The 20th Guards Motor Rifle Division () is a formation of the

Russian Ground Forces The Russian Ground Forces (russian: Сухопутные войска �ВSukhoputnyye voyska V}), also known as the Russian Army (, ), are the land forces of the Russian Armed Forces. The primary responsibilities of the Russian Ground Force ...

, originally formed within the Soviet

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

as the 3rd Mechanised Corps. The division was reformed in 2021 from the former 20th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade.

The first formation of 1940

The formation of the corps began in the Western Special Military District in June 1940 on the basis of headquarters and the relevant parts of the

24th Rifle Corps The 24th Rifle Corps was a corps of the Red Army. It was part of the 27th Army and took part in the Great Patriotic War. It appears to have been initially formed in the Kalinin Military District, around what is today Tver, in 1939. In 1940 it ...

, 7th Cavalry Division, 21st Heavy Tank Brigade, 2nd Light Tank Brigade,

84th Rifle Division The 84th Rifle Division () was an infantry division of the Red Army before and during World War II. History Prewar The 84th Rifle Division was formed in 1923 at Tula as one of several Red Army territorial divisions, assigned to the Moscow Mi ...

, and tank battalions of the 113th, 121st and 143rd rifle divisions. The 3rd Mechanised Corps was first formed in July 1940,Glantz, Stumbling Colossus, 1998, p. 155 and on 22 June 1941, was stationed at

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urba ...

in the

Baltic Military District The Baltic Military District () was a military district of the Soviet armed forces in the Baltic states, formed briefly before the German invasion during the World War II. After end of the war the Kaliningrad Oblast was added to the District's con ...

under MG A.V. Kurkin. It consisted of 2nd Tank Division, 5th Tank Division, 84th Motorised Division, 15th Motorcycle Regiment, an artillery regiment, and engineer and signals battalions. On 22 June, the 2nd Tank Division was located in the forest in Gajzhuny, in the Ionava area, the 5th Tank Division was positioned to defend the Neman bridge near Alitus, and the 84th Motorised Division – was in forest in the Kajshadoris area. On 22 June 1941, the 3rd Mechanised Corps had 31,975 men & 651 tanks, of which 110 were new

T-34 The T-34 is a Soviet medium tank introduced in 1940. When introduced its 76.2 mm (3 in) tank gun was less powerful than its contemporaries while its 60-degree sloped armour provided good protection against anti-tank weapons. The C ...

and

KV-1 The Kliment Voroshilov (KV) tanks are a series of Soviet heavy tanks named after the Soviet defence commissar and politician Kliment Voroshilov who operated with the Red Army during World War II. The KV tanks were known for their heavy armour pr ...

types. The Corps was heavily engaged in the first battles of

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named afte ...

, particularly during the

Baltic Operation (1941) The Baltic operation, also known as the defensive operation in Lithuania and Latvia, encompassed the operations of the Red Army from 22 June to 9 July 1941 conducted over the territories of the occupied Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia in respons ...

and at the

Battle of Raseiniai The Battle of Raseiniai (23–27 June 1941) was a large tank battle that took place in the early stages of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The battle was fought between the elements of the German 4th Panzer Group an ...

Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-209-0091-11, Russland-Nord, russischer Panzer KW-2

On 24 June 1941, a single

KV-2 The Kliment Voroshilov (KV) tanks are a series of Soviet heavy tanks named after the Soviet defence commissar and politician Kliment Voroshilov who operated with the Red Army during World War II. The KV tanks were known for their heavy armour pro ...

heavy tank of 2nd Tank Division, at a crossroads in front of

Raseiniai Raseiniai (; Samogitian: ''Raseinē'') is a city in Lithuania. It is located on the south eastern foothills of the Samogitians highland, some north from the Kaunas–Klaipėda highway. History Grand Duchy of Lithuania Raseiniai is one of th ...

, managed to cut off elements of the

6th Panzer Division The 6th Panzer Division ( en, 6th Tank Division) was an armoured division in the German Army, the ''Heer'', during World War II, established in October 1939. The division, initially formed as a light brigade, participated in the invasions of P ...

which had established bridgeheads on the

Dubysa Dubysa, at 131 km, is the 15th longest river solely in Lithuania. It originates just a few kilometers from Lake Rėkyva near Šiauliai city. At first it flows south, but at Lyduvėnai turns southeast and near Ariogala - southwest. Dubysa ...

. It stalled the Division's advance for a full day while being attacked by a variety of antitank weapons, until it finally ran out of ammunition. General

Erhard Raus Erhard Raus (8 January 1889 – 3 April 1956) was a general in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II. He commanded the 6th Panzer Division during the early years of the war on the Eastern Front before taking army and army group com ...

