Formation of the division In early 1942, the Oblast Committee (Obkom) of the Party and the City Committee of Defense were instructed that
Stalingrad would form a division. Later, this division had the grievous task of being one of the first to enter the unequal battle against the German forces breaking through to Stalingrad. The terms of formation and composition of the division were determined by a special resolution from the GKO. Units of the 10th NKVD, commanded by Colonel Alexander A. Sarayev, arrived in Stalingrad in January 1942. Major Vasiliy Ivanovich Zaytsev was appointed Chief of Staff of the Division. The core of the division were soldiers and commanders of the
Border Troops from Ural and Siberian regions including
Sverdlovsk,
Irkutsk, and
Novosibirsk, but the nuclei of the 269th and 270th regiments were citizens of Stalingrad, Party workers, and members of the
Komsomol organizations of the city. Roughly three thousand Stalingrad locals served in the division.
Operational activities prior to the Battle of Stalingrad The division performed the tasks of policing in Stalingrad, and in the surrounding
Oblast, in
Voronezh, in the rears of the Southwestern Front, the
Voronezh Front, and
Stalingrad Front; enforcing martial law; and the task of preventing enemy recon and saboteur groups from operating in these rear areas. • 29 January – 3 July 1942 - 41st Rifle Regiment protected law and order in and around Voronezh. • 17–22 March 1942 - The division at Stalingrad conducted a documentation screening operation of the city's population and successfully detained nine spies, 106 criminals, and 187 people with variously suspicious documents. • Sometime in June, 1942 - 273rd Rifle Regiment near the village of Novoaninsky destroyed a landing of Germans (
Brandenburgers) armed with Soviet weapons and equipment disguised as Red Army soldiers, killing 47 of them and capturing 2. • 3–31 July 1942 - 41st Rifle Regiment took part in the defense of Voronezh, the first of the regiments of the division to take part in the frontline fighting during this period. The regiment killed up to 1,500 Germans and captured 17 machine guns, 42 machine pistols, 730 rifles, 415 grenades, 17,000 rounds of ammunition. The regiment suffered a loss of one third of its personnel in killed, wounded and missing. • 12 July 1942 - The division is included in the active Army • 13–27 July 1942 - In the defense of the rear of the Stalingrad Front, the division arrested 15 spies and 2,775 people (Brandenburgers) found without valid documents. Sometime in July 1942 - The division formed an auxiliary artillery battalion. • August 1942 - 41st Rifle Regiment was detached from the division and assigned to the 18th Independent Sappers Brigade of the NKVD Internal Troops. Worker's militias were not just employed here in reconnaissance, but were deployed to catch enemy parachutists, spies, and saboteurs. In appreciation of the division's defense of the city, the commander of the 62nd Army
Vasiliy Chuykov said: "The fighters of Colonel Sarayev's 10th Stalingrad Division VV must have been the first defenders of Stalingrad, and they overcame the difficult challenge with flying colours, courageously and selflessly fighting against superior enemy forces until the arrival of the 62nd Army." The division, stretched over , led many fierce battles against the Germans. In the early stages of the battle for the city, the divisional HQ was billeted in the Tsarina gulley, not far from the "Lighthouse" restaurant. The 10th Division, with a battalion of industrial workers, successfully defended the
F. Dzerzhinsky Tractor Factory and later counter-attacked to regain several kilometres, despite shortages in technology and manpower. Square" in
Volgograd On 2 August 1942, the 2nd Battalion of the 270th Rifle Regiment first engaged the Germans in Stalingrad. On 14 August 1942, the 273rd Rifle Regiment detached from the division and joined the 12th "Ordzhonikidzevskaya" Rifle Division of the NKVD VV. The bulk of the division's forces defended the west and south-west of the city, holding these areas against the sudden breakout of the enemy into the city. In addition to this, there was a consolidated battalion in the north. On 16 August, the 282nd Rifle Regiment of the 12th NKVD VV Rifle Division arrived from Saratov and was attached to the 10th. This regiment was immediately sent to the north to reinforcement the composite battalion. On the left bank of the Volga, the division was supported by several reserve regiments from High Command. For exemplary service in the combat operations in the defense of the Volga shores, the Soviet High Command awarded the 10th NKVD VV Division with the
Order of Lenin on 2 December 1942.
Further history Divisional losses were heavy. By order of the commander of the Stalingrad Front, the division was demobilized in early October 1942 and moved to the village of Zaplavnoye. The division consisted of little more than 200 men of initial 7568. In mid-October 1942, the division headquarters was ordered to redeploy to the city of Chelyabinsk to reorganize. The division took on a new structure: • Three Rifle Regiments • One Artillery Regiment • One Auxiliary Anti-Tank Battalion • Various support and logistical units The core of the newly organized unit was approximately 2,700 men and officers who were veterans of the battle of Stalingrad. The battle of Stalingrad ended on 2 February 1943, and on 5 February the division was renamed the
181st Rifle Division and transferred to regular Red Army command. Subsequently, the fighting experience and techniques of the men of "Stalingradskaya" were further developed in the battle of Kursk in the crossing of the Vistula river. The division saw the close of the war while in
Breslau. ==Order of battle==