PARTICIPATION OF SIBERIAN RIFLE DIVISIONS IN THE BATTLE OF SMOLENSK
This article is devoted to formations from the Siberian Military District that took part in the Smolensk Defensive Battle in July - September 1941.The combat path of five rifle divisions that left for the front as part of the 24th Army is considered. The description of the front-line fate goes from the moment of loading into echelons and sending to Smolensk until the end of the battle of Smolensk, i.e. until September 10, 1941. The main sources of the article were archival documents from the CA MO, which are publicly available in the generalized data bank "Memory of the People": combat logs, operational reports and combat orders of the headquarters of the Western Front and its subordinate armies (19th and 24th), historical forms and brief combat characteristics, staff maps of the Western Front. In addition to Soviet documents, the biographies of two German military leaders were used: Colonel-General G. Goth, commander of the 3rd Panzer Group, which was advancing near Smolensk, and Field-Marshal F. von Bock, Commander of Army Group Center. The article describes the participation of the 91st and 166th rifle divisions in the July counterattacks as part of the Kalinin task force and the breakthrough of the encircled consolidated group of General Boldin, the elimination of a large German group in the Dukhovshchina area, the construction of new defensive lines by the 133rd and 178th divisions at Vyazma , the contribution of the 107th sd to repelling the attacks of German tank and motorized units in the Yelnya area and the elimination of the Yelninsky salient, individual heroic episodes testifying to fearless Siberian shooters.