311th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)

311th Rifle Division (July 14, 1941 – May 29, 1945)
Maj. Gen. B.A. Vladimirov, Hero of the Soviet Union
Active	1941–1945
Country	Soviet Union
Branch	Red Army
Type	Division
Role	Infantry
Engagements	Siege of Leningrad Lyuban Offensive Operation Operation Polyarnaya Zvezda Novgorod–Luga Offensive Baltic Offensive Vistula-Oder Offensive East Pomeranian Offensive Berlin Strategic Offensive
Decorations	Order of the Red Banner Order of Suvorov 2nd class
Battle honours	Dvinsk
Commanders
Notable commanders	Maj. Gen. F.N. Parkhomenko Col. V.I. Zolotarev Maj. Gen. Boris Vladimirov

The 311th Rifle Division was a standard Red Army rifle division formed on July 14, 1941 at Kirov before being sent to the vicinity of Leningrad, where it spent most of the war, sharing a similar combat path with its "sister", the 310th Rifle Division. The men and women of the division were fully engaged in the struggle for Leningrad until early 1944, fighting in several offensives to drive a lifeline through the German positions to the besieged city, and then to finally drive the besiegers away. When this was accomplished, the division was redeployed to take the fight into the Baltic States in 1944, then into the German heartland in the winter and spring of 1945. It ended the war north of Berlin after compiling a very distinguished record of service.

The 311th began forming in mid-July, 1941 at the city of Kirov in the Urals Military District. Its order of battle was as follows:

The division was given about six weeks to assemble before it was moved by rail all the way to the area east of Leningrad in August – September. It was first assigned to the 48th Army. That army's defenses were pierced by the German XXXIX Motorized Corps in late August, forcing the 48th to withdraw and abandon the key railroad station at Mga. Marshal Kliment Voroshilov ordered that Mga be retaken by September 6 at all costs. The 311th, along with the 128th Rifle Division, 1st Mountain Rifle Brigade, and an NKVD division of border guards, drove the German forces from Mga on August 30, but it was lost again the following day.

German forces cut off and isolated Leningrad on September 8. Two days later, the 311th was re-assigned to the 4th Army, still in Leningrad Front but outside the encirclement. On October 16, XXXIX Motorized Corps and I Army Corps crossed the Volkhov River in a new offensive towards Tikhvin, which was intended to deepen the encirclement of Leningrad and to link up with the Finnish Army. The assaulting forces penetrated the 4th Army's fragile defenses in four days of heavy fighting in roadless terrain covered by 9 – 10 cm of snow. While the army's 292nd Rifle Division was shattered, and other elements forced back eastwards, the 311th and 285th Rifle Divisions on the right flank halted the German 11th Infantry Division north of Kirishi on October 24.