Yasnaya Polyana, Kaliningrad Oblast
Encyclopedia
Yasnaya Polyana is a rural settlement (posyolok) in the Nesterovsky District of 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...

, 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 is located in the southeast of the oblast, north of the Romincka Forest
Romincka Forest
Romincka Forest or Krasny Les , a palaearctic ecoregion in the Taiga and boreal forests Biome, is located in Russia and Poland....

. Nearby Diwnoje Nowoje is a train station on the former Prussian Eastern Railway from Kaliningrad
Kaliningrad
Kaliningrad is a seaport and the administrative center of Kaliningrad Oblast, the Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea...

 to Kybartai
Kybartai
Kybartai is a city in the Marijampolė County, Lithuania. It is located west of Vilkaviškis and is on the border of Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia....

 in Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

.

The settlement was originally known as the village of Trakehnen in 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...

, named after the Old Prussian
Old Prussian language
Prussian is an extinct Baltic language, once spoken by the inhabitants of the original territory of Prussia in an area of what later became East Prussia and eastern parts of...

 word trakis, meaning "great bog
Bog
A bog, quagmire or mire is a wetland that accumulates acidic peat, a deposit of dead plant material—often mosses or, in Arctic climates, lichens....

". In 1731 King Frederick William I of Prussia
Frederick William I of Prussia
Frederick William I of the House of Hohenzollern, was the King in Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg from 1713 until his death...

 had the swampy territory of the Pissa River drained to establish the famous warmblood Trakehner
Trakehner
Trakehner is a light warmblood breed of horse, originally developed at the East Prussian state stud farm in the town of Trakehnen from which the breed takes its name...

 horse breed stable (Königliches Stutamt Trakehnen) northwest of the municipality. The area was colonized by Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...

 expellees from the Archbishopric of Salzburg
Archbishopric of Salzburg
The Archbishopric of Salzburg was an ecclesiastical State of the Holy Roman Empire, its territory roughly congruent with the present-day Austrian state of Salzburg....

.

Intended for the build-up of an own breeding supplying the Prussian Army
Prussian Army
The Royal Prussian Army was the army of the Kingdom of Prussia. It was vital to the development of Brandenburg-Prussia as a European power.The Prussian Army had its roots in the meager mercenary forces of Brandenburg during the Thirty Years' War...

 cavalry, the stud farm at the time of its opening in 1732 had about 1,1000 horses standing on an area of 25 km² (9.7 sq mi). The "Soldier King" however soon became dissatisfied with the poor efficiency of the stud farm and in 1739 granted it to his son, crown prince Frederick II of Prussia. Upon Frederick's death in 1786, it was taken over by the Prussian state
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...

 and renamed Königlich Preußisches Hauptgestüt Trakehnen. In professional hands, the stud and the village of Trakehnen propspered from that time on.

The Trakehnen stud farm had to be evacuated after the Prussian defeat at the 1806 Battle of Jena-Auerstedt
Battle of Jena-Auerstedt
The twin battles of Jena and Auerstedt were fought on 14 October 1806 on the plateau west of the river Saale in today's Germany, between the forces of Napoleon I of France and Frederick William III of Prussia...

, when the French Grande Armée approached to meet the Russian
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

 froces at Eylau
Battle of Eylau
The Battle of Eylau or Battle of Preussisch-Eylau, 7 and 8 February 1807, was a bloody and inconclusive battle between Napoléon's Grande Armée and a Russian Empire army under Levin August, Count von Bennigsen near the town of Preußisch Eylau in East Prussia. Late in the battle, the Russians...

. From 1911 it was the site of an annual cross-country
Cross-country equestrianism
Cross country equestrian jumping is an endurance test, and is one of the three phases of the sport of eventing; it may also be a competition in its own right, known as hunter trials or simply "cross-country" - these tend to be lower level, local competitions.The object of the endurance test is to...

 race, named in the memory of Colmar von der Goltz
Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz
Wilhelm Leopold Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz also known as Goltz Pasha, was a Prussian Field Marshal and military writer.-Military career:...

 in 1931.

Until 1945 Trakehnen was part of the Stallupönen
Nesterov
Nesterov is a town and the administrative center of Nesterovsky District of Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia. Population: -History:In the Middle Ages, the area in Old Prussia had been settled by the Nadruvian tribe of the Baltic Prussians. It was conquered by the Teutonic Knights about 1276 and...

 district in the East Prussian
Province of East Prussia
The Province of East Prussia was a province of Prussia from 1773–1829 and 1878-1945. Composed of the historical region East Prussia, the province's capital was Königsberg ....

 Regierungsbezirk Gumbinnen
Gumbinnen (region)
Regierungsbezirk Gumbinnen was a Regierungsbezirk, or government region, of the Prussian province of East Prussia from 1815 until 1945. The regional capital was Gumbinnen .-History:...

. After the 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...

 had occupied East Prussia at the end of 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...

 and the province was divided between the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 and the Republic of Poland
People's Republic of Poland
The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...

, the settlement was renamed from Trakehnen to Yasnaya Polyana ("clear glade"). Although the settlement received a new name, the Russian name has a similar reference to the land, as Polje means "field" or "glade". The land was off-limits to all people outside of the Soviet Union for fifty years and information about it was almost non-existent. After the fall of the Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...

, a few ethnic Germans from Russia and Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...

 were resettled to Yasnaya Polyana.

It was not maintained as a stable, although the grounds do have a museum for the breed. Russian and German initiatives have brought Trakehner horses to nearby Pravdinsk
Pravdinsk
Pravdinsk is a town and the administrative center of Pravdinsky District of Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the Lava River, approximately east of Bagrationovsk...

 and Mayovka
Mayovka
Mayovka, prior to 1945 known by its German name Georgenberg is a settlement in Chernyakhovsky District of Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia. Mayovka is located about ten kilometers northwest of Chernyakhovsk and has the best preserved medieval castle in the oblast.The town was founded around the...

.

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