15th Rifle Division The 15th Rifle Division ( ) was a military formation of the Red Army formed by renaming the Red Army ' s Inzensk Revolutionary Division on 30 April 1919 . The division was active during the Russian Civil War and World War II . The 15th Rifle Division was awarded the Order of Lenin , two Orders of the Red Banner , the Order of Suvorov , and the Red Banner of Labour of the Ukrainian SSR , ultimately receiving the honorific designation 15th Sivash - Stettin Order of Lenin , Twice Order of the Red Banner , Order of Suvorov , Order of the Red Banner of Labour of the Ukrainian SSR Division ( 15 - я стрелковая Сивашско - Штеттинская , ордена Ленина , дважды Краснознамённая , орденов Суворова , Трудового Красного Знамени УССР дивизия ) . Overview . The 15th Rifle Division was formed by renaming the Red Army ' s Inzensk Revolutionary Division on 30 April 1919 . Units from the disbanded 31st Turkestan Rifle Division joined the division on 2 December 1920 . It was renamed as the 15th Motorized Rifle Division in September 1939 and took part in the Red Army ' s march into Romanian - ceded Bessarabia in 1940 . On 22 June 1941 , the division was stationed in Bender and Tiraspol as part of the 2nd Mechanized Corps , 9th Army , Odessa Military District . Its first battle after the start of Operation Barbarossa occurred in the Skulyan raion ( part of Kalarash ) on 24 June 1941 , after which it pulled back and departed for the Dniester . In July 1941 , the 15th Motorized Rifle Division was caught in the encirclement around Uman , and was largely destroyed . Its name was reverted to 15th Rifle Division , with the 676th Mountain Rifle Regiment of the 192nd Mountain Rifle Division added as its third regiment . The division ' s commander during the Uman encirclement , Major - General Nikolay Nikanorovich Belov was killed on 9 August 1941 . Some of its members escaped from the encirclement by the end of September 1941 . It remained on the Southern Front and took part in defending the Donbass in the area near Artemovsk until being transferred to the Bryansk Front ' s 13th Army in May 1942 . The 15th Rifle Division took part in the defensive battle at Voronezh in the summer of 1942 and in the subsequent battle to liberate the city in 1943 . On the night of 05 . 07 . 1944 , reconnaissance units of the division seized a prisoner who showed that the enemy on this day will be launched attack on Kursk , and the division fought in the 1943 Kursk Battle . Its subsequent operations included the Chernigov - Pripyat and Gomel - Rechitsa Offensive s in 1943 , the Kalinkovichi - Mozyr Operation , Operation Bagration and the liberation of Baranovichi in 1944 , the Mława - Elbing Operation , the East Pomeranian Offensive , and the Battle of Berlin in 1945 . After the Second World War the division briefly became the 26th Mechanised Division , then by 1957 the 100th Motor Rifle Division . In 1965 it regained its Second World War number and became the 15th Motor Rifle Division . Through much of the postwar period it was part of 7th Guards Army in the Transcaucasus Military District . During this period it was stationed at Kirovakan . Composition . As the 15th Rifle Division ( in June 1941 ) : As the 15th Rifle Division ( renamed on 6 August 1941 ) : Commanders . During World War II :