The Presidential Library marking the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Battle of Kursk

On the morning of August 23, 1943, after stubborn battles, the troops of the Steppe Front under the command of General I. S. Konev liberated Kharkov from the German occupation. This ended the Belgorod-Kharkov strategic offensive operation Rumyantsev and the Battle of Kursk which was one of the largest battles of the Second World War. For 50 days, on a relatively small territory of seven regions of Russia and Ukraine (in a strip of 600 kilometers along the front and up to 150 kilometers in depth), two most powerful groups of the armed forces of the USSR and Germany fought fiercely.   

The defeat on August 23, 1943 by the Soviet troops of the Nazi troops in the Battle of Kursk is the Day of Russia's military glory.

The battle began early in the morning on July 5, 1943, when the German command launched Operation Citadel. The Kursk Bulge (or the Kursk Ledge), up to 150 kilometers deep and up to 200 kilometers wide, was formed in the winter of 1942-1943 during the battles for Voronezh, Kursk, Belgorod and Kharkov.  

On the Kursk bridgehead, the enemy concentrated, according to various estimates, from 780 to 900 thousand people, about 2.7 thousand pieces of equipment.

The Soviet command became aware of the plans of the German leadership in April. John Cairncross, who was part of the Cambridge Five (a network of Soviet agents in the UK), handed over to Moscow a German radiogram intercepted and deciphered by the British, based on which a detailed plan of Operation Citadel was restored. For the first time in the entire war, the plans of the enemy became known in advance. The draft of the Operation Citadel and the operational orders of the Wehrmacht headquarters in the collection of articles "The Battle of Kursk" (1970) are available in the Presidential Library.

In May-June 1943, the Soviet command strengthened the defences and built up forces in the area of the Kursk salient: by the beginning of July, the troops of the Central and Voronezh fronts numbered about 1 million 300 thousand people, more than 3.4 thousand tanks. The forces of the Steppe Front were in reserve: 580 thousand people and 1.5 thousand tanks. Soviet industry was preparing ammunition with increasing power. At the training grounds, our fighters and commanders studied the tactical and technical data of captured "Tigers" and mastered methods of dealing with them. In particular, infantry 45-millimeter cannon crews learned to hit tank tracks at close range.

The northern front of the Kursk Bulge was defended by the troops of the Central Front under the command of K. K. Rokossovsky, and the southern front was defended by the troops of the Voronezh Front under the command of N. F. Vatutin.

The offensive of the Wehrmacht, which was supposed to inflict a crushing blow on the USSR, lasted only one week and already on July 12 ended in complete failure. “Having encountered the heroic resistance of the Soviet troops, the enemy, having suffered huge losses, advanced only 10-12 kilometers in the defense zone of the Central Front and up to 35 kilometers on the Voronezh Front”, - says Colonel V. P. Morozov.

Minefields became a serious obstacle for German technology. In particular, by the end of the first day of the offensive in the 653rd Wehrmacht battalion, only 12 out of 45 Ferdinands remained in service.

A surprise for the Soviet command was the infliction of a stronger blow by the enemy not on the northern face of the Kursk Bulge, but on the southern one. On July 12, the largest tank battle in military history unfolded on this sector of the front near the Prokhorovka station. On both sides, up to 1.2 thousand tanks and self-propelled artillery mounts were involved in it. Difficult terrain did not allow the full power of the Soviet counterattack to be brought down on the enemy: the 5th Guards Tank Army, which fought the 2nd SS Panzer Corps, was sandwiched between the Psyol River on one side and the railway on the other.

On the same day, July 12, the troops of the Western and Bryansk fronts went on the offensive on the northern front, on July 15 - the Central Front. The operation Kutuzov or the Oryol offensive operation began, which resulted in the liberation of the city of Orel on August 5. On August 3, the Soviet command of the forces of the Voronezh and Steppe fronts began to implement Operation Rumyantsev, or the Belgorod-Kharkov Offensive. On August 5, the Red Army liberated Belgorod, on August 23, after a massive assault, Kharkov. This day is considered the date of the end of the Battle of Kursk.  

The Battle of Kursk, which lasted 50 days, became one of the most significant battles of the Great Patriotic War.

According to the research publication "The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" (2011-2015), during the Battle of Kursk, Soviet troops defeated 30 divisions (including 7 tank divisions) of the enemy, whose losses amounted to about 500 thousand people, 3 thousand guns and mortars, over 1.5 thousand tanks and assault guns, over 3.7 thousand aircraft.

Heinz Wilhelm Guderian, Inspector General of the German Tank Forces, stated: “As a result of the failure of the Citadel offensive, we suffered a decisive defeat. Armored troops...due to heavy losses in people and equipment for a long time were put out of action".

The Red Army near Kursk not only withstood the powerful blow of the German troops, but also, having launched a counteroffensive, pushed the enemy back in the southern and southwestern directions for 140–150 kilometers, created the prerequisites for the deployment of a general offensive by the Soviet fronts, the liberation of Left-Bank Ukraine and access to the Dnieper. The victory at the Kursk Bulge marked a radical turning point in the course of the entire Second World War: having forever lost the strategic initiative, Germany and its allies were forced to go on the defensive in all theaters of military operations.

Dmitry Kosenko, the Presidential Library's specialist.