After the Treaty of Shimoda officially transferred the southern Kuril Islands to Japan in 1855, the settlement was placed under joint Russian-Japanese administration under the name Honto (derived from the Ainu language).

It then returned to Japanese rule in 1905, after the Treaty of Portsmouth ceded southern Sakhalin to Japan to end the Russo-Japanese War.

[citation needed] The town was damaged by an earthquake in 2007 (near the Tatar Strait), leaving about two thousand people homeless.

Due to relatively warm ocean currents, the town is located in the mildest climatic zone on the island of Sakhalin, making possible agriculture in the surrounding region.

Nevelsk has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb) with cold winters, warm summers and generally heavy precipitation from the Aleutian Low, whose winds hit the town direct from the Sea of Japan.