Railway Transport on the Eve of the Battle of Kursk

Following the defeat of the Nazi troops at Stalingrad, the State Defense Committee (GKO) commenced planning offensive operations in 1943 and restoring the liberated areas of the country. Railway transport played a pivotal role in the complex of all envisioned measures. In this regard, the GKO and the People’s Commissariat of Railways (NKPS) developed a range of issues aimed at facilitating the fulfillment of the assigned tasks, including: augmentation of railway throughput capacity; construction of new railway lines enabling effective preparation of combat operations; establishment of military discipline on railway transport, and others. The aim of this article is to investigate the state and role of railway transport in the process of preparation for the Kursk Battle, which concluded the radical turning point in the course of the Great Patriotic War, to identify and examine the circumstances that enabled it to realize the command’s plans. This work presents the results of research obtained on the basis of sources identified in the documents of the central and regional archives of the Russian Federation. Based on retrospective, ideographic, and comparative methods, an analysis of the effectiveness of railway transport on the eve of the Battle of Kursk is undertaken.