page_title: Krasnoznamensk, Kaliningrad Oblast
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Krasnoznamensk, Kaliningrad Oblast / History
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Kirche und Šešupė (Scheschuppe) in Krasnosnamensk (Lasdehnen), Oblast Kaliningrad. Foto: N. Ahting (User: de:Ballupoenen), Juni 2006English: Church and Šešupė River at Krasnoznamensk (former Lasdehnen), Kaliningrad oblast. Photo: N. Ahting (User: de:Ballupoenen), June, 2006Русский: Храм и река Шешупе в г. Краснознаменск Калининградской области. Фото: N. Ahting (User: de:Ballupoenen), июнь 2006 г.
context_page_description: Krasnoznamensk, formerly Lasdehnen and Haselberg, is a town and the administrative center of Krasnoznamensky District in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the Sheshupe River, 163 kilometers northeast of Kaliningrad, the administrative center of the oblast, and approximately 10 kilometers to the south of the border with Lithuania. It has a population of 3,522.
  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.
context_section_description: 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 (literally "hazel mountain") 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 (still commonly known by its pre-1938 name Pillkallen, now Dobrovolsk) 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.
caption: Church and Šešupė River at Krasnoznamensk (former Lasdehnen)
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