The 7th Guards Army was a

field army A field army (also known as numbered army or simply army) is a military formation in many armed forces, composed of two or more corps. It may be subordinate to an army group. Air army, Air armies are the equivalent formations in air forces, and ...

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 ...

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 ...

and 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 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 ...

History

The 7th Guards Army was formed from the 64th Army on April 16, 1943. 64th Army had originally been formed from 1st Reserve Army in July 1942, and alongside the

62nd Army The 62nd Army () was a field army established by the Soviet Union's Red Army during the Second World War. History The Army was formed on 28 May 1942 as the 7th Reserve Army, a part of the Reserve of the Supreme High Command. The formation wa ...

, fought the German offensive during the

Battle of Stalingrad The Battle of Stalingrad ; see . rus, links=on, Сталинградская битва, r=Stalingradskaya bitva, p=stəlʲɪnˈɡratskəjə ˈbʲitvə. (17 July 19422 February 1943) was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II, ...

to a standstill, for which it was raised to Guards status. General Lieutenant M.S. Shumilov, who had commanded the 64th Army, continued to command 7th Guards Army through the rest of the war, though he was promoted to General Colonel in October 1943. It included the 15th, 36th, 72nd, 73rd, 78th and

81st Guards Rifle Division The 81st Guards Rifle Division is an infantry division of the Russian Ground Forces, previously serving in the Red Army and the Soviet Army. It was formed after the Battle of Stalingrad from the 422nd Rifle Division (Soviet Union), 422nd Rifle Divi ...

s, which were incorporated in the 24th and 25th Guards Rifle Corps. As part of the

Voronezh Front The 1st Ukrainian Front (), previously the Voronezh Front (), was a major formation of the Red Army during World War II, being equivalent to a Western army group. They took part in the capture of Berlin, the capital of Nazi Germany. Wartime ...

and the

Steppe Front The Steppe Front () was a front of the Red Army during the Second World War which existed from July to October 1943. History On 9 July 1943, Stavka designated a new Reserve Front in the Voronezh region, that had been effective since 30 April.G ...

since July 18, 1943, the Army participated in the

Battle of Kursk The Battle of Kursk, also called the Battle of the Kursk Salient, was a major World War II Eastern Front battle between the forces of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union near Kursk in southwestern Russia during the summer of 1943, resulting in ...

and the Battle for the

Dnieper River The Dnieper or Dnepr ( ), also called Dnipro ( ), is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. Approximately long, with ...

from July through August, 1943. Subsequently, as part of the

2nd Ukrainian Front The 2nd Ukrainian Front () was a front of the Red Army during the Second World War. History On October 20, 1943, the Steppe Front was renamed the 2nd Ukrainian Front. In mid-May 1944 Malinovsky took over the 2nd Ukrainian Front. During t ...

, it participated in the Kirovograd Offensive, and those of Uman–Botoșani, Jassy–Kishinev,

Debrecen Debrecen ( ; ; ; ) is Hungary's cities of Hungary, second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain Regions of Hungary, region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the large ...

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

and

Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...

, and

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

. The 7th Guards Army was stationed in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

as part of the

Central Group of Forces The Central Group of Forces (Russian: Центральная группа войск) was a formation of the Soviet Armed Forces used to incorporate Soviet troops in Central Europe on two occasions: in Austria and Hungary from 1945 to 1955 and tr ...

briefly after the war. On 1 May 1945 it comprised

23rd Rifle Corps The 23rd Rifle Corps was a corps of the Soviet Red Army. It was part of the 4th Army. It took part in the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939. History On 22 June 1941 it was part of the Transcaucasian Military District comprising the 136th and 13 ...

(

19th 19 (nineteen) is the natural number following 18 and preceding 20. It is a prime number. Mathematics Nineteen is the eighth prime number. Number theory 19 forms a twin prime with 17, a cousin prime with 23, and a sexy prime with 13. ...

and 252nd Rifle Divisions), 25th Guards Rifle Corps (

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

6th Guards Airborne Division The 6th Guards Airborne Division () was a Red Army airborne division that fought as infantry during World War II. Formed in December 1942 from an airborne corps, it first saw combat as an infantry unit in the Staraya Russa in March 1943, then foug ...

25th Guards Rifle Division The 25th Guards Rifle Division 'Chapayevskaya' was a division of the Soviet Red Army. The division was reorganised and reformed several times until the History of the Soviet Union (1985–1991), collapse of the Soviet Union, when it entered service ...

, 303rd Rifle Division, and

27th Guards Rifle Corps 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 ...

( 72nd Guards, 141st, 375th, and 409th Rifle Divisions. In 1946 it comprised three rifle corps totaling nine divisions, and that year 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 ...

took command for a period. These formations were reassigned to the

North Caucasus The North Caucasus, or Ciscaucasia, is a subregion in Eastern Europe governed by Russia. It constitutes the northern part of the wider Caucasus region, which separates Europe and Asia. The North Caucasus is bordered by the Sea of Azov and the B ...

, Tavria and

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, ...

Military Districts and the Army HQ arrived at

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , ; ; sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia, as well as one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerev ...

in the

Transcaucasus Military District The Transcaucasian Military District, a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces, traces its history to May 1921 and the incorporation of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia into the Soviet Union. It was disbanded by being redesignated as a Grou ...

to take control of the 75th and 261st Rifle Divisions, soon followed by the 26th Mechanised Division and the 164th Rifle Division. Postwar, in January 1946, the 72nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Division was relocated to the Transcaucasus, where it became part of the 7th Guards Army in the cities of

and

Leninakan Gyumri (, ) is an urban municipal community and the List of cities and towns in Armenia, second-largest city in Armenia, serving as the administrative center of Shirak Province in the northwestern part of the country. By the end of the 19th centur ...

