| 8th Rifle Division | |
|---|---|
| Active | First Formation:(September 1918 – July 1941) Second Formation:(July – October 1941) Third Formation: (1941–1945) |
| Country |  Soviet Union |
| Branch | .svg) Red Army |
| Type | Infantry |
| Size | Division |
| Engagements | |
| Decorations |
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| Battle honours |
|
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Vladimir Kolpakchi Porfiry Hutz |
The8th Rifle Division was a militaryformation of theSoviet Union'sRed Army in theWinter War, theSoviet invasion of Poland, andWorld War II. It was formed three times.
The division was formed on 24 September 1918 by order of theMoscow District Military Commissar as the8th Infantry Division on the basis of the 5thMoscow Infantry Division, the 1stTula Infantry Division, the 2ndTambov Infantry Division, and theKaluga Infantry Division. On 11 October, it was renamed the8th Rifle Division.
The division received a number of awards between the 1920s and 1930s. On 8 December 1921 it was given the battle honor "Minsk." On 29 February 1928 it was awarded theHonorary Revolutionary Red Banner on the 10th anniversary of the Red Army.[1]
On 26 July 1926, it was given the honorary name "Dzerzhinsky," and in 1932 was awarded theOrder of the Red Banner of Labour. A reference to being "formed atSemipalatinsk prior to 1936" in Poirer and Connor'sRed Army Order of Battle remains unconfirmed by Russian sources. The formation's full title appears to have become the 8th Minsk Red Banner Order of Red Banner of Labor Dzerzhinsky Rifle Division.
Brigade CommanderVladimir Kolpakchi took command of the unit in 1933. The division took part in theInvasion of Poland as part of the 16th Rifle Corps,11th Army.Brigade Commander Ivan Fursin held command from December 1938 to 4 February 1940. On 22 January 1940, it was part of the 13th Rifle Corps of theNorthwestern Front during theWinter War, but had been shifted to the 23rd Rifle Corps by 31 January 1940. On 5 February 1940Brigade Commander Fyodor Dmitrievich Rubtsov took command. On 8 March 1940 it was part of the Northwestern Front's15th Rifle Corps. On 27 April 1940Colonel Nikolay Fomin took command from Rubtsov. On 22 June 1941, it was part of the 1st Rifle Corps,10th Army, itself part of theWestern Front.
Major components at the beginning ofOperation Barbarossa included the 151st, 229th, and 310th Rifle Regiments, the 62nd LightArtillery Regiment, the 117thHowitzerArtillery Regiment, and the 2nd Reconnaissance Company. During theSecond World War it was part of the 'Operational Army' from 22 June 1941 to 4 July 1941.
The division was stationed in and aroundŁomża. According to the plan for covering theWestern Special Military District, the division was to take up positions in the66th (Osovets) Fortified Area [ru] and along the 1939 state border withGerman-occupied Poland in the areas ofShchuchyn, Brzozowo, Ptak, and Servatki.
On the first day of the war, the divisionheadquarters came under aerial bombardment, but retained control of its units; the left-flank 310th Rifle Regiment fought a ten-hour losing battle forKolno. By 23 June 1941, the division continued to hold the front in theŠčučyn area. On 26 June, the division began to withdraw from semi-encircirclement near Osowiec. By 27 June, the front headquarters had lost contact with the10th Army, which included the division.
By 1 July 1941 the division was still part of 1st Rifle Corps, but the corps was diverted directly to the Western Front. In early July, the division was destroyed in theBiałystok area, as part of theGerman encirclement west of Minsk[2] but individual groups continued unorganized resistance until August. The division was officially disbanded on 19 September 1941.[1]
The second formation was formed on 2 July 1941 in theKrasnopresnensky District of Moscow as the8th Krasnopresnenskaya Rifle Division of the People's Militia [ru]. On August 24, 1941, it was renamed the8th Rifle Division. On 2 July 1941 the division reformed in theKrasnopresnensky District ofMoscow, as the 8th KrasnopresnenskayaPeoples' Militia Rifle Division under the command of theMoscow Military District. The division contained an unusually large number of writers, musicians and historians; the writers were put together in the 3rd Company of the 1st Battalion of the 24th Rifle Regiment, which became known as the "Writers' Company".[3]
By order of the commander of the Moscow Military District on 9 July 1941, all divisions of the people's militia were withdrawn from Moscow to camps. By 10 July 1941, division's regiments deployed to the forest nearNikolo-Uryupino [ru] andBuzlanovo [ru]. In late July, the division engaged fortifying theMoscow Line of Defence. From at least 1 August 1941 to its destruction, the division was part of the32nd Army, itself part of theReserve Front.
On 4 August 1941 the division took up positions on theRzhev-Vyazma line of defence, and on 30 August, in positions on the eastern bank of theDnieper River as well. On 24 August 1941 the formation was formally renamed the 8th Rifle Division. It included the 22nd, 23rd, and 24th Rifle Regiments. In October, in connection with the beginning of the GermanOperation Typhoon it moved to the east ofYelnya.
By October, with the start of theBattle of Moscow, the division was transferred east ofYelnya. It entered combat on 4 October. By 5 October, it lost more than half of its personnel, and on 6 October, it was encircled. Some of the division's surviving troops joinedpartisan detachments, while others were able to regroup with the Soviet forces. While the division was effectively destroyed on 6–7 October, it was not formally disbanded until 30 November.
The third formation of the 8th Rifle Division traces its origins to the 458th Rifle Division, which was formed inSemipalatinsk andAyaguz in theCentral Asian Military District on 25 December 1941. In early 1942 it was redesignated as the 8th Rifle Division.[4] Its rifle regiments, using the same numbers as the first formation, were the 151st, 229th, and 310th. Its full name became the 8th Yampol Red Banner Order of Suvorov Rifle Division, after winning the battle honorYampol.
The personnel of the formation mainly consisted of residents of theKazakh SSR and partly from theKuibyshev Oblast of theRSFSR, while the command and political staff was staffed from among the party andKomsomol activists of theSemipalatinsk Oblast. During the division's formation, the personnel of the unit underwent accelerated training programs.
On 1 April 1942, the division was sent to theEastern Front. On 24 April, the division arrived in the city ofStalinogorsk and was placed at the disposal of the24th Army of theBryansk Front. By 1 October it was part of13th Army, and stayed assigned to that formation on 1 July 1943 it was assigned to theSoviet Central Front's 13th Army, as part of the 15th Rifle Corps. It participated in theVoronezh-Kastornoye,Eastern Carpathian, and thePrague offensives, theBattle of Kursk, andthe crossing of the Dnieper,Desna, andPripyat Rivers. It defendedMtsensk and participated in the liberation ofKromy,Nevel,Novgorod-Seversky, andChernigov.
The division was part of the 18th Army of the 4th Ukrainian Front in May 1945. The 8th Division was ordered disbanded on 29 May by the order that formed theNorthern Group of Forces, with its troops used to reinforce the units of the group.[5]
