Rahul Sharma (Editor)

53rd Rifle Division (Soviet Union)

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Country
  
Soviet Union

Type
  
Infantry

Branch
  
Red Army

Active
  
I Formation: 1931–46 II Formation: 1955

Engagements
  
World War II Battle of Smolensk (1941) Battle of Moscow Battle of the Dnieper Uman-Botosani Offensive Jassy-Kishinev Offensive Budapest Offensive Prague Offensive

Decorations
  
Order of the Red Banner (1st formation) Order of Suvorov 2nd class (1st and 2nd formations)

The 53rd Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's Red Army, active during World War II.

The division was formed in 1931. It was stationed in the Volga Military District. On 8 July 1937 it received the honorific "named for Friedrich Engels". Before the war it became part of the 21st Army in the Gomel Region of the Western Special Military District.

Poirer and Connor, in their 1985 Red Army Order of Battle, say that the division fought at Yelnya, on the Dnieper River, at Uman and Targul Frumos. The division was with 46th Army of the 2nd Ukrainian Front in May 1945.

The division was disbanded in late June 1946 in the Odessa Military District with the 34th Rifle Corps of the 40th Army.

In 1955, the division was reformed from the 318th Rifle Division with the 3rd Rifle Corps at Uzhhorod, inheriting the honorifics "Novorossiysk Order of Suvorov". On 9 September 1955, it became the 39th Mechanized Division. The division received personnel and equipment from the disbanded 13th Guards Mechanized Division in fall 1955 and on 4 December became the 39th Guards Mechanized Division.

References

53rd Rifle Division (Soviet Union) Wikipedia