BARANAVICHY RIFLE DIVISION

Baˈranavichy ˈRifle Diˈvision

Baranavichy Guards Rifle Red Banner of the Orders of Lenin and Suvorov Division.

It was formed in 1918 in Kurgan city (Russia) as the 5th Rifle Division. From December 1920, it was called the Saratov one, and from December 1921, the Viciebsk one. In 1923, the division was given the name of the Czechoslovak proletariat. It participated in the Civil War on the Eastern and Western fronts and in the liberation (in foreign sources, the term ‘annexation’ is used) of Western Belarus in 1939. On the eve of the Great Patriotic War, it consisted of 3 rifle and 2 artillery regiments.

As part of the 11th, 27th, and 1st Guards armies, it joined the defensive battles in the Drysa area, on the North-Western Front, in the battles of Moscow and Stalingrad, in the battles for the Donbass and the liberation of Left-Bank Ukraine. It was transformed into the 44th Guards Rifle Division on October 5, 1942.

From November 1943 until the end of the war, it formed part of the 65th Army on the Belarusian and 1st Belarusian fronts. It participated in the Gomiel-Rechyca offensive of 1943 and Kalinkavichy-Mazyr offensive of 1944, in the summer of 1944, in the Belarusian Operation of 1944 (Operation Bagration of 1944). It distinguished itself in the battles during the liberation of Baranavichy for which it was awarded the Baranavichy honorary title (July 27, 1944). Later, the division took part in the Młowsk-Elbing, East Pomeranian offensives and the Battle of Berlin.

Commanders were сolonel F. P. Ozerov (June — August 1941); colonel A. I. Svetliakov (August — September 1941); lieutenant colonel P. S. Telkov (September — November 1941); major general U. R. Vashkievich (November — December 1941); colonel P. S. Eroshenko (December 1941 — February 1942); colonel, major general from November 1942, D. A. Kupriianov (February — August 1942, September 1942 — July 1943); colonel M. A. Krymski (September 1942); colonel M. V. Karkishka (July 1943 — January 1944); colonel P. G. Petrov (January — June 1944); major general V. A. Borisov (June 1944 — May 1945).