The new formation incorporated the 22nd Tank Corps, under Major General Aleksandr Shamshin, and Major General Abram Khasin's 23rd Tank Corps, plus three rifle divisions transferred from the Far Eastern Front, two anti-tank regiments and two anti-aircraft regiments.

[6] In August 1942 it fought on the southern approaches to Stalingrad, having conducted some successful counterattacks against units of the German 48th Panzer Corps.

John Erickson wrote that "at 1100 on 26 July, two of Badanov's corps (11th Tank and 6th Guards Mechanised) put in a ragged attack towards Bolkhov.

In the last days of the war, it achieved Guards status by an order of the NKO dated 17 March 1945 (Krasnaya Zvezda).

It was renamed 20th Guards Army in 1960,[8] and served for many years as part of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany.

In the late 1980s it controlled the 25th Tank Division (HQ Vogelsang, disbanded 1989), 32nd Guards Tank Division (HQ Jüterbog, disbanded 1989), 90th Guards Tank Division (HQ Bernau, withdrawn to Chernorech'e in the Volga Military District, early 1990s), the 35th Motor Rifle Division (HQ Krampnitz, withdrawn to Chebarkul and disbanded, December 1991 – April 1992[10]), the 6th Guards Separate Motor Rifle Brigade at Berlin-Karlshorst (withdrawn to Kursk) and many combat support and service support units, including the 387th Guards Artillery Brigade, 27th and 464th Rocket Brigades, a SAM brigade, an engineer-sapper brigade, and two helicopter regiments.

[11] After the fall of the Soviet Union 20th Guards Army was withdrawn to Voronezh in the Moscow Military District.