29th Rifle Division

The 29th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army and later the Soviet Army.

It was first formed in November 1920 from the 1st Siberian Rifle Division, and fought in the Russian Civil War in Siberia. It was relocated to Belarus in 1923 and became a territorial division during the interwar period. In 1939 it fought in the Soviet invasion of Poland and was converted into a motorised division in July 1940. As part of the 6th Mechanized Corps, the division was destroyed in Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, in late June 1941. The 29th was reformed from the 7th Moscow People's Militia Division in July, but destroyed in the Battle of Vyazma in October. A third 29th was formed in Kazakhstan in December and converted to the 72nd Guards Rifle Division for its actions in the Battle of Stalingrad in the spring of 1943.

The 29th was reformed for a fourth time in 1943. It served through the rest of the war and was awarded the honorific Polotsk and the Order of Suvorov. Postwar, it was withdrawn to the Volga Military District and reduced to a brigade, which became the 63rd Mechanised Division in 1953. In 1957 it became the 110th Motor Rifle Division before being renumbered as the 29th in 1964. It relocated to Kamen-Rybolov in 1968, serving there until its disbandment after the end of the Cold War.