Chernyakhovsk (russian: Черняхо́вск) – known prior to 1946 by its

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

name of (Old Prussian: Instrāpils, lt, Įsrutis; pl, Wystruć) – is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

in the

Kaliningrad Oblast Kaliningrad Oblast (russian: Калинингра́дская о́бласть, translit=Kaliningradskaya oblast') is the westernmost federal subject of Russia. It is a semi-exclave situated on the Baltic Sea. The largest city and administr ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, where it is the

administrative center An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or ...

Chernyakhovsky District Chernyakhovsky District (russian: Черняховский райо́н) is an administrative district (raion), one of the fifteen in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia.Law #463 As a municipal division, it is incorporated as Chernyakhovsky Municipal Dist ...

. Located at the

confluence In geography, a confluence (also: ''conflux'') occurs where two or more flowing bodies of water join to form a single channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main stem); o ...

of the Instruch and

Angrapa The Angrapa (, , , ) is a river that begins in northeastern Poland and ends in the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia. Originating in Lake Mamry, it joins the 101-km-long Instruch at a point near Chernyakhovsk – variously assessed as lying 140, 169 ...

rivers, which unite to become the

Pregolya The Pregolya or Pregola (russian: Прего́ля; german: Pregel; lt, Prieglius; pl, Pregoła) is a river in the Russian Kaliningrad Oblast exclave. Name A possible ancient name by Ptolemy of the Pregolya River is Chronos (from Germanic *''h ...

river below Chernyakhovsk, the town had a population in 2017 of 36,423.

History

Chernyakhovsk was founded in 1336 by the

Teutonic Knights The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians on ...

on the site of a former Old Prussian fortification when

Dietrich von Altenburg Dietrich von Altenburg was the 19th Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, serving from 1335 to 1341. He came from the Thuringian town of Altenburg in the Holy Roman Empire, where his father held the office of a burgrave of the immediate Ple ...

, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, built a

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

called ''Insterburg'' following the Prussian Crusade. During the Teutonic Knights'

Northern Crusades The Northern Crusades or Baltic Crusades were Christianity and colonialism, Christian colonization and Christianization campaigns undertaken by Catholic Church, Catholic Christian Military order (society), military orders and kingdoms, primarily ...

campaign against the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire of Austria. The state was founded by Li ...

, the town was devastated in 1376. The castle had been rebuilt as the seat of a Procurator and a settlement also named ''Insterburg'' grew up to serve it. In 1454, Polish King Casimir IV Jagiellon incorporated the region to the Kingdom of Poland upon the request of the anti-Teutonic

Prussian Confederation The Prussian Confederation (german: Preußischer Bund, pl, Związek Pruski) was an organization formed on 21 February 1440 at Kwidzyn (then officially ''Marienwerder'') by a group of 53 nobles and clergy and 19 cities in Prussia, to oppose the a ...

. During the subsequent Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466) between Poland and the Teutonic Knights, the settlement was devastated by Polish troops in 1457. After the war, since 1466, the settlement was a part of Poland as a

fief A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an Lord, overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a for ...

held by the Teutonic Knights. When the Prussian Duke

Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach Albert of Prussia (german: Albrecht von Preussen; 17 May 149020 March 1568) was a German prince who was the 37th Grand Masters of the Teutonic Knights, Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, who after converting to Lutheranism, became the first r ...

in 1525

secularized In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. The ''secularization thesis'' expresses the ...

the monastic State of the Teutonic Order per the Treaty of Kraków, Insterburg became part of the

Duchy of Prussia The Duchy of Prussia (german: Herzogtum Preußen, pl, Księstwo Pruskie, lt, Prūsijos kunigaikštystė) or Ducal Prussia (german: Herzogliches Preußen, link=no; pl, Prusy Książęce, link=no) was a duchy in the Prussia (region), region of P ...

