25th Guards Rifle Division

25th 'Chapayevskaya' Rifle Division (1918–1945) 25th Guards Rifle Division (1945–57) 25th Guards Motor Rifle Division (1957–1992) 25th Mechanised Division (1992–c.2000)
Soldiers of 25th rifle division near Odessa, 1941
Active	1918–1942
Country	Soviet Union
Branch	Army
Type	Infantry
Nickname(s)	Chapayevskaya
Engagements	Russian Civil War Kiev Offensive (1920) Battle of Odessa (1941) Battle of Sevastopol
Battle honours	Order of the Red Banner Order of Lenin
Commanders
Notable commanders	Vasily Chapayev (Civil War)
Insignia
Division sleeve patch
Guards unit
Mechanized branch insignia

The 25th Guards Rifle Division 'Chapayevskaya' was a division of the Soviet Red Army. The division was reorganised and reformed several times until the collapse of the Soviet Union, when it entered service in the Ukrainian Army as the 25th Mechanised Division.

Formed in the period from 24 April 1942 to 12 July 1942, pursuant to Directive GSHKA N org/2/783669 on 16 April 1942, by converting the 2nd Guards Rifle Brigade, ex 71st Naval Rifle Brigade. Station Sonkovo Kalinin region. 11–12 July 1942 g Division ubyla from a place of formation in the Voronezh Front, arrived in the front, the 22 July 1942 until 4 August 1942, the embattled boundary on the eastern bank of the river Bityug. Participated in the battles to establish a bridgehead on the river Don north of the city Korotoyak in August 1942, Ostrogozh-Rossoshanskij, Voronezh-Kastornoye, Kharkov offensive and operations. She took part in the operation to take the city of Budapest, Bratislava .

After the end of World War II (after 1955?), the 25th Guards Rifle Division was given the name and honors of the pre-war 25th Rifle Division, which had been destroyed in the Siege of Sevastopol. Thus it received the name 'Chapayevskaya' after the commander of the 25th RD during the Civil War, Vasily Chapayev. The division's full title became 25th Guards Rifle Sinelkov-Budapest Red Banner Order of Suvorov and B. Khmelnitsky Division named for V.I. Chapayev (Russian: 25-я Гвардейская мотострелковая Синельниково-Будапештская орденов Суворова и Б. Хмельницкого дивизия имени В.Чапаева.)

The 2nd Guards Rifle Brigade was formed from 25th GRD at Kiev, Kiev MD with 20th Guards Rifle Corps after the war. It became 25th GRD again in October 1953. (Feskov et al. 2013)

The division was reorganized as a Motor Rifle Division (115th Guards) in 1957, and eventually transferred to the 1st Guards Army in the Kiev Military District. Previously it had been the 38th Guards Mechanised Division.