Ethnic Composition
As of 1 January 1943, of the 10,250 soldiers and officers of the division, 7,000 of them were ethnic Lithuanians and/or inhabitants of the Lithuanian SSR. The total ethnic make-up of the division was: 3720 Lithuanians (36.3%), 3064 Russians (29%), 2973 Jews (29%), and 492 of other nationalities (4.8%). Although other sources cite figures of 2378 Jews (23.2%) in the division, it is still the highest number of ethnic Jews amongst all divisions of the Red Army. Jews made 13% (136 persons) of all officers in the division and 34.2% of all soldiers in the infantry regiments. 12 soldiers of a division have been awarded the title, Hero of Soviet Union, of them, four were Jews: major Volf Vilensky, sergeant Kalman Shur, corporal Grigorijus Ušpolis and private Borisas Cindelis (posthumously).
Originally, commands and orders were given in the Lithuanian language. However over third of all soldiers in the division did not speak Lithuanian. More problems arose when officers from other divisions were sent to train and transfer their fighting experience to the soldiers of the 16th. Most of them had never heard a word of Lithuanian in their lives, and were mainly Russophone. For these reasons, the language of commands, orders and even conversation, became Russian and also Yiddish.
Read more about this topic: 16th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)
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