The 13th Guards Poltava Order of Lenin Twice Red Banner Orders of Suvorov and Kutuzov Rifle Division (Russian: 13-я гвардейская стрелковая Полтавская ордена Ленина дважды Краснознамённая орденов Суворова и Кутузова дивизия) was an infantry division of the Red Army that was highly decorated during World War II.

Rebuilt, the division entered the Battle of Stalingrad in mid-September, in which it distinguished itself during several months of urban combat in the city center and at Mamayev Kurgan.

After the end of the battle in early February, the division was withdrawn for rebuilding and in July 1943 joined the 5th Guards Army with which it spent the rest of the war.

Because of the recent influx of new recruits, the division was now largely inexperienced and untrained, and lacked both maps and knowledge of Stalingrad's rubble-strewn streets, which would prove enormously difficult to overcome in the struggle ahead.

At 17.00, 14 September, the forward elements of the 13th Guards swiftly crossed the river to reinforce a line that was being held by a mere 15 tanks and few hastily assembled combat groups.

The following morning one of Rodimtsev's junior officers, Lieutenant Anton Kuzmich Dragan was personally ordered by Chuikov to hold a key railroad station in downtown Stalingrad against an impending German assault.

Breaking through walls, crawling over rafters, and burrowing under the floorboards, the Russians would yield but a portion of the structure to the Germans, only to emerge elsewhere and start the struggle all over again.

Exchanging gunfire down hallways, hurling grenades back and forth between rooms, Dragan's men inflicted significant casualties on the Germans.

After running out of ammunition, and with their rations gone, one of the Soviet Guardsmen took out his bayonet and carved on a wall, Under cover of darkness, Dragan and the five remaining soldiers under his command eventually slipped out of the building, made their way through the German lines, and were reunited with the remainder of the division.

The battle at the Mamaev Kurgan began approximately three weeks after the brutal fighting between the German and Russian infantrymen had begun in the outskirts of Stalingrad, on 15 September.

Alongside the 5th Guards Army (Voronezh Front), the division was held in reserve south of Kursk, in order to counter the forthcoming German offensive there – Operation Citadel.

After several days of continuous fierce fighting (including the tank battle at Prokhorovka, in which the division's small number of armored units participated in), they successfully ground the elite Waffen-SS formations to a standstill.

Shortly thereafter, the 13th Guards Rifle Division advanced south-westwards, where they participated in the Red Army's assault to liberate Ukraine from German control.

The division took part in the Poltava-Kremenchuk Operation [ru] in which they gained control of the town of Poltava after extremely fierce fighting, it was liberated on 23 September 1943.

[4] For its capture of Novoukrainka and the key rail junction of Pomoshnaya during the Uman–Botoșani Offensive, the division was awarded the Order of Suvorov 2nd class on 29 March.

During the Berlin Offensive, from 16 to 21 April, the division, as part of the army shock group, forced the Neisse and the Spree, advancing 60 km to cut the Dresden–Lübben autobahn northwest of Senftenberg.