Infantry divisions of the Soviet Union 1917–1957

This is a list of infantry divisions of the Soviet Union 1917–1957. It lists infantry divisions in the Soviet Union from the 1917 Revolution to the reorganisation of the Soviet Army in the aftermath of the Stalinist era. Mechanised Divisions were formed during 1945–46, and then all remaining Rifle Divisions were converted to Motor Rifle Divisions in 1957.

The main source used in the compilation of this page was Robert G. Poirier and Albert Z. Conner's The Red Army Order of Battle in the Great Patriotic War, published by Novato: Presidio Press, in 1985. Most of the details not specifically cited in this page are sourced from Poirer and Connor. Thus this page represents primarily pre-1989, Western scholarship; however new materials available since 1989, primarily A.G. Lenski's 2000 book, have also been inserted where available.

Many infantry (pekhotniye), literally 'movement', and rifle (strelkoviye), literally 'sharpshooter', divisions were inherited by the Workers-Peasants Army from the former Imperial Russian Army, but were renamed in the spirit of the Revolutionary times, often with names including words such as "Proletariat", "workers and peasants", or other titles that differentiated them from the past. They employed some of the 48,000 former Tsarist officers and 214,000 Tsarist NCOs along with over 10,000 administrative personnel. Initially the new Bolshevik rifle divisions were composed of rifle brigades, and included:

The division was to have an establishment of 26,972, with 14,220 combat troops, and depended on 10,048 horses to manoeuvre. Due to difficulties with recruiting volunteers into the armed forces early in the Russian Civil War, conscription was introduced on the 29 May 1918, and all infantry divisions were renamed into rifle divisions on 11 October 1918.

The first six of the 11 formed divisions were those formed in the Petrograd, Moscow, Orel, Yaroslav, Privolzhsk and Ural okrugs. However, the divisions were initially only numbered, eventually 1st through to 47th by 1919. Five of these divisions were also named.

The Russian Civil War divisions were allocated to the various Fronts, including:

The establishment and organisation of the divisions (N 220/34) had changed by the end of 1918 to increase the number of regiments in brigades to three, while eliminating the artillery brigade headquarters, leaving the nine artillery divizions (battalions) and one horse artillery battery to be allocated to rifle brigades. An armoured auto detachment (otryad) was also instituted. By 1921 the establishment of the rifle division had changed substantially in accordance with TO&E N 1400/246 for peace-time, with two brigades and only 15,876 personnel, and the reduction of artillery to two battalions and one battery, and the cavalry from four to three squadron regiment.

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