Rasony Raion

Rasony Raion is a second-level administrative subdivision (raion) of Belarus in the Vitebsk Region.

In this district the seventh largest lakes in Belarus Nescherdo Lake is situated.

Since the early days of the occupation, a powerful and increasingly well-coordinated Belarusian resistance movement emerged. Hiding in the woods and swamps, the partisans inflicted heavy damage to German supply lines and communications, disrupting railway tracks, bridges, telegraph wires, attacking supply depots, fuel dumps and transports and ambushing German soldiers. Not all anti-German partisans were pro-Soviet.

To fight partisan activity, the Germans had to withdraw considerable forces behind their front line. The Operation Heinrich, a large-scale anti-partisan operation during the occupation, carried from October 3 to November 18, 1943 under code name "Heinrich" (after Heinrich Himmler), which was carried out under overall leadership of SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Polizei Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski commissioned by Himmler for anti-partisan struggle. The Operation Heinrich was a punitive operation directed against the Partisan Republic of Rasony to wipe out the Soviet partisans in the region of Siebież, Pustoszka, Nevel, Polotsk, Drysa, , , Idritsa, a thinly populated area of about 4,000 square kilometers southwest of Pustoshka on the southern border of the Pskov Oblast.

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