Soviet Guards: Stalin's Chosen?

What is it with Soviet Guards Armies, Corps, Divisions and other units in World War 2? Were the elite units? Was the title earned or just given? What about Guards Air units? Or the Katyusha units. Well, time to find out.
First, although by the end of 1941 only 10 rifle divisions had earned the title , by the end of the war there were more than 100 Guards Rifle Divisions alone. But the Guards title was not limited to the infantry, there were also Guards Tank Divisions.

Cover: RIA Novosti archive, image #93172 / Vsevolod Tarasevich / CC-BY-SA 3.0
Defenders of Leningrad : Great Patriotic War soldiers in attack.

Cover colorization and adaption by vonKickass.

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» SOURCES «

Hill, Alexander: The Red Army and the Second World War. Armies of the Second World War. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, 2017.

BArch: RH 27-1/29: Kriegstagebuch Nr. 6 (Russland) 1. Panzer-Division.

Rottman, Gordon L.: Soviet Rifleman 1941-45. Osprey Publishing: Oxford, UK, 2011 (2007).

Glantz, David M.: Colossus Reborn. The Red Army at War, 1941-1943. University Kansas Press: Kansas, US, 2005.

Armstrong, Richard N.: Red Army Legacies. Essays on Forces, Capabilities, & Personalities. Schiffer Military History: Atglen, PA, USA, 1995.

Nebolsin, Igor: Tank Battles in East Prussia and Poland 1944-1945.Helion & Company: Warwick, UK, 2019.

Prenatt, Jamie: Katyusha. Russian Multiple Rocket Launchers 1941-Present. Osprey Publishing Ltd.: Oxford, UK, 2016.

Sharp, Charles C.: The Soviet Order of Battle. World War II. An Organizational History of the Major Combat Units of the Soviet Army. Volume III: “Red Storm”. The Mechanized Corps and Guards Armored Units 1942 to 1945. George F. Nafziger: no location, 1995.

Sharp, Charles C.: The Soviet Order of Battle. World War II. An Organizational History of the Major Combat Units of the Soviet Army. Volume IV: “Red Guards”. The Guards Rifle and Airborne Units 1941 to 1945. George F. Nafziger: no location, 1995.

Zaloga, Steven J.; Ness, Leland S.: Companion to the Red Army 1939-1945. The History Press: Gloucesterhire, UK, 1998 (2009).

Zamulin, Valeriy: The Battle of Kursk. Controversial and neglected Aspects. Helion & Company: England, 2017.

Dick, C. J.: From Defeat to Victory. The Eastern Front, Summer 1944. University of Kansas Press: Kansas, US, 2016.

Wikipedia Articles for Mass and cross-referencing

#RedGuards,#SovietGuards,#RedArmy

[Scientist]

I'm glad you are covering this. I was a bit fascinated with the reasoning behind the "Guard" units and seeing this helps this out.

[BigL]

Very interesting to hear about the Red Army, since there is so little focus on them in western media.

[MilitaryHistoryNotVisualized]

*IMPORTANT CORRECTION* the quote at 9:45 is: (Thanks to my supporters Andrew & Minion for pointing this out)
“The need to return wounded Guards troops to their own units or at least another Guards unit was stressed in the same February 1944 General Staff document that raised concerns about locally recruited ‘criminal elements and traitors to the Motherland’ from occupied territory finding their way into Guards units.” (Hill, Alexander: The Red Army and the Second World War. Armies of the Second World War. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, 2017, p. 238)

[audun]

So if i understand this correctly, the guards designation was used to strengthen morale and unit cohesion. Either in units that have been through hell or units that are expected to go through hell.
Seems more pragmatic than ideological.

[jamie]

His hair just fought a delaying action and regrouped on the lower half of his face.

[BobSmith-dknw]

Thanks that was interesting.

I'm not sure why but there seems to be a tendency to reassign people coming out of hospital to other units. When I came out of Oakland Naval Hospital after my sinus surgery - I had assumed I'd just go back to my old platoon - and my old cubicle where my wall locker was. But - they told me to go to this other squad. I wasn't happy - and asked - if I could just go back to my old squad and mentioned that my wall locker was still there. They let me do it. _shrug_ but if I hadn't asked - they'd have stuck me in that other squad.

Other people in the American Army during WWII - commented on being assigned to a "repple depple" or replacement depot after recovering from wounds - and - had to really exercise some individual initiative (such as deserting to find their old units by hitching a ride). Once back in their old unit - that unit - took care of the bureaucracy and straightened the paper work out so they could keep their veteran.

