Bolshakovo (Kaliningrad region)

Bolshakovo is located near the border of the Polesia Lowland on the watershed of the Osa , Lugovoye rivers and Rzhevka tributaries, in the vicinity of the village there are many swamps. The village of Krasnoznamenskoye is adjacent to the north-east, 1 km to the north-west - Pobedino village.

Gross-Skaysgirren was founded in 1583. In 1693, simultaneously with the church, a school was founded, and in 1773 the church building was built of cobblestone ^[2] . On October 1, 1891, the Königsberg - Tilsit railway line was opened and the railway station appeared in Gross-Skaysgirren. Station building station preserved. In 1938, Gross-Skaysgirren was renamed to Kreuzingen (which means intersection) ^[3] . Following the Second World War, he became part of the USSR . In 1946 it was renamed Bolshakovo.

In 1945, the central streets of Bolshakovo were badly damaged, the outskirts of the village, Lermontov, Pushkin, Ofitserskaya, were better preserved. In the postwar years, many houses were built on old foundations. A hospital, a kindergarten, a house of culture, a household center, shops, a pharmacy were built. The church buildings were adapted for a cinema and hardware store ^[3] .

From 1947 to 1963 Bolshakovo was the district center of the Bolshakovsky district (formed on July 25, 1947, disbanded on February 1, 1963) ^[2] .

Narrow Gauge

In the past, the Bolshakovo station was the Insterburger Kleinbahnen station ( it’s Insterburger Kleinbahnen ), a narrow-gauge railway network ( 750 mm gauge ) with a total length of over two hundred kilometers with the center in Insterburg (now Chernyakhovsk). After the war, the road was not restored, but the rails on the main square of the village remained.

• Source to the section: Eisenbahn Kurier magazine (Germany), special 52, 1 Quartal 1999.

There are a company "Repairman", a farm "Podlesnoye", hotel "Renata" ^[3] .

Transportation

Five highways converge in Bolshakovo: from Chernyakhovsk , Talpaki , Polessk , Gastellovo , Sovetsk and Zhilino .

Bolshakovo-Novo- Kaliningrad railway station is located in Bolshakovo . This station belongs to the Kaliningrad - Sovetsk railway.

Currently, the village has three buildings that are of historical value:

• Kirch of 1628 (now the building houses an Orthodox church of Cyril and Methodius)
• Kirkha, 1923 (now in the building is the parish of St. John the Baptist of the Roman Catholic Church), Sadovy lane, 4
• The building of the early XX century, now a school workshop, st. Kaliningradskaya, 1

There is also a natural object - the ginkgo tree.

Near Bolshakovo there is Radio Center No. 5, through which some broadcasts of the radio station “ Voice of Russia ” go.

Near the village is the state nature reserve "Gromovsky", which is based on the Bolshoy Mokhovoye bog with an area of ​​24 km² and a large forest area adjacent to the bog.

In the village of Bolshakovo there is a mass grave in which 140 soldiers are buried who died in the area during the hostilities in 1945 ^[6] . In 1958 a monument was erected here ^[7] . On September 15, 2006, a monument to the Hero of the Soviet Union Vasily Gavrilovich Koshelev was solemnly opened at the civil cemetery.

On the night of June 18-19, 1807, the Emperor of France Napoleon stayed at the house of a local priest ^[2] . ^{[ significance of fact? ]}