Double holiday in Vitebsk

Today Vitebsk celebrates 1046 years since the founding of the city and 76th anniversary of liberation from the Nazi invaders in the Great Patriotic War. One of the oldest cities in Belarus, a major administrative and industrial center, Vitebsk (according to the chronicle) was founded in 974 by Princess Olga of Kiev. Today the territory of the regional center is more than 12 thousand hectares. During the war the city was almost completely destroyed. On June 26, 1944 the liberators came to meet the surviving 118 inhabitants. In memory of the heroic events flowers were laid to the Eternal Flame on Victory Square.