Formed in late October 1942, the division was sent to the front in the Battle of Stalingrad. It then fought in the advance across southern Ukraine during 1943 and in spring 1944 participated in the Crimean Offensive, the capture of Crimea, and received the Sivash honorific for its actions. In the summer of that year the 2nd was relocated to the Baltic and fought there until the end of the war in May 1945, participating in the Battle of Memel and the Battle of Königsberg. It received the Order of Kutuzov at the end of the war and was reorganized into a brigade postwar in 1946.