Effect of a predominant orientation of cylindrical particles on the lidar return formation with an account for sounding radiation polarization is analyzed based on numerical simulation estimates. Model computational results for a polydisperse ice crystal ensemble with typical particle size Rm = 1.0 and 10.0 μm and radiation wavelength λ = 1.06 μm as well as an algorithm for computing the conversion matrix for passing to the case of arbitrarily oriented cylinders with finite length are presented.