The 286th Rifle Division () was an infantry division of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution 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 People ...

during

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 ...

. Formed in the summer of 1941, the division entered combat during the fall of that year, fighting in operations attempting to break the

siege of Leningrad The siege of Leningrad was a Siege, military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the city of Leningrad (present-day Saint Petersburg) in the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front of World War II from 1941 t ...

. The division fought in the same area until the relief of Leningrad in February 1944, when it was transferred northwards to fight in the

Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive The Vyborg–Petrozavodsk offensive or Karelian offensive was a strategic operation by the Soviet Leningrad and Karelian Fronts against Finland on the Karelian Isthmus and East Karelia fronts of the Continuation War, on the Eastern Front of Wor ...

, which ended the

Continuation War The Continuation War, also known as the Second Soviet–Finnish War, was a conflict fought by Finland and Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union during World War II. It began with a Finnish declaration of war on 25 June 1941 and ended on 19 ...

. The division was transferred to Poland with the end of the Continuation War, and fought in the Vistula–Oder Offensive and the Prague Offensive in early 1945. The division was disbanded soon after the end of the war in the summer of 1945.

History

The 286th began forming on 10 July 1941 at

Cherepovets Cherepovets ( rus, Череповец, p=tɕɪrʲɪpɐˈvʲets) is a city in Vologda Oblast, Russia, located in the west of the oblast on the banks of the Sheksna River (a tributary of the Volga River) and on the shores of the Rybinsk Reservoir. ...

, part of the

Arkhangelsk Military District The Arkhangelsk Military District () was a regional Military districts of the Soviet Union, military district of the Red Army which oversaw the North-Western part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. The district was formed in 1940 ...

. Its basic order of battle included the 994th, 996th, and 998th Rifle Regiments, as well as the 854th Artillery Regiment. In mid-August the division was transferred to the

Reserve of the Supreme High Command The Reserve of the Supreme High Command (Russian: Резерв Верховного Главнокомандования; also known as the '' Stavka'' Reserve or RVGK () or RGK ( comprises reserve military formations and units; the ''Stavka'' ...

. While still forming in early September, the 286th was assigned to the 54th Army, also forming to the east of

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. When the division was sent into combat with the 54th Army in October, its strength, less than half of the authorized division strength, was 6,016 personnel, 102 machine guns, 5 82 mm or 120 mm mortars, and 27 76 mm or larger guns. The division fought as part of the 54th Army on the

Leningrad Front The Leningrad Front () was formed during the 1941 German approach on Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) by dividing the Northern Front into the Leningrad Front and Karelian Front on August 27, 1941. History The Leningrad Front was immediately ...

until January 1942, when it was transferred to the

Volkhov Front The Volkhov Front () was a major formation of the Red Army during the first period of the Second World War. It was formed as an expediency of an early attempt to halt the advance of the Wehrmacht Army Group North in its offensive thrust towards L ...

's 8th Army. The 286th served with the 8th Army until January 1944, fighting in operations attempting to end the

. The division transferred to the 59th Army for the Leningrad–Novgorod Offensive in January 1944, which ended the siege of Leningrad. During the offensive, the 854th Artillery Regiment's 1st and 2nd Battalions were equipped with 12 76 mm guns each, while the 3rd Battalion received eight 76 mm guns and a battery of four 122 mm howitzers. After the disbandment of the Volkhov Front, the division transferred back to the 8th Army. On 21 April, the 286th became part of the 21st Army's 109th Rifle Corps, preparing for the

, an attack which would result in Finnish withdrawal from the war. The division fought in the offensive from June to September, when Finland signed a peace treaty with the Soviet Union. The division was moved south to become part of the 59th Army in September. The 286th spent the rest of the war with the 59th Army. In December the 59th was moved south to join the

1st Ukrainian Front The 1st Ukrainian Front (), previously the Voronezh Front (), was a major formation of the Red Army during World War II, being equivalent to a Western army group. They took part in the capture of Berlin, the capital of Nazi Germany. Wartime ...

, after which the division became part of the 115th Rifle Corps. The division fought in the Vistula–Oder Offensive in January 1945, during which the division was one of the four that liberated the

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...

. The division then fought in the Upper Silesian Offensive in late March, and the Prague Offensive in early May. The division was disbanded in the summer of 1945 with the

Central Group of Forces The Central Group of Forces (Russian: Центральная группа войск) was a formation of the Soviet Armed Forces used to incorporate Soviet troops in Central Europe on two occasions: in Austria and Hungary from 1945 to 1955 and tr ...

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * {{Soviet Union divisions before 1945 Infantry divisions of the Soviet Union in World War II Military units and formations established in 1941 Military units and formations disestablished in 1945 Military units and formations awarded the Order of the Red Banner