The 3rd Guards 'Kotelnikovo' Tank Division () (

Military Unit Number A Military Unit Number (Russian: войсковая часть, в/ ч; Ukrainian: військова частина, в/ ч) is a numeric alternate designation for military units in the armed forces and internal troops of post-Soviet ...

44181) was an

armoured division A division is a large military unit or 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 make up a corps. Histor ...

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 ...

, formed in 1945 and disestablished in 1989. The division was formed from the previous 3rd Guards Tank Corps. At the beginning of the

Battle of Narva (1944) The Battle of Narva was a World War II military campaign, lasting from 2 February to 10 August 1944, in which the German Army Detachment "Narwa" and the Soviet Leningrad Front fought for possession of the strategically important Narva Isthmus. ...

in February 1944 the 3rd Guards Tank Corps was directly reporting to

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 ...

, and was led by Major General I. A. Vovchenko. The organisation of the division before being reduced: * Division Headquarters, Zaslonovo,

Lepel Lyepyel or Lepel (; , ; ; ) is a town in Vitebsk Region, Belarus, located near Lyepyel Lake on the Vula River. It serves as the administrative center of Lyepyel District. Its population in the 1998 census was 19,400. As of 2024, it has a pop ...

Vitebsk Vitebsk or Vitsyebsk (, ; , ; ) is a city in northern Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Vitebsk Region and Vitebsk District, though it is administratively separated from the district. As of 2025, it has 358,927 inhabitants, m ...

* 430th Independent Communications Battalion * 33rd Independent Guards Reconnaissance Battalion * 3rd Guards Tank Regiment * 18th Guards Tank Regiment * 126th Guards Tank Regiment * 296th Guards Motorised Rifle Regiment * 733rd Artillery Regiment * 256th Independent Missile Battalion * 740th Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment * 154th Independent Engineer-Sapper Battalion * 92nd Independent Equipment Maintenance and Recovery Battalion * 1018th Independent Materiel Supply Battalion * 160th Independent Medical Battalion * Unknown Chemical Defence Company In June 1989 it was reduced to a Weapons and Equipment Storage Base,V.I. Feskov et al 2013, 457-458. and in November 1989 it was disbanded completely. It spent much of the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

based at Zaslonovo in the

Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, Byelorussian SSR or Byelorussia; ; ), also known as Soviet Belarus or simply Belarus, was a Republics of the Soviet Union, republic of the Soviet Union (USSR). It existed between 1920 and 19 ...

Belorussian Military District The Byelorussian Military District (; alternatively Belarusian; ) was a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces. Originally formed just before World War I as the Minsk Military District out of the remnants of the Vilno Military District an ...

as part of the

7th Tank Army Seventh is the ordinal form of the number seven. Seventh may refer to: * Seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution * A fraction (mathematics), , equal to one of seven equal parts Film and television *"The Seventh", a second-season epi ...

References

*Michael Holm
3rd Guards Tank Division
* Tank divisions of the Soviet Union Military units and formations disestablished in 1989 {{mil-unit-stub