Baltiysk

Baltiysk (Балтийск) – known prior to 1945 by its German name, Pillau – is a Russian sea port in the strait between Vistula Bay and Gdansk Bay, called Strait of Baltiysk on the territory of Kaliningrad Oblast with about 20,000 inhabitants. Baltiysk is the only year-round, ice-free port along the Russian Baltic Sea coastline. The town is a major naval base of the Russian Navy and a ferry port on the route to Saint Petersburg, Russia.

History

The city was likely founded as a village in Prussia (Prusy Wschodnie, Eastern Prussia) before XVII century.

During the Thirty Years War a battle between Sweden and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth took place, where the port was captured by Swedes. Gustavus Adolphus landed in the city with reinforcements for the Swedes on May 1626. After the ceasefire in Altmark (1629) the Swedes were given control of the city, which they retained for several more years.

The city was granted city rights in 1725.

During the Second World War, when East Prussia still belonged to Germany, Pillau had a U-boat training facility there. Before the German garrison surrendered on 25th April, 1945, about 450,000 German refugees were ferried from Pillau to central and western Germany. After the war, when northern East Prussia was annexed by the Soviet Union, and the German inhabitants expelled completing the German exodus from Eastern Europe, its name was changed to Baltiysk.