Baltiysk (Балтийск) – known prior to 1945 by its German name, Pillau – is a Russiansea 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 Prusy (Prusy Wschodnie, Eastern Prussia) before XVII century.
During the war between Sweden and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth 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.
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, its name was changed to Baltiysk.
PILLAU, a seaport and watering-place of Germany, in the Prussian province of East Prussia, on the spit of sand (Nehrung) which separates the Frische Haff from the Baltic, on the north of the entrance channel, and 29 m.
Pillau has a school of navigation, and is a well-known pilot station.
Pillau is memorable as the place where Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden landed in 1626.
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