Nikolay Ugryumov The 8th Rifle Division was a military formation of the Soviet Union's Red Army in the Winter War, the Soviet invasion of Poland, and World War II.

[1] On 26 July 1926 it was named "Dzerzhinsky," and in 1932 was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour.

A reference to being 'formed at Semipalatinsk prior to 1936' in Poirer and Connor's Red Army Order of Battle remains unconfirmed by Russian sources.

In accordance with the Western Special Military District covering plan, the division was to take up positions in the Osovetsky Fortified Region and along the 1939 state border with German-occupied Poland in the areas of Shchuchin, Brzozowo, Ptak, and Servatki.

On 25 June 1941 the division conduct a withdrawal while the Białystok and, because the prisoners were rounded up.

[4] By 10 July 1941, the regiments of the division had moved to the forest near Nicholas Urupino and Buzlanova.

In October, in connection with the beginning of the German Operation Typhoon it moved to the east of Yelnya.

While the division was effectively destroyed on 6–7 October 1941 it was not formally disbanded until 30 November 1941.

By 1 October it was part of 13th Army, and stayed assigned to that formation on 1 July 1943 it was assigned to the Soviet Central Front's 13th Army, as part of the 15th Rifle Corps.

It participated in the Voronezh-Kastornoye, Eastern Carpathians, and the Prague offensives, the Battle of Kursk, the crossing of the Dnieper and the Desna and Pripyat Rivers.

It defended Mtsensk and participated in the liberation of Kromy, Nevel, Novgorod-Seversky, and Chernigov.