. In the late 1980s the Army consisted of: *15th Motor Rifle Division (MRD)(former 15th Rifle Division) –

Kirovakan Vanadzor (, ) is an urban municipal community and the third largest city in Armenia, serving as the capital of Lori Province in the northern part of the country. It is located about north of the capital Yerevan. As of the 2011 census, the city h ...

75th Motor Rifle Division 75th may refer to: *75th Academy Awards honored the best films of 2002, held on March 23, 2003 * 75th Avenue–61st Street Historic District, a national historic district in Ridgewood, Queens, New York * 75th Grey Cup, the 1987 Canadian Football Le ...

(former 75th Rifle Division) – Nakhichevan, Category "C" with 5–10% manning * 127th Motor Rifle Division (former 261st Rifle Division) –

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

*164th Motor Rifle Division (former 164th Rifle Division) – Yerevan In November 1988 Colonel

Lev Rokhlin Lev Yakovlevich Rokhlin (; 6 June 1947 – 3 July 1998) was a Kazakh-born Russian lieutenant general and politician who served as a member of the State Duma from 1995 until his 1998 murder. Rokhlin reached the top of the Russian military, quic ...

became the commander of the 75th MRD. In early 1990 the division was transferred to the

Soviet Border Troops The Soviet Border Troops () were the border guard of the Soviet Union, subordinated to the Soviet state security agency: first to the ''Cheka''/State Political Directorate, OGPU, then to NKVD/Ministry for State Security (USSR), MGB and, final ...

of the

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

, and Rokhlin was promoted to major-general in February of the same year. Later the division was transferred to the

Azerbaijani Army The Azerbaijani Armed Forces () is the military of the Republic of Azerbaijan. It was re-established according to the country's Law of the Armed Forces on 9 October 1991. The original Azerbaijan Democratic Republic's armed forces were dissolved a ...

, but to the representatives of the Nakhichivan government rather than authorities from the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence. The army was disbanded on August 14, 1992 in accordance with Directive of the General Staff of the Russian Federation No. 314/03/0772. Some units were transferred to Armenia. Russia received the entire 127th Motor Rifle Division and some other smaller units. Lieutenant General Fyodor Reut was the Army's last commander, from May 1991 to August 1992. Most of the formations disbanded/dissolved, among them the 15th MRD, whose equipment were partly handed over to Armenia when it disbanded in 1992. The 15th MRD's traditions, honors and awards were transferred to the 5209th Weapons and Equipment Storage Base.Holm/Feskov 2015
15th Motor Rifle Division
/ref> The 127th MRD later became the Russian 102nd Military Base.

Commanders

* Mikhail Shumilov (April 1943 – February 1946) *

Yakov Kreizer Yakov Grigorevich Kreizer (; 4 November 1905, Voronezh – 29 November 1969, Moscow) was a Soviet field commander. Before the war Kreizer's Jewish parents were granted permission to live outside the Jewish pale of settlement because his gr ...

(April 1946 – April 1948) *

(April 1948 – November 1951) *

Filipp Cherokmanov Filipp Mikhailovich Cherokmanov (Russian: Филипп Михайлович Черокманов; 16 November 1899 – 8 June 1978) was a Soviet Army lieutenant general and Hero of the Soviet Union. Cherokmanov joined the Red Army during the Russ ...

(November 1951 – July 1955) * Ivan Pavlovsky (July 1955 – April 1958) * Sergey Maryakhin (May 1958 – May 1960) *

David Dragunsky David Abramovich Dragunsky (; – 12 October 1992) was a tank officer in World War II who was twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. Early life Dragunsky was born on to a large Jewish family in Svyatsk; his parents were tailors. ...

(May 1960 – June 1965) *

Anatoly Gribkov Anatoly Ivanovich Gribkov () (March 23, 1919 – February 12, 2008) was at Soviet Army High Command during the Cold War era. Gribkov was born in the village of Dukhovoye (now in Liskinsky District of Voronezh Oblast), Russian SFSR on March 23, 1 ...

(June 1965 – December 1968) * Alexey Klyuyev (December 1968 – November 1971) *

Vasily Shakhnovich Vasily Vasilyevich Shakhnovich (; ; 12 January 1922 - 13 August 1983) was a Lieutenant General of the Soviet Army, and a military adviser in African countries. He was born on January 12, 1922, in the village of Seryagi, Slutsk District, Mi ...

(November 1971 – August 1975) * Stanislav Postnikov (September 1975 – June 1977) * Konstantin Kochetov (June 1977 – 1979) * Bronislav Omelichev (1979 – May 1982) * Yury Shatalin (May 1982 – August 1984) * Mikhail Kolesnikov (August 1984 – February 1987) * Nikolay Pishchev (1989 – 1990) *

Yevgeny Meshcheryakov Yevgeni (), also transliterated as Yevgeny, Yevgenii, Yevgeniy, Evgeni, Evgeny, Evgenii, Evgeniy, Evgenyi or Evgenij, is the Russian form of the masculine given name Eugene. The short form is Zhenya (Женя), also transliterated as Jenya or Sheny ...

(1990 – May 1991) * Fyodor Reut (May 1991 – August 1992)

Notes

References

*From Volga up to Prague", Moscow, 1966 *Shumilov, M., "Guardsmen", in the book "Kursk Fight", 3rd edition, Voronezh, 1982. *Narod.r
7th Guards Army
*Narod.r

{{Armies of the Soviet Army G07 Military units and formations established in 1943 Military units and formations disestablished in 1992 Guards Armies