20th Guards Motor Rifle Division The 20th Motor Rifle Division ( Cyrillic : " 20 гвардейская мотострелковая Прикарпатско - Берлинская дивизия " ) is a formation of the Russian Ground Forces , originally formed within the Soviet Red Army as the 3rd Mechanised Corps . The first formation of 1940 . The 3rd Mechanised Corps was first formed in July 1940 , and on 22 June 1941 , was stationed at Vilnius in the Baltic Military District under MG A . V . Kurkin . It consisted of 2nd Tank Division ( ) , 5th Tank Division , 84th Motorised Division , 15th Motorcycle Regiment , an artillery regiment , and engineer and signals battalions . On 22 June , the 2nd Tank Division was located in the forest in Gajzhuny , in the Ionava area , the 5th Tank Division was positioned to defend the Neman bridge near Alitus , and the 84th Motorised Division - was in forest in the Kajshadoris area . On 22 June 1941 , the 3rd Mechanised Corps had 31 , 975 men & 651 tanks , of which 110 were new T - 34 and KV - 1 types . The Corps was heavily engaged in the first battles of Operation Barbarossa , particularly during the Baltic Operation ( 1941 ) and at the Battle of Raseiniai . On 24 June 1941 , a single KV - 2 heavy tank of 2nd Tank Division , at a crossroads in front of Raseiniai , managed to cut off elements of the 6th Panzer Division which had established bridgeheads on the Dubysa . It stalled the Division ' s advance for a full day while being attacked by a variety of antitank weapons , until it finally ran out of ammunition . General Erhard Raus , the Officer commanding 6th Panzer Division ' s Kampfgruppe Raus , which was the unit held up by the lone vehicle , described the incident . Raus said that the vehicle was damaged by several shots from a 88 Anti - Tank Gun firing at the vehicle from behind whilst it was distracted by Panzer 35 ( t ) tanks from Panzer Battalion 65 and the crew were killed by grenade s from a Pioneer Engineer unit . The grenades were pushed through two holes made by the gun whilst the turret had started moving again , the other five or six shots having not apparently penetrated completely . The crew had remarkably only been apparently stunned by the shots which had entered the turret . Afterwards they were buried nearby with honours by the German soldiers of the unit held up . However by early July the Corps had virtually ceased to exist as a formation , though remnants rejoined Soviet lines later . For example , the 5th Tank Division was at Yelnya by 4 July 1941 , and consisted of 2 , 552 men and a total of 2 BT - 7 tanks and four armoured cars . The 2nd Tank Division was encircled and destroyed at Raseiniai and the 5th Tank Division was encircled and destroyed at the Battle of Białystok – Minsk and was disbanded shortly after . The second formation of 1942 . The Corps was formed for the second time on 18 September 1942 at Kalinin in the Moscow Military District . General Lieutenant M . E . Katukov took command . It was initially assigned to the 22nd Army of the Kalinin Front . It took part in Operation Mars alongside the 22nd Army . At the beginning of Operation Mars 3rd Mechanised Corps consisted of 232 tanks . Hamazasp Babadzhanian , who commanded the 3rd Mechanised Brigade of the corps , mentioned this operation briefly in his memoirs , quoting a conversation with 22nd Army commander , V . A . Iushkevich , who said , “ We will conduct a rather serious offensive together with Western Front forces — we must liquidate the enemy Rzhev grouping . ” The Corps then fought in the Battle of Kursk , then fought across the Ukraine with the Central , Belorussian , and 1st Belorussian Fronts . On 23 October 1943 , it was awarded ‘ Guards ’ status and re - designated the 8th Guards Mechanised Corps . In 1944 , it took part in the Zhitomir - Berdichev , Korsun - Shevchenkovsky , Proskurov - Chernovits , and Lvov - Sandomir battles , in April gaining the ' Carpathian ' honorific . It ended the war in Berlin after participating in the Warsaw - Poznan and East Pomeranian offensives . As part of the occupation forces , it was assigned to the 1st Guards Tank Army ( later 1st Guards Mechanised Army ) . In the immediate post - war period , the Corps was reorganised as the 8th Guards Mechanised Division . In 1957 , it was reorganised as the 20th Guards Motor Rifle Division , bearing honorifics : Carpathia - Berlin , Red Banner , Order of Suvorov . In 1959 , the division was transferred to the 18th Guards Army , which had been up to 1957 , the 3rd Guards Mechanised Army . It took part in the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia as part of the 1st Guards Tank Army , although when it returned to East Germany , it reverted to the control of the 18th Guards Army . When 18th Guards Army was disbanded in 1979 , the division was transferred to the 1st Guards Tank Army , where it remained until it was withdrawn from Germany in 1991 . The division was withdrawn from Germany in 1991 , and moved to Volgograd in the North Caucasus Military District . It is currently garrisoned in Volgograd , with parts of the division having taken part in the First and Second Chechen War s . As part of the reorganisation of the Russian Ground Forces , it was reported by Warfare . ru to have been disbanded to be reformed as separate motor rifle brigades .