Transferred to the Transbaikal in 1932, it fought in the Battles of Khalkhin Gol in mid-1939 and was reorganized as the 57th Red Banner Motor Rifle Division (Russian: 57-я Краснознаменная мотострелковая дивизия) in 1940.

Having spent much of World War II on garrison duty in the Mongolian People's Republic, the division participated in the August 1945 Soviet invasion of Manchuria, but did not see combat.

[2] Between February and April 1921, separate units of the division fought in the suppression of the West Siberian revolt, a series of anti-Soviet peasant uprisings in the area of Tyumen, Ishim, and Petropavlovsk.

[3] In the late 1930s, its regiments were renumbered in an attempt to confuse foreign intelligence: the 169th Perm became the 80th, the 170th Sverdlovsk the 127th, the 171st Chelyabinsk the 293rd, and the 57th Ural Artillery the 105th.

[11] He was arrested in July 1938 during the Great Purge, charged with "counter-revolutionary activities" after the wounding of eleven soldiers by the explosion of an artillery shell during the division's 1938 May Day parade.

[13] As a result of a series of border clashes with Japanese troops at Khalkhin Gol, the division was alerted for combat on 29 June 1939.

[16] On 21 August, the division's reconnaissance battalion was used to fill the 4-kilometer (2.5 mi) gap that had opened between the 80th and 127th Regiments, advancing to the left of the group's armored units.

On the next day, the troops of the division isolated and eliminated Japanese strongpoints, destroying bunkers with the aid of flamethrower tanks.

Exceptionally strong resistance was encountered at two positions about 5 kilometers (3.1 mi) south of the Holsten, which was suppressed with the assistance of the flamethrower tanks.

[17] On 24 August, two Japanese infantry regiments with air support launched a counterattack to divert Soviet troops away from the encirclement southeast of Nomonhan.

At 11:00 on 27 August, a battalion-sized Japanese group, with 75-millimeter (3.0 in) cannon and heavy machine guns, attempted to escape the encirclement, but was destroyed by the division.

By the end of the day, the 57th had eliminated Japanese resistance south of the Holsten and secured the area, with the 127th Regiment crossing to the river's northern bank.

[19] On 28 August, the commander of the 127th Regiment, Major Nikolay Grukhin, was killed in action; he was posthumously made a Hero of the Soviet Union on 17 November.

[21] After organizing the defense of the claimed border, the 80th Regiment repulsed a 4 September attack by a Japanese force numbering up to a battalion in strength against its positions on the height of Eris-Ulin-Obo, killing six and capturing two.

[2] Following the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, on 22 June 1941, the division remained with the 17th Army in Mongolia.

Colonel Viktor Nikiforov (promoted to Major General 16 October 1943) took command of the division in July 1943, after Khokhlov was sent to study at the Higher Military Academy.

[32] The 127th Regiment handed over its border positions in the Khamar-Daba area to troops from the 39th Army on 19 July and camped on the eastern outskirts of Tamsagbulag.

On 28 July, the corps ordered the division to move to new positions near wells 5 kilometers (3.1 mi) northeast of Lake Khala-Gaita-nur.

[33] On 5 August, to prepare the jumping off positions, the advanced battalions of the three motor rifle regiments were withdrawn from Heights 935 and 941.1 on the Manchurian border.

The first forward detachment, advancing along the rightward route from Heights 938 and 952, Ikhe-Sume, Toyromo-Pomunur, and the western outskirts of Bayan-Khoshun-Sume, included the 80th Regiment, supported by the 3rd Battalion of the 105th Artillery.

By the end of the first day of the invasion, the first detachment was to reach a line on the south coast of Lake Surin-nur and Tametyamuso while covering the advance of the main forces of the division at Bayan-Khoshun-Sume.

The second forward detachment, advancing along the leftward route from Heights 951, 877, 781, and 776, Senpokandzieru, and Pakasunur, included the 127th Regiment, supported by the 2nd Battalion of the 105th.

By the end of 9 August, the division's advance detachments and main force units had entered Bayan-Khoshun-Sume after a 145-kilometer (90 mi) march, although the 293rd took two more days to reach the settlement.

On 10 August, units of the division continued their march into the foothills of the Greater Khingan mountains, in difficult conditions via 50–60 kilometers (31–37 mi) of sandy roads with no water sources.

[36] By the morning of 29 August, the operational group arrived in Mukden and was quartered in a gymnasium, where the Japanese units forming the city garrison were disarmed.