The 78th Rifle Division (Russian: 78-я стрелковая дивизия 78-ya strelkovaya diviziya) was an infantry division of the Red Army, formed in 1932, in Novosibirsk, in the Siberian Military District. After being used to provide cadres for new divisions, in September 1939 the division was reformed for the second time. In 1940 the division was transferred to Khabarovsk in the Far Eastern Front.
At the Battle of Moscow it fought alongside the 316th Rifle Division, and its commander Ivan Panfilov, in November 1941. For its distinguished service, the division was awarded Guards status and renamed as the 9th Guards Rifle Division on November 26, 1941.
The 78th Division was formed again, for the third time, by renaming the 403rd Rifle Division at Samerkand, and once it had finished forming was sent west to the Moscow Military District. The division was subordinated then to the 30th Army, which fought against Army Group Center, within Operation Jupiter and Operation Mars. Due to Mars' failure, the division was once again transferred to the South Western Front and assisted 1st and 3rd Guards Armies in fighting against the Germans in Donbass region. In 1944, the unit took part in the offensives clearing Ukraine and the Balkan states, including the Battle of Debrecen and the Vienna Offensive. At the end of the war, the division was subordinated to the 3rd Ukrainian Front, within the 27th Army.
The division and its 33rd Rifle Corps were withdrawn to the Carpathian Military District as part of the 38th Army after 27th Army disbanded. The division was based at Starokonstantinov. It was disbanded with the corps by May 1946.
According to Crofoot's Armies of the Bear, the 78th Rifle Division was once again formed, for the fourth time, in 1955 and was subordinated to the Volga-Ural Military District, being reorganized in 1957 into the 78th Motor Rifle Division (later motor rifle training division) which stayed at Chebarkul until it became the 471 DTC in 1987 and the 5355th Weapons and Equipment Storage Base in October 1989. The base was disbanded in 1994.
later the 15th 'Mozyr' Guards Tank Division was withdrawn from the Central Group of Forces and relocated to Chebarkul. Later on (1990 or 1992), briefly, the 167th Motor Rifle Brigade was formed at Chebarkul also, but later disbanded, possibly after helping to collect troops to form the 205th Motor Rifle Brigade in the North Caucasus.