The division remained part of the Moscow Military District from its formation until February 1919, when it transferred to the reserve of the Commander-in-Chief and then that of the Southern Front until June.

[1] The 3rd joined the 13th Army of the front in July and fought in the August counteroffensive of the Southern Front between 14 August and 12 September, in the attack on Belgorod and a fighting retreat in the face of the advance of the Armed Forces of South Russia to the line of the Seym from the region of Stary Oskol, Kursk, and Shchigry.

After defending the Kakhovka Bridgehead in August against White attack, the 3rd fought in the counteroffensive in Northern Taurida between 28 October and 3 November, in which it was involved in the battles in the Nikopol and Belozerka region.

The division fought in the elimination of Makhnovist forces and remnants of the Whites and Greens in the region of Staryi Krym, Feodosia, and Sevastopol between December and April 1921.

On 16 July 1940 its designation was changed to the 3rd Rifle Division named for the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Crimean ASSR.

[1] At the beginning of World War II it was located in Blagoveshchensk, assigned to the 2nd Red Banner Army of the Far Eastern Front.