It moved north to the Kursk area joining Voronezh Front and played an important role in the defense of the south face of the salient as part of the 22nd Guards Rifle Corps during Operation Zitadelle.

With the rest of its Army it was transferred north to the 2nd Baltic Front where it took part in the later stages of the Battle of Nevel as well as the slow, grinding assaults towards Vitebsk during the winter.

In the opening stages of Operation Bagration, now as part of 1st Baltic Front, the 71st Guards won a battle honor for the liberation of that city and soon entered the so-called "Baltic Gap" that had opened between Army Groups North and Center; its rifle regiments would all win the honorific "Polotsk" after helping to take that city.

The attack was to begin on a line from Trosna to Chern, pass through the units of 13th Army, and continue in the direction of Oryol and Kromy, eventually reaching Rzhavets by March 13.

In spite of effective support from Stukas it was only in the late evening that the village was secured at a cost of 24 killed, 102 wounded and four missing, and mopping-up continued until the early morning.

The panzergrenadiers began to receive flanking artillery fire and got caught up in the minefield leading to significant casualties, especially among officers.

Butovo was held by the 67th Guards which fended off the 11th Panzer Division until the morning of July 5, the start of the main battle.

The 71st Guards received up to a regiment of infantry backed by 30 tanks at 0900 but over the next hour all German efforts to break through to Korovino were unsuccessful.

After regrouping a new attack by two regiments backed by 200 tanks and up to 100 aircraft attempted to split this boundary and encircle Cherkasskoe from the west.

At the same time, in an effort to secure the flank of this thrust, the 71st Guards was struck by an infantry regiment supported by 15-20 tanks attacking toward Dmitrievka; three attempts by this group were repulsed by artillery and mortar fire and by day's end the division was continuing to hold most of its initial positions.

Advancing to the north by the close of the day the German force had seized Zavidovka, and the division's left flank had consolidated along a line from height 217.9 to Dmitrievka to Setnoe to Zarytoe to Podymovka.

Take the 6th Tank Corps and attack the enemy in the left flank in the general direction of Krasnaia Poliana, and I will support you with aviation.

"Chistyakov wrote that the attacks "did not bring the desired results" and were stopped by German armor, artillery and air strikes before reaching the objective, after which Vatutin ordered his forces to dig in.

The cooperation with the means of reinforcement and supporting assets is poorly organized; the unit commanders all too often don't know who is located on the right, left or behind them...

Its leading units had taken significant casualties and it had expended its reserves and in order to continue its offensive it would have to take forces from its flanks.

Taking this into account Vatutin planned a further counterattack for July 12 in order to encircle and defeat the main German groupings on these axes.

The 71st Guards was supporting the Corps' right flank and attacked at 1100 hours; by the close of the day it was fighting for the villages of Mikhailovka, Krasnyi Pochinok and Korovino.

However a counterthrust on August 15 by 3rd SS Panzergrenadier Division Totenkopf flanked the Army and drove it off to the north, reaching the line of the Merla River.

The assault was supported by two tank brigades but made only painful progress, as indicated in the divisional history:[19]The division's first echelon regiments advanced 600-700 meters on the first day of combat and approached right up to the forward edge of the enemy's defense...

The terrain, which was broken up by ravines and swamps, did not permit the full use of tanks in the attack and the foul weather hindered the deployment of aircraft.

6th Guards Army had been moved in secrecy into the line north of the German-held Vitebsk salient over three nights previous to the attack.

The 23rd Guards Corps broke through this zone and crossed the Western Dvina south of Shumilino by the end of the day.

The next day units of the division reached the Western Dvina River and, using improvised means, crossed it on the move under German fire.

[28]By this time the makeup of the division had changed considerably from April of the previous year and was now noted as being 90 percent Ukrainian nationals.

By July 20 it was involved in the prolonged and heavy fighting for the Latvian city of Daugavpils when General Sivakov was killed in action as a result of German artillery fire, just two days before he would be officially awarded the Gold Star of a Hero of the Soviet Union.

[32] Army Groups North and Center launched Operation Doppelkopf on August 16 at which time the division was located near Biržai and after helping to fight off the counteroffensive advanced on Šiauliai.

After leaving the Red Army he published a number of articles and books on the history and prehistory of the Rostov region before his death in 1957.