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Gvardeysk (a=Ru-Гвардейск.oga; known prior to 1946 by its German language name Tapiau (); ; ), is a town and the administrative center of Gvardeysky District in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the right bank of the Pregolya River east of Kaliningrad. Population figures: It is located within the historic region of Sambia.
The settlement gradually became known by the Germans crusaders as Tapiau. Vytautas, the later Grand Duke of Lithuania, was baptized in Tapiau in 1385. Upon the request of the anti-Teutonic Prussian Confederation in 1454 Polish King Casimir IV Jagiellon incorporated the region and town to the Kingdom of PolandKarol Górski, Związek Pruski i poddanie się Prus Polsce: zbiór tekstów źródłowych, Instytut Zachodni, Poznań, 1949, p. XXXVII, 54 (in Polish) and the Thirteen Years' War broke out. After the defeat of the Teutonic Knights in the war, in 1466, the town became part of Poland as a fief held by the Teutonic Knights.Górski, p. 96-97, 214-215 After the transfer of the Grand Master's seat from Malbork Castle to Königsberg, Tapiau became the site of the Order's archives and library from 1469 to 1722.
Tapiau became a part of the Duchy of Prussia, a vassal state of Poland, in 1525. The Tapiau Castle was often used as a second residence of the Prussian dukes; Albert of Prussia died there in 1568. It became a part of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701, receiving town privileges from King Frederick William I of Prussia in 1722. It became a part of the newly established Prussian Province of East Prussia in 1773 and was administered in Landkreis Wehlau (1818–1945). Tapiau became a part of the German Empire during the unification of Germany in 1871.
In August 1939, the Germans imprisoned the principal, teachers, other staff and 162 students of the Polish gymnasium in Kwidzyn in the town. They were held in the former psychiatric hospital. In September 1939, during the German invasion of Poland, which started World War II, it was converted into a prisoner-of-war camp for Polish POWs, and Polish teachers and youth were deported elsewhere. A Nazi prison for women was operated in the town.
Unlike most other towns in northern East Prussia, Tapiau was largely undamaged during World War II. Following the war's end in 1945, it was annexed by the Soviet Union and renamed Gvardeysk ('guard town') in 1946. (2025). 9785710773994, Большая Российская Энциклопедия. ISBN 9785710773994 The town's German population of more than 9,000 either fled or were killed during the war, and those remaining after the war were expelled and gradually replaced by Soviet residents.
Within the framework of municipal divisions, since June 11, 2014, the territories of the town of district significance of Gvardeysk and of four selsoviet of Gvardeysky District are incorporated as Gvardeysky Urban Okrug.Law #319 Before that, the town of district significance was incorporated within Gvardeysky Municipal District as Gvardeyskoye Urban Settlement.
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