Bezledy b is a village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 in the administrative district of Gmina Bartoszyce

Gmina Bartoszyce

Gmina Bartoszyce is a rural gmina in Bartoszyce County, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in northern Poland, on the border with Russia...

, within Bartoszyce County

Bartoszyce County

Bartoszyce County is a unit of territorial administration and local government in Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, northern Poland, on the border with Russia. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and largest...

, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship

Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship

Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, or Warmia-Masuria Province , is a voivodeship in northeastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Olsztyn...

, in northern Poland, close to the border with the Kaliningrad Oblast

Kaliningrad Oblast

Kaliningrad Oblast is a federal subject of Russia situated on the Baltic coast. It has a population of The oblast forms the westernmost part of the Russian Federation, but it has no land connection to the rest of Russia. Since its creation it has been an exclave of the Russian SFSR and then the...

 of Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

. It lies approximately 10 kilometres (6 mi) north-west of Bartoszyce

Bartoszyce

Bartoszyce is a town on the Łyna River in northeastern Poland with 25,621 inhabitants . It is the capital of Bartoszyce County within the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship.-History:...

 and 62 km (39 mi) north of the regional capital Olsztyn

Olsztyn

Olsztyn is a city in northeastern Poland, on the Łyna River. Olsztyn has been the capital of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship since 1999. It was previously in the Olsztyn Voivodeship...

.

History

An Old Prussian

Old Prussians

The Old Prussians or Baltic Prussians were an ethnic group, autochthonous Baltic tribes that inhabited Prussia, the lands of the southeastern Baltic Sea in the area around the Vistula and Curonian Lagoons...

 castle named Beselede, property of the Natangian nobleman Posdraupote, was first mentioned in a chronicle of the Teutonic Order in 1274, when the castle had been besieged by Sudovians. The village was mentioned as an Old Prussian settlement in 1338 and in 1400 as the property of Philipp von Beisleiden with a size of 20 "Hufen", a square measure of the Teutonic Knights. Throughout the Polish-Teutonic Hunger War of 1414 the settlement was destroyed by Polish troops, who killed 3 men and caused a damage of 300 Mark. Philipp von Beisleiden was a supporter of the Prussian Confederation

Prussian Confederation

The Prussian Confederation was an organization formed in 1440 by a group of 53 gentry and clergy and 19 cities in Prussia to oppose the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights. It was based on the basis of an earlier similar organization, the Lizard Union...

, who opposed the rule of the Teutonic Knights

Teutonic Knights

The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem , commonly the Teutonic Order , is a German medieval military order, in modern times a purely religious Catholic order...

. In 1484 the von Prömock family, a noble family of Old Prussian origin, was mentioned as owner of the village, which lasted until 1671. After a time of constantly changing landlords Beisleiden was bought by Ludwig von Oldenburg in 1801, whose family owned the manor until 1945. The manor house was completely destroyed in 1945.

Until 1945 the area was part of the German Province of East Prussia

East Prussia

East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...

, Beisleiden was occupied by the Soviet Red Army

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

 in February 1945 throughout the East Prussian Offensive

East Prussian Offensive

The East Prussian Offensive was a strategic offensive by the Red Army against the German Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front . It lasted from 13 January to 25 April 1945, though some German units did not surrender until 9 May...

. After World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 the area was placed under Polish administration according to the post-war Potsdam Agreement

Potsdam Agreement

The Potsdam Agreement was the Allied plan of tripartite military occupation and reconstruction of Germany—referring to the German Reich with its pre-war 1937 borders including the former eastern territories—and the entire European Theatre of War territory...

. Germans fled

Evacuation of East Prussia

The evacuation of East Prussia refers to the evacuation of the German civilian population and military personnel in East Prussia and the Klaipėda region between 20 January, and March 1945, as part of the evacuation of German civilians towards the end of World War II...

 or were expelled

Expulsion of Germans after World War II

The later stages of World War II, and the period after the end of that war, saw the forced migration of millions of German nationals and ethnic Germans from various European states and territories, mostly into the areas which would become post-war Germany and post-war Austria...

 and replaced with Poles, many of them expelled from the Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union

Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union

Immediately after the German invasion of Poland in 1939, which marked the beginning of World War II, the Soviet Union invaded the eastern regions of the Second Polish Republic, which Poles referred to as the "Kresy," and annexed territories totaling 201,015 km² with a population of 13,299,000...

 or forced to settle in the area throughout the Operation Vistula in 1947.

The village has a population of 470 and is the main border crossing point between Russia and Poland (Bezledy/Bagrationovsk

Bagrationovsk

Bagrationovsk is a town and the administrative center of Bagrationovsky District of Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located south of Kaliningrad. Population: -History:...

).