Rifle corps ( Soviet ) A rifle corps ( ) was a Soviet corps - level military formation during the mid - twentieth century . Rifle corps were made up of a varying number of rifle division s , although the allocation of three rifle divisions to a rifle corps was common during the latter part of World War II . Unlike army corps formed by Germany and the Western Allies , Soviet rifle corps were composed primarily of combat troops and had only a small logistical component . Because the rifle divisions themselves were also primarily made up of combat troops , the rifle corps were numerically smaller than corps of other nations . The Soviets also formed Guards rifle corps during World War II , although these were often assigned control of regular rifle divisions and sometimes controlled no Guards rifle divisions . The Red Army as a whole had 27 rifle corps headquarters in its order of battle on 1 June 1938 ; this had been expanded to 62 by June 1941 . When Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22 , 1941 , the Red Army initially had some 32 rifle corps headquarters as part of their order of battle in action against the Germans . Because Joseph Stalin ' s prewar purge of the Red Army had removed so many experienced leaders , the rifle corps echelon of command in Soviet forces engaged against the Germans dwindled in the face of massive Red Army losses of 1941 . The stark shortage of experienced leaders forced the Red Army to have rifle army headquarters directly supervising rifle divisions without the assistance of intervening rifle corps headquarters . The use of rifle corps headquarters never disappeared entirely from the Red Army during World War II , as rifle armies in areas not fighting the Germans ( such as the Far Eastern military region ) maintained their use of rifle corps headquarters during the entire war . An example of wartime rifle corps organization is that of the 8th Estonian Rifle Corps in 1942 : Of the 8th Rifle Corps ' 1942 strength of 26 , 466 men , only 2 , 599 ( less than 10 per cent ) made up the corps headquarters and corps assets , the remainder being assigned to the two rifle divisions . By November 1941 , the Soviet order of battle showed only one rifle corps headquarters still active among the forces fighting the German invasion . By early 1942 , however , the Soviets began to reactivate rifle corps headquarters for use as an intermediate command echelon between the rifle armies and rifle divisions . Doubtlessly , the direct command of divisions by army headquarters resulted in too - large spans of control for army commanders and the Red Army desired to reintroduce the rifle corps headquarters once enough experienced commanders and staff officers were available . By the end of 1942 , 21 rifle corps headquarters were in action with Soviet forces engaging the Germans . This grew to over 100 by the end of 1943 , and reached a peak of 174 either in action against the Germans or as part of the strategic reserve of the Stavka by the end of the war with Germany in May 1945 . A limited number of Rifle Corps remained as part of the Ground Forces post 1945 . They were slowly converted to ' Army Corps ' though they still mostly consisted of Rifle and then Motor Rifle Divisions . List of Soviet Rifle Corps formed during World War II . Almost all Soviet Rifle Corps were disbanded in the first several months of the war and reformed as the Soviet High Command gained experience in commanding large numbers of forces . Guards Rifle Corps . 1st - 40th Guards Rifle Corps formed after June 22 , 1941 :