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Transcaucasus Front


Transcaucasian Front or Transcaucasus Front (Russian: Закавказский Фронт) was a front of the Red Army during the Second World War. This sense of the term is not identical with the more general usage of military front which indicates a geographic area in wartime, although a Soviet Front may operate within designated boundaries.

The Transcaucasus Front describes two distinct organizations during the war. The first version was created on August 23, 1941 from the Transcaucasus Military District, which was apparently originally formed in 1922. The boundary of the Front extended along the border with Turkey and along the Black Sea coast from Batumi to Tuapse. It was commanded by Lieutenant-General Dmitri T. Kozlov (Козлов Дмитрий Тимофеевич) from August 1941 to December 1941. On June 22, 1941, when the German invasion started, the TCMD included the 3rd, 24th, and 40th Rifle Corps, the 28th Mechanised Corps, two cavalry divisions (the 17th Mountain and the 24th) and three separate rifle divisions (the 63rd, 76th, and 77th. Also part of the District were three fortified regions and District troops, which included artillery and NKVD frontier units.

The initial Front organization incorporated the four Soviet armies stationed in the district in June 1941: the 45th and 46th on the border with Turkey and the 44th and 47th on the border with Iran. On August 25, 1941 troops from the Front entered Iran according to the Soviet-Iran Treaty of Friendship of February 21, 1921, which eliminated the direct threat to the Baku oil fields.


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