Other times - they were sent back to their parent units as a matter of course.

I've no idea beyond that. But I surmise that the military bureaucracy was a problem for everyone.

My guess would be ... without anything to back it up but an experience with military bureaucracy ... that it was simply easier on the admin puke writing up your orders to send you to a replacement depot which was supposed to see to the replacement assignment priorities of the army at the moment.

So ... maybe ... the guy in personnel telling me to go to the other unit - knew it was short some men - and wanted to use me to even things out ... but when I asked it was easier to let me do what I wanted than argue with me ... so that's what he did. _shrug_

I suspect that it being easier to write up the paper work for the admin pukes had more to do with how things were done than people might imagine ...

There is actually a novel _A Soldier of the Great War_
where one of the things that happens - is that in the Italian Army in WWI - orders had to be written out in very stylish penmanship - and there were specific people with really good hand writing assigned to copy orders into this format. One such person however (in the novel) takes it upon himself to not merely copy the orders into his beautiful penmanship - but to change them as well - sending out units to do what he thought they should be doing ...
.

[od]

Thanks for attempting to make some sense of the Guards title. Pilyushin in his book Red Sniper, says the Leningrad militia was male and female integrated until federalization. .. then women were moved out or to "female jobs" like Traffic Control, clerk or medic, ... ( Which was dangerous and the Russian medics did amazing things.. that would be another interesting topic) Although he reports that some managed to stay in the Scout/Sniper platoon..( at Battalion?) for a while. The Female Combat Russian soldier is not as clear as I originally thought. .. I suspect many feel this way. I suggest this as a future topic.

[maciejniedzielski]

Very interesting épisode. Should be more like that about organisation of different armies not just WH 😉

[kurtberliner]

The Guard's Song is one of my favorite songs of the Soviet Union in WW2, and its cool to see a video about the units in English.

[ww]

I find it hilarious that it seems European armies "guards" units are elite units. But, the American Army our "Guardsmen" are more weekend warriors

[Skunk]

Great content :) TIK and yourself are brilliant content creators

[Виктор_В]

1:18 "Strelkovy/strelky" means shooters or skirmishers maybe fusiliers, but it's less specific.

[ineednochannelyoutube]

So its basically the equivalent of a unit citation.

[henrikg]

Well, Thank you for that. I have been asking precisely that question for a looong time, and I think you gave me the short answer about half a year ago. Now I can finally put it to rest.

[sairadha]

You added subtitles. Finally thank you.

[genericpersonx]

Napoleon is said to have said, “It is amazing what a man will do for a piece of colored ribbon.” Unsurprisingly, the Red Army figured out that it had to work hard to keep up morale because despite the desire of many these days to downplay the combat efficacy of the Germans in WW2, the Red Army certainly was paying a heavy price in blood and treasure no matter what they were fighting against. No matter how many more tanks, planes, artillery, and men the Red Army had in a fight, the Germans always seemed to kill a lot of them before the fight was won, and the individual Red Army soldier could only handle so many lost comrades and close calls with death before he started to lose the zeal to advance with the same vigor that his commanders might depend on. Call that man Guardsman Sokolovsky of the Guards 1st Rifle Regiment might be just the thing to get him to make that dash for the machinegun nest that he would have shrunk from when he was only Rifleman Sokolovsky of the 163rd Rifle Regiment.

[Slotfan]

Cool episode, was hoping for some specifics on what was different in the TO&Es, as that is pretty hard to come by, but still, very interesting!

[sovpha]

Thank you for this great video. Great job).

[Matt_The_Hugenot]

Interesting. I had assumed that those with the Guards title in other units were seconded from Guards units.

There were a few precedents for use if the title Guards in non monarchical Guards countries. Revolutionary and Napoleonic France also used the Guards title for elite units intended to protect the institutions of government from counter revolutionaries, eventually these became Napoleon's Imperial Guard. Several Units in the US acquired the Guards title in the early 19th century.

[stevekaczynski]

In the 1936 Soviet film "We Are from Kronshtadt", a sailor, one of the main characters, likes to say the word "Pyekhota" ("Infantry") dismissively. Inter-service rivalry but it may have been part of a mood that "infantry" was not very charismatic and so they were called riflemen instead.
Perhaps not unique to the USSR - US Marines are called riflemen, not infantry.