23rd Infantry Division (formations of 1918)

The division was formed by renaming the 1st Ust-Medveditsky Rifle Division into the 23rd Rifle Division on November 23, 1918. The head of the division is F.K. Mironov .

The division took part in the hostilities during the Civil War of 1918-1921 in Russia as part of the 9th Army of the Southern Front of 1918, the Southeast Front of 1919, the Southwest Front of 1920, the Southern Front of 1920.

Until the spring of 1919, the 23rd Infantry Division, as part of the 9th Army of the Southern Front, continued to fight General Krasnov’s Russian White Cossack Army.

On August 27, 1919, the division defeated the 6th White Division under the Preobrazhenskaya stanitsa, liberated the Yelan settlement, occupied the city of Balashov, the village of Krasavka, the Filonovo station and several other settlements. For these successes she was awarded the Honorary Revolutionary Red Banner.

On March 17, 1920, the attack on the units of the 23rd and 21st Rifle Divisions and the 1st Partisan Cavalry Brigade liberated the city of Yekaterinodar (now Krasnodar).

On March 27, 1920, the 33rd, 21st, and 23rd Rifle Divisions and the 1st Guerrilla Cavalry Brigade captured the city of Novorossiysk.

In July - August 1920, the division is transferred to the South-Western Front.

September 27, 1920. The 23rd Division is transferred to the Southern Front.

On October 23, the division liberated Aleksandrovsk (now Zaporozhye).

Since November 8, 1920, the division took part in the Perekop-Chongar operation. On November 26, units of the division under the command of the commanding officer K. I. Kalnin and military commissar I. L. Feldman reached the southern coast of Crimea in the Sudak and Gurzuf sections.

On December 30, 1920, the 23rd Rifle Division was curtailed into a rifle brigade.

23rd Infantry Division

• 9th Army of the Southern Front (November 23, 1918 - September 27, 1919)
• 9th Army of the Southeast Front (September 27, 1919 - July 1920)
• Southwestern Front (July - September 1920)
• Southern Front (since September 1920)

• Mironov F.K. , Head of Division (November 23, 1918 - March 1919) ^[2]
• Golikov A. G. , head of the division (March 2, 1919 -?) ^[2]
• Balabanov L. I., military commissar of the division (March 2, 1919 -?) ^[2]
• Nikitin S.V., Head of Division (as of July 1920) ^[2]
• Loktev S.P., military commissar of the division (as of July 1920) ^[2]
• Kalnin K.I., head of division (on November 26, 1920) ^[2]
• Feldman I. L., military commissar of the division (on November 26, 1920) ^[2]

On November 23, 1918 - March 2, 1919 ^[2]

• division management
• 1st Rifle Regiment
• 2nd Rifle Regiment
• 3rd Rifle Regiment
• 1st Cavalry Regiment
• 2nd Cavalry Regiment
• 3rd cavalry regiment

1918 year :
9th army. Commander of the 9th Army A. I. Egorov.
On November 23, 1918, the 1st Ust-Medveditskaya Infantry Division was renamed the 23rd Infantry Division ^[3] .

The commissar of the division was appointed Cossack from the farm of the Goloisky Kremen village, the former chairman of the CEC of the Don Soviet Socialist Republic V. S. Kovalev ^[2] .

On this November day, the division, on the orders of the 9th Army, was preparing for the offensive. The situation required it. On November 13, the enemy delivered a strong blow to the 15th Infantry Division and began to push it towards Balashov. The command of the front on November 20, 1918 ordered the 9th Army to advance in the general direction of Kalach.
On November 29, the 23rd Infantry Division went on the offensive, occupied the village of Preobrazhenskaya and the settlement of Semenovka. ^[four]
At Filonovo station, the division defeated four enemy regiments. ^[2]

The commander of the 9th Army, A. I. Egorov, sent a gratitude telegram to the division command. ^[2]

1919 year :
Until the spring of 1919, the 23rd Infantry Division, as part of the 9th Army of the Southern Front, continued to fight General Krasnov’s Russian White Cossack Army. ^[2]

On January 11, 1919, the Revolutionary Military Council of the 9th Army formed a strike group, including the 23rd and 10th rifle divisions. The commander of the group was appointed F.K. Mironov.

On January 17, an attack group under the command of Mironov dealt a powerful blow to the troops of Russian General Krasnov near the village of Uryupinskaya. She cut off the group of white troops defending between the Filonovo station and the city of Borisoglebsky, liberated the village of Uryupinskaya, the station of Filonovo, Sebryakovo, Archeda and over 20 other settlements.

By early March 1919, the 23rd and 10th infantry divisions of the 9th Army reached the Seversky Donets River and captured a bridgehead on the opposite bank of the river in the area of ​​the village of Yekaterininsky.

On March 2, 1919, by the order of the 9th Army, A. G. Golikov was appointed the head of the 23rd Infantry Division, and L. I. Balabanov was appointed Commissioner.

