44th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)

44th Rifle Division 44th Mountain-Rifle Division
Soldiers and officers of the 44th Kievan Rifle Division, an elite unit of the Ukrainian SSR
Active	1918 - 1957
Country	Soviet Union
Branch	Red Army
Type	Rifle
Size	Division
Engagements	Winter War, World War II
Decorations	Order of Red Banner (1928)
Battle honours	Shchors Kievskaya (1920)
Commanders
Notable commanders	Alexei Vinogradov

The 44th Kievskaya of the Red Banner Rifle Division of Nikolay Shchors, or 44th Kievskaya for short, was an elite military formation of the Soviet Union.

Although it was an elite formation, the division was destroyed during the Winter War, after being ordered to help the 163rd Infantry Division break a Finnish siege on the Raate road. On 30 November 1939, it was part of the Special Rifle Corps, 9th Army, together with the 54th Rifle Division.

The unit is also famous for being the one of the first military formations out of which was formed the short-lived Soviet Ukrainian Army (1918–1919). It was formed by the order no.6 of the Communist Party (Bolshevik) of Ukraine on September 22, 1918, as the 1st Insurgent Division along with the 2nd Insurgent Division. The 1st Insurgent Division was formed out of insurgent squads of Tarashcha and Novgorod-Sieversky uyezds. The chief of division (nachdiv) was appointed N.Krapivyansky and the chief of staff S.Petrikovsky (Petrenko).

By the end of September the Division grew to 6700 bayonets, 450 sabers, 14 [artillery] guns, and from 10 to 18 machine guns "Maxim", 5 to 6 Colt, 20 to 30 Lewis. Because of that, selected regiments were reorganized into brigades. However, the name for the units were nominal as the brigade's headquarters were never formed, and functions of kombrigs were performed by the regimental commanders (colonel).

Around that time at the divisional headquarters a security company was formed out of some 700 soldiers. That new unit was planned to be transformed into the 5th Regiment and used as a reserve. Also the 4th Insurgent Regiment was recommissioned as the 6th Insurgent Regiment (commander T.Chernyak) and along with the 1st Regiment of Red Cossacks was soon transferred to the 2nd Insurgent Division. In their places, were created the 3rd Insurgent Regiment, later called Novgorod-Sieversky (T.Chernyak) and the 4th Insurgent Nezhyn Regiment (P.Nesmeyan) transformed out the security company.