The Best Attractions In Prokhorovka

Visiting PROKHOROVKA, Russia (7/2018)

Prokhorovka is remembered as the largest ever tank battle. In the collective Russian memory it was the turning point of the Battle of Kursk when the infamous Liebstandarte II SS Panzer Division was stopped in it's tracks. This point of view is immortalised on the battlefield in the form of the iconic Prokhorovka Bell Tower and the recently installed art works in front of the impressive local museum.

The first mention of Prokhorovka in historical documents dates back to the second half of the 17th century. Polish nobleman Kiril G. Ilyinsky and his son Sava left during the Russian-Polish war of 1654-67 in Poland under the Belgorod, where they founded the suburb Elias. In 1860 Elias Sloboda was renamed in honor of the reigning Emperor Alexander II in the village of Alexandrov. In the 1880s west of the village passed a line of the Kursk-Kharkov-Azov railway. At the same time Prokhorovka station was built, named after the railway engineer names VI Prokhorov responsible for its construction.

In the summer of 1943, Prokhorovka was the site of the Battle of Prokhorovka, a major armored confrontation during the Battle of Kursk of World War II. In July 2013, Vice Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin offered to establish by 2015 a museum commemorating the battle. The display of armored vehicles will be permanent and the technologies shown there will bring up recollections of the events of World War II.

The Battle of Prokhorovka was fought on 12 July 1943 near Prokhorovka, 87 kilometres southeast of Kursk in the Soviet Union, during the Second World War. Taking place on the Eastern Front, the engagement was part of the wider Battle of Kursk, and occurred when the 5th Guards Tank Army of the Soviet Red Army attacked the II SS-Panzer Corps of the German Wehrmacht in one of the largest tank battles in military history.

Saint Petersburg army museum Short video of artillery and tanks from Russia.

We visited for the May 9 victory parade in Russia.