Central Front ( Soviet Union ) The Central Front was a Front ( i . e . a military formation of roughly Army Group size ) of the Soviet Army during the Second World War . The Central Front describes either of two distinct organizations during the war . The first entity existed for just a month during the German invasion of 1941 , before it was annihilated . A year and a half later , the name was revived for the second creation , which existed for about eight months in 1943 , until it was incorporated into the B ' elorussian group of Fronts and renamed accordingly . The Central Front : 1941 . The first version was created on July 24 , 1941 from the right wing of the forces in the Western Front , including a new designation of the 3rd Army and the headquarters of the ( disbanded ) 4th Army , whose former HQ formed the Front headquarters . Colonel General Fyodor I . Kuznetsov took command . The Front was a combination of the 13th and 21st Armies . 13th Army , in the area of Mogilyov , had under command the 61st Rifle and 20th Mechanised Corps and in the Krichevsky direction the 45th and 20th Rifle Corps . The other initial component of the Front was 21st Army , under General Lieutenant Mikhail Yefremov , with 25th Mechanised Corps , and 66th , 63rd , 21st and 67th Rifle Corps . The new Front ' s air component was 136 aircraft ( 75 patched and repaired ) under the command of Major General ( Aviation ) G . A . Vorozheikin . The Central Front thus became the first new Front formed after the German invasion . At the time the Front was created its boundary with the Western front was along the Bryansk - Roslavl - Shklov - Minsk line ( all inclusive for the Western front ) , and the main operational direction of the front was along the Gomel - Bobruisk - Волковыск axis . On August 1 , 3rd Army joined the Front , and on August 7 Kuznetsov was recalled to Moscow to be given a new assignment . Command was transferred to General Yefremov . On August 8 , Heinz Guderian ' s Panzergruppe 2 began its attack along the 13th Army sector . Four days later the German Second Army joined the attack . On August 17 , the 63rd Rifle Corps was routed at the village of Skepnya ( 20 km to the east of Zhlobin ) , and two days later elements of the Second Army occupied Gomel . On August 22 3rd Army fell back from Mozyr . Under these blows the Front was eventually encircled and destroyed near Chernigov , and was formally disbanded on August 25 , 1941 . The surviving forces transferred to the first version of the Bryansk Front . The Central Front : 1943 . The second version of this Front was created on February 15 , 1943 . Then Colonel General Konstantin K . Rokossovsky took command , and was promoted to full General in April 1943 . General Lieutenant M . S . Malinin was named as Front Chief of Staff while general - major K . F . Telegin was made the member of the Front ' s Military Council . The Front incorporated the headquarters and forces of the Don Front , plus additional armies ; the 2nd Tank , 21st , 65th , and 70th Army ( originally formed from NKVD forces ) were made part of the Front , along with the 16th Air Army under General Lieutenant Sergei Rudenko . The Front ' s headquarters was established around 10 km to the east of Yelets . As part of Stavka ' s general move to integrate and rationalise its Army Groups , the Front was renamed the 1st Belorussian Front on October 20 , 1943 .