Nesterov

Early history

In the Middle Ages, the area in Old Prussia had been settled by the Nadruvian tribe of the Baltic Prussians. It was conquered by the Teutonic Knights in about 1276 and incorporated into the State of the Teutonic Order. From the 15th century onwards, the Knights largely resettled the lands with Samogitian and Lithuanian colonists. Since 1466, it was part of the Kingdom of Poland as a fief held by the Teutonic Order.^[11]

The settlement itself was first mentioned as Stallupoenen, or Stallupönen, in 1539, named after a nearby river called Stalupė in Lithuanian.^{[citation needed]} At that time, with the secularization of the Order's Prussian lands in 1525, Stallupönen had already become part of the Duchy of Prussia, a vassal duchy of Poland which in 1618 was inherited by the Hohenzollern margraves of Brandenburg. Stallupönen then belonged to Brandenburg-Prussia and became a part of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701. The church was built by 1589, and Lithuanian-language church services were held here.^[12] Local pastor Gregorius Wirczinski was one of the revisers of a Lithuanian psalter published in 1625.^[13] The population was decimated during the Great Northern War plague outbreak in 1710.^[14] The settlement was resettled by Lithuanian and German colonists in the following years.^[14] King Frederick William I granted it town privileges in 1722.^[2] Lithuanian poet Kristijonas Donelaitis was the rector of the local school in 1740–1743.^[14] Like other cities in the region during the Seven Years' War between 1757 and 1762, it was occupied by the Russian forces. It became part of the newly formed province of East Prussia in 1773.

Late modern period

During the Prussian-led unification of Germany, Stallupönen became a part of the German Empire in 1871. In 1885, the town had a largely Lithuanian-speaking population of 4,181, often employed in agriculture.^[7] With the construction of railways, the town became well-acquainted to travelers, as it was the last stop on the German-Russian frontier. Here, travelers made the transfer from standard gauge railway carriages of western Europe to the broad gauge carriages of Russia.

In August 1914, the city and the surrounding area were a focal point of Battle of Stallupönen between Russian and German armies, an opening battle on the Eastern Front of World War I. It was occupied by the Russian Army between August 18, 1914 and February 18, 1915.

Because of the Lithuanian minority living there, Lithuania tried unsuccessfully to obtain the town from Germany after regaining independence following World War I. In 1938, the Nazi regime renamed the town Ebenrode to erase traces of non-German origin.^[15]

World War II

During World War II, the Germans operated a subcamp of the Stalag I-A prisoner-of-war camp for Allied POWs in the town.^[16] From June 1941 to June 1942, the Germans also operated the Oflag 52 [pl] POW camp for Soviet officers,^[17] then replaced by the Stalag I-D POW camp until October 1942.^[18][19] Poor sanitary conditions, overcrowding and malnutrition resulted in a high mortality rate.^[18] Jews and political commissars were executed.^[18] Afterwards it was relocated to Šilutė in German-occupied Lithuania.^[18][20]

The town was overrun by the Soviet Red Army during World War II on January 13, 1945. The region was transferred from Germany to the Russian SFSR in 1945 and made a part of Kaliningrad Oblast. In 1946, the town, whose German inhabitants had been largely evacuated or expelled in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement, was renamed Nesterov after Sergey Nesterov, a Soviet war hero who was killed in the vicinity.