Kingisepp [key], city, NW European Russia, SW of St. Petersburg, near the Estonian border, on the Luga River. A river port, it has leather and shoe industries. The site was settled in the 9th cent., and the fortress of Yam was founded there in 1384 as a frontier post of Novgorod. The fortress was taken by Sweden in 1585 and passed to Russia in 1703, when it was renamed Yamburg. In 1922 it was renamed for an Estonian Communist leader.
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