Formation After Nazi Germany
invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, reserves were mobilized to be sent to the front. On 12 July 1941, the 316th Rifle Division was established in
Alma Ata, the capital of the
Kazakh SSR. Major General
Ivan Panfilov, the
military commissar of the
Kirghiz SSR, was appointed its commander. The reservists allotted to the 316th were mostly from the two republics. It consisted of: • 1073th Rifle Regiment • 1075th Rifle Regiment • 1077th Rifle Regiment • 857th Artillery Regiment • 597th Sapper Battalion The 316th's soldiers were sworn in on 1 August, and boarded trains to the front from the 18th to the 20th. They arrived in
Borovichi, near
Malaya Vishera, in late August. Intense fighting against the Germans had already taken place in the region, as part of the campaign to defend Leningrad from the attack of Army Group North. The 316th was involved in several skirmishes, but on 8 September was consigned as the reserve of the 52nd Army. It spent a month in the rear. The 316th was reinforced with the 690th Rifle Regiment from the 126th Rifle Division, as well as the 289th and 296th Anti-tank Regiments. The threat to the 16th Army's flank forced the
Stavka to send in the reserve
78th Rifle Division. Although they were forced to retreat after three days, the German advance ceased due to the Soviets' resistance and the harsh weather conditions. On 17 November,
Joseph Stalin as
People's Commissar of Defense passed a decree to promote the 316th to a Guards formation, in recognition of the role it played in defending the capital; it sustained 9,920 casualties, including 3,620 soldiers killed in action and 6,300 wounded. Marshal
Dmitry Yazov, who researched the division's history, wrote that it considerably delayed the enemy's march on Moscow in its sector. On the 18th, a group of journalists traveled to Panfilov's headquarters in the village of Guseniovo, and told him of the news. As he briefed them in the open, they came under a mortar attack. The general was killed by a shell splinter. The decree came into effect on that very day, turning the 316th to the 8th Guards Rifle Division; it also received the
Order of the Red Banner. It was named in honor of Panfilov on 23 November, thus becoming one of the only two
Red Army divisions to be named after their commanders, along with the
Chapayevska. As a Guards Division the numbering of its subordinate units was as follows: • 19th Guards Rifle Regiment – from 1073rd Rifle Regiment • 23rd Guards Rifle Regiment – from 1075rd Rifle Regiment • 30th Guards Rifle Regiment – from 1077rd Rifle Regiment • 27th Guards Artillery Regiment – from 857th Artillery Regiment • 2nd Guards Sapper Battalion – from 597th Sapper Battalion The 8th Guards took part in the December counteroffensive in Moscow, liberating the villages of
Kryukovo and
Istra. In late 1942, the 30th Guards Rifle Regiment fought as a separate unit in the
Battle of Velikiye Luki near the
Lovat River. In 1944, it took part in the
Leningrad–Novgorod Offensive and later, in the battle of
Rēzekne; for its role in taking the city and the surrounding region, it was awarded the honorary title
Rezhitskaya on 27 July 1944. On 3 November, the division received the
Order of Suvorov 2nd Class. The 8th Guards ended the war with the 10th Guards Army, as part of the forces
besieging Courland. According to Soviet official reports, during World War II the division killed or disabled 85,000 enemy troops, captured 5,000 more and destroyed or captured 387 tanks, 65 other armored vehicles, 43 planes, 451 guns, 180 mortars, 2010 automobiles and 328 motorcycles. In total, the soldiers of the division were awarded twenty-nine
Orders of Lenin, 371
Orders of the Red Banner, two
Orders of Kutuzov, eight
Orders of Suvorov, fifty-three
Orders of Alexander Nevsky, one
Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, 391
Orders of the Patriotic War 1st class, 1783
Orders of the Patriotic War 2nd Class, 4747
Orders of the Red Star, forty-one
Orders of Glory 2nd degree and 2061 Orders of Glory 3rd degree. Thirty-four soldiers received the highest Soviet military decoration,
Hero of the Soviet Union. The first was Major General
Ivan Panfilov himself, posthumously.
Panfilov's Twenty-Eight Guardsmen were also all awarded the title posthumously; when six of them were revealed to be alive, two were stripped of it. The other wartime Heroes were Piotr Vikhrev, Malik Gabdulin, Ivan Shapshaev and Tulegen Tokhtarov.
Baurzhan Momyshuly received the honor in 1991, three years after his death.
Post-war The 8th Guards Division was stationed at
Haapsalu in the Estonian SSR with the
4th Guards Rifle Corps after the war. On 25 June 1957, it became a motor rifle division. It was disbanded on 18 March 1960. On 23 May, the
36th Guards Motor Rifle Division at
Klooga was redesignated as the 8th Guards Motor Rifle Division, inheriting the honors of the previous formation. Then it was recalled to
Frunze, Kyrgyzstan in May 1967 and assigned to the
17th Army Corps of the
Turkestan Military District.
Independence years After the
dissolution of the Soviet Union, it became part of the
Kyrgyz Armed Forces, but was disbanded in January 2003. in 2010. On 11 July 2011, on the eve of the division's 70th anniversary, the 8th Guards was re-established in a ceremony attended by President
Roza Otunbayeva and Defence Minister
Abibilla Kudayberdiev. The year before, the predecessor of the unit took part in the
2010 Moscow Victory Day Parade on
Red Square. It is now garrisoned in
Tokmok and commanded by Colonel Berdibek Asanov. The combat banner of the division was carried on Red Square by the
Military Institute of the Armed Forces during the
military parade in
Moscow in
2020. On its 80th anniversary in 2021, servicemen of the division marched to
Panfilov Park. ==Legacy==