The 229th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army, originally formed in the months just before the start of the German invasion, based on the shtat (table of organization and equipment) of September 13, 1939. As part of 20th Army it was moved from the Moscow Military District to the front west of Orsha by July 2. Serving under the Western Front the 20th was soon pocketed in the Smolensk region but the 229th was able to escape at the cost of significant losses. It was partially rebuilt before the start of the final German offensive on Moscow, when it was completely encircled and destroyed.
A new 229th formed in the Siberian Military District in December 1941 based on the 452nd Rifle Division. After several months forming up there, and later in the Moscow Military District, it was assigned to 64th Army in June. In the fighting in the great bend of the Don River in August as part of 62nd Army it was pocketed west of the river and suffered catastrophic losses in its efforts to escape. Reduced to a weak cadre, it was moved to the Moscow area for an almost complete rebuilding before being deployed to Volkhov Front where it served through most of 1943. It took part in the offensive that drove Army Group North away from Leningrad in early 1944 although it was briefly encircled again as part of 8th Army. It served through the summer in the offensives through the Baltic states before being shifted to the 1st Ukrainian Front prior to the Vistula–Oder Offensive. The division was finally awarded a battle honor for forcing the Oder River near Breslau in April 1945, but overall it compiled a relatively undistinguished record and would be disbanded in the summer of that year.
1st Formation
The division began forming on March 14, 1941, at Noginsk in the Moscow Military District. When completed it had the following order of battle: 783rd Rifle Regiment 804th Rifle Regiment 811th Rifle Regiment 677th Light Artillery Regiment 729th Howitzer Artillery Regiment 130th Antitank Battalion 418th Antiaircraft Battalion 272nd Reconnaissance Company 397th Sapper Battalion 610th Signal Battalion 380th Medical/Sanitation Battalion 339th Chemical Defense (Anti-gas) Company 454th Field Bakery 672nd Field Postal Station 548th Field Office of the State Bank Maj. Gen. Mikhail Ivanovich Kozlov was appointed to command on the day the division began forming. He had previously served as chief of staff in the 8th Rifle Division and the 5th Rifle Corps. This officer would officially remain in command for the duration of the 1st formation. On March 22 Lt. Col. Vladimir Vladimirovich Gil was appointed as Kozlov's chief of staff. This officer would be captured near Smolensk on July 16 and shortly after created the anti-Bolshevik "Russian National People's Party". He collaborated with the Nazis until August 1943 when he led his Druzhina Brigade into the partisan forces of the USSR. He was seriously wounded while escaping a German encirclement on May 5, 1944, and died on May 14.
While the division had more time to form up than most of those that would be created after the German invasion, several reports state that it reached the front significantly short of personnel and equipment.
Battle of Smolensk
On June 22 the 229th was assigned to the 69th Rifle Corps, as part of 20th Army, in the Reserve of the Supreme High Command, and on July 1 it was still under this Corps and Army, officially joining the fighting front the following day to the west of Smolensk. At this time the Army was under the command of Lt. Gen. P. A. Kurochkin and the Corps also contained the 153rd and 233rd Rifle Divisions. 20th Army was now part of the Group of Reserve Armies which had been assigned to Western Front and it had been ordered to prepare defenses along a sector on the approaches to Orsha. The Front was now under command of Marshal S. K. Timoshenko; he quickly assigned the 5th and 7th Mechanized Corps, with a total of over 1,500 tanks, to the support of the Army. It was more or less in place on July 2 when it was struck by elements of German 4th Army.