8th Guards Army (Soviet Union)

The Soviet 8th Guards Army was an army of the Soviet Union's Red Army/Soviet Army, disbanded in the early 1990s.

Activated in October 1941 as the 7th Reserve Army, the Army was redesignated the 62nd Army at Stalingrad in July 1942. It was among the victors of Stalingrad and thus redesignated the 8th Guards Army.

In July 1943, it took part in the Raisin-Barvenkovsky offensive (July 17–27), and in August - September - in Donbass strategic offensive operation (August 13 - September 22). Developing the offensive in the direction of the Dnieper, the Army with other troops of the Southwestern Front liberated Zaporozhye (October 14), crossed the Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk south and captured a bridgehead on its right bank. By this time 28, 29 and 4th Guards Rifle Corps were part of the army.

The army was part of the 3rd Ukrainian Front during the Dnieper-Carpathian Offensive. By March 25, 1944, the Prut River had fallen and the 3rd Ukrainian Front was dispatched to secure Odessa. On April 2, Vasili Chuikov's Eighth Guards Army and Forty-Sixty Army attacked through a blizzard and, by April 6, had driven the defenders past the Dniester River and isolated Odessa. Odessa capitulated on April 10, and Soviet troops began entering Romania proper.

In 1945 the army was commanded by Lieutenant General Vasily Chuikov. It was part of Marshal Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front. One of the cities which the Army took in its westward drive was Poznan, which the Army seized in January–February 1945. Afterwards, the 8th Guards Army spearheaded the Red Army drive to Berlin in the spring of 1945, where on 2 May 1945, Chuikov took the surrender of the German General Weidling, the commander of the Berlin Defensive Area, and the rest of the Berlin garrison. Later the Eighth Guards Army became part of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany. On the creation of the Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany in 1945, the Army consisted of:


 * Headquarters at Weimar
 * 4th Guards Rifle Corps (35th, 47th Guards, and 57th Guards Rifle Divisions)
 * 28th Guards Rifle Corps (39th Guards Rifle Division, 79th Guards Rifle Division, 88th Guards Rifle Division)
 * 29th Guards Rifle Corps (27th, 74th, 82nd Guards Rifle Divisions)
 * 11th Tank Corps

In 1947, 4th Guards Rifle Corps was relocated to Talinn in Estonia. It appears that 82nd and 88th GUards Rifle Divisions disbanded between 1946 and 1956.

During the Cold War, 8th Guards Army stood opposed to NATO forces (specifically the US V Corps) along the strategically vital Fulda Gap in West Germany. In the last years of its existence, in the late 1980s, 8th Guards Army consisted of:
 * Headquarters at Weimar-Nohra
 * 79th Guards Tank Division - Jena, GDR: - disbanded, 1992
 * 17th Guards Tank Regiment (Saalfeld)
 * 65th Guards Tank Regiment (Nohra)
 * 211th Guards Tank Regiment( Jena)
 * 66th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment (Nohra)
 * 172nd Artillery Regiment (Rudolstadt)
 * 79th Anti-Aircraft Rocket Regiment (Jena)
 * 27th Guards Motor Rifle Division - General-Maerker-Kaserne, Halle, GDR: - to Totskoye, Volga Military District
 * 68. Guards Motor Rifle Regiment (Halle)
 * 243. Guards Motor Rifle Regiment (Halle)
 * 244. Guards Motor Rifle Regiment (Schlotheim)
 * 28th Tank Regiment (Halle)
 * 54th Guards SP Artillery Regiment (Halle)
 * 39th Guards Motor Rifle Division - Ohrdruf, GDR: - disbanded, 1992
 * 117. Guards Motor Rifle Regiment (Meiningen)
 * 120. Guards Motor Rifle Regiment (Ohrdruf)
 * 172. Guards Motor Rifle Regiment (Gotha)
 * 15th Guards Tank Regiment(Ohrdruf)
 * 87th Artillery Regiment (Gotha)
 * 57th Guards Motor Rifle Division - Naumburg, GDR – disbanded, 1992
 * 170. Guards Motor Rifle Regiment (Naumburg)
 * 174. Guards Motor Rifle Regiment (Weißenfels)
 * 241. Guards Motor Rifle Regiment (Leipzig)
 * 57. Guards Tank Regiment (Zeitz)
 * 128th Artillery Regiment (Zeitz)
 * 47th Tank Brigade - Plauen, GDR: 156 T-80, 18 2S1, 4 2S6, 4 SA-13

After the Soviet withdrawal from Germany the army was reduced in size to become 8th Guards Army Corps, and withdrawn to Volgograd, the former Stalingrad in 1994. There it appears to have taken the place of the 34th Army Corps. For a while it was commanded by Lev Rokhlin.