The 32nd Army was a formation 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

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 ...

. The army was formed twice during the war, disbanded as part of the post-war demobilization and then reformed in 1969 to protect the Soviet-Chinese border.

First formation

The army was formed on 16 July 1941 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 Di ...

near the cities of

Naro-Fominsk Naro-Fominsk (russian: На́ро-Фоми́нск) is a town and the administrative center of Naro-Fominsky District in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located on the Nara River, southwest from Moscow. Population: History The Fominskoye village was fir ...

Kubinka Kubinka (russian: Ку́бинка) is a town in Odintsovsky District of Moscow Oblast, Russia, located on the Setun River, west of Moscow. Population: __TOC__ History Kubinka, founded in the 15th century, may have been named after Prince , a ...

, and the settlement of Dorokhovo. The army was formed with four divisions of

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

Militia. The assigned units included the

2nd A second is the base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI). Second, Seconds or 2nd may also refer to: Mathematics * 2 (number), as an ordinal (also written as ''2nd'' or ''2d'') * Second of arc, an angular measurement unit ...

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

8th 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 ...

, 13th Moscow Militia divisions.Soviet Military Encyclopedia. - T. 8. - S. 112. In addition, on 20 July 1941, 18th Moscow People's Militia Divisions was assigned to the Army at positions west of Moscow. The 18th had a strength of 10,000. On 18 July the army was incorporated into the Moscow line of defense and took up defensive positions in the vicinity of Karacharovo. On 30 July the army was assigned to the

Reserve Front The Reserve Front was a major formation of the Red Army during the Second World War. First Formation The Reserve Front describes either of two distinct organizations during the war. The first version was created on July 30, 1941 in a reorganiza ...

. On 1 October, the army included the 2nd Rifle Division, 8th Rifle Division,

29th Rifle Division The 29th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army and later the Soviet Army. It was first formed in November 1920 from the 1st Siberian Rifle Division, and fought in the Russian Civil War in Siberia. It was relocated to Belarus in 1 ...

and the 140th Rifle Division. It also included the 685th Corps Artillery Regiment, 533rd Antitank Artillery Regiment, 877th Antitank Artillery Regiment, 200th Naval Artillery Battalion and the 36th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion. On 3 October the army was heavily engaged in a defensive battle against German forces advancing on

Vyazma Vyazma (russian: Вя́зьма) is a town and the administrative center of Vyazemsky District in Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Vyazma River, about halfway between Smolensk, the administrative center of the oblast, and Mozhaysk. Throu ...

as part of the northern wing of

Operation Typhoon The Battle of Moscow was a military campaign that consisted of two periods of strategically significant fighting on a sector of the Eastern Front during World War II. It took place between September 1941 and January 1942. The Soviet defensive e ...

. On 5 October the army was reassigned to the Western Front and two days later along with the

16th 16 (sixteen) is the natural number following 15 and preceding 17. 16 is a composite number, and a square number, being 42 = 4 × 4. It is the smallest number with exactly five divisors, its proper divisors being , , and . In English speech, ...

, 19th, 20th and 24th Armies were encircled by the German 4th and 9th Armies and

3rd Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (d ...

and

4th Panzer Group The 4th Panzer Army (german: 4. Panzerarmee) (operating as Panzer Group 4 (german: 4. Panzergruppe) from its formation on 15 February 1941 to 1 January 1942, when it was redesignated as a full army) was a German panzer formation during World War ...

s. The 32nd Army was disbanded on 12 October 1941. Small elements of the army were able to break out of the encirclement and were assigned to the

and 19th Armies. Commanders: * Lieutenant General

Nikolai Klykov Nikolai or Nikolay is an East Slavic variant of the masculine name Nicholas. It may refer to: People Royalty * Nicholas I of Russia (1796–1855), or Nikolay I, Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855 * Nicholas II of Russia (1868–1918), or Nik ...

(July - August 1941) * Major 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 ...

(August - September 1941) * Major General Sergei V. Vishnevskii (September 1941 - October 1941)

Second formation

Stavka The ''Stavka'' (Russian and Ukrainian: Ставка) is a name of the high command of the armed forces formerly in the Russian Empire, Soviet Union and currently in Ukraine. In Imperial Russia ''Stavka'' referred to the administrative staff, a ...

ordered the army reformed on 2 March 1942. The reformation was completed on 10 March 1942. The army was formed from the Medvezhegorshaya and Maselskaya Operational Groups of the

Karelian Front The Karelian Front russian: Карельский фронт) was a front (a formation of Army Group size) of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II, and operated in Karelia. Wartime The Karelian Front was created in August 1941 when ...

. On 1 April 1942 the army was composed of: : 37th Rifle Division : 71st Rifle Division : 186th Rifle Division :

263rd Rifle Division The 263rd Rifle Division () was an infantry division of the Red Army during World War II. Formed in mid-1941, the division fought in the Continuation War against Finland in Karelia until the beginning of 1943, when it transferred to the Southwe ...

