184th Rifle Division

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184th Rifle Division 184-я стрелковая дивизия
Active	1940-1945
Country	Soviet Union
Allegiance	Red Army
Type	Infantry division
Part of	2nd Guards Corps (39th Army), 3rd Tank Army, 5th Army, 62nd Army
Garrison/HQ	Iturup, as 18 MGAD
Nickname	Dukhovshchinskaya (Духовщинская)
Engagements	Battle of Kursk[1], Battle of Stalingrad[2], Battle of Smolensk[3], Third Battle of Kharkov,[4] Dukhovshchinsk-Demidovo Operation[5]

The 184th Red Banner Rifle Division (Russian: 184-я Краснознамëнная стрелковая дивизия, abbreviated: 184-я сд) was a Soviet Red Army division during World War II (till 1940 - 2nd Division of Lithuania)^[6] . It was with 29th Rifle Corps of Eleventh Army on June 22, 1941, as part of the Baltic Military District. Most of the soldiers rebelled and joined the cause of the Lithuanian Activist Front.^[7] Some of its remnants went to make up the Second Formation of the 16th Rifle Division. Its Second Formation was activated in October 1941, a redesignation of the 4th NKVD Rifle Division, which had been active in the Crimea since September 1941. The Division fought as part of the 62nd Army during the Battle of Stalingrad under Colonel Koida from July 17 to September 15, 1942.^[8]

Among most notable division members was Roza Shanina. On July 12, 1944 the division liberated Trakai jointly with the 45th Rifle Corps. During the counter-offensive in Eastern Prussia the division hoisted the flag of the Soviet Union on the Soviet state border.^[9] It was then transferred to the Far East and fought as part of 45th Rifle Corps, 5th Army, during Operation August Storm.^[10]

On June, 8th, 1946 on the basis of the 184th Rifle Division and the 18th Machine Gun Artillery Brigade (the former 109th 'Иманского' Fortified Region), the 18th Machine-Gun Artillery Division was created in Primorski Krai, comprised of the 38, 40, and 49th Machine-Gun Artillery Regiments. But the division at this number was already deployed in the end of 1970s on Kuriles. (Feskov et al 2004)

Commanders

Name	Date
Brigadier-General Vladas Karvelis	August 30, 1940 - ????
Colonel Samuil Koyda	March 15, 1942 - January 18, 1943; February 11, 1943 - March 1, 1943
Major Pavel Galuza	January 23, 1943 - February 10, 1943
Colonel Stepan Khoteyev	March 18, 1943 - May 23, 1943
Colonel Samuil Tsukaryov	May 24, 1943 - December 12, 1943
Colonel Aleksandr Belov	December 13, 1943 - June 1, 1944
Major-General Basan Gorodovikov	June 10, 1944 - December 11, 1944; February 19, 1945 - September 3, 1945
Colonel Ivan Mayskiy	December 12, 1944 - January 15, 1945
Major-General Rakhim-Sagib Maksutov	January 17, 1945 - February 18, 1945

[edit] References