Niestierov (Lithuanian Stalupėnai, Polish Stołupnie, German Stallupönen) is a small town in Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast.

History

In the Middle Ages it belonged to the duchy of Nadruva , an administrative unit of of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Conquered by the Teutonic knights, it was incorporated into the province of Prussia. Later it shared the fate of that land: it was a Polish fief, later released as the Kingdom of Prussia and finally united into newly-formed state of Germany in 1871.

Because of the Lithuanian minority living there, the Republic of Lithuania tried to obtain the town from Germany after World War I. These proposals were however refused. In the effect of the World War II, the town was annexed by the Soviet Union and incorporated into the so-called Kaliningrad Oblast. The town was renamed to Niestierov and most of its German inhabitants were expelled to Germany.

Today the town is the capital of a rayon and one of the cultural centres of Lithuanian minority in Russia.

Name

The current Russian name was coined after Piotr Niestierov , a Russian World War I fighter pilot and the first pilot to perform a loop. Lithuanian name was coined after the nearby river, named Stalupė in Lithuanian.