350th Rifle Division

350th Rifle Division (August, 1941 – May, 1946)
Postwar photo of Maj. Gen. G. I. Vekhin, Hero of the Soviet Union
Active1941–1946
Country Soviet Union
Branch Red Army
TypeDivision
RoleInfantry
EngagementsBattle of Moscow
Third Battle of Kharkov
Donbass Strategic Offensive (August 1943)
Battle of the Dniepr
Battle of Kiev (1943)
Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive
Vistula-Oder Offensive
Lower Silesian Offensive
Battle of the Oder–Neisse
Battle of Berlin
DecorationsOrder of the Red Banner Order of the Red Banner
Order of Khmelnitsky 2nd Class (USSR) Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky
Battle honoursZhitomir
Sandomierz
Commanders
Notable
commanders
Col. Pyotr Petrovich Avdeenko
Maj. Gen. Aleksandr Pavlovich Gritzenko
Maj. Gen. Grigorii Ivanovich Vekhin

The 350th Rifle Division formed in late August, 1941, as a standard Red Army rifle division, at Atkarsk. It went to the front in November, and served south of Moscow throughout the winter and as late as August, 1942, after which it made a bewildering number of reassignments over the next six months. Badly battered by the German "backhand blow" near Kharkov in February, 1943, the division was pulled back into reserve for rebuilding for several months, then fought the summer campaign under command of 12th Army. In November the 350th was honored for its role in the liberation of Zhitomir and received that city's name as an honorific. At this time it was in 1st Guards Army of 1st Ukrainian Front, and it would remain in that Front for the duration of the war. On August 18, 1944, the division received an unusual second honorific for helping to liberate the Polish city of Sandomierz. It ended the war in western Berlin with a distinguished record of service, but was disbanded in May, 1946.