РОССИЯ   ROSSIJA	RUSSIA
Калининградская область / Kaliningradskaja oblast'	Kaliningrad province
городской округ Советск / gorodskoj okrug Sovetsk	Sovetsk urban district

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Советск (Sovetsk), before 1946 known as Tilsit, is situated at an elevation of 10 m on the south bank of the river Neman in Kaliningrad oblast, Russia. The municipality of Sovetsk has a population of about 41,700 (2019).

The origins of Tilsit go back to a castle founded by the Teutonic Knights in 1288. The Treaties of Tilsit were signed here in July 1807, the preliminaries of which were settled by the emperors Alexander I of Russia and Napoléon I of France on a raft moored in the Neman (Memel) 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. During the 19th century when the Lithuanian language was banned within the Russian Empire, Tilsit was an important centre for printing Lithuanian books which then were smuggled to the Russian-controlled part of Lithuania. Tilsit thrived and was an important Prussian town. By 1900 it had electric tramways and 34,500 inhabitants; a direct railway line linked it to Labiau (today Полесск / Polessk) and Königsberg (Калининград (Kaliningrad)). Following World War I, in 1918, the Act of Tilsit was signed here, placing the part of East Prussia north of the Neman River under the supervision of the League of Nations; Übermemel (Lithuanian: Panemunė) was created out of the parts of the town on the right bank of the river; this area was annexed by Lithuania 1923/1924. After World War II, Tilsit was annexted to the Soviet Union and was renamed Советск (Sovetsk) honouring Soviet rule. Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is incorporated as the town of oblast significance of Sovetsk — an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts. As a municipal division, the town of oblast significance of Sovetsk is incorporated as Sovetsky Urban Okrug.

The monument for Queen Luise [small], consort of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, was created by sculptor Gustav Eberlein and was unveiled on 22 September 1900 in Park Jakobsruh. The monument was destroyed during World War II in 1945. A copy was unveiled on 6 July 2014.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovetsk,_Kaliningrad_Oblast, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sowetsk_(Kaliningrad); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_of_Tilsit; http://www.ostpreussen.de/ostpreussen/nachrichten/artikel/luise-wir-gratulieren-dir.html, http://www.deutschlandfunk.de/traditionspflege-in-sowjetsk-koenigin-luise-und-der.1773.de.html?dram:article_id=307586, http://www.hna.de/lokales/hann-muenden/gustav-eberlein-tilsit-3662812.html]