Initially the division included the 138th Rifle Regiment formed in 1938 from the 292nd Rifle Regiment of the
Pacific Ocean Fleet, which had been created in 1937 from the 10th Separate Territorial Rifle Battalion of the 4th
Bashkir Regiment. In 1940, the division was removed from the roll of first line formations. According to the Soviet General Staff order of battle study it was converted to a regular rifle division in December 1941 but the Personnel Department's list of commanders shows it as a rifle division from October 1940 to the end of the war. It remained on
Sakhalin Island for the duration of the war, apart from the
Soviet invasion of Manchuria. In 1943 the HQ of the 101st division included: the 128th Mixed
Aviation Division,
Petropavlovsk Military Naval Base, border security detachment, the 428th
howitzer artillery regiment, the 302nd Separate Rifle Regiment, three separate artillery divisions (battalions), the 5th Separate Rifle Battalion, and a number of storage facilities. From 15 January 1945 the division was included in the composition of the
Northern Group of Forces of the Far Eastern Front and subordinated to the
Kamchatka Defense Area of the Front (). It was still in this formation as of 3 September. For exemplary fulfillment of assignments and displaying combat mastery during the taking of the islands
Shumshu and
Paramushir in the course of the
Kuril Landing operation, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, declared by order of NKO No. 0164, the division was awarded the
Order of Lenin on 14 September 1945. The division became part of the
137th Rifle Corps postwar at
Paramushir. In 1948 it was converted into the 6th Machine Gun Artillery Division. The division was disbanded in 1953, following the
1952 Severo-Kurilsk tsunami. ==August 1945 Order of Battle==