Workers’ settlements in the Kaliningrad region and their subsequent renaming in 1946—1947

Abstract

Part of East Prussia was ceded to the Soviet Union after the defeat of Nazi Germany. As a result, the local toponymy changed completely. The author analyses the documents from the State Archive of the Russian Federation, the Russian State Archives of Socio- Political History, and the State Archive of the Kaliningrad Region to trace the Russianisation of German toponyms. The decision to establish workers’ settlements in the Kaliningrad region was discussed in September 1946 — July 1947. Local authorities sought to create more settlements of the kind. However, the RSFSR leadership insisted on the establishment of one resort settlement and four workers’ villages. Numerous toponyms were proposed, many of them were changed several times. The only geographic name that was approved immediately by the Government of the RSFSR was Znamensk, since it incorporated the semantic root znamya (banner). The ideologically laden Komsomolsk was replaced with Zheleznodorozhny as a reference to the fact that most residents worked at the railway station. Another settlement was named Tchaikovsky but then was given the ideologically laden name Pionersky.

Keywords

• kaliningrad region
• toponymy
• renaming
• workers’ settlement