The War of Stories. The Role and Significance of the Battle of Kursk in National and Foreign Historiography

The Battle of Kursk has always caused disputes among historians.Since the end of the war, a huge number of research have been published among Russian and foreign authors.This article analyzes the existing assessments of the Battle of Kursk, and similarities and differences are identified.Particular attention is paid to the problem of distortion and falsification of the events of the battle of Western experts, and the history of the origin of these trends is considered, the works of Soviet and Russian historians are analyzed.Domestic historiography traditionally emphasizes the important role of the Battle of Kursk, in the history of the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War as a whole.The authors focus on the heroism of soldiers and commanders, the superiority of Soviet military science, the most important results and the consequences of the battle.In foreign literature, one can often find information about overstated Soviet losses, doubts about the effectiveness of decisions of the top leadership of the USSR and the Soviet accusations of unjustified victims among personnel.In addition, Western historians, referring to the memoirs of German generals, believe that the landing of allied troops in Sicily played the most important role in the victory of the Red Army.Among the Western authors there are also those who objectively evaluate the events of the Battle of Kursk, but this did not affect the general trend aimed at distorting the events of the war.