Slavskoye, Kaliningrad Oblast

Slavskoye ( _ru. Славское; _de. Kreuzburg in Ostpreussen) is a village in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, 20 km south of Kaliningrad.

History

In 1240 the Teutonic Knights founded a castle (Creutzburg Kreuzburg, cross castle) in the region of Natangia at the location of an Old Prussian settlement. In 1315 the settlement received its town privileges. Throughout the Hunger War in 1414 71 houses were destroyed and five citizens were killed by Polish troops. The town also suffered heavy damages in the Thirteen Years' War of 1454-66 and the Polish–Teutonic War (1519–1521).

After the secularization of the Teutonic Knights in 1525 the village became part of the Duchy of Prussia and the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701. It was badly affected by the Napoleonic Battle of Eylau in February 1807 and almost totally destroyed by a fire catastrophe on 10 May 1818, when 152 buildings burnt down. Only the Church, the vicarage and the schoolhouse were not affected. Due to that disaster the regional administration was transferred to Pr. Eylau.

The town was connected to the railway-system in 1908.

Throughout the Soviet East Prussian Offensive in February 1945 the town was again largely destroyed and transferred from Germany to the Soviet Union according to the 1945 Potsdam Conference. Its German population was expelled. The village was renamed from "Kreuzburg" to "Slavskoye".

Population

*1740: 986
*1816: 1,700
*1823: 1,352
*1843: 1,809
*1875: 2,004
*1885: 1,976, including 17 Catholics, 11 Jews
*1910: 1,726
*1939: 2,005

Notable residents

*Hermann von Boyen (1771 - 1848), Prussian fieldmarshal
*Michael Kongehl (1646 – 1710), baroque poet

References

*Horst Schulz, Der Kreis Pr. Eylau, Verden/Aller 1983