The 9th Army of the Southern Front in the second half of July 1919, under the pressure of the superior forces of the White forces, retreated to the line that it had occupied before the advance of the White Cossack Army by General Krasnov in January 1919. Its 23rd Infantry Division with fights retreated to the line of Three Islands, settlement Elan, Rudnya.

On August 15, 1919, the 23rd Infantry Division, together with other formations of the 9th Army, went on the offensive.

On August 27, the 6th White Division was defeated under the Preobrazhenskaya stanitsa, liberated the Yelan settlement, occupied the city of Balashov, the village of Krasavka, the Filonovo station and a number of other settlements. For this she was awarded the Honorary Revolutionary Red Banner. ^[5]

On September 27, 1919, the 9th and 10th armies were allocated from the South to the newly created Southeast Front (commander V. I. Shorin).

On November 2, 1919, the command of the Southeastern Front ordered the 9th Army to go on the offensive and go to the Khoper River from Novokhopyorsk to the mouth of the Kumylga River. After five days of fighting, the 23rd Infantry Division liberated the Sebryakovo station, the villages of Mikhailovskaya, Uryupinskaya and reached Khopr. ^[6]

On November 21, the division crossed the Khopyer River, liberated the villages of Shumilinskaya and Kazan, and on the stretch from the village of Monastyrshchina to the village of Michurenskaya, it reached the left bank of the Don.

1920 year :
On January 7, 1920, the division participated in the liberation of General Denikin from Novocherkassk from the Russian troops. Continuing the pursuit of the enemy, forced the river Aksai.

On January 10, the 23rd division immediately captured a bridgehead on the left bank of the Don River in the vicinity of the village of Razdorskaya.

On March 17, 1920, the attack on the units of the 23rd and 21st rifle divisions and the 1st partisan cavalry brigade liberated the city of Yekaterinodar (now Krasnodar). ^[7]

Having crossed the Kuban River, the 33rd, 21st and 23rd rifle divisions and the 1st partisan cavalry brigade took control of Novorossiysk, Kabardinka and Gelendzhik on March 27, 1920.

In July - August 1920, the 23rd Infantry Division, headed by division head S.V. Nikitin and military commissar S.P. Loktev, was transferred to the Southwestern Front.
September 27, 1920 the division is transferred to the Southern Front.
On the orders of the RCF of the Southern Front of October 22, 1920, the 23rd SD, having gone on the offensive, took control of Slavgorod and Novopshulovka.
On October 23, the division freed the city of Aleksandrovsk (now Zaporozhye) from white troops.

At the end of October, units of the division occupied Mikhailovka, on November 1 - the villages of Petrovka and Ekaterinovka, on November 2 - the farm of Adam and Lutz. ^[8]

The division took part in the Perekop-Chongar operation. On November 8–9, Soviet troops stormed Perekop by storm. On November 11, the 30th Infantry Division, together with the 23rd Infantry Division, crossed over to Crimean land in the area of ​​Sivash and Chongarsky bridges and launched an offensive on the town of Dzhankoy. On the morning of November 12, the troops of the Russian army of General Wrangel began to retreat along the entire front.

The 23rd Infantry Division advanced into the depths of the Crimean Peninsula. On November 26, units of the division under the command of the division head K. I. Kalnin and military commissar I. L. Feldman reached the southern coast of Crimea on the Sudak - Gurzuf section.
On December 30, 1920, the 23rd Rifle Division was curtailed into a rifle brigade. ^[2]

By order of the commander of the Ukrainian military district of July 6, 1922, the rifle brigade was again deployed to the 23rd Red Banner Rifle Division. ^[9]

• Honorary revolutionary red banner. ^[5]

On August 27, 1919, for the defeat of the 6th division of the Russian white troops under the village of Preobrazhenskaya, the liberation of the Elan settlement, the occupation of Balashov, the Krasavka settlement, Filonovo station and several other settlements.

1. Born in battles: Fighting path of the 71st Guards Rifle Vitebsk Order of Lenin, Red Banner Division. V.F. Egorov, A. Ya. Kazakov, A.S. Kochenyuk, R. Sh. Yaraev. - M .: Military Publishing House, 1986 .-- 168 p.

2. See: Directives of the command of the fronts of the Red Army (1917-1922). M., 1978, v. 4, p. 566.

3. TsGASA, f. 100, op. 2, d. 294, l. 10.

4. TsGASA, f. 34912, op. 1, d. 1594, l. four; op. 2, d. 416, l. 2.

5. TsGASA, f. 4, op. 3, d. 109, l. 212.

6. See: Soviet Military Encyclopedia, vol. 3, p. 16.

7. See: Soviet Military Encyclopedia. M., 1977, v. 4, p. 501.

8. TsGASA, f. 34912, op. 1, d. 7, l. four.

9. The Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense (hereinafter - TsAMO) of the USSR, f. 1207, op. 1, d. 1, l. 2.

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