Sovetsk (Russian: Сове́тск; German: Tilsit [ˈtɪlzɪt] ⓘ;[8] Old Prussian: Tilzi; Lithuanian: Tilžė) is a town in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the south bank of the Neman River which forms the border with Lithuania.

Tilsit, which received civic rights from Albert, Duke of Prussia in 1552,[9] developed around a castle of the Teutonic Knights, known as the Schalauer Haus, founded in 1288.

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

[10] After the subsequent Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466), the settlement was a part of Poland as a fief held by the Teutonic Knights,[11] and thus was located within the Polish–Lithuanian union, later elevated to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

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.

Until 1945, a marble tablet marked the house in which King Frederick William III of Prussia and Queen Louise resided.

[14] By 1900 it had electric tramways and 34,500 inhabitants; a direct railway line linked it to Königsberg (Kaliningrad) and Labiau (Polessk) and steamers docked there daily.

Hitler visited the town just before World War II, and a photo was taken of him on the famous bridge over the Neman River.

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.

Ethnic composition in 2010:[citation needed] Sovetsk is twinned with:[22] The town is the location of a scene in Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace (Book Two Part Two Chapter 21).