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Tilsit - Sovetsk - town (1989 pop. 41,900), NW European
Russia, on the Neman River at the mouth of the Tilse. It is a rail junction, a river port, and an
industrial and commercial center in an agricultural area. Lumbering and woodworking are the chief
industries; others include the production of machines, cotton cloth, and Tilsit cheese.

The town grew around a castle built in 1288 by
the Teutonic Knights and was chartered in 1552.
Napoleon I, having won the battle of Friedland,
met Emperor Alexander I of Russia on June 25, 1807, on a
raft in the Neman River off Tilsit.
Their negotiations, joined later by King Frederick William III of
Prussia, an ally of Russia, led to the treaties of Tilsit of July 7
and July 9, 1807. By the first treaty,
France made peace with Russia, which recognized the grand duchy of Warsaw and which secretly
promised to mediate between France and England; if England should reject mediation, Russia was
to ally itself with France. At the same time, France gave Russia a free hand with regard to Finland,
then a Swedish possession. The Russo-French alliance proved tenuous and collapsed altogether in
1812. In the second treaty, Napoleon drastically reduced Prussia, which lost all its territory west of
the Elbe to France and most of its Polish provinces to the grand duchy of Warsaw. Danzig became
a free city, the Prussian army was reduced to 42,000 men, several leading Prussian fortresses were
to be garrisoned by French troops, and Prussia was to join in the Continental System against
England. Prussia was thus reduced to virtual vassalage to France, from which it freed itself only in
1813. Tilsit was occupied by Soviet forces in World War II and was transferred, along with other
sections of East Prussia, to the USSR at the Potsdam Conference of 1945.

How to get there...

Sovetsk is located on the Lithuanian-Russian border, on the south bank of the
river Neman (Memel). Driving from the Lithuanian side is not recommended
due to heavy traffic conditions and delays associated with the border control.
From the region's administrative center Kaliningrad (Koenigsberg) you can
take a train or a bus heading to Sovetsk. The distance is about 120 km.
In the past, one could also enter the town by water, but boat service seems to
have ceased and is now virtually nonexistant due to post-Soviet economic hardships.

courtesy alg.kaliningrad.ru/swena

Railroads

Sovetsk's Railroad Station
phone: +7 (01161) 72635
Tickets to virtually all destinations in Kaliningrad Reg. as well as the
"continental" Russia.

Bus service

Sovetsk's main bus terminal is located next to the railroad station.
Their administrative contact and offices are in a different town:
State Enterprise "Sovetsk Bus Lines"
Ladushkin of Kaliningrad Reg, Russia
8-a Pervomayskaya Str.
phone +7 (256) 72455

Radio stations

Radio "Baltic Plus" branch in Sovetsk
12 Goncharova Str.
phone: (01161) 74676

Radio "Massiv" 101.9 FM
238750 Sovetsk, POB 98

Hotels

Sightseeing

Shopping

Weather

Currency exchange and banks

Internet access

Education

Police and traffic control

Hospitals

Other services

Factories and industries

Port of Tilsit

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