The 50th Anniversary of Victory on the Kursk Bulge

Obverse

in the center — a view of the dome of the Senate building and the Saviour's Tower of the Moscow Kremlin, to the right - the mint trademark. The inscriptions along the rim framed by a circle of dots: at the top — «ТРИ РУБЛЯ 1993 г.» (THREE RUBLES 1993), at the bottom — «БАНК РОССИИ» (BANK OF RUSSIA).

Reverse

an episode of a tank battle on the Kursk Bulge with a map of the battle in the background. The inscription along the rim - "50 ЛЕТ ПОБЕДЫ НА КУРСКОЙ ДУГЕ" (THE 50th ANNIVERSARY OF VICTORY ON THE KURSK BULGE).

Authors

The artist: A.A. Kolodkin
The sculptor: M.A. Sysa
Leningrad Mint (ЛМД)
The edge - two incised insriptions "ТРИ РУБЛЯ" (THREE RUBLES) separated by two asterisks.

The Battle of Kursk - one of the largest battles of the Second World War. In a bid to regain initiative after the Stalingrad debacle, German troops on July 5, 1943, began Operation Citadel, a large-scale offensive in the direction of Orel-Kursk and Belgorod-Kursk. These plans were frustrated by a counteroffensive of the Soviet army, which routed 30 enemy divisions and in August liberated Orel, Belgorod and Kharkov. It is in the summer of 1943 that the largest tank battle of the Second World War was fought at Prokhorovka, in which 1,200 tanks were involved on both sides. The victory on the Kursk Bulge finally gave the Soviet army the strategic initiative which it held till the end of the war.