The 47th Rifle Corps was a corps 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 ...

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 ...

. It took part in the Great Patriotic War. The corps headquarters was established in the summer of 1939. It took part in the

Winter War The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peac ...

. By June 1941, the corps was located in Bobruisk, almost fully equipped and manned. But the separate communications battalion only had 40–50% of its communications equipment and vehicles, and the 47th corps aviation squadron was only 47% equipped. On the eve of

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, the corps is listed as being directly subordinate to the

Western Special Military District Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US * Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia * Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that ...

, and comprising the 50th, 121st, and 143rd Rifle Divisions.Leo Niehorster
Western Special Military District, 22 June 1941
/ref> Soon after the invasion, the WSMD became the Western Front. The corps was resubordinated to the 4th Army by 1 July 1941. Later it was withdrawn into Front reserve in the area east of

Gomel Gomel (, ) or Homyel (, ) is a city in south-eastern Belarus. It serves as the administrative centre of Gomel Region and Gomel District, though it is administratively separated from the district. As of 2025, it is the List of cities and largest ...

, and on 14 July, the corps headquarters was placed under the High Command ("Главного командования") directly, and the corps' divisions reallocated elsewhere. The First Formation of the corps was active as part of the 'operational army' (active and fighting) from June 22 to July 22, 1941.

Commanders

* Ivan Dashichev (August 1939 - July 1940) * Major General Stepan Povetkin (08.07.1940 - 01.08.1941)

References

Rifle corps of the Soviet Union Military units and formations established in 1939 {{Russia-mil-stub