On 8 February 1967, for active participation in the partisan movement during the Great Patriotic War and for achievements in the restoration and development of the national economy, the Vitebsk region was awarded the Order of Lenin by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
On 8 February 1967, for active participation in the partisan movement during the Great Patriotic War and for achievements in the restoration and development of the national economy, the Vitebsk region was awarded the Order of Lenin by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.From the very first days of occupation, popular resistance to the invaders unfolded in the Vitebsk region. In the Surazh district, the detachment of Batka Minay (Minay Filippovich Shmyrev) operated, formed in July 1941. During the same period, the detachment of "Uncle Kostya" (Konstantin Sergeyevich Zaslonov), formed on the basis of a group operating in the Orsha underground, began to fight the enemy. Vera Khoruzhaya and Yefrosinya Zenkova, who were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (Khoruzhaya posthumously), Ivan Bekishev, Alexander Belokhvostikov, and others, became prominent figures in the history of the Vitebsk underground.
The liberation of the region began in the autumn of 1943 and continued in the summer of 1944 during Operation Bagration.
During the war years, Vitebsk, Polotsk, and Glubokoye suffered the greatest human losses. For instance, the regional centre was destroyed by more than 93 percent. All enterprises, communal services, trade facilities, educational institutions, healthcare facilities, cultural sites, and residential buildings lay in ruins. Examples of the restoration of individual enterprises testify to the strenuous work of employees and the selflessness and desire to restore the region's industry as quickly as possible. Thus, after the city's liberation, skilled workers began to return to the "Znamya Industrializatsii" (Banner of Industrialization) factory. In the very first days, mechanical and carpentry workshops were equipped and started operating. Thirty sewing machines suitable for operation were salvaged from the ruins and assembled, and a temporary individual tailoring workshop was set up. A shop and a canteen for workers, and a medical post began to operate. By the end of the 1950s, 4 industrial enterprises were operating in the Vitebsk district: a building materials complex, the "Znamya Industrializatsii" and "Krasny Oktyabr" (Red October) factories, and a grinding machine tool plant. In the 1960s, 25 factories and artels were already producing goods here.