Krasnoznamensk, Kaliningrad Oblast


Krasnoznamensk, formerly Lasdehnen and Haselberg, is a town and the administrative center of Krasnoznamensky District in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the Sheshupe River, northeast of Kaliningrad, the administrative center of the oblast, and approximately to the south of the border with Lithuania. It has a population of
Historically known as Lasdehnen, the town belonged to Prussia since 1701 and the German Empire since the unification of Germany in 1871, and was located in the province of East Prussia until 1945. During the Nazi Germany era it was renamed Haselberg until the territory was annexed by the Soviet Union following World War II. The town was renamed Krasnoznamensk and became the administrative center of Krasnoznamensky District in 1947.

History

The earliest surviving German language record of Krasnoznamensk dates from 1521 under the name Haselpusch, meaning hazel bush in German, while Russian sources give the date of the earliest record as 1576 and other sources state that it was established in 1734. The village had a church by 1578, but it burned down in 1661 and the replacement building had to be taken down in 1869 due to severe structural defects. In the early 18th century the town's name was changed to Lasdehnen, based on the Old Prussian language term for hazel bushes, and the current Gothic Revival church was built between 1874 and 1877. With nationalism still on the rise across most of Europe in the early 20th century, in 1938 the Nazi era government Germanized the town's name, renaming it to Haselberg due to the Baltic origins of Lasdehnen.
By 1945, during World War II, Haselberg's ethnic German population had largely fled before the advance of the Red Army in 18 January. Following the end of the war Haselberg was included in the portion of East Prussia annexed by the Soviet Union that was organized into Kaliningrad Oblast of the Russian SFSR. The historical regional capital of nearby Schloßberg had been severely damaged during the course the war, so Soviet authorities relocated Pillkallen's former administrative functions to Haselberg, which had suffered less damage. On 7 April 1946, the Soviets renamed the town as Krasnoznamensk, literally "Red Banner Town", and the following year became the administrative center of the new Krasnoznamensky District.

Administrative and municipal status

Within the framework of administrative divisions, Krasnoznamensk serves as the administrative center of Krasnoznamensky District. As an administrative division, it is, together with two rural localities, incorporated within Krasnoznamensky District as the town of district significance of Krasnoznamensk.
Within the framework of municipal divisions, since May 5, 2015, the territories of the town of district significance of Krasnoznamensk and of three rural okrugs of Krasnoznamensky District are incorporated as Krasnoznamensky Urban Okrug. Before that, the town of district significance was incorporated within Krasnoznamensky Municipal District as Krasnoznamenskoye Urban Settlement.

Demographics

Population trends

According to the 2010 census: Russians - 87.4%, Lithuanians - 2.8%, Ukrainians - 2.5%, Belarusians - 2.5%, Roma - 1%, Armenians - 1%, Germans - 0.9%, Tatars - 0.6%, Poles - 0.5%, others - 0.8%
Krasnoznamensk is in the ethnographic region known as Lithuania Minor, and Lithuanian cultural organizations exist in the town.
Where religion is recorded from the census process, pre-1945 census data show the religious affiliation of the population as Prussian Evangelical.