The 18th Rifle Division was formed on 26 November 1918 at Arkhangelsk from troops from Archangel, Belsky and Kotlassky areas.

It was a territorial division after the end of the Russian Civil War until the late 1930s, when it was upgraded to cadre status and dispatched to Petrozavodsk, Leningrad Military District.

The Russian Wikipedia article lists the following subordinate units: Armies of the Bear list the following subordinate units:[1] This is likely the OB prior to the expansion of the Soviet Army and the reorganization of the regiments in early 1939 It was established at Kazan on 15 August 1939 from the Ulyanovsk-based 86th Rifle Division as the 111th Rifle Division, and on 2 February 1940 (Russian Wiki), or April 1940 (Avanzini and Crofoot) was renamed as the 18th Rifle Division.

The corps ordered the division to push two battalions supported by antitank weapons to the Drut River 40–45 km from the main line of defense.

A small part of the division was able to break out of the ring on 23 July and joined the group led by General Boldin, which broke out of the encirclement on 15 August 1941.

[2] Recreated in February 1942 at Ryazan in the Moscow Military District from a cadre of the 16th Sapper Brigade.

The division was located under the Staling Front Reserves by 10 July and reassigned to the 4th Tank Army.

From 3–12 August the division was involved in intense fighting in a small bend of the Don River north-west of Stalingrad.

[1] After spending three months in the Moscow Military District rebuilding near Tambov[1] the division was sent to the Volkhov Front before the end of the year and assigned to the 2nd Shock Army.

[1] Reassigned to the 2nd Belorussian Front along with its higher headquarters the division participated in the East Pomeranian Strategic Offensive Operation and fought at Danzig, Poland.