User:Kges1901/48th RD

The 48th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army.

Polish–Soviet War and interwar period
The division was formed in Tula as the 1st Tula Rifle Division by an order dated 21 October 1919 from local reserve and guard companies and railway guard units, part of the Tula Fortified Region. Nikolay Logofet was appointed commander and Fyodor Borovsky acting political commissar. Borovsky was soon replaced by David Skalov. The division was renamed the 48th Rifle Division on 8 January 1920 and assigned to the 15th Army. Yan Indrikson was appointed division political commissar on 15 March. The division fought in the Polish–Soviet War, fighting Latvian and Polish troops from March to June in the area of Ostrov, Drissa, and Polotsk, securing the right wing of the Western Front during the May operation. Just before the May operation began, between 26 and 30 April, the division had a strength of 2,870 infantry and 472 command personnel, organized into three brigades with nine rifle regiments and one cavalry regiment in total. The 157th Rifle Regiment with 274 infantrymen and 35 command personnel, the Regiment of Special Purpose with 500 infantrymen and 35 command personnel, and an artillery platoon were attached to the division. The division's regiments were the 424th, 425th, 426th, 427th, 428th, 429th, 430th, 431st, and 432nd Rifle Regiments.

During the July operation between 4 and 23 July, the division fought in the offensive towards Vilno, being transferred to the 4th Army to cover the Latvian border. Yefim Baranovich replaced Logofet on 5 July. In the Warsaw operation between 23 July and 25 August, the division fought in offensive battles in the area of Kobrin, Nesvizh, Volkovysk, and on the Narew, and conducted a fighting retreat from encirclement to Baranovichi and Bobruisk. In August it was shifted to the 16th Army. The division fought in the suppression of the Slutsk uprising between October and December in the areas of Mozyr, Rechitsa, Bobruisk and Dvinsk. The division was placed under direct control of the Western Front in January 1921, serving on garrison duty in Smolensk and Vitebsk Governorates while suppressing Green resistance. The division was transferred to Samara to suppress Greens in the Upper Volga from April to August 1921, under the command of the Trans-Volga Military District.

The division relocated to the area of Moscow and Tver in the Moscow Military District during August 1921, and was renamed the 48th Tver Rifle Division on 30 November 1921, and in 1924 became a territorial unit. The division was named for Mikhail Kalinin on 2 December 1931, becoming the 48th M. I. Kalinin Rifle Division. By 1935 the division headquarters, 143rd Rifle Regiment, and 48th Artillery Regiment were at Kalinin, 142nd Rifle Regiment at Rzhev, and 144th Rifle Regiment at Vyshny Volochek. The division was transferred to the new Kalinin Military District in 1938. In September 1939 each regiment was expanded through mobilization to form the new 48th, 138th, and 155th Rifle Divisions. In September 1940 it was transferred to the 11th Army of the Western Special Military District. In June 1941 the division was transferred to the 8th Army.

World War II
The Leningrad Front special department reported that the division was one of those most affected by desertions to the Germans between May and the beginning of December 1942, which totalled 47 men in the entire Coastal Operational Group. As a result, the special department of the Coastal Operational Group "preventatively arrested" 126 men suspected of treasonous intentions.

Early history
The division traces its heritage to the Soviet 48th Rifle Division that was established on 26 February 1920 by renaming the 2nd Tula Rifle Division. It became a territorial division after the Soviet-Polish War and was then upgraded to 'cadre' status. On 2 December 1930 it was given the title 'in the name of M.I. Kalinin.' In August–September 1939, two of its rifle regiments were expanded to become the 123rd Rifle Division and the 138th Rifle Division. In 1940 the division participated in the occupation of the Baltic states. On June 22, 1941, it was assigned to the 10th Rifle Corps of the 8th Army. It was based at Raseiniai in Lithuania, part of the second echelon, but soon after Operation Barbarossa began it was severely battered by the 6th Panzer Division. In September 1941 it incorporated the remnants of the 118th Rifle Division. In October it became part of the Coastal Operations Group of the Leningrad Front, defending the Oranienbaum Bridgehead pocket, just west of Leningrad on the coast of the Gulf of Finland. Then fought as part of the 2nd Shock Army and 42nd Army. On 19 January 1944 it was given the title 'Ropshinskaya.'

After the war, the division became the 69th Mechanized Division. In 1957 the 69th became the 118th Motor Rifle Division at Bolhrad. In 1964 it became the 48th Motor Rifle Ropshinska Order of the October Revolution and Order of the Red Banner awards division named after Mikhail Kalinin. From October 1968, it was based at Vysoké Mýto with the Central Group of Forces. It remain in Czechoslovakia until 1990 when it was the first Division to depart (between February and May 1990). It appears that there wasn't enough space for the entire Division, so the 210th Motor Rifle Regiment was attached to the 18th Guards Motor Rifle Division. The remainder of the division departed for Ukraine, with the last units arriving by May 1991.

Relocation
1996 Jane's Intelligence Review information indicated the division had been moved to Smolensk in the Moscow Military District where it was later disbanded. Later information indicates that it was actually withdrawn to Kluhino-Bashkyrivka (Kluhyno-Bashkyrivka), Kharkiv Oblast (Chuhuiv) in Ukraine using the same garrison as the disbanded 75th Guards Tank Division. By then, it had been decided that in order to avoid the restrictions of the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty, certain elements of the Soviet Army would be transferred to other non-MOD armed forces. Whole units were transferred to the KGB. When the last of the 48th arrived in Chuhuiv, the entire Division was transferred to the Directorate of Instruction for Special Purposes KGB by June 1991. Regiments included the 265th Guards., 1335th MRR, 353rd Separate Training Battalion, 31st Separate Reconnaissance Battalion, 813th Separate Communications Battalion, 88th Separate Repair and Refurbishment Battalion, 409th Separate Material Supply Battalion, 34th Separate Medical Battalion, 99th Separate Engineering-Sapper Company, 348th Separate Chemical Defense Company. To replace the loss of the 210th MRR, the 255th Guards MRR was formed for the division, probably from what was left of the 75th GTD.