Niémen

The Niémen is a important Fleuve of Europe of the East running on 937 km.

It takes its source in Bielorussia in the heights of Minsk and moves towards the west then north towards the Lithuania, before throwing in the the Baltic close to Klaipėda.

Part of Niémen is used as border between the Oblast de Kaliningrad (formerly Eastern Prussia with Tilsit) and Lithuania.

Its principal tributary is the river Néris, which joined it with Kaunas.

The crossed cities most important are Hrodna (Bielorussia), Alytus and Kaunas (Lithuania), and Sovetsk (Russia).

Economic interest

The river is navigable for the small ships over a 700 km length, but it is taken by the ices from December to March. Channels connect it to the Dniepr, the Visla and the Pregolia.

It is still useful for the Flottage of wood and provides Kaunas in Hydroélectricité.

History

the June 25th 1807, it is on a floating raft on Niémen that the tsar Alexandre Ier and Napoleon i signed the Traité of Tilsit.

the June 23rd 1812, the Large army, under the supreme command of Napoleon i, crosses Niémen, act highly symbolic system definitively marking the beginning of the Campagne of Russia, which was a few months to fail later in a dramatic way in the rigors of the Russian winter.

the French flotilla Normandy-Niémen was committed in the area at the sides of the Soviet forces of 1942 to 1945.

Beats-smg: Nemons Be-X-old: Нёман

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