The 252nd Rifle Division was the eighth of a group of 10 regular rifle divisions formed from cadres of NKVD border and internal troops as standard Red Army rifle divisions, very shortly after the German invasion, in the Moscow Military District.
It was raised in June 1941, within days of the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, based on the prewar rifle division Shtat 04/400, and served for the duration of the Great Patriotic War in that role. The 252nd's first experience of battle was when it took part in the fighting north of Smolensk in the summer of 1941. It was forced eastward in the autumn, especially under the impact of Operation Typhoon. After helping to defeat an offensive by Third Panzer Group at Kalinin in October, and serving through the winter counteroffensive west of Moscow, the division was sent south where it participated in the Battle of Stalingrad.
In the summer of 1943 the 252nd distinguished itself in the final liberation of Kharkov, for which it received its first battle honor, as well as the Order of the Red Banner. Following this the division continued to fight through eastern and western Ukraine and into Moldova, receiving further distinctions along the way. It took part in the Second Jassy–Kishinev Offensive in August 1944, which drove Romania into the Allied camp, and continued campaigning into Hungary, participating in the Siege of Budapest. In the final weeks of the war the division received a second battle honor for assisting in the liberation of Bratislava. Postwar, it was withdrawn to the North Caucasus, downsized to a rifle brigade and disbanded in March 1947.
Formation to mid-1942
The division began organizing on 26 June 1941 at Serpukhov in the Moscow Military District. It was one of a series of rifle divisions numbered between 240 and 260 that were built on cadres taken from the NKVD. The NKVD cadre consisted of 1,500 border guards and internal security troops, providing a solid, well-motivated core. Its order of battle was: 924th Rifle Regiment 928th Rifle Regiment 932nd Rifle Regiment 277th Artillery Regiment 270th Howitzer Regiment 309th Antitank Battalion 420th Sapper Battalion 332nd Reconnaissance Company 176th Signal Company 270th Medical/Sanitation Battalion 303rd Field Bakery
Colonel Aleksandr Alekseevich Zabaluev, an NKVD officer, was named divisional commander on 5 July, and was promoted to major general ten days later. After Zabaluev arrived the division moved to Ostashkov. It was assigned to the 29th Army of Lieutenant General Ivan Maslennikov in the Reserve of the Supreme High Command by 13 July, less than three weeks after beginning to form. The 29th Army formed part of Lieutenant General Ivan Bogdanov's Front Reserve of Reserve Armies, which was to hold a defensive line from Staraya Russa to Bryansk.
Battle of Smolensk
By 19 July the 19th, 20th and 16th Armies were almost entirely encircled in the Smolensk region, and 29th Army was ordered to prepare an attack from the Toropets area towards Velikiye Luki with its 243rd, 256th and 252nd Rifle Divisions. For this attack, the 29th, similarly to the other reserve armies, was designated as an operational group named after its commander – Group Maslennikov – and subordinated to the Western Front on 20 July. On 26 July the division was in the Dubrovna, Borodkina and Suslovo region, southwest of Toropets. The 252nd entered combat two days later, fighting in the Battle of Smolensk. On 3 August it was reported as "preparing to force the Western Dvina River and organize antitank regions" in several locales about south of Toropets, and had orders to attack towards Demidov in the second week of the month.