This first formation had a short and disastrous combat career; after arriving at the front in Ukraine in the first days of August it was immediately encircled and destroyed in the Uman Pocket.

In common with most divisions made up of Caucasian peoples it remained in the rear until that region was directly threatened by the German advance in the summer of 1942.

In March it was moved to the Reserve of the Supreme High Command and was redeployed to Southwestern Front facing German positions in the Donbas.

Following the defeat of Romania in August 1944 it advanced into Yugoslavia, winning a battle honor for the liberation of Belgrade and then fighting in cooperation with Tito's Yugoslav partisans.

During the campaign in Hungary it helped to secure the outer ring of encirclement around Budapest against Axis counteroffensives, and in the spring of 1945 joined in the final advance into Austria and Czechoslovakia, winning the Order of the Red Banner in the process.

A rifle division provisionally numbered as the 223rd began forming in March 1941 in the Leningrad Military District but by May it was redesignated as the 10th Airborne Brigade.

[3] Once formed, its official order of battle, based on the shtat (table of organization and equipment) of September 13, 1939, was as follows: Maj. Gen. of Technical Troops Fyodor Grigorevich Filippov was appointed to command on July 10.

[5] The division makes its only appearance in the official Red Army order of battle on August 1 where it is listed as being in the reserves of Southern Front.

Hopelessly unprepared, the division simply fell apart; on August 5 the higher command noted that it had "failed to report" and it was officially disbanded the next day.

He went on to command the 51st Rifle Division and had his sentence annulled in September 1942, after which he served in a variety of staff roles in the Caucasus region until the end of 1943 and then moved to the training establishment until he retired in 1950.

A new 223rd began forming at Quba in the Transcaucasian Military District, based on the 168th Reserve Rifle Regiment, on October 18, 1941,[8] and was soon officially designated as an Azerbaijani national division.

As the situation deteriorated the 223rd, along with the headquarters of 24th Army, were assigned to gather up all stragglers and retreating elements in the Derbent region to return them to action, in addition to preparing defensive positions.

From December 12-16 the 223rd advanced up to 15km from Galiugaevskaya Station to the northern and eastern approaches to Stoderevskaya, 14-17km east of Mozdok; however, the 409th and 320th Divisions on its right managed to gain 5km at most.

It gained roughly 12km and captured Stoderevskii Station before losing about half of this ground to counterattacks by Battlegroup Pape (394th Panzergrenadier Battalion) on December 23.

This was preliminary to Hitler's decision on December 28 to withdraw the Group by stages to a shortened line from Mostovskoy to Armavir east of Salsk.

[26] The next day Colonel Shkodunovich was moved to command of the 68th Rifle Corps; he would remain in this position for the duration of the war and reached the rank of lieutenant general in 1949.

He was replaced by Col. Mikhail Afanasevich Sukhanov who came over from deputy command of the 279th Rifle Division and would be promoted to the rank of major general on January 17, 1944.

When the offensive into the Donbas was renewed on August 13 the 223rd took part along with its Army; following their defeat there and at Kursk, Hitler finally authorized his forces to retreat toward the Dniepr River beginning on September 8.

[32] At the start of the Nikopol–Krivoi Rog Offensive on January 30 the 57th Army was located north-northeast of Kryvyi Rih facing the LVII Panzer Corps but played a secondary role in this operation which lasted until the end of February.

68th Corps arrived at the east bank at midday on April 12 and the 93rd immediately began crossing with improvised means near Butor after overcoming weak outposts of the German 320th Infantry Division near Șerpeni.

The main attack sector was centered on the village of Chircăiești on the west bank and the Army was deployed with the 68th Corps, comprising the same divisions as in April, in first echelon.

It was tasked to break through the German defense along a sector from the southern part of Hagimus to an unnamed lake 1000m north of Chircăiești, to develop the offensive toward the flanks, and by the end of the day capture the line Gîsca–Tănătari–Ursoaia–Kaushan station.

The German 15th Infantry Division put up stubborn resistance, forcing the commitment of the 223rd in the center at 2000 hours, but it made insignificant progress.

During the following day the Corps repulsed up to 15 counterattacks and by evening the 223rd had seized the paved road from Bender to Kaushan station, while the 93rd took Hagimus and the 113th began fighting for Tănătari.

[41] Overnight on August 22/23 the German Chișinău group of forces began to retreat toward the Prut River as individual detachments of 57th Army continued fighting through the night.

On August 25 the division captured Kotovskoye at 1100 hours, which created a favorable situation to split the German forces that were sheltering in the forests south of that place and Molești.

On October 4 Soviet forces reached Pančevo on the north bank of the Danube 16km downstream from Belgrade and on the 8th the railroad running into the city from the south was cut.

The troops who participated in the battles of Belgrade, by the order of the Supreme High Command of 20 October 1944, and a commendation in Moscow, are given a salute of 24 artillery salvoes from 324 guns.

During the advance toward Austria the division broke through part of the German defense of the Transdanubian Mountains and helped capture the towns of Tata, Esztergom and others, for which it would be awarded the Order of the Red Banner on April 26.

[52] It was under these commands on April 13 when the 1037th Rifle Regiment (Lt. Col. Tsarev, Dmitrii Yakovlevich) was awarded the battle honor "Vienna" for its part in the capture of the Austrian capital.