In the winter of 1678–1679, during the
Scanian War, the town was occupied by
Sweden.[10] From the 18th century, it was part of the
Kingdom of Prussia. During the
Seven Years' War, in 1757–1762, the town was under
Russian control.[10] Afterwards it fell back to Prussia, and from 1871 it was also part of
Germany.
The
Treaties of Tilsit were signed here in July 1807, the preliminaries of which were settled by the emperors
Alexander I of Russia and
Napoleon I of France on a raft moored in the Neman River. This treaty, which created the
Kingdom of Westphalia and the
Duchy of Warsaw, completed Napoleon's humiliation of the
Kingdom of Prussia, when it was deprived of one half of its dominions. Three days before its signing, the Prussian queen
Louise (1776–1810) tried to persuade Napoleon in a private conversation to ease his hard conditions on Prussia; though unsuccessful, Louise's effort endeared her to the Prussian people.
Until 1945, a marble tablet marked the house in which King
Frederick William III of Prussia and Queen Louise resided. Also, in the former Schenkendorf Platz was a monument to the poet
Max von Schenkendorf (1783–1817), a native of Tilsit; a statue of Lenin was erected in its place in 1967.
Following the unsuccessful Polish
November Uprising, hundreds of Polish insurgents, including professors and students of the
Wilno University, were interned in the town in 1832.[13]
Modern Sovetsk has sought to take advantage of Tilsit's tradition of
cheese production (
Tilsit cheese), but the new name ("Sovetsky cheese") has not inherited its predecessor's reputation.
Since the
dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, there has been some discussion about the possibility of restoring the town's original name.[18] In 2010, the Kaliningrad Oblast's then-governor
Georgy Boos of the ruling
United Russia Party proposed restoring the original name and combining the town with the
Neman and
Slavsk Districts to form a new Tilsit District. Boos emphasized that this move would stimulate development and economic growth, but that it could happen only through a referendum.[19] The idea was opposed by the
Communist Party of Russia; in particular, Igor Revin, the Kaliningrad Secretary of the Communist Party, accused Boos and United Russia of
Germanophilia.[20]
In April 2007, government restrictions on visits to border areas were tightened, and for foreigners, and Russians living outside the border zone, travel to the Sovetsk and
Bagrationovsk areas required advance permission from the Border Guard Service (in some cases up to 30 days beforehand). It was alleged that this procedure slowed the development of these potentially thriving border towns.[21]
In June 2012, these restrictions were lifted (the only restricted area is the Neman river shoreline), which gave a boost to local and international tourism.
Geography
Sovetsk lies in the historic region of
Lithuania Minor[14] at the confluence of the
Tylzha and
Neman rivers.
Panemunė in Lithuania was formerly a suburb of the town; after Germany's defeat in World War I, the trans-Neman suburb was detached from Tilsit (with the rest of the
Klaipėda Region) in 1920.
Many of the town's buildings were destroyed during World War II. However, the old town centre still includes several German buildings, including those of
Jugendstil design. The Queen Louise Bridge, now connecting the town to
Panemunė in
Lithuania, retains an arch – all that is left of a more complex pre-war bridge structure built in 1907. The carved relief portrait of Queen Louise above the arch still exists; however, the German inscription "KÖNIGIN LUISE-BRÜCKE" was removed after the Soviets took over the town.
^Kasparek, Norbert (2014). "Żołnierze polscy w Prusach po upadku powstania listopadowego. Powroty do kraju i wyjazdy na emigrację". In Katafiasz, Tomasz (ed.). Na tułaczym szlaku... Powstańcy Listopadowi na Pomorzu (in Polish). Koszalin: Muzeum w Koszalinie, Archiwum Państwowe w Koszalinie. pp. 174, 176.
^
abcdefSłownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, Tom XII (in Polish). Warszawa. 1892. p. 702.{{
cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link)
^Wardzyńska, Maria (2017). Wysiedlenia ludności polskiej z okupowanych ziem polskich włączonych do III Rzeszy w latach 1939-1945 (in Polish). Warszawa:
IPN. pp. 395, 405, 410, 416, 423.
ISBN978-83-8098-174-4.
^Karabeshkin, Leonid; Wellmann, Christian (2004). The Russian Domestic Debate on Kaliningrad: Integrity, Identity and Economy. Münster: LIT Verlag. p. 35.
ISBN9783825879525.
^Tolstoy, Leo (1949). War and Peace. Garden City: International Collectors Library. pp. 204, 235.
Sources
Правительство Калининградской области. Постановление №640 от 30 августа 2011 г. «Об утверждении реестра объектов административно-территориального деления Калининградской области», в ред. Постановления №877 от 21 ноября 2011 г «О внесении изменения в Постановление Правительства Калининградской области от 30 августа 2011 г. №640». Вступил в силу со дня официального опубликования. Опубликован: "Калининградская правда" (вкладыш "Официально"), №170, 15 сентября 2011 г. (Government of Kaliningrad Oblast. Resolution #640 of August 30, 2011 On the Adoption of the Registry of the Objects of the Administrative-Territorial Divisions of Kaliningrad Oblast, as amended by the Resolution #877 of November 21, 2011 On Amending the Resolution of the Government of Kaliningrad Oblast #640 of August 30, 2011. Effective as of the day of the official publication.).
Калининградская областная Дума. Закон №376 от 31 марта 2004 г. «О наделении муниципального образования "Город Советск" статусом городского округа», в ред. Закона №370 от 1 июля 2009 г «О составе территорий муниципальных образований Калининградской области». Вступил в силу с момента официального опубликования. Опубликован: "Российская газета" ("Запад России"), №88, 27 апреля 2004 г. (Kaliningrad Oblast Duma. Law #376 of March 31, 2004 On Granting the Urban Okrug Status to the Municipal Formation of the "Town of Sovetsk", as amended by the Law #370 of July 1, 2009 On the Composition of the Territories of the Municipal Formations of Kaliningrad Oblast. Effective as of the moment of the official publication.).
Northern Germany by
Karl Baedeker, 14th revised edition, London, 1904, p. 178.