Orsha is one of the oldest cities in Belarus, which arose at the confluence of the rivers Dnieper and Orsitsa. The geographical position of Orsha defined her long-suffering and at the same time glorious, heroic destiny.

For the first time, Orsha is mentioned in the chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years" in 1067. During the XII-XVIII centuries the city was part of the Polotsk principality, then the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Commonwealth, being an important outpost on their eastern borders. Constantly at the center of numerous wars and bloody conflicts, Orsha repeatedly burned and collapsed, but again and again rose from the ashes.

On December 13, 1620, the Orsha townspeople received a royal charter for Magdeburg law. The symbol of self-government was the city coat of arms - on a blue field a silver cross and a golden crescent under it.

For a long time Orsha was not only a trade and handicraft, but also a cultural center of the district. In the XVII-XVIII centuries, 11 monasteries operated in the city, which historians of architecture rightly called "Byelorussian Suzdal", partially preserved buildings of some of them and now show the talent and diligence of our ancestors. A special place in the history of Orthodoxy and Eastern Slavic culture is occupied by the male Kuteinsky Epiphany Monastery, founded in the suburb of Orsha in 1623. In 1630 a printing house was opened with him, which was headed by the famous Belarusian printer and educator Spiridon Sobol. About twenty editions, among which the remarkable "Bukvar" (1631) became the result of her twenty-five-year activity. The glorious traditions of the Orsha wood carvers, icon painters and chasers continue to live in the monastery that has been reborn today. In 1772, Orsha was incorporated into the Russian Empire, for a long time remaining a provincial and provincial town of the Mogilev province.

Only after the abolition of serfdom and the development of capitalist relations does Orsha begin to form as an industrial and transport center. By population growth in the second half of the XIX-early XX century, the city ranks first in Belarus. A special acceleration gave the development of Orsha the construction and the opening in 1871 of the Moscow-Brest Railway. In the early twentieth century, the city, located at the crossroads of several railway lines, became the largest transport hub of the country. During the Soviet period, Orsha entered the top ten cities of Belarus, has become a developed industrial and cultural center.

A glorious page in the heroic chronicle of the struggle of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War was written by the Orshans and defenders of the city. It was here on July 14, 1941, the first salvo of the legendary Katyusha was heard. On the steep Dnieper shore in 1966, a memorial complex "For Our Soviet Motherland!" Was created. in honor of the first volley of Guards rocket mortars. Dozens of underground groups operated in Nazi-occupied Germany. The name of the leader of one of them, the Orsha railway worker, the Hero of the Soviet Union Konstantin Sergeyevich Zaslonov is known to everyone. A bronze monument to the legendary hero meets and escorts trains going through the station Orsha-Central. The Orsans cherish the memory of the heroes of the last war. At the foot of the Mound of Immortality, the eternal fire burns in the Memorial Park of Heroes. In honor of the soldiers, partisans and underground fighters who liberated the city, in 1978, a majestic Memorial Sign was erected on one of the central squares of Orsha. In 1984, for the courage and steadfastness shown by the city workers during the Great Patriotic War, and for the successes achieved in economic and cultural construction, Orsha was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree.

Modern Orsha is a large industrial city. The qualitative and competitive products of the flax factory, the machine-tool factory "Krasny Borets", the food industry are well known. In the city of Orsha are concentrated the enterprises of machine building and metalworking, radioelectronic, light and food industries, construction industry, communications, railway and motor transport, trade and public catering, public utilities and consumer services, education, culture and public health. In general, the city of Orsha represents a 140-thousand-strong multi-national economic complex.

The industry of the city is represented by 27 enterprises. A large share (about 50 percent) in the total production of the city's industry is occupied by light industry enterprises ("Orsha Linen Mill" (90 percent), CJSC "Industrial and Trading Firm "Svitanak", joint venture" Dynamo-Program ", art factory) The share of machine building and metalworking in the volume of industrial production is 12 percent, meat and milk and foodstuffs 28 percent, the construction materials industry 2.2 percent. montno-building organizations, 6 factories of motor transport. According to the ministry of the Republic of Belarus the volume of industrial production in Orsha is 9.8 per cent of the industrial output of the Vitebsk region. The number of industrial personnel is about 25 thousand people.

In Orsha, certain conditions have been created for solving social questions. In the city there are 22 secondary schools, 5 vocational schools, 2 technical schools, pedagogical college, medical school. For the residents of the city work the Palace of Culture, clubs and libraries, hospitals and polyclinics, stadiums and swimming pools. In Orsha there are 5 state museums, a historical and cultural center is being created.