, the Officer commanding

Kampfgruppe In military history, the German term (pl. ; abbrev. KG, or KGr in usage during World War II, literally "fighting group" or "battle group") can refer to a combat formation of any kind, but most usually to that employed by the of Nazi Germ ...

Raus, which was the unit held up by the lone vehicle, described the incident. Raus said that the vehicle was damaged by several shots from a 88mm anti-aircraft gun firing at the vehicle from behind whilst it was distracted by

Panzer 35(t) The Panzerkampfwagen 35(t), commonly shortened to Panzer 35(t) or abbreviated as Pz.Kpfw. 35(t), was a Czechoslovak-designed light tank used mainly by Nazi Germany during World War II. The letter (t) stood for ''tschechisch'' (German for "Czech ...

tanks from Panzer Battalion 65. The crew were killed by

grenade A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade ge ...

s thrown by a Pioneer Engineer unit. The grenades were pushed through two holes made by the gun whilst the turret had started moving again, the other five or six shots having not apparently penetrated completely. The crew had remarkably only been apparently stunned by the shots which had entered the turret. Afterwards they were buried nearby with honours by the German soldiers of the unit held up. However, by early July the Corps had virtually ceased to exist as a formation, though remnants rejoined Soviet lines later. For example, the 5th Tank Division was at

Yelnya Yelnya (russian: Ельня) is the name of several inhabited localities in Russia. ;Urban localities * Yelnya, Yelninsky District, Smolensk Oblast, a town in Yelninsky District of Smolensk Oblast; administratively incorporated as Yelninskoye Ur ...

by 4 July 1941, and consisted of 2,552 men and a total of 2

BT-7 The BT-7 BT (russian: БТ) is the Russian abbreviation for "fast tank" (, ). was the last of the BT series of Soviet cavalry tanks that were produced in large numbers between 1935 and 1940. It was lightly armoured, but reasonably well-armed fo ...

tanks and four armoured cars. The 2nd Tank Division was encircled and destroyed at

and the 5th Tank Division was encircled and destroyed at the

Battle of Białystok–Minsk The Battle of Białystok–Minsk was a German strategic operation conducted by the Wehrmacht's Army Group Centre under Field Marshal Fedor von Bock during the penetration of the Soviet border region in the opening stage of Operation Barbarossa, ...

and was disbanded shortly after. On 11 July 1941 Col P Poluboiarov, Northwestern Front armoured directorate reported that the 3rd Mechanised Corps had 'completely perished' having only 400 men remaining who escaped encirclement with 2nd Tank Division & only 1

tank.

The second formation of 1942

The Corps was formed for the second time on 18 September 1942 at Kalinin in the

Moscow Military District The Order of Lenin Moscow Military District was a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The district was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1968. In 2010 it was merged with the Leningrad Military D ...

. Lieutenant General Mikhail Katukov took command. It was initially assigned to the 22nd Army of the

Kalinin Front The Kalinin Front was a major formation of the Red Army active in the Eastern Front of World War II, named for the city of Kalinin. It was formally established by Stavka directive on 17 October 1941 and allocated three armies: 22nd, 29th Army a ...

. It took part in

Operation Mars Operation Mars (Russian: Операция «Марс»), also known as the Second Rzhev-Sychevka Offensive Operation (Russian: Вторая Ржевско-Сычёвская наступательная операция), was the codename fo ...

alongside the 22nd Army. At the beginning of Operation Mars 3rd Mechanised Corps consisted of 232 tanks. Hamazasp Babadzhanian, who commanded the 3rd Mechanised Brigade of the corps, mentioned this operation briefly in his memoirs, quoting a conversation with 22nd Army commander, Vasily Yushkevich, who said, "We will conduct a rather serious offensive together with Western Front forces—we must liquidate the enemy Rzhev grouping". The Corps then fought 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 ...

, then fought across the Ukraine with the Central, Belorussian, and 1st Belorussian Fronts. On 23 October 1943, it was awarded 'Guards' status and re-designated the 8th Guards Mechanied Corps. In 1944, it took part in the Zhitomir-Berdichev, Korsun-Shevchenkovsky, Proskurov-Chernovits, and Lvov-Sandomir battles, gaining the 'Carpathian' honorific in April 1944.Keith E. Bonn, Slaughterhouse: the Handbook of the Eastern Front, Aberjona Press, Bedford, PA, 2005, p. 351 It ended the war in Berlin after participating in the Warsaw-Poznan and East Pomeranian offensives. In June 1945, recognising its role in capturing Berlin, it was awarded the honorific 'Berlin'. As part of the occupation forces, it was assigned to the 1st Guards Tank Army (later 1st Guards Mechanised Army). In the immediate post-war period, the Corps was reorganised as the 8th Guards Mechanised Division. In May 1957, it was reorganised as the 20th Guards Motor Rifle Division bearing honorifics: Carpathia-Berlin, Red Banner, Order of Suvorov.Michael Holm
20th Guards Motorised Rifle Division
2015. It was stationed at

Grimma Grimma ( hsb, Grima) is a town in Saxony, Central Germany, on the left bank of the Mulde, southeast of Leipzig. Founded in 1170, it is part of the Leipzig district. Location The town is in northern Saxony, southeast of Leipzig and south o ...

in eastern Germany. In 1964, the division was transferred to the

8th Guards Army The 8th Guards Order of Lenin Combined Arms Army (abbreviated 8th CAA) is an army of the Russian Ground Forces, headquartered in Novocherkassk, Rostov Oblast, within Russia′s Southern Military District, that was reinstated in 2017 as a success ...

