Soviet Fifth Army

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The Soviet Fifth Red Banner Army was a Soviet field army of World War II, and is today a Russian Ground Forces' formation in the Far East Military District.

The Fifth Army was created in August 1939 in the Special Kiev Military District. In September 1939 the Fifth Army took part in the Soviet operations in western Ukraine, which had been justified by the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. After the start of the Great Patriotic War, the Fifth Army fought as part of the South-West Front and took part in the defense of Kiev. In the disastrous battle, the German forces encircled and captured the city and took 665,000 prisoners. In September 1941 the staff of the Fifth Army was dissolved, and it and the troops were absorbed into other armies. However, the Fifth Army was newly set up in October of that year on the front near Mozhaisk under Dmitri Lelyushenko. On the Napoleonic battlefield of Borodino the Soviet 32nd Rifle Division made one of the Army's many fruitless attempts to hold up the German advance.

As part of the Western Front and Third Belorussian Front, the Fifth Army took part in the Battle of Moscow, the Operation of Rzhev-Vyazma, the Second Battle of Smolensk, the Belorussian Operation of 1944, and the attack on East Prussia of 1945. After that the Fifth Army was allocated to the far east and, as part of the Far East Front, took part in the operation of Harbin-Jilin (the city formerly known as Kirin).

Fifth Army remained in the Far East after the victory over Japan, and was the most powerful army in the Far East Military District throughout the entire postwar period. After the disbandment of the 9th Mechanised Army and the 25th Army, Fifth Army's composition was supplemented by a whole series of divisions, including the divisions that became, after many redesignations, 277th Motor Rifle Division and 123rd Guards MRD. In the 1970s and 1980s, the 81st Guards MRD and the 199th MRDs also became part of the Army. There were also several fortified regions attached.

Fifth Army still exists today, but has seen much reorganisation and reductions.