, a vassal duchy of the Kingdom of Poland. The settlement was granted

town privileges Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the tradition ...

on 10 October 1583 by the Prussian regent Margrave George Frederick. Insterburg became part of the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Re ...

in 1701, and because the area had been depopulated by

plague Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pes ...

in the early 18th century, King

Frederick William I of Prussia Frederick William I (german: Friedrich Wilhelm I.; 14 August 1688 – 31 May 1740), known as the "Soldier King" (german: Soldatenkönig), was King in Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg from 1713 until his death in 1740, as well as Prince of Neuch ...

invited

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

refugees who had been expelled from the

Archbishopric of Salzburg The Prince-Archbishopric of Salzburg (german: Fürsterzbistum Salzburg; Erzstift Salzburg; Erzbistum Salzburg) was an ecclesiastical principality and state of the Holy Roman Empire. It comprised the secular territory ruled by the archbishops of ...

to settle in Insterburg in 1732. During the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754� ...

, the town was occupied by

. During the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

troops passed through the town in 1806, 1807, 1811 and 1813. In 1818, after the

, the town became the seat of

Insterburg District Chernyakhovsk (russian: Черняхо́вск) – known prior to 1946 by its German language, German name of (Old Prussian: Instrāpils, lt, Įsrutis; pl, Wystruć) – is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in the Kaliningrad Ob ...

within the Gumbinnen Region. Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly died at Insterburg in 1818 on his way from his Livonian manor to Germany, where he wanted to renew his health. In 1863, a Polish secret organization was founded and operated in Insterburg, which was involved in arms trafficking to the Russian Partition of Poland during the

January Uprising The January Uprising ( pl, powstanie styczniowe; lt, 1863 metų sukilimas; ua, Січневе повстання; russian: Польское восстание; ) was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at ...

. Since May 1864, the leader of the organization was Józef Racewicz. Insterburg1899

Insterburg became a part of the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

following the 1871

unification of Germany The unification of Germany (, ) was the process of building the modern German nation state with federalism, federal features based on the concept of Lesser Germany (one without multinational Austria), which commenced on 18 August 1866 with ad ...

, and on May 1, 1901, it became an independent city separate from Insterburg District. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

the

Russian Army The Russian Ground Forces (russian: Сухопутные войска �В Sukhoputnyye voyska V, also known as the Russian Army (, ), are the Army, land forces of the Russian Armed Forces. The primary responsibilities of the Russian Gro ...

seized Insterburg on 24 August 1914, but it was retaken by Germany on 11 September 1914. The Weimar Germany era after World War I saw the town separated from the rest of the country as the province of

East Prussia East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...

had become an

exclave An enclave is a territory (or a small territory apart of a larger one) that is entirely surrounded by the territory of one other state or entity. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is sometimes used improperly to deno ...

. The

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

club Yorck Boyen Insterburg was formed in 1921. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the Germans operated the Stalag 336

prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, and military prisons. P ...

for

Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

POWs in the town. The town was heavily bombed by the British

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

on July 27, 1944. The town was stormed by

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

troops on January 21–22, 1945. As part of the northern part of East Prussia, Insterburg was transferred from Germany to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

after the war as previously agreed between the victorious powers at the

Potsdam Conference The Potsdam Conference (german: Potsdamer Konferenz) was held at Potsdam in the Soviet occupation zone from July 17 to August 2, 1945, to allow the three leading Allies to plan the postwar peace, while avoiding the mistakes of the Paris Pe ...

. On 7 April 1946, Insterburg was renamed as Chernyakhovsk in honor of the Soviet World War II Army General,

Ivan Chernyakhovsky Ivan Danilovich Chernyakhovsky (russian: Ива́н Дани́лович Черняхо́вский; – 18 February 1945) was the youngest-ever Soviet General of the army. For his leadership during World War II he was awarded t ...

, who commanded the army that first entered East Prussia in 1944. After 1989, a group of people introduced the Akhal-Teke horse breed to the area and opened an Akhal-Teke breeding

stable A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals and livestock. There are many different types of stables in use today; the ...

Administrative and municipal status

Within the framework of administrative divisions, Chernyakhovsk serves as the

.Resolution #640 As an administrative division, it is, together with five rural localities, incorporated within Chernyakhovsky District as the

town of district significance Town of district significance is an administrative division of a district in a federal subject of Russia. It is equal in status to a selsoviet or an urban-type settlement of district significance, but is organized around a town (as opposed to a ...

of Chernyakhovsk. As a municipal division, the town of district significance of Chernyakhovsk is incorporated within Chernyakhovsky Municipal District as Chernyakhovskoye Urban Settlement.Law #262

Population trends

Military

Chernyakhovsk is home to the Chernyakhovsk naval air facility.

