The Battle of Kursk Begins, July 5, 1943

On July 5, 1943 the genocidal Nazi invaders of the Soviet Union launched what would be their last great offensive in the east, an epic conflagration that would later be called the Battle of Kursk and that would last until the end of August. After weeks of intense fighting the soldiers of the Red Army beat back the Nazis at tremendous cost and turned the tide once and for all on the Eastern Front.

Kursk was the largest tank battle in human history and after Kursk -- though many hard days were still ahead -- the people of the Soviet Union through their courage and sacrifice had laid the path that would lead to the total defeat of the Third Reich in the streets Berlin just under two years later.

Here we look at an account of the battle with photographs that was published in Soviet Life Magazine in 1985. We must never forget the heroic sacrifices of the Red Army and the peoples of the USSR in the defeat of Nazism and fascism, especially as far right regimes in Eastern Europe and elsewhere seek ever more brazenly to distort and erase this history.

See also: Second World War Hero Cities of the USSR w. photos and text