Formation The 35th Guards Rifle Corps was formed in accordance with a
Stavka directive of 18 April 1943 by the conversion of the
7th Rifle Corps (Second formation) of the
64th Army (which itself soon became the 7th Guards Army) into a
Guards unit in recognition of its actions in the
Battle of Stalingrad. Corps troops included the 52nd Separate Communications and 8th Separate Sapper Battalions, which became the 138th and 105th Separate Guards, respectively, on 4 May. Its 12th, 13th, and 14th Guards, and 92nd, 96th, and 149th Rifle Brigades were simultaneously combined to form the
92nd,
93rd, and
94th Guards Rifle Divisions, with each division being formed from two brigades. The commander of the 7th Rifle Corps, Lieutenant General
Sergey Goryachev, continued in command of the 35th Guards. The process of forming the new divisions began on 24 April, with the 92nd Guards formed from the 12th Guards and 149th Rifle Brigades, the 93rd Guards from the 13th Guards and 92nd Rifle Brigades, and the 94th Guards from the 14th Guards and 96th Rifle Brigades, and was completed by 30 April. At this time, due to the arrival of replacements, the three divisions of the corps had between roughly 8,400 and 9,300 men each, and were at approximately 77 to 87 percent of their authorized strength.
Kursk to Prague With the 7th Guards Army, the corps served with the
Voronezh Front and then the
Steppe Front from July 1943, fighting in the
Battle of Kursk and the
Belgorod–Kharkov Offensive. Developing the offensive, the corps reached the
Dnieper in late September, assault-crossing the river and capturing a bridgehead on the right bank. Subsequently, with the 7th Guards and then the
27th Armies of the
2nd and
3rd Ukrainian Fronts, the corps fought in the
Kirovograd,
Uman–Botoșani,
Jassy–Kishinev,
Debrecen,
Budapest,
Vienna, and
Prague Offensives, capturing
Kirovograd,
Tulchyn,
Ploiești,
Cluj,
Szolnok,
Eger,
Zalaegerszeg, and
Bratislava. For its actions in the Uman–Botoșani Offensive the corps received the
Prut honorific on 24 April 1944. == Postwar ==