The 25th Army Corps was an army corps of the

Soviet Ground Forces uk, Радянська армія , image = File:Communist star with golden border and red rims.svg , alt = , caption = Emblem of the Soviet Army , start_date ...

active from 1957–1960 and 1980–89. In its first period of existence it was in the

Odessa Military District The Odesa Military District (russian: Одесский военный округ, ОВО; , abbreviated ) was a military administrative division of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In 1998 most of its territory was transformed into the Southern Operat ...

, and in its second period of existence it garrisoned the remote

Kamchatka The Kamchatka Peninsula (russian: полуостров Камчатка, Poluostrov Kamchatka, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and west ...

region and Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of the

Soviet Far East The Russian Far East (russian: Дальний Восток России, r=Dal'niy Vostok Rossii, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is admini ...

World War II

First formation

The predecessor 25th Rifle Corps appears to have begun 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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

in transit to the Kiev Fortified Region as part of the 19th Army, formed just before the war began. It comprised the

127th Rifle Division 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

, the 134th Rifle Division, and the 162nd Rifle Division on 22 June 1941. From 19 June to 16 July, it was commanded by Major General . The 25th Corps' deputy commander was ''

Kombrig (russian: комбриг) is an abbreviation of Commanding officer of the brigade (russian: командир бригады, komandir brigady; ), and was a military rank in the Soviet Armed Forces of the USSR from 1935 to 1940. It was also the ...

Alexander Gorbatov Alexander Vasilyevich Gorbatov (russian: Алекса́ндр Васи́льевич Горба́тов; 21 March 1891 – 7 December 1973) was a Russian and Soviet officer who served as an officer in the Imperial Russian Army during the Fi ...

, who had been recently released from the

gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...

. Bonn and Glantz say the 25th Rifle Corps was active from June–July 1941 (first formation).

Second formation

The corps was reformed in February 1943, and had five commanders during the war.Keith E. Bonn, Slaughterhouse, 2005, 341. On 25 December 1944 it formed part of the

69th Army The 69th Army (russian: 69-я армия) was a field army established by the Soviet Union's Red Army during the Second World War. History Formation, Operation Star, and Third Battle of Kharkov The army was formed in February 1943 with the ...

, with the 4th, 41st, 77th Guards, and 415th Rifle Divisions. 4th Rifle Division within the corps took part in the fighting for the

Puławy Puławy (, also written Pulawy) is a city in eastern Poland, in Lesser Poland's Lublin Voivodeship, at the confluence of the Vistula and Kurówka Rivers. Puławy is the capital of Puławy County. The city's 2019 population was estimated at 47,4 ...

bridge in Poland in January 1945, and was much weakened. Feskov et al 2013 indicates that on 10 July 1945, the corps, with 274th, 328th, and

370th Rifle Division The 370th Rifle Division was raised in 1941 as a standard Red Army rifle division, and served for the duration of the Great Patriotic War in that role. It began forming in August 1941 in the Siberian Military District. After forming, it was initial ...

s, was part of

, in the

Group of Soviet Forces in Germany The Western Group of Forces (WGF),. previously known as the Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany (GSOFG). and the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (GSFG),. were the troops of the Soviet Army in East Germany. The Group of Soviet Occupat ...

, which had been formed the day before. However, the corps along with the remainder of 69th Army was disbanded in the summer of 1945.

Postwar

82nd Rifle Corps The 82nd Rifle Corps () was a rifle corps of the Red Army and later the Soviet Army. Formed in mid-1943, the corps served with the 37th Army during most of World War II. It fought in the advance southwest from the Dnieper and into Romania and Bu ...

existed until 13 June 1955, when it was renamed

25th Rifle Corps The 25th Army Corps was an army corps of the Soviet Ground Forces uk, Радянська армія , image = File:Communist star with golden border and red rims.svg , alt = , caption ...

, which included 20th Rifle Division at

Zaporizhia Zaporizhzhia ( uk, Запоріжжя) or Zaporozhye (russian: Запорожье) is a city in southeast Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper River. It is the administrative centre of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Zaporizhzhia has a populatio ...

. On 25 June 1957 the corps was renamed 25th Army Corps (AK). Its headquarters was in Nikolayev with the

28th Guards Motor Rifle Division 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...

, 34th Guards Motor Rifle Division, 93rd Motor Rifle Division (

, 5.57 – March 1959) and the 95th Motor Rifle Division in the late 1950s. Disbanded 6.60.

Cold War in the Far East

The corps was reformed in February 1980 in

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky ( rus, Петропавловск-Камчатский, a=Петропавловск-Камчатский.ogg, p=pʲɪtrɐˈpavləfsk kɐmˈtɕatskʲɪj) is a city and the administrative, industrial, scientific, and cultu ...

as part of the

Far Eastern Military District The Far Eastern Military District (russian: Дальневосточный военный округ; Dalʹnevostochnyĭ voennyĭ okrug) was a military district of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In 2010 it was merged with the Pacific ...

, under the command of Major General (promoted to Lieutenant General 16 December 1982) Alexey Tyurin. Between 1984 and 1985 its commander was Major General

Anatoly Kostenko Lieutenant-General Anatoly Ivanovich Kostenko ( Belarusian: Анатоль Іванавіч Касценка; born on 27 January 1940) was the Minister of Defence of Belarus from 28 July 1994 – 6 June 1995. He was preceded by Paul Kozlowski an ...

. The corps was disbanded in the summer of 1989.

Order of Battle in the 1980s

Authoritative Russian forum sources (Soldat.ru) report that in 1984 the corps comprised 22 MRD (Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky), 23rd Independent Motor Rifle Brigade (Gudym or Anadyr), and 138th Independent Motor Rifle Regiment (Magadan). Questions remain over a putative 101st Motor Rifle Division. At the end of the 1980s the composition of the 25th Army Corps of the Far East Military District included: Other corps-level troops reported by Feskov et al. 2013, as of 1988, included the 240th (Chapaevka) and 280th Separate Engineer-Sapper Bаttalions (Ugolnye Kopi), the Staff of the 25th Army Corps; 11th Mixed Aviation Squadron (Ugolnye Kopi), the 138th Separate Motor Rifle Regiment (Magadan), and the 571st Separate Spetsnaz Company (

Yelizovo Yelizovo (russian: Е́лизово) is a town in Kamchatka Krai, Russia, located on the Avacha River northwest of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Population: History Founded in 1848 as the '' selo'' of Stary Ostrog (), it was renamed Zavoyko () i ...

World War II

First formation

Second formation

Postwar

Cold War in the Far East

Order of Battle in the 1980s

References

Citations

Bibliography

Further reading