15th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)

In November 1920, the division crossed the Sivash into Crimea and fought against the White Army commanded by Pyotr Wrangel.

[2] On 10 January 1936, in honor of the fifteenth anniversary of the Sivash battles, the division was awarded the Order of Lenin.

[3] It was renamed as the 15th Motorized Division in September 1939 and took part in the Red Army's march into Romanian-ceded Bessarabia in 1940.

On 22 June 1941, the division was stationed in Bender and Tiraspol as part of the 2nd Mechanized Corps, 9th Army, Odessa Military District.

[4] Its first battle after the start of Operation Barbarossa occurred in the Skulyan raion (part of Kalarash) on 24 June 1941, after which it pulled back and departed for the Dniester.

[12] The divisional banner was given to the 5209th Weapons and Equipment Storage Base (BHVT), formed from the disbanded 91st Motor Rifle Division in Nizhneudinsk.

Sanitary instructor Starshina Anna Sokolova of the 676th Regiment's anti-tank gun battery during the Battle of Kursk, July 1943. Sokolov was killed in action on 7 August, just weeks after this photograph was taken.