World War II The division was formed in the
Baryshsky and
Kuzovatovsky Districts of
Ulyanovsk Oblast between August and October 1941 in accordance with an 11 August decree of the
State Defense Committee. It was part of the operational army from 2 December of that year to the end of the war on 9 May 1945. Its basic order of battle was as follows: • 1152nd Rifle Regiment • 1154th Rifle Regiment • 1156th Rifle Regiment • 913th Artillery Regiment In November 1941, in accordance with Direction number 55 of the
Stavka and commander of the
26th Army Reserve op/2999 number from 25 November 1941, the division was loaded onto trains at
Cheboksary and shipped to
Noginsk, and then to
Lyubertsy where it was manned and received weapons. In December the 344th was assigned to the
Moscow Defense Zone as part of the last-ditch defenses of the capital. It first went into combat in January 1942, in the
50th Army of
Western Front. It remained in this Army until April 1943, when it was moved to the
49th Army in the same Front. It took part in
Operation Suvorov under this command, and on 28 August made probing attacks against the German
Gruppe Harpe to prevent the transfer of reserves; by three days later the division had suffered 2,000 casualties, about one-third of its strength. On 25 September it was awarded the battle honor
Roslavl in recognition of its part in the liberation of that city. On 29 September the division recaptured
Mstsislaw. In April 1944 it was again reassigned, this time to the
62nd Rifle Corps of
33rd Army in
2nd Belorussian Front, and fought under these headquarters during
Operation Bagration. It was awarded the
Order of the Red Banner on 10 July 1944, for its role in the forcing of the
Pronya and
Dniepr Rivers and the liberation of the cities of
Mogilev,
Shklov and
Bykhov in the first phase of Operation Bagration. In August it went into the reserves of
1st Baltic Front, and from September 1944 until February 1945 it served in the
19th Rifle Corps of
43rd Army in that Front, along the coast of Lithuania. From at least October 1944, it had attached the 18th SU Battalion of
SU-76s in addition to its organic battalion of towed anti-tank guns. During the last months of the war the 344th was part of the force containing the German forces trapped in the
Courland Pocket, and it ended the war in the
1st Rifle Corps of the
1st Shock Army in the Kurland Group of
Leningrad Front. At the time, it carried the
Military Unit Number 29435. In the spring of 1982, the division became part of the new
36th Army Corps. Carey Schofield's
Inside the Soviet Army, Headline, 1991, p. 117, says the division's regiments in 1989 were 254 strong (MRR BTR), 256 strong (MRR BMP) and 210 (tank regiment), and was under the command of Acting Commander Colonel Mishin.
Fall of the Soviet Union In June 1992 the division became part of the
Armed Forces of Turkmenistan. It has also been believed to have been referred to as the 84th Motorized Rifle Division named after Saparmurat Niyazov. From 1997 to 2002,
Begench Beknazarov served as deputy division commander, a position he would serve in until he was sent into hiding following the November 2002 attack on the president's life. == Present day ==