[11] In 1454, King Casimir IV Jagiellon incorporated the region to the Kingdom of Poland upon the request of the anti-Teutonic Prussian Confederation.

[12] After the subsequent Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466), it became a part of Poland as a fief held by the Teutonic Knights until 1525,[13] and by secular Ducal Prussia afterwards.

After the end of World War II in 1945, the town was annexed by the Soviet Union.

The remaining German population which had not been evacuated was subsequently expelled in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement and replaced with Russians.

The following year it was renamed Guryevsk in honor of Stepan Guryev, a Soviet marshal who died during the capture of Kaliningrad.