on the right bank, fighting in a counterattack on the left flank of the German forces in Stalingrad. The division continued to fight in this bridgehead until 18 November 1942, when Operation Uranus began. The division fought with the 5th Tank Army and later the 1st Guards Army in the offensive and in October Rusakov became commander of the 38th Guards Rifle Regiment of the division before becoming division chief of staff in December. Rusakov and the 14th Guards fought in Operation Little Saturn in the second half of December, during which the division captured Bokovskaya and Morozovsk, cutting off rail access to Stalingrad, then advanced towards Voroshilovgrad. During Operation Gallop, Rusakov succeeded to command of the division on 26 January 1943 as it advanced with the 3rd Guards Army. By 15 April, the division was relocated to the Belyi Kholodets area to take up defensive positions as a result of the German counteroffensive in the Third Battle of Kharkov. With the 57th Army of the Steppe Front, Rusakov led the division in the Belgorod–Kharkov Offensive, then in the advance into Left-bank Ukraine. In early September, after the capture of Merefa and the crossing of the Mzha River, the 57th Army did not see further offensive success. Rusakov, by then a colonel, was relieved of command of the division on 11 September for failing to timely comply with an order to capture Mikhailovka and Borki, and demoted to chief of staff of the 58th Guards Rifle Division. Rusakov joined the 58th Guards during fighting for Krasnograd, for which it received the name of the city as an honorific. During the Battle of the Dnieper, on 24 September, he was given command of the division and tasked with crossing the Dnieper north of Verkhnedneprovsk. As part of the 27th Guards Rifle Corps of the 57th Army, the division was one of the first to cross the Dnieper north of Verkhnedneprovsk and captured a bridgehead on the right bank. Thirteen soldiers of the division were made Heroes of the Soviet Union for their actions and the 58th Guards was commended for its actions in the capture of Verkhnedneprovsk on 22 October. Between January and March 1944, the division fought in the Nikopol–Krivoi Rog Offensive, the Bereznegovatoye–Snigirevka Offensive, and the Odessa Offensive as part of the 37th Army. During the Odessa Offensive, Rusakov was wounded on 13 March and was evacuated to a