The 32nd Army was a formation of the

Soviet Army 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 ...

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 ...

. The army was formed twice during the war, disbanded as part of the post-war demobilization and then reformed in 1969 to protect the Soviet-Chinese border.

First formation

The army was formed on 16 July 1941 in the

Moscow Military District The Order of Lenin Moscow Military District () is a Military districts of Russia, military district of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Originally it was a district of the Imperial Russian Army until the Russian Empire's collapse in 191 ...

near the cities of

Naro-Fominsk Naro-Fominsk () is a town and the administrative center of Naro-Fominsky District in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located on the Nara River, southwest from Moscow. History The Fominskoye village was first mentioned in Russian chronicles under the ...

Kubinka Kubinka () is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Odintsovsky District of Moscow Oblast, Russia, located on the Setun River, west of Moscow. Population: __TOC__ History Kubinka, founded in the 15th century, may have been named ...

, and the settlement of Dorokhovo. The army was formed with four divisions of

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Militia. The assigned units included the

2nd A second is the base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI). Second, Seconds, The Second, or (The) 2nd may also refer to: Mathematics * 2 (number), as an ordinal (also written as ''2nd'' or ''2d'') * Minute and second of arc, ...

, 7th,

8th Eighth is ordinal form of the number eight. Eighth may refer to: * One eighth, , a fraction, one of eight equal parts of a whole * Eighth note (quaver), a musical note played for half the value of a quarter note (crotchet) * Octave, an interval b ...

13th In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the Musical note, note thirteen scale degrees from the root (chord), root of a chord (music), chord and also the interval (music), interval between the root and the thirteenth. The thirteenth is m ...

Moscow Militia divisions.Soviet Military Encyclopedia. - T. 8. - S. 112. In addition, on 20 July 1941, 18th Moscow People's Militia Divisions was assigned to the Army at positions west of Moscow. The 18th had a strength of 10,000. On 18 July the army was incorporated into the Moscow line of defense and took up defensive positions in the vicinity of Karacharovo. On 30 July the army was assigned to the Reserve Front. On 1 October, the army included the 2nd Rifle Division, 8th Rifle Division, 29th Rifle Division and the 140th Rifle Division. It also included the 685th Corps Artillery Regiment, 533rd Antitank Artillery Regiment, 877th Antitank Artillery Regiment, 200th Naval Artillery Battalion and the 36th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion. On 3 October the army was heavily engaged in a defensive battle against German forces advancing on

Vyazma Vyazma () is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative center of Vyazemsky District, Smolensk Oblast, Vyazemsky District in Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Vyazma River, about halfway between Smolensk, the ...

as part of the northern wing of

Operation Typhoon The Battle of Moscow was a military campaign that consisted of two periods of strategically significant fighting on a sector of the Eastern Front during World War II, between October 1941 and January 1942. The Soviet defensive effort frustrated H ...

. On 5 October the army was reassigned to the Western Front and two days later along with the 16th, 19th, 20th and 24th Armies were encircled by the German

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 ...

and 9th Armies and 3rd and

4th Panzer Group The 4th Panzer Army (), operating as Panzer Group 4 () from its formation on 15 February 1941 to 1 January 1942, was a German panzer formation during World War II. As a key armoured component of the Wehrmacht, the army took part in the crucial ...

s. The 32nd Army was disbanded on 12 October 1941. Small elements of the army were able to break out of the encirclement and were assigned to the 16th and 19th Armies. Commanders: * Lieutenant General

Nikolai Klykov Nikolai or Nikolay is an East Slavic variant of the masculine name Nicholas. It may refer to: People Royalty * Nicholas I of Russia (1796–1855), or Nikolay I, Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855 * Nicholas II of Russia (1868–1918), or Niko ...

(July - August 1941) * Major General

Ivan Fedyuninsky Ivan Ivanovich Fedyuninsky (; July 30, 1900 – October 17, 1977) was a Soviet military leader and Hero of the Soviet Union (1939). Early life Fedyuninsky was born into a peasant family near Tugulym in the Urals. He finished the village schoo ...

(August - September 1941) * Major General Sergei V. Vishnevskii (September 1941 - October 1941)

Second formation

Stavka The ''Stavka'' ( Russian and Ukrainian: Ставка, ) is a name of the high command of the armed forces used formerly in the Russian Empire and Soviet Union and currently in Ukraine. In Imperial Russia ''Stavka'' referred to the administrat ...

ordered the army reformed on 2 March 1942. The reformation was completed on 10 March 1942. The army was formed from the Medvezhegorshaya and Maselskaya Operational Groups of the

Karelian Front The Karelian Front ) was a front (a formation of Army Group size) of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II, and operated in Karelia. Wartime The Karelian Front was created in August 1941 when Northern Front was split into Karelian ...

. On 1 April 1942 the army was composed of: :

37th Rifle Division The 37th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II. It served in the North Caucasus Military District; established at Novocherkassk in 1919. In June–July 1939 it was at Omsk preparing for action ...

: 71st Rifle Division : 186th Rifle Division : 263rd Rifle Division :

289th Rifle Division The 289th Rifle Division () was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's Red Army, formed twice. The division was first formed in the summer of 1941, after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, and was sent to the front and destroyed in the ...