Coat of arms controversy

On September 2019 the local court ruled that the coat of arms was illegal because it carries "elements of foreign culture." The local court alleged that Russian laws do not allow the use of foreign languages and symbols in Russian state symbols and ordered the town "to remove any violations of the law." The town's coat of arms, adopted in 2002, was based on the historic coat of arms of the town that before 1946 was known under its original

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

n name – Insterburg. The full version of coat of arms in question has a picture of a Prussian man with a horn and the Latin initials G.F. for the Regent of Prussia George Frederick,

margrave Margrave was originally the medieval title for the military commander assigned to maintain the defence of one of the border provinces of the Holy Roman Empire or of a kingdom. That position became hereditary in certain feudal families in the Emp ...

Brandenburg-Ansbach The Principality or Margraviate of (Brandenburg-)Ansbach (german: Fürstentum Ansbach or ) was a principality in the Holy Roman Empire centered on the Franconian city of Ansbach. The ruling House of Hohenzollern, Hohenzollern princes of the land ...

(1543–1603), who gave Insterburg the status of town and with it his family coat of arms. The case brought before the court follows a trend among several towns in the region that have announced their intentions to change their coat of arms as tensions mount between Russia and the West following the

annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation In February and March 2014, Russia invaded and subsequently annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. This event took place in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity and is part of the wider Russo-Ukrainian War. The events in Kyiv th ...

in 2014 and its support for pro-Russian separatists in

eastern Ukraine Eastern Ukraine or east Ukraine ( uk, Східна Україна, Skhidna Ukrayina; russian: Восточная Украина, Vostochnaya Ukraina) is primarily the territory of Ukraine east of the Dnipro (or Dnieper) river, particularly Khark ...

Notable people

Martin Grünberg Martin Grünberg (born 1655, Insterburg, then in East Prussia, now in Russia – between 16 and 23 October 1706 or 1707Precise date of death unknown) was a German architect and master builder. Life He was active in Berlin from 1687 onwards, af ...

(1665–c.1706), architect * Johann Otto Uhde (1725–1766), composer and violinist *

Johann Friedrich Goldbeck Johann Friedrich Goldbeck (22 September 1748 – 9 April 1812) was a German geographer and Protestantism, Protestant theologian. Goldbeck was born in Tschernjachowsk, Insterburg, East Prussia. He first visited the Latin school in his home town In ...

(1748–1812), geographer and Protestant theologian *

Eduard Heinrich von Flottwell Eduard Heinrich Flottwell (23 July 1786 – 28 May 1865; after 1861 von Flottwell) was a Prussian '' Staatsminister''. He served as ''Oberpräsident'' (governor) of the Grand Duchy of Posen (from 1830) and of the Saxony (from 1841), Westphalia ...

(1786–1865), politician * Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Jordan (1819–1904), writer and politician *

Ernst Wichert Ernst Alexander August George Wichert (11 March 1831 – 21 January 1902) was a German lawyer, judge, and author. Biography Wichert was born in Insterburg, Prussia, (today Chernyakhovsk, Russia) and attended schools in Pillau and Königsberg. He ...

(1831–1902), author * Edward Frederick Moldenke (1836–1904) Lutheran theologian and missionary *

Hans Horst Meyer Hans Horst Meyer (17 March 1853 – 6 October 1939) was a German pharmacologist. He studied medicine and did research in pharmacology. The Meyer-Overton hypothesis on the mode of action on general anaesthetics is partially named after him. H ...

(1853–1939), pharmacologist * Therese Malten (1855–1930), opera singer *Paul Gerhard Neumann (1911–1986), physical oceanographer *

Hans Orlowski Hans Orlowski (1 March 1894 - 3 May 1967) was a German Woodcut artist and painter. Life Hans Otto Orlowski was born at Insterburg, a midsized town a short distance to the east of Königsburg in East Prussia, which at that time was part of German ...

(1894–1967) woodcut artist and painter *

Hans Otto Erdmann Hans Otto Erdmann (18 December 1896 – 4 September 1944) was a German Army officer, and member of the German Resistance. Biography Erdmann was born in Insterburg, East Prussia (modern Chernyakhovsk, Russia). In the First World War Erdma ...

