7th Army was reformed in Autumn (second half of) 1940 in the Leningrad Military District. Before the German Operation Barbarossa began it covered the Soviet frontier to the north of Lake Ladoga. Since 24 June 1941 the army included the 54th, 71st, 168th and 237th Rifle Divisions, the 26th Fortified Region, the 55th Composite Aviation Division, and some artillery and engineering formations. It became part of the Northern Front, then the Karelian Front, and conducted defensive operations in Karelia, however losing Ladoga Karelia to the Finns in July–August 1941. On 25 September 1941 it was renamed the 7th Separate Army, directly subordinate to STAVKA, (VGK- the Supreme High Command), and it remained in that status until February 1944. In the middle of October 1941 - June 1944 it defended the