The 179th Vitebsk Red Banner Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

during World War II.

World War II

Formation

Established at Vilnius on 17 August 1940 as part of the 29th Lithuanian Territorial Rifle Corps on the basis of the 1st Infantry Division of the

Lithuanian Army The Lithuanian Armed Forces () are the military of Lithuania. The Lithuanian Armed Forces consist of the Lithuanian Land Forces, the Lithuanian Naval Force and the Lithuanian Air Force. In wartime, the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service (wh ...

Battles

With

29th Rifle Corps The 29th Rifle Corps ( lt, 29-asis teritorinis šaulių korpusas) was formed several times in Soviet Red Army, each formation primarily seeing combat on the Eastern Front during World War II. The first formation of the 29th Rifle Corps was known ...

of 11th Army on June 22, 1941. Fought at Kalinin, Gomel, and Vitebsk; with

4th Shock Army The 4th Shock Army was a combined arms army of the Soviet Armed Forces during World War II. The Army was formed from the 27th Army on 25 December 1941 (1st formation) within the Northwestern Front. On 1 October 1942 it included the 249th, 332 ...

of the Kurland Group (

Leningrad Front The Leningrad Front (russian: Ленинградский фронт) was formed during the 1941 German approach on Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) by dividing the Northern Front into the Leningrad Front and Karelian Front The Karelian Front ...

) May 1945.

After World War II

It was reduced to the 27th Rifle Brigade in 1948 at

Uralsk Uralsk (russian: Уральск) is the name of several rural localities in Russia: *Uralsk, Republic of Bashkortostan, a '' selo'' in Uralsky Selsoviet of Uchalinsky District of the Republic of Bashkortostan * Uralsk, Orenburg Oblast, a ''selo'' ...

. It became a division again in October 1953. In 1955, the division became the 4th Rifle Division at Buzuluk in the

South Ural Military District The South Ural Military District (YuUrVO(ЮУрВО)) was a military administrative division of the Soviet Armed Forces. It existed from 1 December 1941 to 15 January 1958. History According to the directive No. 0444 of People's Commissar of Def ...

.Feskov et al 2013, p. 150, Table 4.1.5

References

Books

* *Robert G. Poirier and Albert Z. Conner, The Red Army Order of Battle in the Great Patriotic War, Novato: Presidio Press, 1985. . {{Soviet Union divisions 1945–1957

179 Year 179 (Roman numerals, CLXXIX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Aurelius and Veru (or, less frequently, year 932 ' ...