The Red Army's 7th Guards Army was re-designated from the Soviet 64th Army on April 16, 1943.
64th Army had originally been formed from 1st Reserve Army in July 1942, and alongside the 62nd Army, fought the German offensive during the Battle of Stalingrad 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 Divisions, which were incorporated in the 24th and 25th Guards Rifle Corps. As part of the Voronezh Front and the Steppe Front since July 18, 1943, the Army participated in the Battle of Kursk and the Battle for the Dnieper River from July through August, 1943. Subsequently, as part of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, it participated in the Kirovograd Offensive, and those of Uman and Botoşani, Iassy-Kishinev, Debrecen, Budapest, Bratislava and Brno, and Prague.
The 7th Guards Army was stationed in Austria as part of the Central Group of Forces briefly after the war.[1] In 1946 it comprised three rifle corps totaling nine divisions, and that year General Ivan Fedyuninsky took command for a period. These formations were reassigned to the North Caucasus, Tavria and Kiev Military Districts and the Army HQ arrived at Yerevan in the Transcaucasus Military District to take control of the 75th and 261st Rifle Divisions, soon followed by the 26th Mechanised Division and the 164th Rifle Division. In the late 1980s the Army consisted of:
- 15th Motor Rifle Division (former 15th Rifle Division) – Kirovakan
- 75th Motor Rifle Division (former 75th Rifle Division) – Nakhichevan, Category "C" with 5-10% manning[2]
- 127th Motor Rifle Division (former 261st Rifle Division) – Leninakan, Armenia (now 102nd Military Base)
- 164th Motor Rifle Division (former 164th Rifle Division) - Yerevan
In November 1988 Colonel Lev Rokhlin became the commander of the 75th MRD. In early 1990 the division was transferred to the Soviet Border Troops of the KGB, and Rokhlin was promoted to major-general in February of the same year.[3] Later the division was transferred to the Azerbaijani Army, but to the representatives of the Nakhichivan government rather than authorities from the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence.[2]
The 7th Guards Army was disbanded circa 1989-92 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. General Lieutenant Fyodor Reut was among the Army's last commanders.
Notes[]
- ↑ V.I. Feskov et al 2004.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 http://www.zerbaijan.com/azeri/azarmy.htm#fnB4
- ↑ Андрей Антипов. Лев Рохлин: жизнь и смерть генерала. 1998. ISBN 504001676X, 9785040016761
References[]
- Feskov, V.I.; K.A. Kalashnikov, V.I. Golikov (2004). The Soviet Army in the Years of the 'Cold War' (1945-1991). Tomsk: Tomsk University Press. ISBN 5-7511-1819-7.
- From Volga up to Prague", Moscow, 1966
- Shumilov, M., "Guardsmen", in the book "Kursk Fight", 3rd edition, Voronezh, 1982.
- Narod.ru 7th Guards Army (Russian)
- Narod.ru 64th Army (Russian)
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The original article can be found at 7th Guards Army (Soviet Union) and the edit history here.