On January 12, 1983, VelIkiye LUki was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, first degree. The city was rewarded for the courage and perseverance shown by the working people during World War Two, and for the successes achieved in economic and cultural development. The award was given on the 40th anniversary of the liberation of Velikiye Luki from the Nazi invaders.

The battle near Velikiye Luki is called the ‘Miniature Battle of Stalingrad’ and ‘Small Stalingrad.’ It entered the chronicle of World War II as a successful operation, since here the Soviet troops surrounded and destroyed a significant group of the enemy a00. Near Velikiye Luki, our soldiers stopped up to 10 German divisions. As a result, the Nazis could not use them in other directions, for example, in the Battle of Stalingrad.

The soldiers of the 3rd Shock Army fought to free their homeland from the German Nazi invaders: they readily went into attack and demonstrated steadfastness and perseverance in battles. For the heroism, courage, and bravery shown in the VelIkiye LIki operation, more than 14,000 soldiers and commanders received high government awards.

One of the most striking examples of this heroism was the storming of the city, which began on December 13, 1942. On the first day of the liberation of the city, Sergeant Genrikh Vinatovsky performed his feat. He took the fighters to the attack, and they forced the Nazis to leave their cover. According to the surviving memoirs, he put a red tobacco pouch over the first house conquered from the enemy and said: ‘From now on, the city is ours! ’. He was seriously wounded in one of the battles, and he died in a hospital in the city of Kalinin. In Velikiye Luki there is a street named after him.

On December 15, 1942, for the first time in the history of the Great Patriotic War, at 2 pm, Senior Lieutenant Mikhail Shishkin and Lieutenant Ivan Smirnov delivered a package to the headquarters of Lieutenant Colonel von Sass with a proposal for the unconditional surrender of the German garrison. The head of the German garrison refused to surrender, citing Hitler’s order. The fighting continued, and on January 17, 1943, the city of Velikiye Luki was liberated from the Nazi invaders.

The ancient city was completely destroyed, practically wiped off the Earth. Out of 55,000 residents, only 12,000 remained in the city. Joseph Stalin, in an order dated January 25, 1943, called the victory in the Velikiye Luki district one of the decisive events at the turn of 1942-1943.