City leaders, representatives of labor collectives, educational institutions, and public organizations took part in the ceremony.

At the solemn rally, the Chairman of the Vitebsk City Executive Committee, Alexey Geroev, noted that the City Day celebration is linked to one of the most important dates in its history – June 26, 1944. The liberation from the Nazi invaders was preceded by three years of oppression, hunger, violence, torture, and humiliation. From the very first days, the Nazis established a bloody order, dooming residents to extinction. Many became victims of the Holocaust and genocide. Five death camps were established in Vitebsk; the most notorious, the 5th Regiment, became a mass grave for over 80,000 people. Vitebsk residents were driven to forced labor in Germany and sent by train to concentration camps in European countries. Cries of pain and suffering emanated daily from the basements of the German Gestapo. According to incomplete data, from July to December 1942 alone, over 3,000 people passed through the torture chambers of the SD prison.

Despite the might of the German war machine, despite terror and mass killings, the townspeople never lost faith in Victory for a moment. The first underground groups began to form as early as July 1941. Vitebsk patriots established connections and assisted partisans and special reconnaissance groups, saved young people from being driven to hard labor, and carried out sabotage on the railway and airfield.

The liberation of the city began on June 23, 1944, with the offensive of the troops of the 1st Baltic and 3rd Belorussian Fronts. The enemy offered fierce resistance; the struggle was for every district, street, house, and basement. A crushing blow was delivered by the troops under the command of Generals Ivan Lyudnikov and Afanasy Beloborodov. The city was cleared of the enemy on June 26, 1944. The destruction of the German grouping near Vitebsk allowed Soviet troops to develop a rapid offensive towards Minsk and the Baltic states.

Alexey Geroev emphasized that the modern, beautiful, well-maintained, and developing Vitebsk is the best monument to those who defended it in 1941, liberated it in 1944, raised it from ruins and ashes, restored the national economy, laying a solid foundation for the life of new generations.

The rally participants honored the memory of the fallen with a minute of silence.

A motor rally took place.

vitebsk-region.gov.by