List of infantry divisions of the Soviet Union 1917–1957

This is a list of infantry divisions of the Soviet Union 1917–1957. It lists infantry divisions in the Soviet Union from the Russian Revolution to the reorganization of the Soviet Army in the aftermath of the Stalinist era. Mechanized Divisions were formed during 1945–46, and then all remaining Rifle Divisions were converted to Motor Rifle Divisions in 1957. During World War II more than 700 Rifle Divisions were raised.
Many infantry (pekhotniye in Russian), literally 'movement', and rifle (strelkoviye in Russian), literally 'sharpshooter', divisions were inherited by the Workers-Peasants Army from the former Imperial Russian Army, but were renamed in the spirit of the Revolutionary times, often with names including words such as "Proletariat", "workers and peasants", or other titles that differentiated them from the past. They employed some of the 48,000 former Tsarist officers and 214,000 Tsarist NCOs along with over 10,000 administrative personnel. Initially the new 'Bolshevik' rifle divisions were composed of rifle brigades, and included:
The division was to have an establishment of 26,972, with 14,220 combat troops, and depended on 10,048 horses to manoeuvre. Due to difficulties with recruiting volunteers into the armed forces early in the Russian Civil War, conscription was introduced on 29 May 1918, and all infantry divisions were renamed into rifle divisions on 11 October 1918.
The first six of the 11 formed divisions were those formed in the Petrograd, Moscow, Orel, Yaroslav, Privolzhsk and Ural okrugs. However, the divisions were initially only numbered, eventually 1st through to 47th by 1919. Five of these divisions were also named.
The Russian Civil War divisions were allocated to the various Fronts, including:
The structure of the divisions (N 220/34) had changed by the end of 1918 to increase the number of regiments in brigades to three, while eliminating the artillery brigade headquarters, leaving the nine artillery divizions (battalions) and one horse artillery battery to be allocated to rifle brigades. An armoured automobile detachment (otryad) was also added.
By 1921 the establishment of the rifle division had changed substantially in accordance with TO&E N 1400/246 for peace-time, with two brigades and only 15,876 personnel, and the reduction of artillery to two battalions and one battery, and the cavalry from four to three squadron regiment.
From 10 June 1922 the organization of rifle divisions war changed from brigade to regiment structure, with three regiments in each. The establishment of divisions stationed in the border areas was reduced to 8,705 personnel, and those in the interior regions to 6,725, including the reduction to a single cavalry squadron. The number of divisions was increased to 49.
Due to increasing economic difficulties in the post-war USSR, the armed forces were substantially reduced, and from 8 August 1923 transferred to the territorial system of organisation. All divisions were reduced to an establishment of 1,437 permanent cadre and 8,084 conscripted personnel. These new divisions were initially called militia-rifle divisions (Russian: милиционной-стрелковая дивизия), and later were renamed territorial-militia divisions (Russian: территориально-милиционная дивизия). However, despite reduction in number of service personnel, the number of territorial-militia divisions quadrupled by summer 1928.
The territorial principle of manning the Red Army was introduced in the mid-1920s. In each region able-bodied men were called up for a limited period of active duty in territorial unit, which comprised about half the Army's strength, each year, for five years. The first call-up period was for three months, with one month a year thereafter. A regular cadre provided a stable nucleus. By 1925 this system provided 46 of the 77 infantry divisions and one of the eleven cavalry divisions. The remainder consisted of regular officers and enlisted personnel serving two-year stints.
Most of the divisions that participated in the Russian Civil War were disbanded by 1927, however, Leon Trotsky initiated a formation of the new armed force with a professional cadre which was supported in its evolution even after his departure from Soviet Union. The reform in the rifle forces that begun in 1924 did create some notable changes, including commencement of adding names to the regular and newly formed territorial divisions, and creation of national divisions, notably one Belarusian, four Ukrainian, two Georgian, one Armenian, and one Azerbaijanian divisions. In 1928 1st and 3rd Turkestan, and in 1929 an Azerbaijanian divisions were reorganized as mountain-rifle divisions. Of the 70 rifle division, 41 were now territorial in their establishment.
