the Staff of the 25th Army Corps; 11th Mixed Aviation Squadron (Ugolnye Kopi), the 138th Separate Motor Rifle Regiment (Magadan), and the 571st Separate Spetsnaz Company (

Yelizovo Yelizovo () is a town in Kamchatka Krai, Russia, located on the Avacha River northwest of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky with a population of History Founded in 1848 as the '' selo'' of Stary Ostrog (), it was renamed Zavoyko () in 1897, after the ...

World War II

First formation

Second formation

Postwar

Cold War in the Far East

Order of Battle in the 1980s

References

Citations

Bibliography

Further reading