: 289th Rifle Division : 313th Rifle Division :61st Naval Rifle Brigade :65th Naval Rifle Brigade :66th Naval Rifle Brigade :1st Ski Brigade :2nd Ski Brigade :196th Ski Battalion :197th Ski Battalion :198th Ski Battalion :17th Mortar Battalion :208th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion :6th Aerosleigh Battalion :9th Aerosleigh Battalion :36th Aerosleigh Battalion :227th Separate Tank Company :261st Engineer Battalion :1211th Sapper Battalion :1212th Sapper Battalion Until the end of May 1944 the 32nd Army defended the frontier in the

Medvezhyegorsky District Medvezhyegorsky District (russian: Медвежьего́рский райо́н; krl, Karhumäjen piiri) is an administrative district (raion), one of the fifteen in the Republic of Karelia, Russia.Constitution of the Republic of Karelia It is ...

and from 21 July to 9 August the army participated in the Svir-Petrozavodsk Offensive, when part of the army reached the Finish border in the vicinity of Longonvara. When

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

was knocked out of the war on 19 September 1944 the army was relegated to guarding the Finnish border. During the offensive the army consisted of: : 289th Rifle Division : 313th Rifle Division : 376th Rifle Division :65th Naval Rifle Brigade :80th Naval Rifle Brigade :33rd Ski Brigade :1237th Gun Artillery Regiment :173rd Mortar Regiment :280th Mortar Regiment :298th Mortar Regiment :63rd Guards Mortar Regiment (minus 297th Battalion) :275th Antiaircraft Artillery Regiment :208th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion :446th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion :376th Tank Battalion (minus Tank Company KV) :21st Aerosleigh Battalion :22nd Aerosleigh Battalion :26th Aerosleigh Battalion :261st Engineer Battalion Composition on 1 November 1944: : 135th Rifle Corps :: 176th Rifle Division :: 289th Rifle Division :: 313th Rifle Division :621st Mortar Regiment :63rd Guards Mortar Regiment :275th Antiaircraft Artillery Regiment :32nd Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion :446th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion :29th Tank Brigade :90th Separate Tank Regiment :261st Engineer Battalion :6th Flamethrower Battalion :194th Flamethrower Company :196th Flamethrower Company On 15 November 1944 the 32nd Army was put into the

Reserve of the Supreme High Command The Reserve of the Supreme High Command (Russian: Резерв Верховного Главнокомандования; also known as the '' Stavka'' Reserve or RVGK ( ru , РВГК)) comprises reserve military formations and units; the Sta ...

(''

'' Reserve) and on 21 April 1945 was directly subordinated to the ''Stavka''. On 1 May 1945 the Army was composed of: :203rd Gun Artillery Brigade :621st Mortar Regiment :275th Antiaircraft Artillery Regiment :194th Flamethrower Company :196th Flamethrower Company The army was disbanded in August 1945. Its commanders included Major General

Sergei Trofimenko Sergei Georgievich Trofimenko (10 (22) September 1899 in Ryovny – 16 October 1953 in Moscow) was a Soviet military commander, active in the Russian Civil War and the Second World War. His final rank was colonel-general. He had been promoted t ...

(March - June 1942); and Lieutenant General Filipp D. Gorelenko (June 1942 - 1944).

Third formation

This army was reformed using the command staff of the 1st Army Corps in 1981 when the

Central Asian Military District The Red Banner Central Asian Military District was a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces, which existed in 1926–1945 and 1969–1989, with its headquarters at Tashkent (1926–1945) and Almaty (1969–1989). By USSR Order No.304 of 4 ...

was reestablished to protect the Soviet-Chinese border. Composition: :

71st Motor Rifle Division The 71st Motor Rifle Division ( Military Unit Number 07225) was a motorized infantry division of the Soviet Army between 1984 and 1989. It was based in Semipalatinsk. Converted to a storage base in 1989, it was taken over by Kazakhstan with the ...

- The 71st Motor Rifle Division was formed in 1984 at

Semipalatinsk Semey ( kk, Семей, Semei, سەمەي; cyrl, Семей ), until 2007 known as Semipalatinsk (russian: Семипала́тинск) and in 1917–1920 as Alash-kala ( kk, Алаш-қала, ''Alaş-qala''), is a city in eastern Kazakhst ...

. The 71st Motor Rifle Division became the 5202nd Base for Storage of Weapons and Equipment (VKhVT) (Semipalatinsk) in 1989. The 5202nd Base for Storage of Weapons and Equipment became part of the

Armed Forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan The Armed Forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan ( kk, Қазақстан Республикасының Қарулы Күштері, , russian: Вооружённые силы Республики Казахстан) is the unified armed forces of ...

after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991-92. : 155th Motor Rifle Division (Ust-Kamengorsk) : 203rd Motor Rifle Division (Karaganda) :

78th Tank Division The 78th Tank Division was a division of the Soviet Ground Forces, active from 1965 to the 1990s. It was originally established in 1949 as the 15th Tank Division, from the 78th Heavy Tank Self-Propelled Regiment (the former 78th Tank Brigade). It ...

(Ayaguz) In March 1988 32nd Army became 1st Army Corps, and then 4 June 1991 1st Army Corps was redesignated as 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 ...

.Holm 2015

Notes

References

* V.I. Feskov, Golikov V.I., K.A. Kalashnikov, and S.A. Slugin, The Armed Forces of the USSR after World War II, from the Red Army to the Soviet (Part 1: Land Forces). (В.И. Слугин С.А. Вооруженные силы СССР после Второй Мировой войны: от Красной Армии к Советской (часть 1: Сухопутные войска)) Tomsk, 2013. * * Thirty-second Army / / Soviet Military Encyclopedia / ed. A. Grechko . - M .: Military Publishing (

Voenizdat Voenizdat (russian: Воениздат) was a publishing house in Moscow, Russia that was one of the first and largest publishing houses in USSR. The name is a Russian abbreviation for "Voennoe Izdatelstvo", meaning "Military Publication". Voen ...

), 1976. - T. 8. - 690 p. - (In 8 m). - 105,000 copies. {{Armies of the Soviet Army 032 Military units and formations established in 1941 Military units and formations established in 1981 Military units and formations disestablished in 1991