The 251st Rifle Division was raised in 1941, within days of the German invasion, as a standard Red Army rifle division, and served for the duration of the Great Patriotic War in that role. Its men escaped encirclement in October and returned to Soviet lines in good enough shape to avoid disbandment. In the following two and a half years the division slogged through the difficult and costly battles around Rzhev and Smolensk before distinguishing itself by assisting in the liberation of the city of Vitebsk in June 1944.