KURSK, August 23 (RIA Novosti, Karina Smirnova) - Russia is celebrating the 62nd anniversary of a major WWII victory Tuesday in this southwestern city, a local official said.
The celebration of the Battle of Kursk's anniversary begins early with a ceremony laying wreaths and flowers at a monument to Soviet soldiers and at the Kursk Salient Memorial.
A monument to the prominent Russian World War II Marshal Konstantin Rokissovsky is scheduled to be unveiled at 7a.m. GMT in the square, named after Rokossovsky.
The celebrations will end with concerts in the city's main square.
The Battle of Kursk, which covered the territories of the present Oryol, Bryansk, Kursk, Belgorod, Sumy, Kharkov and Poltava regions (the first four are in Russia, the remaining in Ukraine) lasted 50 days.
The period between July 5 and August 23, 1943 was filled with furious fighting, on land as well as in the air. The battle involved 4 million people, more than 69,000 guns and mortars, 13,200 tanks and self-propelled guns and up to 12,000 warplanes on both sides.
The Battle of Kursk became a turning point in World War II, marking a significant win for the Allied Powers.