(1896–1944), member of the

German resistance to Nazism Many individuals and groups in Germany that were opposed to the Nazi Germany, Nazi regime engaged in active resistance, including assassination attempts on Adolf Hitler, attempts to remove Adolf Hitler from power by assassination or by overthro ...

Fritz Karl Preikschat Fritz Karl Preikschat (September 11, 1910 – September 2, 1994) was a German, later American, electrical and telecommunications engineer and inventor. He had more than three German patents and more than 23 U.S. patents, including a dot matrix te ...

(1910–1994), engineer and inventor *

Kurt Kuhlmey Kurt Kuhlmey (19 November 1913 – 30 April 1993) was a general in the West German Air Force. During World War II, he served as ground-attack aircraft pilot in the Luftwaffe, commanding two air wings. Kuhlmey flew over 500 combat missions, and i ...

(1913–1993), Bundeswehr major general * Kurt Plenzat (1914–1998), military officer *

Traugott Buhre Traugott Buhre (21 June 1929 – 26 July 2009) was a German actor. Buhre was born at Insterburg, East Prussia, Germany (today Chernyakhovsk, Russia) the son of a Lutheran Pastor.Harry Boldt Harry Boldt (born 23 February 1930) is a German equestrian and Olympic champion. He was born in Insterburg, East Prussia, Germany. He won a gold medal in the team dressage at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, and another at the 1976 Summer O ...

(born 1930), Olympic champion in dressage *

Anatol Herzfeld Anatol Herzfeld (born Karl-Heinz Herzfeld; 21 January 1931 – 10 May 2019) was a German sculptor and mixed-media artist, and also a policeman. A student of Joseph Beuys, he primarily used wood, iron and stone as materials. As an artist, he simpl ...

(1931–2019), German sculptor and mixed media artist * Jürgen Schmude (born 1936), politician (SPD) *

Hans-Jürgen Quadbeck-Seeger Hans-Jürgen Quadbeck-Seeger (born 29 May 1939 in Insterburg, East Prussia) is a German chemist, inventor, and author. He was Research Director at BASF (from 1990 to 1997), and President of the German Chemical Society. Career Hans-Jürgen Quadbeck ...

(born 1939), chemist *

Anatole Klyosov Anatole A. Klyosov (russian: Анато́лий Алексе́евич Клёсов; born 20 November 1946 in Chernyakhovsk) is a Russian scientist who worked in the fields of physical chemistry, enzyme catalysis, and industrial biochemistry. In 1 ...

(born 1946) a scientist in physical chemistry, enzyme catalysis and industrial biochemistry. *

Yuri Vasenin Yuri Nikolayevich Vasenin (russian: Юрий Николаевич Васенин; 2 October 1948 – 2 May 2022)twinned with: *

Brzeg Dolny Brzeg Dolny (german: Dyhernfurth) is a town in Wołów County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship in south-western Poland. It is located north-west of Wrocław on the Oder River, and is the site of a large chemical plant complex, PCC Rokita SA. As of ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

Grudziądz Grudziądz ( la, Graudentum, Graudentium, german: Graudenz) is a city in northern Poland, with 92,552 inhabitants (2021). Located on the Vistula River, it lies within the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship and is the fourth-largest city in its prov ...

, Poland *

Kirchheimbolanden Kirchheimbolanden (), the capital of Donnersbergkreis, is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, south-western Germany. It is situated approximately 25 km west of Worms, and 30 km north-east of Kaiserslautern. The first part of the name, ''Kir ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, since 2002 * Marijampolė,

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

Węgorzewo Węgorzewo (until 1946 pl, Węgobork; german: Angerburg, lt, Ungura) is a tourist town on the Angrapa River in northeastern Poland, within the historical region of Masuria. It is the seat of Węgorzewo County in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeshi ...

, Poland, since 1996

References

Notes

Sources

* *

External links

Official website of Chernyakhovsk

Chernyakhovsk Business Directory

Unofficial website of Chernyakhovsk
{{Authority control Cities and towns in Kaliningrad Oblast Populated places established in the 1330s Castles of the Teutonic Knights Castles in Russia Chernyakhovsky District