The 179th Vitebsk Red Banner Rifle Division was an
infantry division
A division is a large military unit or formation, usually consisting of between 6,000 and 25,000 soldiers.
In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades; in turn, several divisions typically make up a corps. Histo ...
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, afte ...
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:
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, ...
of the Kurland Group (
Leningrad 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]
See also
*
List of infantry divisions of the Soviet Union 1917–1957
This is a list of infantry divisions of the Soviet Union 1917–1957. It lists infantry divisions in the Soviet Union from the Russian Revolution to the reorganization of the Soviet Army in the aftermath of the Stalinist era. Mechanized Di ...
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
Military units and formations established in 1940
Military history of Lithuania during World War II
Military units and formations awarded the Order of the Red Banner