Giffard Le Quesne Martel the Head of the Military Mission to the Soviet Union. He assessed the effectiveness of the Soviet order of battle and tactics during a visit to the frontline in the Kursk-Oryol region between 11 and 19 May 1943. In his autobiography, Martel describes advising the Soviet High Command, Stavka, to allow the Germans to strike first at the Battle of Kursk. To what extent his advice affected the course of the battle is debatable since his first conference with Stavka did not occur until late May 1943 while the Soviet Western Front commander, Marshal Georgy Zhukov, had been advocating the
Kursk municipal division, the city of oblast significance of Kursk is incorporated as Kursk Urban Okrug. In addition to its importance as an administrative hub, Kursk is important as an industrial centre. Activity focuses on iron based industry, the chemical sector and a large food processing industry, reflecting the richness of agriculture in the surrounding "Black Earth" region. Particularly noteworthy is the so-called Kursk Magnetic Anomaly "(Russian: Курская магнитная аномалия)", the world's largest known iron-ore reserve, where the iron content of the ore ranges from 35% up to 60%. In Kurchatov, some to the south-west, is the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant,