Yasnaya Polyana, Kaliningrad Oblast

Yasnaya Polyana, prior to 1945 known by its German name Trakehnen ( _ru. Ясная Поляна; _de. Trakehnen; _lt. Trakėnai; _pl. Trakany) is a settlement in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, southeast of the Red Forest.

The settlement was originally the East Prussian town of Trakehnen, named after the Old Prussian word "trakis", meaning "great bog". The territory was drained in 1731.

After the Soviet Union occupied East Prussia at the end of World War II and divided the province between the Kaliningrad Oblast, Poland, and Lithuania, 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, some far right German conservatives unsuccessfully attempted to resettle ethnic Germans from Russia and Kazakhstan in Yasnaya Polyana.

Near Trakehnen, but not part of it, was the famous warmblood Trakehner horse breed stable, established in 1732 by King Frederick William I of Prussia. It was not maintained as a stable after World War II, although the grounds do have a museum for the breed. Russian and German initiatives have brought Trakehner horses to nearby Pravdinsk and Mayovka.

ee also

*List of inhabited localities in Kaliningrad Oblast

External links

* [http://www.euronet.nl/~jlemmens/trakehnen.html Pictures of the Trakehner stables]
* [http://www.trakehner.ru/ Trakehners in former East Prussia]
* [http://www.imh.org/imh/bw/trak.html History of the Trakehner horse breed]