Activated in October 1941 as the 7th Reserve Army, the Army was redesignated the 62nd Army at Stalingrad in July 1942. It was among the victors of Stalingrad and thus redesignated the 8th Guards Army.

In 1945 the Soviet 8th Guards Army was commanded by Lieutenant General Vasily Chuikov. It was part of Marshal Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front. One of the cities which the Army took in its westward drive was Poznan, which the Army seized in January-February 1945. Afterwards, the 8th Guards Army spearheaded the Red Army drive to Berlin in the spring of 1945, where on 2 May 1945, Chuikov took the surrender of the German General Weidling, the commander of the Berlin Defensive Area, and the rest of the Berlin garrison.