The 259th Rifle Division was formed from reservists as a standard Red Army rifle division, very shortly after the German invasion, in the Moscow Military District. It was largely based on what would become the shtat (table of organization and equipment) of July 29, 1941. It was assigned to the 34th Army of Reserve Front before the end of July, but this Army was soon reassigned to Northwestern Front. Under these commands it took part in the Staraya Russa offensive operation in August. It suffered significant casualties in its first operation but after falling back toward Leningrad it took part, as part of 52nd Army, in both the defense of Tikhvin and the following counteroffensive that retook the city in one of the first major German reverses. In the new year the 259th was involved in the Lyuban offensive, mostly under command of the ill-fated 2nd Shock Army, and this struggle continued into June. Enough of the division escaped encirclement that it avoided disbandment, and it was sufficiently restored by late August that it was committed to the second Sinyavino offensive, eventually becoming encircled again and forced to break out, at considerable cost. In early October it was withdrawn to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command for a lengthy period of restoration, well into 1943, in 2nd Reserve Army, as it moved well to the south.
The 259th returned to the fighting front on February 2, 1943 as a separate division in 3rd Guards Army of Southwestern Front. It saw limited action before the German Kharkiv counteroffensive threw the Front onto the defensive. It was still in this Army in August when the Front's forces finally broke across the Donets River and advanced into the Donbas, during which the division was awarded a battle honor in early September. Through the fall and into the winter it continued to campaign with 3rd Guards in both the 3rd and 4th Ukrainian Fronts until it was transferred to 6th Army, back in 3rd Ukrainian. It would remain in this Front for the duration of the war. In April 1944 the 259th took part in the advance on Odesa, and was then transferred to 46th Army, where it saw limited action along the Dniestr River into May. When the Second Jassy-Kishinev offensive began in late August the division was part of a special group of forces under 46th Army tasked with making amphibious attacks across the Dniestr estuary and within days took part in the encirclement and elimination of a Romanian/German force in this area. Following this success it advanced into the Balkans where it joined the 37th Army in December, which served as a separate occupation force for the duration of the war. In 1946 it returned to western Ukraine where it was disbanded in June 1946.
Formation
The 259th Rifle Division began forming just over two weeks after the start of the German invasion on July 5, 1941, at Serpukhov, in the Moscow Military District. Its order of battle was as follows: 939th Rifle Regiment 944th Rifle Regiment 949th Rifle Regiment 801st Artillery Regiment 314th Antitank Battalion 336th Reconnaissance Company 427th Sapper Battalion 683rd Signal Battalion (later 363rd Signal Company) 322nd Medical/Sanitation Battalion 300th Chemical Defense (Anti-gas) Company 68th Auto Transport Company (later 504th) 314th Field Bakery 517th Divisional Veterinary Hospital 308th Field Postal Station 567th Field Office of the State Bank Col. Fyodor Nikolaevich Shilov was appointed to command on the day the division began forming; he would be promoted to the rank of major general 10 days later. This NKVD officer had commanded the Ordzhonikidze School of NKVD troops before the war. As of July 10 the division was still forming up in the Moscow Military District, but as soon as August 1 it had been assigned to 34th Army in Reserve Front.
Defense of Leningrad
On August 6 the 259th was reassigned, with 34th Army, to Northwestern Front. Three days later the German X Army Corps of 16th Army seized Staraya Russa, a vital transportation hub in a nearly roadless region. This left a 48km-wide gap between it and the II Army Corps at Kholm. In response to an overambitious plan proposed by Lt. Gen. N. F. Vatutin, the chief of staff of the Front, the STAVKA issued orders late that day: In the event, this plan was partly preempted when X Corps attacked toward Novgorod on August 10, disrupting the 11th and 48th Armies' attacks.