The pennant "For Courage and Resilience during the Great Patriotic War" has been awarded to six Belarusian cities
On April 8, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko signed Decree No. 144 "On awarding the pennant "For Courage and Resilience during the Great Patriotic War". BELTA was informed about this by the press service of the head of state.
Lukashenko awarded nine settlements of Belarus with a pennant for courage and resilience during the war
Six cities of Belarus have been awarded the pennant as an example of feat and popular resistance shown during the Great Patriotic War. Among them are Kobryn, Rechitsa, Slonim, Senno, Slavgorod, and Smolevichi.
In these settlements, centers of armed resistance against the Nazi invaders operated at all stages of the war, with active participation from the local party-Komsomol and patriotic underground, partisan formations, and people's militia forces, which cooperated with units of the regular Red Army.
This decree is aimed at immortalizing and preserving the historical memory of the heroic past of the Belarusian people, as well as patriotic education of the population. The awarding of pennants is planned to coincide with Victory Day. In total, 36 cities and settlements in Belarus have been awarded this honor.
In the popular memory and textbooks on military art, both the widely known Battle of Senno or the Lepel counter-offensive, and the little-known but no less fierce battles on the Shchara River near Slonim will forever remain.
For almost a month, the defenders of Slonim fought their way into the city to recapture it from the enemy. The success in liberating the city in 1944 would later play a decisive strategic role in the Red Army's offensive on Berlin.
For almost two months, Slavgorod changed hands several times. Rechitsa and Slavgorod formed a powerful fist of people's militia from the first days of the war, while in Kobryn and Smolevichi, partisan and party-Komsomol underground movements gained mass momentum.
Senno and its surroundings became a partisan region with over a hundred detachments of people's avengers and a liaison airfield.
The contribution of the residents of these Belarusian cities to the successful completion of the "Rail War" operation, the preparation of the "Bagration" operation, and the defeat of the surrounded largest Wehrmacht grouping "Center" in the jaws of the "Minsk Cauldron" is invaluable.
Thousands of patriots fought heroically against the enemy under occupation and helped the Red Army bring the long-awaited liberation closer in the enemy's rear. During the war, the Nazis destroyed over 60,000 civilians in total.
cities awarded with the pennant.