. It took part in the

1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia refers to the events of 20–21 August 1968, when the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Rep ...

as part of the 1st Guards Tank Army, although when it returned to

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In t ...

, it reverted to the control of the 8th Guards Army. Became part of 1st Guards Tank Army in 1983, until 1993. The division was withdrawn from Germany in June 1993, and moved to

Volgograd Volgograd ( rus, Волгогра́д, a=ru-Volgograd.ogg, p=vəɫɡɐˈɡrat), formerly Tsaritsyn (russian: Цари́цын, Tsarítsyn, label=none; ) (1589–1925), and Stalingrad (russian: Сталингра́д, Stalingrád, label=none; ) ...

in the

North Caucasus Military District The North Caucasus Military District was a military district of the Russian Armed Forces, which became in 2010 the Southern Military District and lately also included the Black Sea Fleet and Caspian Flotilla. It comprised the Republic of Adygeya, ...

. There it was under the command of the reduced 8th Guards Army Corps, formerly the 8th Guards Army. The division remained garrisoned in Volgograd, with parts of the division having taken part in the First and

Second Chechen War The Second Chechen War (russian: Втора́я чече́нская война́, ) took place in Chechnya and the border regions of the North Caucasus between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, from August 1999 ...

s. The division was engaged from December 1994 to February 1995 in the

First Chechen War The First Chechen War, also known as the First Chechen Campaign,, rmed conflict in the Chechen Republic and on bordering territories of the Russian FederationФедеральный закон № 5-ФЗ от 12 января 1995 (в редакц ...

. On 31 December 1994, units of the division, together with the 131st Motor Rifle Brigade and the 81st Guards Motor Rifle Regiment entered Grozny. On 13 January 1995, elements of the division began storming the Council of Ministers building. On 16 January, the building of the Council of Ministers was completely taken. On 21 January 1995, the 33rd MRR participated in the seizure of the Press House. On 5 February, the division occupied the Minutka Square. On 11 February 1995, after taking the main militant strongholds in Grozny, the division was withdrawn from the fighting and began to transfer its units to Volgograd. At the end of February 1995, the division was completely withdrawn from Chechnya. In 2009 the division was renamed the 20th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade.

1988 Order of Battle

Order of Battle of the division in 1988: * 20th Guards Motor Rifle Division Headquarters,

* 454th Independent Guards Communications Battalion,

* 68th Independent Guards Reconnaissance and Electronic Warfare Battalion,

Plauen Plauen (; Czech: ''Plavno'') is, with around 65,000 inhabitants, the fifth-largest city of Saxony, Germany after Leipzig, Dresden, Chemnitz and Zwickau, the second-largest city of the Vogtland after Gera, as well as the largest city in t ...

* 1st Guards Tank Regiment,

Glauchau Glauchau (; hsb, Hłuchow) is a town in the German federal state of Saxony, on the right bank of the Mulde, 7 miles north of Zwickau and 17 miles west of Chemnitz by rail ( its train station is on the Dresden–Werdau line). It is part of the ...

* 20th Independent Tank Battalion,

Pomßen Pomßen is a village some 20 kilometres from Leipzig, Germany. Since 1994, it is part of the municipality of Parthenstein. There is a fortified church of architectural and historical interest. It has an organ built by Gottfried Richter (1643–1 ...

* 29th Guards ''Lublin Red Banner Orders of the Suvorov and Kutuzov'' Motorised Rifle Regiment,

* 67th Guards ''Yaroslavl Red Banner Orders of the Suvorov and Bogdan Khmelnitsky'' Motorised Rifle Regiment,

* 242nd Guards ''Zaleschitsky Order of Lenin Red Banner Orders of Suvorov. Kutuzov and Bogdan Khmelnitsky'' Motorised Rifle Regiment,

Wurzen Wurzen () is a town in the Leipzig district, in Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the river Mulde, here crossed by two bridges, 25 km east of Leipzig, by rail N.E. of Leipzig on the main line via Riesa to Dresden. It has a cathedral datin ...

