| Unit Name: | 101st Rifle Division |
| Dates: | 1938–1948 |
| Branch: | Red Army |
| Type: | Infantry Mountain Infantry |
| Size: | Division |
| Command Structure: | 2nd Red Banner Army |
| Battles: | World War II |
| Notable Commanders: | Col. Ivan Pavlovich Pichugin Maj. Gen. Semyon Fyodorovich Mozhaev Maj. Gen. Porfirii Ivanovich Dyakov |
The 101st Rifle Division was a unit of the Soviet Red Army initially formed as a mountain rifle division on 28 August 1938 within the 2nd Separate Red Banner Army in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky city.[1]
Initially the division included the 138th Rifle Regiment formed in 1938 from the 292nd Rifle Regiment of the Pacific Ocean Fleet, which had been created in 1937 from the 10th Separate Territorial Rifle Battalion of the 4th Bashkir Regiment. In 1940, the division was removed from the roll of first line formations. According to the Soviet General Staff order of battle study it was converted to a regular rifle division in December 1941 but the Personnel Department's list of commanders shows it as a rifle division from October 1940 to the end of the war. It remained on Sakhalin Island for the duration of the war, apart from the Soviet invasion of Manchuria.[2]
In 1943 the HQ of the 101st division included: the 128th Mixed Aviation Division, Petropavlovsk Military Naval Base, border security detachment, the 428th howitzer artillery regiment, the 302nd Separate Rifle Regiment, three separate artillery divisions (battalions), the 5th Separate Rifle Battalion, and a number of storage facilities. From 15 January 1945 the division was included in the composition of the Northern Group of Forces of the Far Eastern Front and subordinated to the Kamchatka Defense Area[3] of the Front (Russian: link=no| Камчатский Оборонительный район (КОР) ДВФ). It was still in this formation as of 3 September.[4]
For exemplary fulfillment of assignments and displaying combat mastery during the taking of the islands Shumshu and Paramushir in the course of the Kuril Landing operation, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, declared by order of NKO No. 0164, the division was awarded the Order of Lenin on 14 September 1945.
The division became part of the 137th Rifle Corps postwar at Paramushir. In 1948 it was converted into the 6th Machine Gun Artillery Division. The division was disbanded in 1953,[5] following the 1952 Severo-Kurilsk tsunami.[6]
In August 1945 the composition of the 101st rifle division was:
The following officers commanded the division.[7]
Order of Lenin – Awarded on 14 September 1945.