Battle of Kursk officers of the General Staff from 12 to 15 April 1943. In the end he and the "Stavka" agreed that the Germans would probably target Kursk. Stalin believed the decision to defend would give the Germans the initiative, but Zhukov countered that the Germans would be drawn into a trap where their armoured power would be destroyed, thus creating the conditions for a major Soviet counteroffensive. They decided to meet the enemy attack by preparing defensive positions to wear out the German groupings before launching their own offensive. Preparation of defences and fortifications began by the end of April, and
Kursk submarine disaster Their response was compared to the Soviet style of cover up and stonewalling like that during the Chernobyl disaster. Minister of Defence Sergeyev said in interviews on 21 March 2000, that he had never refused any foreign help. "The Guardian" wrote in a 2002 review of two books, "Kursk, Russia's Lost Pride" and "A Time to Die: The Kursk Disaster": While most experts agreed that a torpedo had exploded, they differed on what caused the explosion. Many Russians did not believe that "Kursk" could be so easily sunk. The tragedy spawned a number of wild conspiracy theories to explain the