Transcaucasian Front or Transcaucasus Front (russian: Закавказский Фронт) was a front of the Soviet Red Army—a military formation comparable to an

army group An army group is a military organization consisting of several field armies, which is self-sufficient for indefinite periods. It is usually responsible for a particular geographic area. An army group is the largest field organization handled ...

, not a geographic military front—during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. The Transcaucasus Front describes two distinct organizations during the war.

First creation

The first version was created on 23 August 1941 from the Transcaucasus Military District, which was originally formed in 1922. The boundary of the Front extended along the Soviet border with Turkey and along the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, ...

coast from

Batumi Batumi (; ka, ბათუმი ) is the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), second largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia and the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, located on the coast of the Black Sea in Georgia's ...

to Tuapse.
It was commanded by Lieutenant-General Dmitry Kozlov from August 1941 to December 1941. On 22 June 1941, when the German invasion started, the Transcaucasus Military District included the 3rd, 24th, and

40th Rifle Corps 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

, the 28th Mechanised Corps, two cavalry divisions (the 17th Mountain and the 24th) and three separate rifle divisions (the 63rd, 76th, and 77th). Also part of the District were three fortified regions and District troops, which included artillery and NKVD frontier units. The initial Front organization incorporated the four Soviet armies stationed in the district in June 1941: * the 45th and 46th on the border with

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

and * the 44th and 47th on the border with

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkm ...

. On 25 August 1941 troops from the Front entered Iran according to the Soviet-Iran Treaty of Friendship of 21 February 1921, which eliminated the direct threat to the Baku oil fields.

Order of Battle, Invasion of Iran, 1941

Soviet OOB for 25 August 1941:

44th Army The 44th Army (russian: 44-я армия) of the Soviet Union's Red Army was an army-level command active during World War II. Initially part of the Transcaucasian Front, its main actions included the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran and the Kerch a ...

(Major General Alexander Khadeyev) *20th Mountain Rifle Division * 77th Mountain Rifle Division *17th Cavalry Division *24th Tank Regiment 47th Army (Major General

Vasily Novikov Vasily Novikov (born 1929) is a Soviet former sports shooter. He competed in the 25 m pistol event at the 1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as th ...

) *

63rd Mountain Rifle Division The 63rd Mountain Rifle Division was formed as a specialized infantry division of the Red Army in July 1936, based on the 2nd Georgian Mountain Division. When the German invasion of the Soviet Union began it was in the Transcaucasus Military Dist ...

* 76th Mountain Rifle Division *

236th Rifle Division The 236th Rifle Division was formed as an infantry division of the Red Army after a motorized division of that same number was reorganized in the first weeks of the German invasion of the Soviet Union. It was based on the ''shtat'' (table of organi ...

6th Tank Division 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

*54th Tank Division *13th Motorcycle Regiment 53rd Army (Major General Sergei Trofimenko) (invaded Iran from Turkmenistan, Central Asian Military District, on 27 August) *58th Rifle Corps * 83rd Mountain Rifle Division *

4th Cavalry Corps The 4th Cavalry Corps was a cavalry corps of the Soviet Red Army, formed three times. The corps first existed between 1928 and 1938 in the North Caucasus as a territorial unit, and was a Cossack unit for the last two years of its existence. Refor ...

As part of the Central Asian Military District (not the TCF), 53rd Army was described by the Combat composition of the Soviet Army as including 58th Rifle Corps (68th and 83rd Mountain Rifle Divisions,

389th Rifle Division The 389th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Union during World War II. The division was formed in October 1941 part of the 53rd Army of the Central Asian Military District, and was deployed for active field duty from May 194 ...

( 18th, 20th, 39th Cavalry Divisions), 44th Cavalry Division, and 72nd Independent Mountain Rifle Regiment (огсп) on 1 October 1941. On 1 November 1941 the front was listed in the Combat composition of the Soviet Army as including the 44th (five divisions), 45th (four divisions and 55th

Fortified Region A fortified district or fortified region (russian: Укреплённый район, Укрепрайон, ukreplyonny raion, ukrepraion) in the military terminology of the Soviet Union, is a territory within which a complex system of defense ...

), 46th Army (9, 20th Mountain Rifle Division; 224, 388, 390th Rifle Divisions, 51st Fortified Region), and 47th Armies (five divisions), and forces of frontal subordination including the 61, 151, 223,

396th Rifle Division The 396th Rifle Division was raised in 1941 as an infantry division of the Red Army, and served twice during the Great Patriotic War in that role. The division followed a very similar combat path to that of the 398th Rifle Division in its 1st fo ...

s, and forces in Iran consisting of the

402nd Rifle Division The 402nd Rifle Division was raised in 1941 as an infantry division of the Red Army, and served throughout the Great Patriotic War in that role. It was raised as an Azerbaijani National division in the Transcaucasus Military District and first for ...

, the 1st Mountain Cavalry Division, and the

23rd Cavalry Division Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (disambiguation) * Third Avenue (disambiguation) * High ...

. In November 1941, the 51st Army joined the front after being evacuated from the Crimea. The Transcaucasus Front was renamed the Caucasian Front on 30 December 1941.

Second creation

The second version of this front was again created from the Transcaucasus Military District on 15 May 1942, and continued in existence until its reorganization as the Tbilisi Military District on 25 August 1945 after the end of the war. It was commanded by General Ivan V. Tyulenev (May 1942 - August 1945), and included the

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'' (1972 film), a Sovie ...

and 58th Armies at various periods.

References

{{Fronts of the Red Army in World War II Soviet fronts History of the Caucasus under the Soviet Union