One day later the army was formed as part of the Reserve Front, based on the 35th Rifle Corps, commanded by Lieutenant General Ivan Zakharkin.

[2] A day later, the army was transferred to the Western Front and saw its first combat in the Mozhaisk-Maloyaroslavets Defensive Operation, which lasted until 30 October.

[1] On 8 January, the 49th Army began fighting in the Rzhev-Vyazma Strategic Offensive, which aimed to eliminate the heavily fortified Rzhev salient, which threatened Moscow.

Between 2 and 31 March 1943, the army fought in the Rzhev–Vyazma Offensive, which attempted to stop Operation Büffel, the German phased withdrawal from the Rzhev salient.

On 28 September the army recaptured Mstsislaw, and in early October reached the Pronya River in the Drybin Raion, 35 kilometers north of Chavusy, where it went on the defensive.

From late June, the army fought in Operation Bagration, the Soviet strategic offensive in Belorussia and eastern Poland.

During the Belostock Offensive between 5 and 27 July, the 49th Army helped break stubborn German resistance between Grodno and Svislach.

The army's last operation was the Berlin Offensive, from 16 April to 8 May, during which it advanced in the main shock group of the front.

[3] The army became part of the Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany when it was formed on 9 June, with headquarters at Wittenburg.

[10] According to warfare.ru, 49CAA (listed at Stavropol/Maikop) had under control in late 2011 the 4th Guards and 7th Military Bases (South Ossetia and Abkhazia) and the 8th (former Taman Guards Motor Rifle Division), 33rd and 34th separate Mountain Motor Rifle Brigades (Borzoi, Chechnya, Maikop, and Storozhevaya-2), as well as the 66th Communications Brigade.

[17] It was claimed on 25 March 2022 by Oleksiy Arestovych that Ukrainian forces liquidated the commander of the 49CAA, Yakov Rezantsev, in action during the 2022 Chornobaivka attacks of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.