{{Infobox military unit | unit_name = 53rd Rifle Division | dates = 1931–1946 (1st Formation) <br>1955 (2nd Formation) | country = {{flag|Soviet Union}} | branch = Red Army | type = Infantry | size = Division | battles = {{tree list}} * World War II ** First Battle of Smolensk ** Battle of Moscow ** Battle of the Dnieper ** Uman–Botosani Offensive ** Second Jassy–Kishinev Offensive ** Budapest Offensive ** Prague Offensive {{tree list/end}} | decorations = {{plainlist| *{{OrderRedBanner}} {{nowrap|(1st formation)}} *{{OrderSuvorov2ndClass}}, 2nd class {{nowrap|(1st and 2nd formations)}} }} | battle_honours = {{plainlist| * Novoukrainka (1st formation) * Named for Friedrich Engels {{nowrap|(1st formation)}} * Novorossiysk (2nd formation) }} }}

The '''53rd Rifle Division''' was an infantry division of the Red Army that served from the early 1930s to the immediate postwar period following World War II.

== Interwar period == The 53rd was formed in 1931 as a territorial division; Ivan Boldin became its first commander and military commissar in April of that year, and would hold that position until December 1934.{{Sfn|Vozhakin|2005|p=29}} It was stationed in the Volga Military District with the 12th Rifle Corps. By 1935, the division was headquartered at Engels and included the 157th Rifle Regiment at Engels, the 158th Rifle Regiment at Krasny Kut, the 159th Rifle Regiment at Pugachyov, and the 53rd Artillery Regiment at Pugachyov.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.rkka.ru/handbook/disl/010735.pdf|title=Дислокация войсковых частей, штабов, управлений, учреждений и заведений Рабоче-Крестьянской Красной Армии по состоянию на 1 июля 1935 года|date=1 July 1935|publisher=4th Directorate of the Staff of the Red Army|location=Moscow|page=18|language=ru|trans-title=Stationing of military units, headquarters, directorates, institutions and establishments of the Red Army as of 1 July 1935}}</ref> On 8 July 1937 it received the honorific "named for Friedrich Engels". Before the war it became part of the 21st Army in the Gomel Region of the Western Special Military District.<ref>{{Cite web | url = http://rkka.ru/handbook/reg/53sd31.htm | title = 53-я Новоукраинская Краснознаменная стрелковая дивизия | website = rkka.ru | language = ru | trans-title = 53rd Rifle Division | access-date = 24 February 2016 }}</ref>

== World War II == [[File:Советский конный разведчик Я. Степанов с автоматом ППШ на груди.jpg|thumb|Mounted scout of the division reconnaissance company Yakov Stepanov with PPSh-41 slung over his chest, February 1942 ]] Poirer and Connor, in their 1985 ''Red Army Order of Battle'', say that the division fought at Yelnya, on the Dnieper River, at Uman and Targul Frumos. For its actions in the capture of Jassy, the division was awarded the Order of the Red Banner on 15 September 1944.{{Sfn|Affairs Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union|1967|p=492}} The division was with 46th Army of the 2nd Ukrainian Front in May 1945.

== Postwar == The division was disbanded on 30 June 1946 in the Odessa Military District with the 34th Rifle Corps of the 40th Army.{{Sfn|Feskov et al|2013|p=489}}{{Sfn|Glubokovskikh|1946|p=}}

In 1955, the division was reformed from the 318th Rifle Division with the 3rd Rifle Corps at Uzhhorod, inheriting the honorifics "Novorossiysk Order of Suvorov". On 9 September 1955, it became the 39th Mechanized Division.{{Sfn|Feskov et al|2013|p=151}} The division received personnel and equipment from the disbanded 13th Guards Mechanized Division in fall 1955 and on 4 December became the 39th Guards Mechanized Division.{{Sfn|Feskov et al|2013|p=|pp=205–206}}

==References==

=== Citations === <references/>

=== Bibliography ===

*{{Cite book|url=https://cloud.mail.ru/public/1336025b4bbd/%D0%A7%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%82%D1%8C%201%20(1920-1944).pdf|title=Сборник приказов РВСР, РВС СССР, НКО и Указов Президиума Верховного Совета СССР о награждении орденами СССР частей, соединениий и учреждений ВС СССР. Часть I. 1920–1944 гг.|last=Affairs Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union|year=1967|location=Moscow|language=ru|trans-title=Collection of orders of the RVSR, RVS USSR and NKO on awarding orders to units, formations and establishments of the Armed Forces of the USSR. Part I. 1920–1944|access-date=30 July 2019|archive-date=27 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327003401/https://cloud.mail.ru/public/1336025b4bbd/%25D0%25A7%25D0%25B0%25D1%2581%25D1%2582%25D1%258C%25201%2520(1920-1944).pdf|url-status=dead}} *{{Cite book|url=http://vital.lib.tsu.ru/vital/access/manager/Repository/vtls:000479812?f0=sm_creator%3A%22%D0%93%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2%2C+%D0%92%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%B9+%D0%98%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87%22|title=Вооруженные силы СССР после Второй Мировой войны: от Красной Армии к Советской|last1=Feskov|first1=V.I.|last2=Golikov|first2=V.I.|last3=Kalashnikov|first3=K.A.|last4=Slugin|first4=S.A.|publisher=Scientific and Technical Literature Publishing|year=2013|isbn=978-5-89503-530-6|location=Tomsk|language=ru|trans-title=The Armed Forces of the USSR after World War II: From the Red Army to the Soviet: Part 1 Land Forces|ref={{sfnRef|Feskov et al|2013}}}} *{{cite web|url=https://cdn.obd-memorial.ru/Image2/filterimage?path=Z/012/033-0594258-0029/00000262.jpg&id=76010706|title=Перечень|last=Glubokovskikh|first=Major|date=28 September 1946|website=obd-memorial|publisher=Central Archives of the Russian Ministry of Defence|language=ru|trans-title=List|access-date=20 February 2019}} – Located in fond 33, opus 594258, file 34 of the Central Archives of the Russian Ministry of Defence, a list of units disbanded postwar in the Odessa Military District *Poirer and Connor, Red Army Order of Battle in the Great Patriotic War, 1985 *{{Cite book|title=Великая Отечественная. Командармы. Военный биографический словарь|publisher=Kuchkovo Pole|year=2005|isbn=5860901135|editor-last=Vozhakin|editor-first=Mikhail Georgievich|location=Moscow|language=ru|trans-title=The Great Patriotic War: Army Commanders: Military Biographical Dictionary}} {{Soviet Union divisions before 1945}} {{Soviet Union divisions 1945–57}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2017}}

053 Category:Military units and formations established in 1931 Category:Military units and formations disestablished in 1947