The army was transferred to Poland in July 1945 and its headquarters was used to form the Kazan Military District in September.

The army was established on 7 August 1941 from the Novgorod Operational Group, under command of Lt. Gen. Stepan Akimov,[1] its initial order of battle was as follows: The army was assigned to Northwestern Front and was responsible for the front's left flank north of Lake Ilmen.

That line was penetrated in the renewed German advance, and Luga fell on 20 August, with heavy Soviet casualties; the army was a wreck with only 6,235 men, 5,043 rifles and 31 guns remaining.

[6] Heavy attacks by the German XXXIX Motorized Corps forced the army to abandon Mga, a key railway link.

During the first week of September the 20th Motorized Division, reinforced with elements of 12th Panzer Division, ground its way northwards against the resistance of the mountain brigade and the NKVD men before capturing Shlisselburg on Lake Ladoga on 8 September, isolating Leningrad, with the bulk of the army outside, to the east.

[7] The army was formed for a second time from 28th Mechanized Corps (Second Formation) Headquarters on 20 April 1942, part of the Bryansk Front.

From the end of June to July, the army fought in heavy defensive battles in the Yeletsky direction.

During the battles, the army was able to hold the German troops at the line of Bolshoy Malinovets, Zalegosh, Setenyovo and Svetitsky.

On 27 August the deputy commander of the army, Major General Konstantin Ignatievich Novik,[9] was killed in action at Dishnia Station during a heavy enemy artillery raid.

During the summer and fall of 1943, the army fought in battles on the northern face of the Kursk Bulge,[13] Operation Kutuzov and the Chernigov-Pripyat Offensive.

On 20 October, it transferred to the Belorussian Front and from the first week of November fought in the expansion of the bridgehead on the right bank of the Sozh.

[12] In July 1945 it was moved from Germany to Poland, and in September 1945 its headquarters was used to form the Kazan Military District (ru:Казанский военный округ).