The first official 221st Rifle Division was formed in the spring of 1942 in the Ural Military District from a mix of several Central Asian nationalities.

It arrived in Stalingrad Front in late August and was immediately thrown into the offensives that were attempting to break through the German corridor from the Don River to the city in order to relieve 62nd Army.

After assisting in the breakthrough of the German defenses along the Mius River it advanced through the southeastern Ukraine and won a battle honor for the liberation of Mariupol.

From here the division followed an unusual combat path, serving as a sort of utility unit on several sectors of the front, first west of Kiev where it won the Order of the Red Banner, then well to the north as part of 7th and 21st Armies in the final offensives against Finland.

Before the German surrender it began moving with this Army across the Soviet Union to serve in the invasion of Manchuria in August, where it won a second battle honor.

[7] This was awkward as there was already a 106th Rifle in service, but the situation was resolved about six weeks later when the former 221st Motorized was surrounded and destroyed north of Spas-Demensk in early October during Operation Typhoon.

[13] On August 21 the XIV Panzer Corps struck eastward from a bridgehead over the Don River and by the 23rd had reached the Volga and the northern outskirts of Stalingrad in some strength.

24th Army attacked well dug-in elements of VIII Army Corps west of Kuzmichi; the 221st, flanked by the 173rd and 207th Rifle Divisions, drove in the German security line and reached the forward edge of the main defense along the northwestern slopes of Hill 93.1–the village 4 km southwest of Samofalovka–the northwestern slopes of Hill 13.4, which was a marginal return for the commitment of three fresh divisions.

The Front commander, Col. Gen. A. I. Yeryomenko, chose a 17 km-wide attack sector from 564 km Station to the Kotluban Balka, in part because it was defended by German infantry, rather than the mobile troops which had defeated his earlier attempt.

The Army commander, Maj. Gen. K. S. Moskalenko, chose to hold the 221st and 207th Divisions, along with 4th Tank Corps, in his second echelon in order to reinforce success and fend off counterattacks during the advance.

The first echelon managed to gain up to 3 km in places but then ground to a halt in front of the main defense lines as German reserves began arriving.

At 1400 Moskalenko ordered his second echelon into the fight to maintain the momentum of the assault but by the time it arrived it was too late to halt the German counterattacks, backed by up to 50 tanks, that were sweeping the 308th and 316th Rifle Divisions from the slopes and crest of Hill 154.2 and effectively routing them.

Despite this minor success the overall offensive had ground to a halt two days later, primarily due to German air strikes and local counterattacks.

Yeryomenko persisted in ordering his armies to attack as late as October 4, but this achieved little except attrition and a distraction for the German command from the fighting in the city itself.

[19] Colonel Bunyashin went on to command the 84th Rifle Division for most of the remainder of the war, being promoted to the rank of major general on September 1, 1943, and after nearly ten years in the training establishment ended his career as a military attaché to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 1954 to 1958.

It remained in the region until December when it was shipped north and west to Astrakhan on the Caspian Sea and assigned to 28th Army in Southern Front.

This Army was responsible for screening a vast territory between the lower Volga and the Caucasus against the meagre forces the Axis had committed to this distant region.

After the German defeat at Stalingrad the brigade advanced with its Army through the Caucasus steppe to the eastern Donbas by February 1943, facing the defenses along the Mius-Front.

German efforts to close the gap on August 20 made some initial progress but failed due to a strong Soviet reaction.

On the 31st Field Marshal E. von Manstein was finally authorized to withdraw both armies to the Kalmius River, effectively beginning the race to the Dniepr.

38th Army was on the left (south) flank of the Front and its initial objective was Vinnytsia, after which it was to continued to advance southwest toward Zhmerynka, which had been designated as a Festung (fortress) by Hitler.

By this time the Soviets had gained most of its objectives in the war against Finland and by the middle of the month was removing its more powerful units, especially armor, for re-employment elsewhere.

On January 22 the 221st was on the march and its lead elements were near Schwentoie, while 39th Army overall reached the Curonian Lagoon along the line of the Deime River, splitting the German defense.

Despite this, it broke through the fortified defenses north of the Alter Pregel River, took the strongpoints of Gamsau and Praddau, and on the following day reached the fortifications of the city itself, becoming involved in stubborn fighting.

By the end of April 9 the German garrison capitulated, while 39th Army was regrouping for subsequent operations into the western part of the Samland Peninsula.

[47] 39th Army was chosen for the invasion of Japanese-held Manchuria in large part due to its experience in East Prussia; the Japanese frontier was known to be heavily fortified.

[48] In common with many of the rifle divisions employed in this operation the 221st had a battalion of self-propelled artillery (12 SU-76s, one T-70 command tank) added to its order of battle due to the mountainous and near-roadless terrain.

En route, late on August 10, the 221st received the surrender of General Houlin, commander of the Manchurian 10th Military District, plus 1,000 of his men south of Hailar; it then marched eastward toward the mountain pass at Tarchu.

The main forces of 39th Army began moving by rail to the Liaodong Peninsula on August 17 while 94th Corps remained engaged in the reduction of the last enemy positions in the Wangyemiao area.

During the course of the war he was credited with 367 kills, using an un-scoped Mosin-Nagant M91/30 and received the nickname "Taiga Shaman" from the German and Finnish soldiers he faced.