The 252nd Rifle Division was the eighth of a group of 10 regular rifle divisions formed from cadres of NKVD border and internal troops as standard Red Army rifle divisions, very shortly after the German invasion, in the Moscow Military District.
It was raised in June 1941, within days of the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, based on the prewar rifle division Shtat 04/400, and served for the duration of the Great Patriotic War in that role. The 252nd's first experience of battle was when it took part in the fighting north of Smolensk in the summer of 1941. It was forced eastward in the autumn, especially under the impact of Operation Typhoon. After helping to defeat an offensive by Third Panzer Group at Kalinin in October, and serving through the winter counteroffensive west of Moscow, the division was sent south where it participated in the Battle of Stalingrad.
In the summer of 1943 the 252nd distinguished itself in the final liberation of Kharkov, for which it received its first battle honor, as well as the Order of the Red Banner. Following this the division continued to fight through eastern and western Ukraine and into Moldova, receiving further distinctions along the way. It took part in the Second Jassy–Kishinev Offensive in August 1944, which drove Romania into the Allied camp, and continued campaigning into Hungary, participating in the Siege of Budapest. In the final weeks of the war the division received a second battle honor for assisting in the liberation of Bratislava. Postwar, it was withdrawn to the North Caucasus, downsized to a rifle brigade and disbanded in March 1947.
Formation to mid-1942 The division began organizing on 26 June 1941 at Serpukhov in the Moscow Military District. It was one of a series of rifle divisions numbered between 240 and 260 that were built on cadres taken from the NKVD. The NKVD cadre consisted of 1,500 border guards and internal security troops, providing a solid, well-motivated core. Its order of battle was: 924th Rifle Regiment 928th Rifle Regiment 932nd Rifle Regiment 277th Artillery Regiment 270th Howitzer Regiment 309th Antitank Battalion 420th Sapper Battalion 332nd Reconnaissance Company 176th Signal Company 270th Medical/Sanitation Battalion 303rd Field Bakery
Colonel Aleksandr Alekseevich Zabaluev, an NKVD officer, was named divisional commander on 5 July, and was promoted to major general ten days later. After Zabaluev arrived the division moved to Ostashkov. It was assigned to the 29th Army of Lieutenant General Ivan Maslennikov in the Reserve of the Supreme High Command by 13 July, less than three weeks after beginning to form. The 29th Army formed part of Lieutenant General Ivan Bogdanov's Front Reserve of Reserve Armies, which was to hold a defensive line from Staraya Russa to Bryansk.
Battle of Smolensk By 19 July the 19th, 20th and 16th Armies were almost entirely encircled in the Smolensk region, and 29th Army was ordered to prepare an attack from the Toropets area towards Velikiye Luki with its 243rd, 256th Rifle Division and 252nd Rifle Divisions. For this attack, the 29th, similarly to the other reserve armies, was designated as an operational group named after its commander – Group Maslennikov – and subordinated to the Western Front on 20 July. On 26 July the division was in the Dubrovna, Borodkina and Suslovo region, southwest of Toropets. The 252nd entered combat two days later, fighting in the Battle of Smolensk. On 3 August it was reported as "preparing to force the Western Dvina River and organize antitank regions" in several locales about south of Toropets, and had orders to attack towards Demidov in the second week of the month.
Those plans were temporarily abandoned when the division came under attack on 7 August and its 928th and 932nd Rifle Regiments were forced to withdraw north of the Dvina. After a lull in the fighting, Western Front commander Marshal Semyon Timoshenko launched a new offensive, and the 252nd again attacked across the Dvina on 18 August, this time at Klinok. The 924th Regiment reported destroying the headquarters of the 3rd Battalion of the German 78th Infantry Regiment (26th Infantry Division) and capturing one gun, ammunition and documents. Despite its gains, the division was forced back to its original positions on the northern bank of the river by the end of the next day. By 20 August Timoshenko's forces came under renewed enemy pressure, and the division was forced back on the defensive. It was directed to establish an all-round defense by the end of 24 August north of the river. At the end of August the 252nd had to make a hasty retreat eastwards after the German XL Motorized Corps broke through the 22nd Army and advanced towards Toropets; the 932nd Regiment, with an artillery battalion and a sapper company, served as the rearguard. By 2 September the division was serving as Maslennikov's reserve in the Mukhino, Spiridovo and Novoe Polutino region. On the following day, together with the 126th Rifle Division of the 22nd Army, the division was tasked with the mission of liquidating a tank-supported German infantry regiment that had reached the Dvina in the Suvorovo region. On 4 September the 252nd continued counterattacking, driving back two German regiments with the help of the 243rd.
