The current 19th Division was the first in the
Workers' and Peasants' Red Army to be awarded the
Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and distinguished itself during the
Great Patriotic War, during which the unit fought in the
Battle of Moscow, in battles for the cities of
Yelnya and
Pskov. By the beginning of
World War II, the unit consisted of the 32nd, 282nd, and 315th Rifle, 90th Artillery, and the 103rd Howitzer Artillery Regiment. The division entered combat against the Germans on July 19, 1941, near
Yelnya as part of the
24th Army of the
Western Front. It participated in the Elninskaya offensive, the
Battle of Moscow,
Rzhev-Vyazma offensive operation in 1942, the
Rzhev-Sychevka offensive,
Kharkiv defensive operation in 1943,
Belgorod-Khar'kov Offensive Operation (3 August 1943 - 23 August 1943). As part of the
7th Guards Army, it fought in the Poltava-Kremenchuk offensive, the Pyatihatskoy offensive,
Bereznegovatoe-Snigirevskaya Offensive,
Odessa offensive, at
Chisinau, Izmail offensive,
Belgrade Offensive 1944 Derskoy offensive,
Bratislava–Brno Offensive. It participated in the liberation of the cities
Elnya,
Ruza,
Krasnograd,
Bobrynets,
Bratislava,
Shumla liberated September 9, 1944. For exemplary performance of command assignments in Bulgaria it was given the honorary name "Shumlinskoy" on 27 September 1944. It crossed the
Seversky Donets,
Ingulets,
Dniester,
Prut,
Southern Bug,
Dnieper, and
Danube rivers. During the
Belgrade operation in October 1944 the division entered
Yugoslavia, and in November, crossed the
Danube River near
Apatin and in difficult, forested terrain during
Battle of Batina led fierce battles with the Nazis on the left bank. In 1944 it fought through Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, where it ended the war. For its courage in these battles and military skill the division was awarded the
Order of Suvorov 2nd degree (January 6, 1945). During the war it served successively with the
24th,
43rd,
5th,
20th,
3rd Guards Tank,
57th,
37th,
7th Guards, and
46th Armies. In 1945, the division arrived in the
Stavropol Military District and was stationed in
Vladikavkaz. In May–June 1946, the division was reorganised into the 11th Separate Rifle Brigade. All battalions of the brigade were stationed in
Ordzhonikidze (which was renamed Vladikavkaz in 1990). On 1 July 1949 the 11th Separate Rifle Brigade was reorganised as the 19th Mountain Rifle Division,
12th Mountain Corps. On May 31, 1954, the 19th Mountain Division was renamed the 19th Rifle Division. In March 1957 the 19th Rifle Division was reorganized as the 92nd Motor Rifle Division. According to the USSR Minister of Defense Order No. 00147 of November 17, 1964, in order to preserve the martial traditions, the 92nd Motor Rifle Division was renamed the 19th Motor Rifle Division. Thus in 1965 it became again the 19th Motor Rifle Division. It arrived in the
Caucasus region by the mid-1950s and has been stationed for many years at
Vladikavkaz. In the late 1980s it was part of the
42nd Army Corps at
Volgograd and consisted of the 397th Tank Regiment, and the 201st, 429th, and 503rd Motor Rifle Regiments.
Chechen Wars After the
collapse of the USSR, the division took part in
the first and
the second Chechen war. During the winter of 1994-1995, the division, as part of the "West" group
stormed Grozny in
First Chechen War as part of the "West" group under the command of Major General Valery Klimovich Petruk. The group "West" also included paratroopers from the
21st Airborne Brigade battalion and the
76th Guards Airborne Division combined regiment. At 7:30 on January 2, the vanguard of the 693rd regiment of Colonel Kandalin entered the city of Grozny and until 12:00 the regiment did not encounter any resistance from Dudayev's men. Due to a number of serious mistakes made by the division commander, the 693rd regiment was stopped in the market area and attacked by superior Chechen forces; under their pressure, the regiment retreated to the Lenin Park of Culture and Recreation. By 18:00, during a fierce battle, the 693rd regiment was surrounded in the area of Lenin Park, where contact with it was lost. On February 22, 1996, a battle took place in the Assinskoye Gorge. A battalion of the 693rd Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment, which had left Vladikavkaz for Chechnya to rotate troops (according to other sources, with the task of capturing the settlement of Bamut), was attacked by militants in Ingushetia in the area of the settlements of Galashki and Arshty. The fighting continued between February 22 and 24. Among the dead was the battalion commander, Major Eduard Tinikashvili. On March 21, 1996, the 693rd Regiment stormed the settlement of
Stary Achkhoy.
Wars in Ossetia and Ukraine On August 8, 2008, elements of the 19th Motor Rifle Division (at least 503rd Motor Rifle Reg.) entered
South Ossetia. In 2009, as part of the wider restructuring of the
Russian Ground Forces the division became the
19th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade which was formed from the
503rd Guards Motor Rifle Regiment of the 19th Motor Rifle Division. The
4th Guards Military Base was formed on the basis of the
693rd and
135th Motor Rifle Regiments in the territory of the Republic of
South Ossetia. The brigade inherited all the awards, honorary titles and military glory of the 19th Motorized Rifle Division, formed in 1922. As a result, the brigade celebrated its anniversaries on
July 22. On December 1, 2020, the brigade was reorganized into the 19th motorized rifle division as part of the
58th Combined Arms Army,
Southern Military District. Its permanent deployment point is the city of
Vladikavkaz in the
Republic of North Ossetia. It was reportedly planned to re-equip the division with
T-90M main battle tanks. During the
Russian invasion of Ukraine, members of the division's 503rd Motor Rifle Regiment were captured in the village of
Malynivka in the
Zaporizhzhia Oblast in March 2022 by Ukrainian
territorial defense fighters. == Structure ==