The 46th 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 ...

History

The division was formed in 1923 as a territorial unit, assigned to the 14th Rifle Corps of the

Ukrainian Military District The Kiev Military District (; , abbreviated ) was a military district of the Imperial Russian Army and subsequently of the Red Army and Soviet Armed Forces. It was first formed in 1862, and was headquartered in Kiev (Kyiv) for most of its exist ...

. Based in

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

, it included the 136th, 137th, and 138th Rifle Regiments. Its regiments received the honorifics Pre-Dnieper, Kiev, and Pereyaslavl, respectively, by 1930. Reorganized as a cadre unit in 1931, it became part of the

Kiev Military District The Kiev Military District (; , abbreviated ) was a military district of the Imperial Russian Army and subsequently of the Red Army and Soviet Armed Forces. It was first formed in 1862, and was headquartered in Kiev (Kyiv) for most of its exist ...

when the Ukrainian Military District was split on 17 May 1935. The division transferred to the Zhitomir Army Group of the Kiev Special Military District on 26 July 1938 during another reorganization. The 46th was soon transferred to

Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and , ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 587,891 Irkutsk is the List of cities and towns in Russ ...

, assigned to the

Transbaikal Military District The Transbaikal Military District () was a military district of first the Soviet Armed Forces and then the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, formed on 17 May 1935 and included the Buryat Republic, Chita Oblast, and Yakutia. Chita was ...

. It was reorganized under peacetime tables of organization and equipment with an authorized strength of 6,000 personnel in April 1940. When

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 German invasion of the Soviet Union, began on 22 June 1941, the division was assigned to the

32nd Rifle Corps The 32nd Rifle Corps was a corps of the Soviet Red Army, Red Army during World War II, formed twice. Each formation was a distinct unit, unrelated to the other. First formation The corps headquarters formed in the Transbaikal Military District ...

of the 16th Army of the Transbaikal Military District, and still stationed in Irkutsk. It was commanded by Major General Alexander Filatov at the time. Sent west, it was wiped out during the Battle of Smolensk in July. The division was reformed at Ufa after July 1941, but was destroyed in the Volkhov Pocket during June 1942. It was again reformed from the 1st Rifle Division NKVD at Vaskelevo, and fought at Lutsk and Danzig. The 46th was part of the

2nd Shock Army The 2nd Shock Army (), sometimes translated to English as 2nd Assault Army, was a field army of the Soviet Union during the Second World War. This type of formation was created in accordance with prewar doctrine that called for Shock Armies to ''o ...

of the

2nd Belorussian Front The 2nd Belorussian Front (, ''Vtoroi Belorusskiy front'', also romanized "Byelorussian SSR, Byelorussian"), was a Front (military formation), major formation of the Soviet Army during World War II, being equivalent to a Western army group. I ...

in May 1945. When the

Group of Soviet Occupation 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 ...

was formed in August 1945, the division was with the 109th Rifle Corps of the 2nd Shock Army. In 1955, the division was reformed from the 272nd Rifle Division with the 13th Guards Rifle Corps at

Kursk Kursk (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kur (Kursk Oblast), Kur, Tuskar, and Seym (river), Seym rivers. It has a population of Kursk ...

. It became the 46th Motor Rifle Division on 25 June 1957. On 17 November 1964 it became the 272nd Motor Rifle Division.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* {{Soviet Union divisions 1945–57 046 ru:46-я стрелковая дивизия (1-го формирования)