Battle of Kursk raw decrypts directly to Moscow. Cairncross also provided Soviet intelligence with identifications of the Luftwaffe airfields in the region. Soviet politician Anastas Mikoyan wrote that on 27 March 1943, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin notified him of a possible German attack in the Kursk sector. Stalin and some senior officers were eager to strike first once the rasputitsa ended, but a number of key officers, including Deputy Supreme Commander Georgiy Zhukov, recommended a strategic defensive before going on the offensive. In a letter to the "Stavka" and Stalin, on 8 April, Zhukov wrote: Stalin consulted with his frontline commanders and senior
Theotokos of Kursk Theotokos of Kursk The Kursk Root Icon of the Sign (also Our Lady of Kursk) (, Bogomater Kurskaya Korennaya, literally "Theotokos of Kursk, Found Among the Roots") is an icon of Theotokos of the Sign, apparently painted in the thirteenth century and discovered in a forest near Kursk ca. 1300. The icon was preserved in the Black Hermitage of the Roots ("Chornaya Korennaya Pustyn"), an abbey founded on the spot of its discovery. It was regularly brought from the abbey to Kursk in a great procession involving thousands of peasants and pilgrims. This ceremony is depicted in the famous painting