Raised in 1939 as a standard Red Army rifle division, it served for the duration of the Great Patriotic War in that role.

It shared credit with other formations for the liberation of Bobruisk during Operation Bagration, and ended the war in the conquest of East Prussia.

On June 25, the division was subordinated to 20th Army's 20th Rifle Corps, part of the Reserve of the Supreme High Command.

The division's antiaircraft artillery battalion was heavily bombed by German aircraft and ceased to exist as an effective combat unit.

The 137th Rifle Division was ordered to counterattack and eliminate the bridgehead, beginning its involvement in the Battle of Smolensk.

The 771st Rifle Regiment had captured Chervonny Osovets, but was forced to retreat under pressure from German tanks.

Golubev, commander of the 13th Army, on Aug. 21, implies that the 137th, along with three other rifle divisions, had barely escaped encirclement by running the gauntlet eastward through the advancing forces of the German XXIV Motorized Corps and were in no shape to continue active operations.

What remained of the division, described as a "composite battalion" on Aug. 29, was tasked with protecting the approaches to Trubchevsk, in the army's third line of defense.

[6] The division continued to hold in these positions until early October as the German forces carried out their encirclement of Kiev.

When Operation Typhoon began in early October, 3rd Army mostly escaped being encircled in the Bryansk pocket, but still had to fall back to the east; Trubchevsk was given up on Oct. 9.

The offensive slowed in late February due to German forces being evacuated from the Rzhev salient, as well as lax practices on the part of lower-level commands.

On February 17, Bryansk Front reported about the 48th Army operations east of Maloarkhangelsk, admonishing lower level HQs against concentrating in the relative warmth and comfort of villages:"On 11–12 February, the headquarters of 137th Rifle Division, the headquarters of the 12th Artillery Division, and the headquarters of a guards-mortar regiment gathered in the village of Markino... On 12 February enemy aircraft bombed the village of Markino... We had intolerable losses in men and equipment."

When the German assault ran down by July 12, 48th Army was in good shape to take part in the counteroffensive towards Oryol, which continued into August.

Following the crossing of the Dnepr River and the liberation of Kiev in November, Rokossovski's Front (now named Belorussian) continued a remorseless western advance along the southern fringes of the Pripet Marshes.

At around this time the division, by order of the front command, formed a separate Submachine Gun Battalion for "assault and... counterattack duties".

This unit was organized as follows: This battalion was formed from experienced "young men... from 19 to 33 years old", and was placed under command of the 771st Rifle Regiment.