327th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)

rdf:langString 327th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)

rdf:langString 327th Rifle Division

rdf:langString Col. Nikolai Antonovich Poliakov

rdf:langString Maj. Gen. Emilyan Vasilevich Kozik

rdf:langString Maj. Gen. Ivan Mikhailovich Antiufeev

rdf:langString Infantry

rdf:langString Division

rdf:langString The 327th Rifle Division was first formed in September 1941, as a standard Red Army rifle division, based on a cadre of workers from Voronezh. This formation was assigned to the Volkhov Front near Leningrad, toiling through the so-called "Rat's War" in the wooded swamps of that region and taking significant casualties in the encirclement of its 2nd Shock Army near Lyuban in early 1942. In January 1943, it helped to lead the partial raising of the German siege of Leningrad in Operation Iskra, distinguishing itself sufficiently to be redesignated as the 64th Guards Rifle Division. Well over a year later a second 327th Rifle Division was formed and was also moved to the Leningrad region where it took part in the offensive that drove Finland from the war, then spent the first months of 1945 clearing German forces from the coasts of the Baltic States and containing the German forces trapped in Courland.