9th Army ( Soviet Union ) The 9th Army of the Soviet Union ' s Red Army was a Soviet field army , active from 1939 – 43 , and then after the war from 1966 to 1989 . It was active during the Winter War against Finland as part of the Leningrad Military District , beginning operations at the end of November 1939 under ComKor M . P . Duhanov with the 49th and Special Rifle Corps as well as assigned aviation units . Two divisions attached to the army , the 44th and 163rd Rifle Divisions , were defeated by the Finns during the Battle of Suomussalmi . In 1940 the Army took part in the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina . By 1941 the Army was designated the 9th Separate Army ( briefly ) and included the 14th , 35th and 48th Rifle Corps ( the last under then General Major Rodion Malinovsky ) , 2nd Cavalry Corps , 2nd and 18th Mechanised Corps , 80th , 81st , 82nd , 84th , 86th Fortified Regions and a number of other units - the biggest army on the Soviet border before the German Operation Barbarossa began . However , it was more an administrative than an operational formation on 22 June 1941 . With General Major M . V . Zakharov in command , it was tasked to cover the Beltsa , Kishinev , and Odessa approaches as part of General Ivan Tyulenev ’ s Southern Front . The first engagement came when Von Schobert ’ s Eleventh Army crashed into the juncture of 9th and 18th Armies . North of Jassy , the German assault fell on the 48th Rifle Corps which was covering Beltsa . Tyulenev ordered a counterattack , and soon 48th Rifle and 2nd Cavalry Corps plus 2nd Mechanised Corps from Southern Front reserve were engaged at Beltsa and Stefanesti . Tyulenev then drew off 25th , 51st , and 150th Rifle Division s from two of Zakharov ’ s rifle corps to form a new ‘ Coastal Group ’ to cover the eastern bank of the Prut River , the northern bank of the Danube and the Black Sea coast . ( This group later became the Separate Coastal Army ) . By early August , 9th Army was falling back to Nikolayev under repeated German blows , and by 17 August across the River Ingulets and over to the eastern bank of the Dnieper . The ‘ Coastal Group ’ was meanwhile falling back on Odessa . By early 9 October Army was falling back on Taganrog , after a failed attempt by Southern Front ’ s three armies to hold a line between Pavlograd and the Sea of Azov had been shattered by an outflanking maneuver by Von Kleist ’ s newly renamed First Panzer Army . The resulting Battle of the Sea of Azov shattered 9th Army , virtually destroying it . The Soviets ’ next move was a planned offensive orchestrated by Timoshenko , GlavKom Southwest . After still more retreats and the loss of Rostov , 9th Army stepped off on 17 November as part of an assault by both Southern and Southwestern Fronts , and by 29 November , 9th Army in conjunction with 56th Army and other units had cleared Rostov and the city was back in Soviet hands . 9th Army then joined Timoshenko ’ s strategic reserve , to join the battle again when the Barvenkovo – Lozovaia offensive operation began . 9th Army joined this assault in January 1942 when it broke into the German front on the northern Donets along with 6th and 57th Armies , reaching the line Balakleya - Lozovaia - Slavyansk before being halted by repeated German counterattacks . Still with Southern Front , 9th Army was then allotted a subsidiary part in the Kharkov offensive – the Second Battle of Kharkov – which kicked off in May 1942 . Along with 57th Army , 9th Army was tasked to secure the southern part of the Izyum bulge in the front . While being in a secondary sector , 9th Army took much of the force of the German response , Operation Fridericus . Eight hours into the German counterstroke , at noon on 17 May , elements of the First Panzer and Seventeenth Armies were ten miles into 9th Army ’ s positions and threatening the neighbouring 57th Army ’ s rear . Commander , Southern Front , General Lieutenant R . Ya . Malinovskii , at once drew 5th Cavalry Corps , a rifle division , and a tank brigade out of reserve in an attempt to halt Von Kleist . However discussions and decisions at Stavka about breaking off the Kharkov offensive in response did not come quickly enough , and 6th and 57th Armies were surrounded in the Izyum pocket with the loss of 200 , 000 plus men in casualties alone . Later , as part of the North Caucasian and Transcaucasian Fronts , the Army fought on the big bend of the river Don ( in the summer of 1942 ) , and participated in the Battle of the Caucasus . In November , 1943 the army headquarters was disbanded , and its formations and units transferred to other armies . The Ninth Army was active after the war in the Transcaucasus Military District from 1966 , with its headquarters at Kutaisi in the Georgian SSR . ( The headquarters ’ designation was originally been the 76th Rifle Corps , which became the 31st Army Corps in 1955 ) . It had four motor rifle divisions : the 10th Guards , 145th , 147th , and 152nd ( the former 10th Guards , 89th , 414th , and 402nd Rifle Divisions ) . About 1989 it was disbanded by being redesignated 31st Army Corps . In the July 1993 issue of Jane ' s Intelligence Review it was reported that the 31st Army Corps was to leave Kutaisi ( presumably for Russia ) by the end of July 1993 . Order of Battle , 22 June 1941 . " Note : This order of battle disagrees in the matter of the 150th Rifle Division with material from David Glantz , Stumbling Colossus "