16th Rifle Division ( Soviet Union ) The 16th Rifle Division ( , ) , was a formation in the Red Army created during the Second World War . The division was formed twice , and was given the title ' Lithuanian ' during its second formation . It was originally established at Novgorod in October 1939 . It was wiped out at Mga in 1941 . Reformed and given the title ' Lithuanian ' , the division participated in several battles against Nazi Germany , including Kursk , Belarus , and the Baltic . It was disbanded at the end of the war , although it was briefly revived in 1955 before being disbanded once more . History . The division was originally formed in 1918 . At the beginning of Operation Barbarossa the 16th Rifle Division ( I Formation ) was part of North - Western Front ' s 27th Army , reporting directly to Army headquarters along with the 67th Rifle Division and 3rd Rifle Brigade . As noted above , it was destroyed at Mga amid the first German drive on Leningrad . Re - formation . When the 16th Division was reformed after its destruction , it was given the name ' Lithuanian ' largely for political purposes . As Lithuania , along with Estonia and Latvia , had only been occupied by the USSR in 1940 ( and then again later in 1944 after the Germans were forced to withdraw ) , there was a concern among the Soviet planners that the Lithuanians might choose to collaborate with the Germans rather than fight against them . However , it was hoped that since the division was officially labelled " Lithuanian " , that citizens of the newly formed Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic would be inspired to enlist . The decision regarding the re - formation of the division was made by the State Defense Committee on 18 December 1941 . It was decided that it would be formed in the Moscow Military District , in the city of Balakhna , Nizhny Novgorod Oblast . Personnel were assembled from staff and remnants of the 184th Rifle Division ( 29th Rifle Corps ) and any Lithuanian speaking refugees that had fled Lithuania after the German invasion . The officers of the division were by and large graduates from the Vilnius infantry academy , who had been evacuated after the invasion to Novokuznetsk , Kemerovo Oblast . Battles . Formation and training of the division came to an end by February 1943 and the division entered the war on 21 February 1943 at Alekseyevka , 50 km southeast of Oryol . This brought the division into the path of the Wehrmacht ' s " Operation Citadel " , where it served with the 42nd Rifle Corps of the 48th Army , Soviet Central Front . In the first days of the battle , the 16th Rifle Division withstood the attack of the German 383rd Infantry and 18th Panzer Division s , that were accompanied by 120 planes . After suffering serious losses , the Soviet armies eventually emerged victorious . During this battle a private named Viktoras Jacenevičius , was wounded , taken prisoner and then tortured to death by the Germans . He was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union . Following the victory at Kursk , the division was assigned to the 1st Baltic Front . On 1 June 1944 , the division was directly subordinate to the Front , along with 47th Rifle Division . Along with the three Belarussian Front s , they invaded Belarus and much of Lithuania . On 2 August 1944 , division had arrived at the suburbs of Šiauliai , which was home to their commander , Vladas Karvelis . The division was stationed there for one month , to receive reinforcements from Lithuanian forced - volunteers . In mid - August the city of Šiauliai was hit by a German counter - attack . The Wehrmacht divisions were armed with 900 armoured vehicles and artillery pieces . For three days the 16th Division stood its ground , and in the end as the German attack ran out of steam the Division emerged victorious . On 31 October 1944 the Division was presented with the Order of the Red Banner for successful operations in clearing Samogitia . On 31 January 1945 , the Lithuanian division received orders to join the fight against the Germans in the Courland Pocket . The German resistance was incredibly strong and elements of Army Group Courland did not surrender to the Soviets until 8 May and 9 at the end of World War II in Europe . The 16th Rifle Division was disbanded after the end of the war , but briefly reactivated in 1955 in the Volga - Urals Military District before being finally disbanded . Ethnic composition . As of 1 January 1943 , of the 10 , 250 soldiers and officers of the division , 7 , 000 of them were ethnic Lithuanians and / or inhabitants of the Lithuanian SSR . The total ethnic make - up of the division was : 3720 Lithuanians ( 36 . 3 % ) , 3064 Russians ( 29 % ) , 2973 Jews ( 29 % ) , and 492 of other nationalities ( 4 . 8 % ) . Although other sources cite figures of 2378 Jews ( 23 . 2 % ) in the division , it is still the highest number of ethnic Jews amongst all divisions of the Red Army . Jews made 13 % ( 136 persons ) of all officers in the division and 34 . 2 % of all soldiers in the infantry regiments . 12 soldiers of a division have been awarded the title , Hero of Soviet Union , of them , four were Jews : major Volf Vilensky , sergeant Kalman Shur , corporal Grigorijus Ušpolis and private Borisas Cindelis ( posthumously ) . Originally , commands and orders were given in the Lithuanian language . However over third of all soldiers in the division did not speak Lithuanian . More problems arose when officers from other divisions were sent to train and transfer their fighting experience to the soldiers of the 16th . Most of them had never heard a word of Lithuanian in their lives , and were mainly Russophone . For these reasons , the language of commands , orders and even conversation , became Russian and also Yiddish .