Contents

77th Guards Rifle Division

WW2 Soviet Red Army formation

173rd Rifle Division 77th Guards Rifle Division
Active	1943–1957
Country	Soviet Union
Allegiance	Red Army
Branch	Red Army (1943-1946)  Soviet Army (1946-1957)
Type	Infantry
Size	Division
Garrison/HQ	Arkhangelsk (Lesnaya Rechka), Arkhangelsk Oblast[1]
Engagements	World War II Battle of Uman Battle of Stalingrad
Commanders
Notable commanders	Vasily Askalepov

The 77th Guards Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II.

The division traces its history to the 21st Division of the Moscow People's Militia, formed in July 1941. In August–September 1941 the division became the 173rd Rifle Division (2nd Formation). The first formation of the division had been destroyed in the Battle of Uman in early August 1941.
From the autumn of 1942, the 173rd Rifle Division participated in the Battle of Stalingrad, leading the defensive and offensive operations north-west of Stalingrad and in the city.

In accordance with Order of the NKO number 104 dated March 1, 1943 173rd Rifle Division was converted to 77th Guards Rifle Division – for successful combat operations on the Stalingrad front. It was part of the 61st Army (June 1943 - February 1944) and the 69th Army (April 1945 - May 1945).

Reduced to 10th Brigade 1946–52, became 77th Guards Motor Rifle Division 1957 at Arkhangelsk.^[2]

Matvey Burlakov commanded the division from September 1973 to December 1975.^[3] In the northern autumn of 1989 transferred to the Northern Fleet and became a coastal defence division.^[4] Reduced to 163rd Separate Coastal Defence Brigade on 1 December 1994. Brigade disbanded 1 March 1996. On November 28, 1998, the divisional banner and other regalia were given to the 332nd Naval Infantry Battalion of the Caspian Flotilla, which became the 600th Moscow-Chernigov Naval Infantry Battalion. Reformed as 77th Brigade in December 2000,^[5] but disbanded in March 2009, though it appears the two separate subordinate Naval Infantry battalions remained.^[6]

• Keith E. Bonn, Slaughterhouse: The Handbook of the Eastern Front, Aberjona Press, Bedford, PA., 2005. ISBN 0-9717650-9-X
• Robert G. Poirier and Albert Z. Conner, The Red Army Order of Battle in the Great Patriotic War, Novato: Presidio Press, 1985. ISBN 0-89141-237-9.