Typhoon, Winter Offensive, and Rzhev On 2 October the German forces launched Operation Typhoon, during which the division covered the retreat of the 29th Army. Although the army was too far north to be immediately affected, it was transferred to the new Kalinin Front in the vicinity of that city during the middle of the month. The 252nd was transferred to the newly-arriving 31st Army, and on 19–20 October participated in the counterattacks that defeated the XXXXI Motorized Corps along the Torzhok road northwest of Kalinin. The division continued to fight in what became known as the Kalinin Defense Operation. When the Soviet counter-offensive against Army Group Center – known as the Kalinin Offensive Operation – began in early December, the division reported a strength of 5,800 officers and men, about half of its authorized strength, a good strength given four months of fighting in retreat. During the Kalinin Offensive the 252nd participated in the recapture of the city on 16 December, and the recapture of Staritsa on New Year's Day 1942. On the latter date, Zabaluev was replaced by Major General Viktor Urbanovich, taking command by 5 January.
From 20 January the division fought in the Sychyovka–Vyazma and Rzhev–Vyazma Offensives during the Battles of Rzhev as part of the 39th Army. On that day, it attacked towards the Osuga railway station south of Rzhev during the Rzhev–Vyazma Offensive, tasked with reaching the Rzhev-Vyazma railway from the west. During the offensive, the division captured the strongpoints of Monchalovo and Popovka, going on the defensive fifteen kilometers southwest of Osuga station. It was cut off by a German counterattack in the area of Rzhev and Olenino, but fought on in semi-encirclement between February and June, supplied only by a small corridor in the Nesterovo area. During the winter, the 309th Antitank Battalion was removed to Army control (the Howitzer Regiment had been removed earlier) but was replaced by the 110th Antitank Battalion when the division was reorganized in the spring of 1942. Between 2 and 5 July German forces cut off the 39th Army in Operation Seydlitz with converging attacks on Nesterovo from Bely and Karskaya, fully encircling the division northwest of Vyazma. The 252nd managed to break out on 22 July to the northeast of Bely and regrouped near Selizharovo.
Battle of Stalingrad The 252nd went into the Reserve of the Supreme High Command in early August 1942, first assigned to the 4th Reserve Army before being moved to 10th Reserve Army before the end of the month. At this time the division personnel were about 60 percent Yakut, with most of the rest being Russian. On 27 August, Urbanovich was replaced in command by Colonel Zinovy Samoilovich Shekhtman. From August to October, the division was rebuilt as part of the Reserve of the Supreme High Command at Vereshchagino, Molotov Oblast.
The division was ordered to return to the front on 1 October along with six other rebuilt rifle divisions to join the armies of the Don Front north and west of Stalingrad. It was initially allocated to the 66th Army. On 20 October it formed part of the Army's shock group as Don Front staged its fourth attempt to break through the German-held corridor from the Don to the Volga from the north and reach the 62nd Army besieged in the city. The attack began at 0800 hours and had advanced into the enemy defensive belt by 10:00 In the course of this fighting the 252nd captured the Hill 130.7 region, northeast of Kuzmichi, and the road junction east of that position. The next day the division continued fighting along much the same lines. On 22 October it captured the region of the Motor Tractor Station northeast of Kuzmichi, and made a further advance of the next day, taking Hill 139.7. By this time the division was badly depleted, and the 226th Rifle Division passed through its positions to take up the advance, but made little further progress and the Army went over to the defense on 27 October. As of 1 November the 252nd was back in the Front reserve.
Operation Uranus In the buildup to the November counteroffensive the division was transferred to 65th Army. According to a General Staff report of 14 November, In the Army's deployment the division was north of the Kletskaya bridgehead south of the Don, in second echelon behind the 304th Rifle Division. They were facing the boundary between the Romanian 1st Cavalry and German 376th Infantry Divisions. The operation began on the morning of 19 November. The 304th began its main advance at 08:50 following an 80-minute artillery bombardment which was hampered by low visibility. The Army commander, Lieutenant General Pavel Batov, wrote that this division "was forced to the ground in front of Melo-Kletskaia." It had encountered skillfully fortified strongpoints manned by German troops that it could not overcome. Further, they faced nearly constant counterattacks from 376th Infantry Division, supported later in the day by elements of 14th Panzer Division. However, one battalion of the 807th Rifle Regiment made a limited breakthrough, and overnight Batov devised a plan to exploit this. The 252nd, which had crossed into the bridgehead, was to attack at the boundary of the 304th and 27th Guards Rifle Divisions when the fighting reached its crescendo.
Shortly after dawn on the 20th those two divisions pushed deeply into the Romanian defenses, and at about 10:00 the 252nd began pushing through at the boundary, soon penetrating the first two enemy defensive positions. Shortly after noon a mobile group, made up of about 45 T-34 and KV tanks from 91st Tank Brigade, with submachine gunners riding on their decks, accompanied by motorized infantry and artillery, all under the command of Colonel Georgy Anisimov, began advancing into this breach. By nightfall it had advanced into the left rear of German XI Army Corps. Meanwhile, the 252nd advanced southeastward against stiffening Axis resistance. Next day 65th Army had five rifle divisions on the attack, registering gains from . Due to Anisimov's armored raid the German 376th Infantry was forced to withdraw eastwards, and Romanian 1st Cavalry abandoned the town of Orekhovskii.