15th Rifle Division

The 15th Rifle Division (15-я стрелковая дивизия) 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 Offensives 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):
 * 47th Motor Rifle Regiment
 * 321st Rifle Regiment
 * 14th Tank Regiment
 * 203rd Artillery Regiment
 * 166th Separate Anti-Tank Battalion
 * 114th Separate Anti-Aircraft Battalion
 * 77th Reconnaissance Battalion
 * 75th Light Engineering Battalion
 * 53rd Separate Signals Battalion
 * 96th Medical Battalion
 * 156th Auto-Transport Battalion
 * 35th Repairing Battalion
 * 38th Traffic Control Company
 * 61st Field Bakery
 * 77th Field Post Station
 * 357th Field Bank Department

As the 15th Rifle Division (renamed on 6 August 1941):
 * 47th Rifle Regiment
 * 321st Rifle Regiment
 * 676th Rifle Regiment
 * 203rd Howitzer Regiment (until 04.11.1941)
 * 203rd Artillery Regiment (from 21.04.1942)
 * 81st Howitzer Regiment (from 16.11.1941 to 15.01.1942)
 * 166th Separate Anti-Tank Battalion
 * 425th Anti-Aircraft Battery (114th Separate Anti-Aircraft Battalion) (until 29.04.1943)
 * 77th Reconnaissance Company
 * 5th Ski Battalion (from 05.11.1943 to 30.04.1944)
 * 75th Sapper Battalion
 * 527th Separate Signals Battalion (182nd Separate Signals Company)
 * 96th Medical Battalion
 * 79th Separate Chemical Defense Company
 * 43rd Auto-Transport Company
 * 324th Field Bakely (61st Field Mobile Baking Factory)
 * 170th Divisional Veterinary Hospital
 * 77th Field Post Station
 * 357th Field Bank Department

Commanders
During World War II:
 * Major-General Nikolay Nikanorovich Belov: 11.03.1941 - 09.08.1941, killed in action
 * Colonel Afanasy Nikitovich Slyshkin (major-general from 1.10.1942): 04.09.1941 - 25.06.1942
 * Colonel Vladimir Nikolayevich Dzhangdzhava: 26.06.1943 - 14.07.1943
 * Colonel Vasily Ivanovich Bulgakov: 15.07.1943 - 07.08.1943
 * Colonel Kuzma Yedvokimovich Grebennikov (major-general from 03.06.1944): 08.08.1943 — 28.03.1945
 * Colonel Andrey Petrovich Varyukhin: 29.03.1945 — 09.05.1945