: 313th Rifle Division :61st Naval Rifle Brigade :65th Naval Rifle Brigade :66th Naval Rifle Brigade :1st Ski Brigade :2nd Ski Brigade :196th Ski Battalion :197th Ski Battalion :198th Ski Battalion :17th Mortar Battalion :208th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion :6th Aerosleigh Battalion :9th Aerosleigh Battalion :36th Aerosleigh Battalion :227th Separate Tank Company :261st Engineer Battalion :1211th Sapper Battalion :1212th Sapper Battalion Until the end of May 1944 the 32nd Army defended the frontier in the

Medvezhyegorsky District Medvezhyegorsky District (; ) is an administrative district (raion), one of the fifteen in the Republic of Karelia, Russia.Constitution of the Republic of Karelia It is located in the southeast of the republic. The area of the district is . Its ...

and from 21 July to 9 August the army participated in the Svir-Petrozavodsk Offensive, when part of the army reached the Finish border in the vicinity of Longonvara. When

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

was knocked out of the war on 19 September 1944 the army was relegated to guarding the Finnish border. During the offensive the army consisted of: :

: 313th Rifle Division : 376th Rifle Division :65th Naval Rifle Brigade :80th Naval Rifle Brigade :33rd Ski Brigade :1237th Gun Artillery Regiment :173rd Mortar Regiment :280th Mortar Regiment :298th Mortar Regiment :63rd Guards Mortar Regiment (minus 297th Battalion) :275th Antiaircraft Artillery Regiment :208th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion :446th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion :376th Tank Battalion (minus Tank Company KV) :21st Aerosleigh Battalion :22nd Aerosleigh Battalion :26th Aerosleigh Battalion :261st Engineer Battalion Composition on 1 November 1944: : 135th Rifle Corps :: 176th Rifle Division ::

:: 313th Rifle Division :621st Mortar Regiment :63rd Guards Mortar Regiment :275th Antiaircraft Artillery Regiment :32nd Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion :446th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion :29th Tank Brigade :90th Separate Tank Regiment :261st Engineer Battalion :6th Flamethrower Battalion :194th Flamethrower Company :196th Flamethrower Company On 15 November 1944 the 32nd Army was put into 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'' ...

(''

'' Reserve) and on 21 April 1945 was directly subordinated to the ''Stavka''. On 1 May 1945 the Army was composed of: :203rd Gun Artillery Brigade :621st Mortar Regiment :275th Antiaircraft Artillery Regiment :194th Flamethrower Company :196th Flamethrower Company The army was disbanded in August 1945. Its commanders included Major General Sergei Trofimenko (March - June 1942); and Lieutenant General Filipp D. Gorelenko (June 1942 - 1945).

Third formation

This army was reformed using the command staff of the 1st Army Corps in 1981 when the Central Asian Military District was reestablished to protect the Soviet-Chinese border. Composition: :

71st Motor Rifle Division The 71st Motor Rifle Division (Military Unit Number 07225) was a motorized infantry division of the Soviet Army between 1984 and 1989. It was based in Semipalatinsk. Converted to a storage base in 1989, it was taken over by Kazakhstan with the di ...

- The 71st Motor Rifle Division was formed in 1984 at

Semipalatinsk Semey (; , formerly known as Semipalatinsk ( ) until 2007 and as Alash-Qala ( ) from 1917 to 1920, is a city in eastern Kazakhstan, in the Kazakh part of Siberia. When Abai Region was created in 2022, Semey became its administrative centre. I ...

. The 71st Motor Rifle Division became the 5202nd Base for Storage of Weapons and Equipment (VKhVT) (Semipalatinsk) in 1989. The 5202nd Base for Storage of Weapons and Equipment became part of the

Armed Forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan The Armed Forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan (, , ) are the unified armed forces of Kazakhstan. They consist of three branches ( Ground Forces, Air Defense Forces, Naval Forces) as well as four independent formations ( Air Assault Forces, Spec ...

after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991-92. : 155th Motor Rifle Division (Ust-Kamengorsk) : 203rd Motor Rifle Division (Karaganda) :

78th Tank Division The 78th Tank Division was a division of the Soviet Ground Forces, active from 1965 to the 1990s. It was originally established in 1949 as the 15th Tank Division, from the 78th Heavy Tank Self-Propelled Regiment (the former 78th Tank Brigade). It ...

(Ayaguz) General Lieutenant Valeriy Samsonov commanded the army from 1987 until September 1989, by which time it had become 1st Army Corps. In March 1988 32nd Army became 1st Army Corps, and then 4 June 1991 1st Army Corps was redesignated as the 40th Army at

.Holm 2015

Notes

References

* * * Thirty-second Army / / Soviet Military Encyclopedia / ed. A. Grechko . - M .: Military Publishing (

Voenizdat Voenizdat () was a publishing house in Moscow, Russia that was one of the first and largest publishing houses in USSR. The name is a Russian abbreviation for Voennoe Izdatelstvo (), meaning "Military Publishing House". Voenizdat was establi ...

), 1976. - T. 8. - 690 p. - (In 8 m). - 105,000 copies. {{Armies of the Soviet Army 032 Military units and formations established in 1941 Military units and formations established in 1981 Military units and formations disestablished in 1991