Gusev, Kaliningrad Oblast

Gusev (in English)
Гусев (Russian)
-  Town[1]  -


Location of Kaliningrad Oblast in Russia
Gusev
Location of Gusev in Kaliningrad Oblast
Coordinates: 54°35′N 22°12′E / 54.583°N 22.200°E / 54.583; 22.200Coordinates: 54°35′N 22°12′E / 54.583°N 22.200°E / 54.583; 22.200
Coat of arms
Flag
Administrative status (as of December 2010)
Country Russia
Federal subject Kaliningrad Oblast[1]
Administrative district Gusevsky District[1]
Town of district significance Gusev[1]
Administrative center of Gusevsky District,[1] town of district significance of Gusev[1]
Municipal status (as of May 2013)
Urban okrug Gusevsky Urban Okrug[2]
Administrative center of Gusevsky Urban Okrug[2]
Statistics
Population (2010 Census) 28,260 inhabitants[3]
Time zone USZ1 (UTC+02:00)[4]
First mentioned 1580
Town status since 1724
Previous names Gumbinnen (until 1945)
Gusev on Wikimedia Commons

Gusev (Russian: Гу́сев), previously known by its German name Gumbinnen (Lithuanian: Gumbinė; Polish: Gąbin), is a town and the administrative center of Gusevsky District of Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Pissa and Krasnaya Rivers, near the border with Poland and Lithuania, east of Chernyakhovsk. Population: 28,260 (2010 Census);[3] 28,467 (2002 Census);[5] 27,031 (1989 Census).[6]

History

The settlement of Gumbinnen (from Lithuanian: Gumbinė: tuber) in the Duchy of Prussia was first mentioned in a 1580 deed. A Protestant parish had been established at the behest of the Hohenzollern duke Albert of Prussia about 1545 and a first church was erected by 1582. Gumbinnen became part of Brandenburg-Prussia in 1618.

Salzburg Church

In 1709–1711, the area was devastated by the Great Northern War plague outbreak and had to be redeveloped under the rule of the 'Soldier King' Frederick William I of Prussia. He granted Gumbinnen town privileges in 1724 and from 1732 resettled the area with Protestant expellees from Salzburg, who had been exiled by Prince-Archbishop Count Leopold Anton von Firmian. A first filial church of the Salzburg Protestants was erected between 1752 and 1752; it was rebuilt in a Neoclassical style according to plans designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel in 1840. The Lutheran church was restored in 1995.

From 1815, the town was the capital of Regierungsbezirk Gumbinnen administrative district in the Province of East Prussia. Gumbinnen became part of the German Empire upon the unification of Germany in 1871. After the Prussian State railway line from Königsberg to Stallupönen (now Nesterov) was built through Gumbinnen in 1860, the town grew in economic importance. By the end of the 19th century, Gumbinnen had a foundry, a machine shop, a furniture factory, a clothing mill, two sawmills, several brickworks, and a dairy.

The Battle of Gumbinnen, a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War I, took place nearby in the opening days of the war in August 1914, and the town was occupied by the Russian Army for several months. After the war, a power plant, the Ostpreußenwerk, was built in Gumbinnen that served much of East Prussia.

After Adolf Hitler and the Nazis came to power, the German government designated Gumbinnen as a military sub-region of the Königsberg military area. Near the end of World War II, in 1944, the first of Gumbinnen's 24,000 residents began to flee from the advancing Red Army, which was drawing close. A Soviet air attack on October 16, 1944, caused heavy damage to the inner city. On October 22, 1944, the town was taken by Soviet forces. In the two days before the Wehrmacht re-took it, vengeful Red Army troops engaged in numerous atrocities against the civilian population. Although German forces managed in late October to stabilize the battle line east of Gumbinnen, the town was quickly re-conquered by the Red Army during the great Soviet offensive on 21 January 1945. During the Evacuation of East Prussia, the surviving German residents fled or were forcibly expelled.

Under border changes promulgated at the Potsdam Conference in 1945, northern East Prussia, including Gumbinnen, became a part of the Soviet Union and the town’s name was changed to Gusev, in honor of a Red Army captain, Sergei Ivanovich Gusev, who was killed in action near Gumbinnen in January 1945. Gusev posthumously was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union on April 19, 1945.

Administrative and municipal status

Within the framework of administrative divisions, Gusev serves as the administrative center of Gusevsky District.[1] As an administrative division, it is incorporated within Gusevsky District as the town of district significance of Gusev.[7]

Within the framework of municipal divisions, since June 10, 2013, the territories of the town of district significance of Gusev and of four rural okrugs of Gusevsky District are incorporated as Gusevsky Urban Okrug.[2] Before that, the town of district significance was incorporated within Gusevsky Municipal District as Gusevskoye Urban Settlement.[2]

Economy

Transportation

Gusev lies on the double-track, broad-gauge rail line connecting the Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave since 1991, with the main territory of Russia, through Lithuania and Belarus.

The Yantar Special Economic Zone

In the 1990s in Kaliningrad Oblast was established The Yantar Special Economic Zone. Some of the zone's projects are located in Gusev, e.g. NPO CTS.

Notable people

Twin towns and sister cities

Gusev is twinned with:

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Law #463
  2. 1 2 3 4 Law #230
  3. 1 2 Russian Federal State Statistics Service (2011). "Всероссийская перепись населения 2010 года. Том 1" [2010 All-Russian Population Census, vol. 1]. Всероссийская перепись населения 2010 года (2010 All-Russia Population Census) (in Russian). Federal State Statistics Service. Retrieved June 29, 2012.
  4. ↑ Правительство Российской Федерации. Федеральный закон №107-ФЗ от 3 июня 2011 г. «Об исчислении времени», в ред. Федерального закона №271-ФЗ от 03 июля 2016 г. «О внесении изменений в Федеральный закон "Об исчислении времени"». Вступил в силу по истечении шестидесяти дней после дня официального опубликования (6 августа 2011 г.). Опубликован: "Российская газета", №120, 6 июня 2011 г. (Government of the Russian Federation. Federal Law #107-FZ of June 31, 2011 On Calculating Time, as amended by the Federal Law #271-FZ of July 03, 2016 On Amending Federal Law "On Calculating Time". Effective as of after sixty days following the day of the official publication.).
  5. ↑ Russian Federal State Statistics Service (May 21, 2004). "Численность населения России, субъектов Российской Федерации в составе федеральных округов, районов, городских поселений, сельских населённых пунктов – районных центров и сельских населённых пунктов с населением 3 тысячи и более человек" [Population of Russia, Its Federal Districts, Federal Subjects, Districts, Urban Localities, Rural Localities—Administrative Centers, and Rural Localities with Population of Over 3,000] (XLS). Всероссийская перепись населения 2002 года [All-Russia Population Census of 2002] (in Russian). Retrieved August 9, 2014.
  6. ↑ Demoscope Weekly (1989). "Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 г. Численность наличного населения союзных и автономных республик, автономных областей и округов, краёв, областей, районов, городских поселений и сёл-райцентров" [All Union Population Census of 1989: Present Population of Union and Autonomous Republics, Autonomous Oblasts and Okrugs, Krais, Oblasts, Districts, Urban Settlements, and Villages Serving as District Administrative Centers]. Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 года [All-Union Population Census of 1989] (in Russian). Институт демографии Национального исследовательского университета: Высшая школа экономики [Institute of Demography at the National Research University: Higher School of Economics]. Retrieved August 9, 2014.
  7. ↑ Resolution #640
  8. ↑ "Tarptautinis Bendradarbiavimas". Retrieved 4 May 2014.

Sources

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