In the second half of the 1930s - early 1940s, urban development was carried out according to the general plan of 1936 by architect I. Rappoport. In the central streets of Karl Marx, Ordzhonikidze, Lenin, and Soviets, blocks of dwelling houses were built up. New buildings were built for the post office, a polyclinic, a cinema, several secondary schools. All residential buildings, cultural and residential buildings and administrative buildings, almost all streets received electric lighting; radios were conducted in all houses. November 18, 1936 the monument to Lenin was opened in the main square of the city.
By the early 1940's there were ninety enterprises, six large medical institutions, and about forty educational institutions in Polotsk. Polotsk residents visited more than one hundred shops, restaurants, cafes, a stadium and numerous sports grounds, a park of culture and recreation, clubs, libraries, a theater, a cinema, a local history museum.
As of January 1, 1939, almost 30 thousand people lived in Polotsk.