Museum-diorama The Battle of Kursk in Belgorod

The museum-diorama «The Battle of Kursk. Belgorod Direction» was built on the bank of the Vezelka river, near the Victory Park, in 1985. The museum is dedicated to one of the hottest battles of the Great Patriotic War – the tank battle on the Prokhorovskoye Field. It is the most frequented museum of Belgorod.

The main exhibit of the museum is a semicircular canvas of 1000 m2 (width - 67 m, height - 15 m). The diorama was created by the Grekov Studio of War Artists,  namely, by the people`s artists of Russia But, Sevostyanov and Shcherbakov.

The canvas of the diorama depicts the moment of the main stage of the tank battle on the Prokhorovskoye Field, which is often referred to as the «tank duel». The counterattack of the Soviet armies in Belgorod direction began on July 12, 1943. The 5th Tank Army headed by lieutenant general Pavel Rotmistrov began the attack against the battle lines of the II SS Panzer Corps led by Paul Hausser in the direction of Yakovlevo village, on the side of Prokhorovka. Totally, on both sides over 1000 tanks took part in the battle near Prokhorovka.

Soviet tankmen tried to approach as much as possible the Tigers, as the guns of German tanks were much more powerful. The diorama canvas depicts the moment of a tank ramming, as the Soviet Т-34 tanks could not drill a hole in the Tigers. It was a Russian tank driver Alexander Nikokayev who first rammed a German Tiger on July 12, 1943. On that day Soviet tankmen rammed over 20 German tanks.

On the lower floors of the museum-diorama one can visit a very interesting exposition devoted not only to the single battle near Prokhorovka but also the entire operation at the Kursk salient where the Soviet armies could win and finally turn the tide of war.