Battle of Kursk the total size of the Soviet force was 1,910,361 men, with 1,426,352 actual combat soldiers. Soviet armour strength included 4,869 tanks (including 205 KV-1s heavy tank) and 259 SPGs (including 25 SU-152s, 56 SU-122s and 67 SU-76s) Overall a third of the Soviet tanks at Kursk were light tanks, but in some units this proportion was considerably higher. Of the 3,600 tanks in the Central and Voronezh Fronts in July 1943, 1,061 were light as T-60 and T-70. With very thin armor and small gun, they were unable to effectively engage the frontal armour of German medium and heavy tanks
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