The 53rd Rifle Division was an infantry division of the

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 ...

that served from the early 1930s to the immediate postwar period following

World War II 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 opposin ...

Interwar period

The 53rd was formed in 1931 as a territorial division;

Ivan Boldin Ivan Vasilievich Boldin (russian: Ива́н Васи́льевич Бо́лдин; in Vysokaya – March 28, 1965 in Kiev) was a senior Red Army general and war hero during the Second World War. Early military and political career A son of a la ...

became its first commander and military commissar in April of that year, and would hold that position until December 1934. It was stationed in the Volga Military District with the

12th Rifle Corps The 12th Rifle Corps () was an infantry corps of the Red Army during the interwar period and World War II, formed four times. The corps headquarters was briefly active between late 1922 and early 1923 as part of the Separate Caucasus Army, and ...

. By 1935, the division was headquartered at

Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
''

Krasny Kut, the 159th Rifle Regiment at Pugachyov, and the 53rd Artillery Regiment at Pugachyov. On 8 July 1937 it received the honorific "named for Friedrich Engels". Before the war it became part of the 21st Army in the

Gomel Region Gomel Region or Gomel Oblast or Homiel Voblasts ( be, Го́мельская во́бласць, Homielskaja vobłasć, russian: Гомельская область, Gomelskaya oblast) is one of the regions of Belarus. Its administrative center i ...

of the Western Special Military District.

World War II

Poirer and Connor, in their 1985 ''Red Army Order of Battle'', say that the division fought at Yelnya, on the

Dnieper River } The Dnieper () or 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. It is the longest river of Ukraine and B ...

, at

Uman Uman ( uk, Умань, ; pl, Humań; yi, אומאַן) is a city located in Cherkasy Oblast in central Ukraine, to the east of Vinnytsia. Located in the historical region of the eastern Podolia, the city rests on the banks of the Umanka River ...

and Targul Frumos. For its actions in the capture of Jassy, the division was awarded the

Order of the Red Banner The Order of the Red Banner (russian: Орден Красного Знамени, Orden Krasnogo Znameni) was the first Soviet military decoration. The Order was established on 16 September 1918, during the Russian Civil War by decree of th ...

on 15 September 1944. The division was with 46th Army of the

2nd Ukrainian Front The 2nd Ukrainian Front (2-й Украинский фронт), 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. During the Second Jassy–Kishinev O ...

in May 1945.

Postwar

The division was disbanded on 30 June 1946 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 ...

with the

34th Rifle Corps The 34th Rifle Corps was a corps of the Soviet Red Army. It was part of the 19th Army. It took part in the Great Patriotic War. Organization * 129th Rifle Division * 158th Rifle Division * 171st Rifle Division Commanders * Divisional comma ...

of the

40th Army The 40th Army (, ''40-ya obshchevoyskovaya armiya'', "40th Combined Arms Army") of the Soviet Ground Forces was an army-level command that participated in World War II from 1941 to 1945 and was reformed specifically for the Soviet–Afghan War fro ...

. In 1955, the division was reformed from the 318th Rifle Division with the

3rd Rifle Corps The 3rd Rifle Corps was a corps of the Soviet Red Army which saw service in World War II and in the 1950s. The corps was first formed in 1923 from the 3rd Army Corps in the Moscow Military District and fought in the Soviet invasion of Poland and the ...

at Uzhhorod, inheriting the honorifics "Novorossiysk Order of Suvorov". On 9 September 1955, it became the 39th Mechanized Division. The division received personnel and equipment from the disbanded 13th Guards Mechanized Division in fall 1955 and on 4 December became the 39th Guards Mechanized Division.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * – Located in fond 33, opus 594258, file 34 of the Central Archives of the Russian Ministry of Defence, a list of units disbanded postwar in the Odessa Military District *Poirer and Connor, Red Army Order of Battle in the Great Patriotic War, 1985 * {{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017

053 53 may refer to: * 53 (number) * one of the years 53 BC, AD 53, 1953, 2053 * FiftyThree, an American privately held technology company that specializes in tools for mobile creation and visual thinking * 53rd Regiment Alabama Cavalry * 53rd Regiment ...

Military units and formations established in 1931 Military units and formations disestablished in 1947