Chernyakhovsk

Medieval period

Insterburg was founded in 1337 by the Teutonic Knights on the site of a former Old Prussian fortification when Dietrich von Altenburg, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, built a castle called Insterburg following the Prussian Crusade.^[2] During the Teutonic Knights' Northern Crusades campaign against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the town was devastated in 1376. The castle had been rebuilt as the seat of a Procurator and a settlement also named Insterburg grew up to serve it. In 1454, Polish King Casimir IV Jagiellon incorporated the region to the Kingdom of Poland upon the request of the anti-Teutonic Prussian Confederation.^[9] During the subsequent Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466) between Poland and the Teutonic Knights, the settlement was devastated by Polish troops in 1457. After the war, since 1466, the settlement was a part of Poland as a fief held by the Teutonic Knights.^[10]

Early modern period

When the Prussian Duke Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach in 1525 secularized the monastic State of the Teutonic Order per the Treaty of Kraków, Insterburg became part of the Duchy of Prussia, a vassal duchy of the Kingdom of Poland. The settlement was granted town privileges on 10 October 1583 by the Prussian regent Margrave George Frederick.^[3][4] In the early 17th century, the town had a mixed population, and had Lithuanian, German and Polish preachers.^[11] From the 17th century also Scottish people settled for trade,^[4] contributing to the town's growth.^[12] It was a notable brewing center with beer sold in Poland.^[13] The populace also lived off crafts, agriculture, and trade in grain and flaxseed.^[13]

In 1678, during the Scanian War, the town was occupied by Sweden.^[4] In 1690, there was a fire.^[4][14] Insterburg became part of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701. As the area had been depopulated by the Great Northern War plague outbreak in the early 18th century, King Frederick William I of Prussia invited Protestant refugees who had been expelled from the Archbishopric of Salzburg to settle in Insterburg in 1732. Also Swiss, Palatine and Nassau immigrants came to the town.^[12] French-language Calvinist church services were held in the town for several decades since 1731.^[15] During the Seven Years' War, the town was occupied by Russia.^[3]

Late modern period

During the Napoleonic Wars, French troops passed through the town in 1806, 1807, 1811 and 1813.^[3] In 1818, after the Napoleonic Wars, the town became the seat of Insterburg District within the Gumbinnen Region. Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly died at Insterburg in 1818 on his way from his Livonian manor to Germany, where he wanted to renew his health. Following the unsuccessful November Uprising, Polish insurgents were interned in the town in 1832.^[16] In 1863, a Polish secret organization was founded and operated in Insterburg. It was involved in arms trafficking to the Russian Partition of Poland during the January Uprising,^[17] transporting endangered insurgents to the west and relaying information about the uprising to the west.^[18] Since May 1864, the leader of the organization was Józef Racewicz. The organization existed until December 1864, when it was crushed by the Prussian authorities as the last such organization in East Prussia.^[18] In April 1865, Józef Racewicz and 10 associates were put on trial in the city and ultimately acquitted.^[18] Despite the acquittal, the local Landrat wanted to hand the defendants over to the Russian authorities, so the local residents helped them escape arrest.^[18]

Insterburg became a part of the German Empire following the 1871 unification of Germany, and on May 1, 1901, it became an independent city separate from Insterburg District. During World War I the Russian Army seized Insterburg on 24 August 1914, but it was retaken by Germany on 11 September 1914. The Weimar Germany era after World War I saw the town separated from the rest of the country as the province of East Prussia had become an exclave. The association football club Yorck Boyen Insterburg was formed in 1921.

World War II and post-war period

During World War II, the Germans operated a Dulag Luft transit prisoner-of-war camp for Allied POWs in the town.^[19] A local branch of the Peasant Battalions was established by the Polish resistance, under the cryptonym "Wystruć", the historic Polish name of the town.^[20] Several French forced laborers cooperated with the Polish resistance.^[20] The town was heavily bombed by the British Royal Air Force on July 27, 1944. The town was stormed by Red Army troops on January 21–22, 1945. As part of the northern part of East Prussia, Insterburg was transferred from Germany to the Soviet Union after the war as previously agreed between the victorious powers at the Potsdam Conference. On 7 April 1946, Insterburg was renamed as Chernyakhovsk in honor of the Soviet World War II Army General, Ivan Chernyakhovsky, who commanded the army that first entered East Prussia in 1944.^[2]

After 1989, a group of people introduced the Akhal-Teke horse breed to the area and opened an Akhal-Teke breeding stable. In 1993, the local St. Bruno church became the second church in the oblast to be returned to Catholics after the Fall of Communism.^[21] Franciscans from Poland came to serve there.^[21]

Mayovka, formerly a separate village, forms part of the town.

Historic churches

Saint Michael Archangel

Saint Bruno