Presidential Library marks anniversary of victory in Battle of Kursk

23 August 2025 marks the anniversary of the defeat of Nazi forces by Soviet troops in the Battle of Kursk. This day is officially declared Military Glory Day in Russia. In July-August 1943, one of the largest battles of the Great Patriotic War unfolded in the area of Oryol, Kursk, Belgorod, and Kharkov.

Detailed information about this battle is available in the essay The Battle of Kursk (1945), compiled by a group of officers from the Military History Department of the General Staff. The publication is available on the Presidential Library's portal.

Based on the nature of the fighting, the authors of the essay divide the Battle of Kursk into two major stages: "The first was a defensive battle fought by the Central and Voronezh Fronts (5–12 July); the second was the Red Army's offensive and the defeat of the enemy's Oryol and Belgorod-Kharkov groups (12 July–23 August)."

On the morning of 5 July, the main forces of the enemy's strike groups, weakened by the Soviet troops' pre-emptive artillery counter-preparation, went on the offensive. The fiercest battles took place in the Central Front sector, and by 11 July, the German offensive had been halted. After a week of fighting, the enemy, having advanced 8–12 kilometres and suffered significant losses, was forced to switch to defence. In the Voronezh Front sector, by the end of 9 July, the enemy had managed to break through the Soviet defences to a depth of about 35 kilometres.

To thwart the offensive and defeat the enemy's strike force, on 12 July the Voronezh Front command launched a counterattack – the Prokhorovka Tank Battle – which prevented the Germans from breaking through the Soviet defences and reaching Kursk.

The testimony of prisoners and captured documents "indicated that the German command planned to close the pincer and capture Kursk on the fifth day of the offensive, i.e. 9 July." Our troops spent three months preparing to properly meet the enemy. The intense work continued day and night. By the start of the fighting, "all our units were deeply entrenched in the ground, and our military equipment was also buried. This measure helped to increase the strength of our defences and reduce losses."

From the report of General Schmidt, commander of the 19th German Tank Division: "We knew too little about the Russian fortifications in this area before the offensive began. We did not expect even a quarter of what we encountered here. Every bush, every collective farm, all the groves and hills were turned into strongholds. These strongholds were connected by a system of well-camouflaged trenches. Everywhere there were reserve positions for mortars and anti-tank guns. But the hardest thing to imagine was the tenacity with which the Russians defended every trench, every dugout."

On 12 July, a new stage in the Battle of Kursk began – the Soviet counteroffensive. After 10 days of preparation, the Red Army broke through the German defences and liberated Oryol and Belgorod on 5 August.

On 23 August, troops from the Steppe and South-Western Fronts liberated Kharkiv. During the counteroffensive in the Belgorod-Kharkiv direction, Soviet troops advanced 140 kilometres to the south and south-west and took up an advantageous position for a general offensive aimed at liberating the left bank of Ukraine and reaching the Dnieper River.

The Belgorod-Kharkov bridgehead was the strongest "bastion of German defence in the east" and, as one representative of the fascist command put it, "the gateway blocking the Russian armies' path to Ukraine."

Kharkiv was completely cleared of German troops by noon on 23 August 1943. Most of the German forces defending the city were destroyed in fierce street fighting. Pursued by our tank crews and aircraft, the remnants of the enemy forces abandoned their military equipment and fled in panic to the south-west. The Kharkiv German group, most of which had been destroyed during the fighting, ceased to exist.

The Presidential Library portal's digital collection Memories of the Great Victory includes a section dedicated to the Battle of Kursk. It features video materials, photographs, essays and publications, archival text materials, and audio recordings of the memories of those who participated in those events.

The main stages of the Battle of Kursk are covered in the section "Day in History" on the library's website.