Putin announced plans to award the title "City of Labor Valor" to Kurgan and Salekhard

On January 15, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced plans to award the title "City of Labor Valor" to several more cities, including Kurgan and Salekhard, at a meeting of the Russian Victory Organizing Committee.

The Russian leader pointed out that the 63 cities that bear the title "City of Labor Valor" were home to rear enterprises during the Great Patriotic War (WWII), which uninterruptedly provided the front with the most essentials.

"Today we will consider several more applications for this high status. In some of these cities even today successfully operate enterprises related to the defense-industrial complex - these are Kurgan, Kovrov, Myaz, Verkhnyaya Pyshma. Salekhard, our city on the Arctic Circle, has done a lot to help the front," Putin said.

The head of state made a special mention of the Bashkir town of Ishimbay, which is 25% of the oil produced during WWII. In addition, he singled out Tatarstan's Zelenodolsk, where, according to him, 139 ships were rebuilt and more than 4 million artillery shells were created. The residents of Leninsk-Kuznetskiy in the Kemerovo region, the president added, gave the front more than 20 million coal and over 1.5 million rubles to the defense fund.

"The theme of labor exploits, the very image of a man of labor should become another major theme of the events timed to the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory. Recognition of the merits of specific settlements, plants, factories, home front workers, the basis for the formation of a clear world outlook position in young people about the demand for labor valor," Putin concluded.

Earlier, December 20, 2024, it was reported that a new stele with the inscription "Krasnoyarsk - the city of labor valor", the city's coat of arms and a wave symbolizing the Yenisei, began to be installed at the entrance to Krasnoyarsk from the side of Yemelyanovsky district. The construction will be placed at the junction near Drokino, where the reconstruction and expansion of highways leading to the city took place.

The title "City of Labor Valor" appeared in 2020, on the 75th anniversary of the Victory. Thus it was decided to "immortalize the feat of the home front workers during the Great Patriotic War". Requests for the insignia were repeatedly put forward by public associations and deputies of the State Duma.