The 7th Guards Army was a

field army A field army (or numbered army or simply army) is a military formation in many armed forces, composed of two or more corps and may be subordinate to an army group. Likewise, air armies are equivalent formation within some air forces, and with ...

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 ...

during

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 ...

and of the

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

during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

History

The 7th Guards Army was formed from the 64th Army on April 16, 1943. 64th Army had originally been formed from 1st Reserve Army in July 1942, and alongside the

62nd Army The 62nd Army (russian: 62-я армия) was a field army established by the Soviet Union's Red Army during the Second World War. Formed as the 7th Reserve Army as part of the Reserve of the Supreme High Command in May 1942, the formation was des ...

, fought the German offensive during the

Battle of Stalingrad The Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 19422 February 1943) was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II where Nazi Germany and its allies unsuccessfully fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (later re ...

to a standstill, for which it was raised to Guards status. General Lieutenant M.S. Shumilov, who had commanded the 64th Army, continued to command 7th Guards Army through the rest of the war, though he was promoted to General Colonel in October 1943. It included the 15th, 36th, 72nd, 73rd, 78th and

81st Guards Rifle Division The 81st Guards Rifle Division is an infantry division of the Russian Ground Forces, previously serving in the Red Army and the Soviet Army. It was formed after the Battle of Stalingrad from the 422nd Rifle Division in recognition of that division ...

s, which were incorporated in the 24th and 25th Guards Rifle Corps. As part of the

Voronezh Front The 1st Ukrainian Front (Russian: Пéрвый Украи́нский фронт), previously the Voronezh Front (Russian: Воронежский Фронт) was a major formation of the Soviet Army during World War II, being equivalent to a ...

and the Steppe Front since July 18, 1943, the Army participated in the

Battle of Kursk The Battle of Kursk was a major World War II Eastern Front engagement between the forces of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union near Kursk in the southwestern USSR during late summer 1943; it ultimately became the largest tank battle in history. ...

and the Battle for 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 ...

from July through August, 1943. Subsequently, as part 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 ...

, it participated in the Kirovograd Offensive, and those of Uman–Botoșani, Jassy–Kishinev,

Debrecen Debrecen ( , is Hungary's second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the largest Hungarian city in the 18th century and i ...

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

Bratislava Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approxim ...

and

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

, and

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

. The 7th Guards Army was stationed in

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

as part of the

Central Group of Forces The Central Group of Forces (Russian: Центральная группа войск) was a formation of the Soviet Armed Forces used to incorporate Soviet troops in Central Europe on two occasions: in Austria and Hungary from 1945 to 1955 and tr ...

briefly after the war. On 1 May 1945 it comprised

23rd Rifle Corps The 23rd Rifle Corps was a corps of the Soviet Red Army. It was part of the 4th Army. It took part in the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939. On 22 June 1941 it was part of the Transcaucasian Military District comprising the 136th and 138th Rifl ...

( 19th and 252nd Rifle Divisions), 25th Guards Rifle Corps ( 4th and

6th Guards Airborne Division The 6th Guards Airborne Division () was a Red Army airborne division that fought as infantry during World War II. Formed in December 1942 from an airborne corps, it first saw combat as an infantry unit in the Staraya Russa in March 1943, then foug ...

s, 25th Guards Rifle Division, 303rd Rifle Division, and

27th Guards Rifle Corps 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion, mythology, s ...

( 72nd Guards, 141st, 375th, and 409th Rifle Divisions. In 1946 it comprised three rifle corps totaling nine divisions, and that year General

Ivan Fedyuninsky Ivan Ivanovich Fedyuninsky (russian: Ива́н Ива́нович Федю́нинский; July 30, 1900 – October 17, 1977) was a Soviet military leader and Hero of the Soviet Union (1939). Early life Fedyuninsky was born into a peasant fa ...

took command for a period. These formations were reassigned to the

North Caucasus The North Caucasus, ( ady, Темыр Къафкъас, Temır Qafqas; kbd, Ишхъэрэ Къаукъаз, İṩxhərə Qauqaz; ce, Къилбаседа Кавказ, Q̇ilbaseda Kavkaz; , os, Цӕгат Кавказ, Cægat Kavkaz, inh, ...

, Tavria and

Kiev Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

Military Districts and the Army HQ arrived at

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Y ...

in the

Transcaucasus Military District The Transcaucasian Military District, a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces, traces its history to May 1921 and the incorporation of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia into the Soviet Union. It was disbanded by being redesignated as a Grou ...

to take control of the 75th and 261st Rifle Divisions, soon followed by the 26th Mechanised Division and the 164th Rifle Division. Postwar, in January 1946, the 72nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Division was relocated to the Transcaucasus, where it became part of the 7th Guards Army in the cities of

and

Leninakan Gyumri ( hy, Գյումրի, ) is an urban municipal community and the second-largest city in Armenia, serving as the administrative center of Shirak Province in the northwestern part of the country. By the end of the 19th century, when the city w ...

