The corps was formed in accordance with a 31 October 1922 directive of the Commander of the Forces of Ukraine and Crimea, the first cavalry corps headquarters formed in the Red Army after the end of the Russian Civil War. The corps was headquartered at Uman in western Ukraine, with the distinguished revolutionary Grigory Kotovsky appointed its commander. The 9th Crimea Cavalry Division at Gaisin and a newly formed cavalry division were assigned to the corps. The new cavalry division at Bershad preserved the designation of Kotovsky's Bessarabia Cavalry Brigade and was soon designated the 4th Bessarabia Cavalry Division.[1] The 4th Cavalry Division was officially renumbered as the 3rd Cavalry Division in January 1923, and relocated to Krizhopol soon afterwards. The 1st and 2nd Cavalry Corps conducted fall cavalry maneuvers in Podolia that year and following the maneuvers the 3rd Cavalry Division was again shifted to Berdichev.[2]
After Kotovsky was killed on 6 August 1925, he was replaced by Nikolai Krivoruchko who was promoted to Komkor in 1935 and who led the corps until July 1937. On 29 April 1927, it was named in honor of the Council of People's Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR. The 5th and 14th Cavalry Divisions joined the corps in 1930 and 1931, respectively. By the end of 1930 the corps included the 12th Kotovsky Red Banner Armored Car Battalion, equipped with BA-27 armored cars.[3]
In 1935, the corps became part of the Kiev Military District when the Ukrainian Military District was split.[4] In July 1937 Kombrig (later Komdiv) Mikhail Khatskilevich took command of the corps. Komdiv Fyodor Kostenko commanded the corps from April 1939 to 26 July 1940. It took part in the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 as part of the 6th Army. In 1940, the 9th Cavalry Division joined the corps, which had become part of the Odessa Military District. Until the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, on 22 June 1941, the corps were stationed in the area of Lvov and Northern Bukovina.[4] On 14 March of that year, Major General Pavel Belov took command of the corps.[5]
The corps was reformed on 23 December 1941, part of the Southern Front. It was commanded by Maj. Gen. Matvei Usenko. It included the 62nd, 64th, and the 70th Cavalry Divisions. The corps moved to the Southwestern Front, where its 64th Cavalry Division was replaced by the 38th Cavalry Division. In May 1942, it fought in the Second Battle of Kharkov as part of the 6th Army, and was almost entirely wiped out. The corps was officially disbanded on 15 July 1942.[6]
^ abcDrig, Yevgeny. "2 кавалерийский корпус имени СНК УССР" [2nd Cavalry Corps named for the Council of People's Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR]. rkka.ru (in Russian). Archived from the original on 4 May 2014. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
Drig, Yevgeny (2019). Войска Семена Михайловича. История организационного строительства стратегической конницы РККА [The Troops of Semyon Mikhailovich: A History of the Organizational Development of the Strategic Cavalry of the Red Army] (in Russian). Moscow: Fond "Russkiye Vityazi". ISBN978-5-6041924-3-6.
Soviet Union corps