57th Guards Motor Rifle Division

The 57th Guards Motor Rifle Division was a division of the Soviet Ground Forces. Volodymyr Zelensky's Grandfather, Semyon Ivanovych Zelenskyy served in this division as rank of colonel.

It traces its history to the 57th Guards Rifle Division. The 57th Guards Rifle Division was formed from the 153rd Rifle Division (Second formation) on 31 December 1942. It was part of the 'operational army' (ru:Действующая_армия) from 31.12.1942 to 07.06.1944 and from 15.06.1944 to 09.05.1945. Its operations included:

• Millerovo–Voroshilovgrad operation
• Izyum–Barvenkovo Offensive
• Donbass Offensive
• Lower Dnepr offensive
• Dnipropetrovsk offensive
• Dnepr-Carpathian Offensive
• Nikopol–Krivoi Rog Offensive
• Bereznegovatoe-Snigirevskaya Offensive
• Odessa offensive
• Operation Bagration
• Lublin-Brest Offensive
• Vistula-Oder Offensive
• Warsaw-Poznan offensive
• Seelow-Berlin operation
• Berlin offensive

It fought on the Don River, in Ukraine, on the Vistula River, and in the Berlin Operation. With 8th Guards Army of the 1st Belorussian Front May 1945.

Became 57th Guards Motor Rifle Division on 17 May 1957 at Naumburg, still with 8th Guards Army. During the 1980s it consisted of the:

• 170th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment (Naumburg)
• 174th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment (Weißenfels)
• 241th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment (Leipzig)
• 57th Guards Tank Regiment (Zeitz)
• 128th Artillery Regiment (Zeitz)

The division withdrew from Germany in April 1993 and moved to Chelyabinsk, part of the Ural Military District. It was disbanded in June 1993.

The 57th Guards Motor Rifle Division is featured in the board game Red Storm Rising, based on Tom Clancy's book Red Storm Rising.

The Division is also featured in the Operation (single-mission) Sledgehammer in WARNO.

• Smakotin, Mikhail (1962). От Дона до Берлина [From the Don to Berlin] (in Russian). Moscow: Voenizdat.

• http://www.ww2.dk/new/army/msd/57gvmsd.htm