* 576th ''Bobruisk Order of Lenin Red Banner Order of the Suvorov'' Motor Rifle Regiment,

(

BTR-60 The BTR-60 is the first vehicle in a series of Soviet eight-wheeled armoured personnel carriers (APCs). It was developed in the late 1950s as a replacement for the BTR-152 and was seen in public for the first time in 1961. BTR stands for ''Brone ...

) * 944th Guards ''Chernivtsi-Gnieznensky Red Banner Orders of the Suvorov and Bogdan Khmelnitsky'' Artillery Regiment,

Leisnig Leisnig ( hsb, Lěsnik) is a small town in the district of Mittelsachsen, in the state of Saxony in Germany, 50 kilometers southeast of Leipzig. History A settlement in this location was first mentioned in 1046. The town features Mildenstein Ca ...

* 358th Guards ''Carpathian-Gneznensky orders of Kutuzov. Bogdan Khmelnitsky and Red Star'' Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment,

* 487th Separate Anti-Tank Battalion, Oshatts (

MT-12 MT-12 or 2A29 is a Soviet smoothbore 100-mm anti-tank gun, which served as the primary towed anti-tank artillery in the Soviet army from the early 1970s to the late 1980s. It is in significant use in the Russo-Ukrainian War (2014-present). H ...

) * 133rd Independent Guards ''Carpathian Red Banner'' Engineer-Sapper Battalion,

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

* 1124th Independent Material Supply Battalion,

* 39th Independent Equipment Maintenance and Recovery Battalion,

* 347th Independent Medical Battalion,

* 153rd Independent Chemical Defence Battalion,

Reformation: 2021

As of 2021, the Brigade was reportedly upgrading to division-level strength once again. The Division was reportedly planned to re-equip with the

T-90 The T-90 is a third-generation Russian main battle tank. It uses a 125mm 2A46 smoothbore main gun, the 1A45T fire-control system, an upgraded engine, and gunner's thermal sight. Standard protective measures include a blend of steel and comp ...

M main battle tank. The transformation was reported as likely to be complete in 2022 and was reported to incorporate the following reconstituted formations: * 33rd Motor Rifle Regiment (

Kamyshin Kamyshin (russian: Камы́шин) is a city in Volgograd Oblast, Russia, located on the right bank of the Volgograd Reservoir of the Volga River, in the estuary of the Kamyshinka River. Its population was Past populations for Kamyshin include ...

) * 255th Motor Rifle Regiment (Volgograd) * 944th Guards Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment * 358th Guards Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment * 428th Separate Tank Battalion (near Volgograd) * 487th Separate Anti-Tank Artillery Battalion. The division took part in the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the Kherson and Kyiv areas. In March, it was announced that the commander of the 33rd Motor Rifle Regiment, Lt. Colonel Yuri Agarkov, had been killed. On the night of 9/10 July 2022, the division lost the following, and at least four other, more junior, officers, in a

HIMARS The M142 HIMARS (M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) is a light multiple rocket launcher developed in the late 1990s for the United States Army and mounted on a standard United States Army Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) tru ...

attack. * Commanding officer, Colonel Aleksey Gorobets * Chief of staff and first deputy commander, Colonel Sergey Nikolaevich Kens * Deputy commander, Colonel Kanat Mukatov * Deputy commander for military-political work, Colonel Alexei Avramchenko * Artillery chief, Colonel Nikolai Kornelyuk * Head of the operational department of the headquarters, Lieutenant Colonel Koval * Deputy head of logistics, Lieutenant Colonel Yevgeny Vyrodov * Deputy Artillery chief Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Gordeev

Footnotes

*By 25 June The remnants of 5th Tank Division has been driven into the

Western Front Western Front or West Front may refer to: Military frontiers * Western Front (World War I), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (World War II), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (Russian Empire), a maj ...

's area of control, and a report by the front's General Staff said "the remains of Northwestern Front's 5th Tank Division are concentrated 5 kilometres south east of

Molodechno Maladzyechna ( be, Маладзе́чна, Maladziečna, ; russian: Молоде́чно, Molodechno; pl, Mołodeczno) is a city in the Minsk Region of Belarus, an administrative centre of the Maladzyechna District (and formerly of the Maladzye ...

; 3 Tanks, 12 Armoured Cars, and 40 trucks".

Notes

References

*Keith E. Bonn, Slaughterhouse: the Handbook of the Eastern Front, Aberjona Press, Bedford, PA, 2005, p. 351 *

David Glantz David M. Glantz (born January 11, 1942) is an American military historian known for his books on the Red Army during World War II and as the chief editor of '' The Journal of Slavic Military Studies''. Born in Port Chester, New York, Glantz re ...

(1998), 'Stumbling Colossus – The Red Army on the Eve of World War', Kansas. * Steve Newton, Panzer Operations on the Eastern Front – The Memoirs of General Raus, 2003