The 303rd Rifle Division began service as a standard Red Army rifle division shortly after the German invasion, and in its first formation fought in the central part of the Soviet-German front for a few months, taking part in the first offensive success of the Red Army at Yelnya, before being encircled and annihilated in the fighting around Vyasma.

The men and women of the division first distinguished themselves during the summer offensive of 1943, making an assault crossing of the Dniepr River at Verkhnodniprovsk and gaining a battle honor for it.

The division led the southern Shock Group as part of the planned concentric attack to seal off the salient, and advanced 2km on the first day, and again on the second.

[4] By the end of the month the division was effectively destroyed as a fighting unit, but a cadre survived, and Col. Alexsandr Gavrilovich Moiseevskiy was appointed to its command on October 31.

[5] A new rifle division, initially numbered the 448th,[6] began forming on January 1, 1942, at Topki in the Siberian Military District.

It was largely formed from men drafted out of the Kuzbass coal mining region, and in March was re-designated as the second 303rd Rifle Division.

On July 19 that Army went into Voronezh Front, and on that same date, Col. Konstantin Stepanovich Fyodorovskiy was promoted from chief of staff to divisional command.

[8] The 303rd spent the remainder of 1942 in that Army in that Front, mounting an aggressive defense against what the STAVKA anticipated to be a German drive to the northeast towards Moscow.

The troops who participated in the battles during the crossing of the Dniestr and the liberation of Beltsy... by order of the Supreme High Command and a commendation in Moscow on 26 March 1944 are saluted with 24 salvoes from 324 guns.

In late August, after the start of the 2nd Jassy-Kishinev Offensive the division was moved to Front reserves for re-building during the swift advance through Romania.

[16] During the Debrecen operation on October 19 the 303rd was urgently summoned to the Mezőtúr area in response to a surprise German tank attack.

[18] While this offensive continued in Hungary, in the face of bitter enemy resistance, on December 21 the division reached positions from Savditse to Setikh.