The 33rd Rifle Division was a rifle division of the

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 ...

and

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 ...

, formed twice. The division was formed in 1922 at

Samara Samara, formerly known as Kuybyshev (1935–1991), is the largest city and administrative centre of Samara Oblast in Russia. The city is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Samara (Volga), Samara rivers, with a population of over 1.14 ...

and moved to Belarus in the next year. It 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 and in the Occupation of Lithuania in June 1940. After

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 ...

, the division fought 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 ...

and Leningrad Strategic Defensive. In January 1942, it fought in the Toropets–Kholm Offensive. The division participated in the Leningrad–Novgorod Offensive, the Pskov-Ostrov Offensive, the Tartu Offensive and the Riga Offensive. In 1945, the division fought in the East Pomeranian Offensive and the

Battle of Berlin The Battle of Berlin, designated as the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, and also known as the Fall of Berlin, was one of the last major offensives of the European theatre of World War II. After the Vistula–Od ...

. The division remained in Germany postwar with the Soviet occupation forces and disbanded in 1947. In 1955, it was reformed from the 215th Rifle Division in the Far East and inherited that division's honorifics, but was disbanded in 1956.

History

First formation

The 33rd Rifle Division was formed on 29 May 1922 in the area of

Orenburg Orenburg (, ), formerly known as Chkalov (1938–1957), is the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies in Eastern Europe, along the banks of the Ural River, being approximately southeast of Moscow. Orenburg is close to the ...

, and

Troitsk Troitsk (, ''Tróick'') is the name of several types of inhabited localities in Russia, inhabited localities in Russia. Modern localities ;Urban localities *Troitsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast, a town in Chelyabinsk Oblast; *Troitsk, Moscow, a town in Tro ...

from units of the 97th Separate Rifle Brigade of the Trans-Volga Military District; it was assigned to 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 ...

. On 18 October of that year it received the honorific Samara, and in October 1923 relocated to Belorussia, becoming part of the Western Front (which became 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 April 1924). In 1925 it became a territorial division. The division was renamed the 33rd Belorussian Rifle Division on 16 January 1934, replacing the Samara honorific. It fought in the

, advancing into territory annexed as western Belorussia. The division transferred to the Baltic Special Military District in 1940. Vasily Margelov served with the division's 99th Rifle Regiment as a machine gun platoon commander during 1931 and 1932. With

16th Rifle Corps The 16th Rifle Corps was a corps of the Soviet Red Army, formed twice. It took part in the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 and destroyed in the Baltic Operation during Operation Barbarossa. Reformed in 1942, the corps fought through the rest ...

of 11th Army on June 22, 1941. Fought vicinity Stalingrad and Berlin. During the Battle of Berlin, it helped capture the Reichstag. With 3rd Shock Army of the

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 ...

May 1945. During November and December 1946, the division was disbanded in Germany, still with the 3rd Shock Army.

Second formation

The division was reformed briefly in the Far East by redesignation of 215th Rifle Division in 1955. It inherited the 215th's honorifics "Smolensk Red Banner Order of Suvorov". There it served with 5th Red Banner Army with headquarters located at Krasny Kut. The division was disbanded on 25 July 1956.V.I. Feskov et al 2013, Table 4.1.5, pp. 151-152.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * {{Soviet Union divisions 1945{{endash57 Infantry divisions of the Soviet Union

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Military units and formations established in 1922 Military units and formations disestablished in 1956 Military units and formations awarded the Order of the Red Banner Military units and formations of the Soviet invasion of Poland ru:33-я стрелковая дивизия