. In the late 1980s the Army consisted of: *15th Motor Rifle Division (MRD)(former 15th Rifle Division) –

Kirovakan Vanadzor ( hy, Վանաձոր) is an urban municipal community and the third-largest city in Armenia, serving as the capital of Lori Province in the northern part of the country. It is located about north of the capital Yerevan. As of the 2011 cen ...

75th Motor Rifle Division 75th may refer to: *75th Academy Awards honored the best films of 2002, held on March 23, 2003 * 75th Avenue–61st Street Historic District, a national historic district in Ridgewood, Queens, New York *75th Grey Cup, the 1987 Canadian Football Lea ...

(former 75th Rifle Division) – Nakhichevan, Category "C" with 5–10% manning * 127th Motor Rifle Division (former 261st Rifle Division) –

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

*164th Motor Rifle Division (former 164th Rifle Division) – Yerevan In November 1988 Colonel

Lev Rokhlin Lev Yakovlevich Rokhlin (russian: Лев Яковлевич Рохлин; 1947–1998) was a career officer in the Soviet and Russian armies. Rokhlin reached the top of the Russian military, quickly rising through the ranks during and after the S ...

became the commander of the 75th MRD. In early 1990 the division was transferred to the

Soviet Border Troops The Soviet Border Troops (russian: Пограничные войска СССР, Pogranichnyye voyska SSSR) were the border guard of the Soviet Union, subordinated to the Soviet state security agency: first to the ''Cheka''/State Political Di ...

of the

KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...

, and Rokhlin was promoted to major-general in February of the same year. Later the division was transferred to the

Azerbaijani Army The Azerbaijani Armed Forces ( az, Azərbaycan Silahlı Qüvvələri) were re-established according to the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the Armed Forces from 9 October 1991. The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR) had originally formed ...

, but to the representatives of the Nakhichivan government rather than authorities from the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence. The 7th Guards Army was disbanded on 14 August 1992, following the

dissolution of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

. Lieutenant General Fyodor Reut was among the Army's last commanders. Most of the formations disbanded/dissolved, among them the 15th MRD, whose equipment were partly handed over to Armenia when it disbanded in 1992. The 15th MRD's traditions, honors and awards were transferred to the 5209th Weapons and Equipment Storage Base.Holm/Feskov 2015
15th Motor Rifle Division
/ref> The 127th MRD later became the Russian 102nd Military Base.

Commanders

Mikhail Shumilov Mikhail Stepanovich Shumilov (; November 17, 1895 – June 28, 1975) was a Soviet Colonel general and commander of the 64th Army during the Battle of Stalingrad. There he defended the southern outskirts of the city and the bridgehead of Beketov ...

(April 1943 - February 1946) *

Yakov Kreizer Yakov Grigorevich Kreizer (russian: Яков Григорьевич Крейзер; 4 November 1905, Voronezh – 29 November 1969, Moscow) was a Soviet field commander. Before the war Kreizer's Jewish parents were granted permission to liv ...

(April 1946 - April 1948) *

(April 1948 - November 1951) * Filipp Cherokmanov (November 1951 - July 1955) * Ivan Pavlovsky (July 1955 - April 1958) * Sergey Maryakhin (May 1958 - May 1960) *

David Dragunsky David Abramovich Dragunsky (russian: Давид Абрамович Драгунский; – 12 October 1992) was a tank officer in World War II who was twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. Early life Dragunsky was born on to a ...

(May 1960 - June 1965) *

Anatoly Gribkov Anatoly Ivanovich Gribkov (russian: Анато́лий Ива́нович Грибко́в) (March 23, 1919 – February 12, 2008) was at Soviet Army High Command during the Cold War era. Gribkov was born in the village of Dukhovoye (now in Liski ...

(June 1965 - December 1968) * Alexey Klyuyev (December 1968 - November 1971) * Vasily Shakhnovich (November 1971 - August 1975) *

Stanislav Postnikov Stanislav Postnikov was a Soviet military commander who reached the rank of Army General. He joined the Soviet Ground Forces in 1948. From August 1979 he was Commander of the North Caucasus Military District. From August 1980 - Commander of the Ba ...

(September 1975 - June 1977) * Konstantin Kochetov (June 1977 - 1979) * Bronislav Omelichev (1979 - May 1982) * Yury Shatalin (May 1982 - August 1984) * Mikhail Kolesnikov (August 1984 - February 1987) * Nikolay Pishchev (1989 - 1990) * Yevgeny Meshcheryakov (1990 - May 1991) * Fyodor Reut (May 1991 - August 1992)

Notes

References

*From Volga up to Prague", Moscow, 1966 *Shumilov, M., "Guardsmen", in the book "Kursk Fight", 3rd edition, Voronezh, 1982. *Narod.r
7th Guards Army
*Narod.r

{{Armies of the Soviet Army G07 Military units and formations established in 1943 Military units and formations disestablished in 1992 Guards Armies