Polotsk region was formed on August 15, 1924.
The total land area is 3200 square kilometers, forests cover 1883.5 square kilometers (53% of the territory), lakes - 106 sq. km. The largest of them are Yanovo, Chervyatka, Navlitsa, Gomel. There are 311 lakes in the region, 61 having fishery importance.
The Zapadnaya Dvina river flows through the region with numerous tributaries: Obolyanka, Polota, Ushacha, Nacha, Sosnitsa, Turovlyanka, Belchanka, etc. There are 21 rivers in the region.
The population of Polotsk region is about 23 thousand people.
Administratively, the region is divided into 14 village councils, covering 401 settlements (including 14 agro-towns and 1 urban village Vetrino).
In the south, the region borders on Ushachy and Glubokoe regions, in the south-west - on Verkhnedvinsk region, in the north-west - on Rossony region, in the north - on Gorodok region, in the north-east - on Shumilino region.
The region is crossed by the railway lines Nevel-Polotsk-Molodechno, Vitebsk-Polotsk-Daugavpils, republican and regional highways.
The natural landscape creates favorable conditions for the development of tourism and recreation. More than half of the region's territory is occupied by forests, 28 thousand hectares are 114 swamps. There are 270 lakes in the region, every fourth having fishing importance.
Near Lake Yanovo, there is a unique monument of the pagan culture of the ancient Slavs - an astronomical observatory built of boulders. In its purpose and structure, it is similar to the famous Stonehenge in Great Britain. As historians believe, at Yanovo, the ancient ancestors of the Belarusians worshiped the god Kupala and determined the exact date of the summer solstice.
