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 State Medical University 1944. Kursk State Medical University Kursk State Medical University is a Russian medical university located in Kursk, western Russia, established in 1935. In 1994 it was granted university status. The decision to create a medical institute was taken in 1935, and the first class of students began their studies in September of that year. The construction of the university buildings was not finished until 1940, which is also when the first group of medical doctors graduated. Between December 1941 and January 1944, the institute was evacuated to Alma-Ata and formed part of the Kazakh Medical Institute. The institute was re-opened