During the 1930s the RKKA infantry forces were not only expanded, but also substantially reorganized, in part due to substantial input of military theorists into their doctrinal development, such as that of Mikhail Tukhachevsky whose 1934 report to the Defence Committee included 13 categories for divisional organization of the infantry. On 31 January 1935 the Committee decreed adoption of a single 13 thousand personnel peace-time establishment for a rifle division with the following organization:
This structure more than double the number of combat personnel in the division from the 1929 establishment of 20.2% to 41.7%. In May 1937 the military commissars were added to the establishment of all RKKA military forces.
On 29 November 1937 four types of structures for rifle forces were established:
The territorial system was reorganized, with all remaining formations converted to 'cadre' divisions, in 1937 and 1938, with the cadre divisions retaining one territorial regiment until reorganisation that followed 1938 restructuring of all armed forces. Kamchatka and Sakhalin divisions were also added in the wake of the Soviet–Japanese Border Wars.
By 1938 there were plans to increase the number of rifle divisions in the RKKA (Red Army) from 98 to 173. These would include:
The wartime strength of the new rifle division that was intended to include two artillery regiments was to have 18 thousand personnel, but none had been brought up to this strength by 1941.
Two events shaped the evolution of the RKKA rifle divisions during the initial period of the Second World War: the decision in 1938 to reorganise the Army, in part due to and following the repressions of the officer corps in 1937, and the 1939 campaign in Poland, and later war against Finland.
In the course of the Second World War the Soviet Union's Red Army raised over four hundred and fifty numbered rifle divisions (infantry). Usually the rifle divisions were controlled by the higher headquarters of the rifle corps. But scores of these formations were reformed several times; the total number of divisional formations formed may have been as high as 2,000, according to Craig Crofoot.
On 22 June 1941 the Red Army had 103 divisions in the western military districts, of which 70 were organised according to peace-time TO&E 04/100 with 10-thousand bayonet strength (actual number of rifles 7,818), but brought up to the 12-thousand strength (TO&E 04/400), with another six at the 11-thousand strength. Another 78 rifle divisions in the interior military districts were organised according to peace-time TO&E 04/120 6-thousand (5,864) bayonet strength (actual number of rifles 3,685). The wartime organisation of the RKKA rifle division was 14-thousand (14,483) with 10,420 rifles, but only 20 western border divisions had been brought up to this establishment when the war begun.
Zaloga notes that the Red Army formed at least 42 'national' divisions during the Second World War, including four Azeri, five Armenian, and eight Georgian rifle divisions and a large number of cavalry divisions in Central Asia, including five Uzbek cavalry divisions.
During the war, many divisions were formed, destroyed or otherwise disbanded, and reformed several times: A notional example, using imaginary designations, runs:
"The 501st Rifle Division (1st formation), readiness category B organized to 1937 tables may have been disbanded at Vyazma in 1941, and a new 501st Division (2nd formation), readiness category A organized on 1942 tables formed in Rostov thousands of km away, then renamed 200th Guards Rifle Division in 1944, and a new 501st (3rd formation), readiness category A organized to 1944 tables division formed in Minsk".
People's Militia divisions, listed in the order of creation, were hastily created in mid-1941 as the German advance neared Leningrad. In Russian, they were designated дивизия народного ополчения – Narodnoe Opolcheniye Division – or гвардейская дивизия народного ополчения – Guards Narodnoe Opolcheniye Division. On 23 September 1941 all the divisions of the Leningrad Narodnoe Opolcheniye Army divisions were used to form Red Army units mostly within the Leningrad Front.
Although 25 Narodnoe Opolcheniye divisions were intended for formation, only 16 were formed due to demand for workers in building the fortifications for the defence of Moscow. By 7 July 1941 140,000 volunteers had been accepted into the Moscow People's Militia, and organised into 12 divisions (of establishment (shtat) 11,633) named according to the city rayons. However, on 20 September 1941 they were redesignated as regular rifle divisions (numbers in brackets):
These divisions were allocated to the Mozhaisk Defence Line Front (commander General P.A. Artemyev) which consisted of the 32nd Army (General N.K. Klykov) in Vyazma, 33rd Army (Kombrig D.P. Onuprienko) in Spas-Demensk and 34th Army (General N.I. Pronin), and also included five NKVD divisions (one each in the 32nd and 34th Armies, and three in the 33rd Army).
In October 1941 four more divisions were formed