Neman (town)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Neman (Russian: Неман; German: Ragnit; Lithuanian: Ragainė; Polish: Ragneta) is a town in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located eleven kilometres East of the city of Sovetsk, on the bank of the Neman River. Population: 12,714 (2002 Census).
Contents |
[edit] History
Initially Raganite (Ragainė) was a settlement of the Baltic tribe of Skalvians. It was contested by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since its creation in the 13th century,and on April 23, 1289 it was conquered by the Teutonic Order, which built a gothic castle there. The castle was called Landeshutte, but the name did not become popular and the name Ragnit after the local river, a tributary of the Memel (outside of Prussia called Neman), continued to be used.
Although the settlement had an important castle guarding the Teutonic Order state of Prussia from the north, it was living in the shadow of the nearby city of Tilsit (currently Sovetsk). On April 10, 1525, together with the rest of Prussia, the area, until then governed by the Catholic Teutonic Order, became a Duchy under Albert of Brandenburg Prussia, who resigned as Grand Master and became Duke of Prussia, from then on a Protestant state, with the aid of his uncle, Sigismund I the Old, as a Polish fief. However, in 1660 souverainty was restored to the Frederick William, elector of Brandenburg-Prussia. It was not until April 6, 1722, when the town was granted the city rights by king Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia. In 1871, together with the rest of East Prussia, it became part of the newly-created state of Germany. On November 1, 1892, a railroad line linking the town with Tilsit was opened. It was built to develop the wood industry in the area, but the development did not actually start and the area's economy remained dominated by food production.
During World War II, on January 19, 1945, the town was captured by the Soviet 3rd Belarussian Front. After the war, most of the local inhabitants were expelled to Germany and the town was renamed to Neman and became a part of the Kaliningrad Oblast of the Russian SFSR. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union the town became a part of Russia.
[edit] Lithuanian minority
Despite being a part of German-speaking countries, for centuries the town remained an important centre of Lithuanian culture. In 19th century, after the January Uprising when the Lithuanian language was banned from the office in all of Russian ruled Lithuania, books in that language were printed in Ragnit and then smuggled to Russia by the knygnesiai.
[edit] Notable inhabitants
Among the most notable people living in the city was an German-American clavier player Erwin Bodki (born March 7, 1896).
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
![]() |
Cities and towns in Kaliningrad Oblast | ![]() |
Administrative center: Kaliningrad Bagrationovsk | Baltiysk | Chernyakhovsk | Guryevsk | Gusev | Gvardeysk | Krasnoznamyonsk | Ladushkin | Mamonovo | Neman | Nesterov | Ozyorsk | Pionersky | Polessk | Pravdinsk | Slavsk | Sovetsk | Svetlogorsk | Svetly | Zelenogradsk |