The direct ancestor of the 4th Guards Kantemirovskaya Tank Division was the Red Army's 17th Tank Corps, initially formed in Stalingrad in 1942 shortly after the 1941 start of the German invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II. The 17th Tank Corps commenced its combat history on 26 June 1942, when it deployed to the west of Voronezh, just prior to the Battle of Voronezh (1942). For distinction in combat during the Operation Little Saturn between 17 December and 30 December 1942, the 17th Tank Corps was renumbered as the 4th Guards Tank Corps in January 1943. The Corps received the honorific "Kantemirovsky" after the village of Kantemirovka in Kantemirovsky District, Voronezh Oblast, which its tank sub-units liberated from German occupation in their baptism of fire.