Ragnita (from
Old Prussian:
ragas, "
spur"), founded in 1288, was a settlement of the
Baltic (
Old Prussian) tribe of
Skalvians. It was contested by the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania since its creation in the 13th century, and on April 23, 1289 it was conquered by the
Teutonic Knights, who built a castle there between 1397 and 1409, which later became the seat of a
Komtur. Construction works were supervised by the Master of the Teutonic Order Konrad Fellenstein of Marienburg. A few decades later, a now-destroyed 25 meter guard tower was built onto the castle. The stronghold was called
Landeshut, but the name did not become popular and the name Ragnit, after a local river, a
tributary of the Memel (outside of Prussia called
Neman), continued to be used. Although the settlement had an important castle not only guarding the Prussian lands of the
State of the Teutonic Order from the north but also serving as a military base for the Knights' campaigns into adjacent
Samogitia, it was living in the shadow of the nearby city of Tilsit (present-day
Sovetsk). After the dissolution of the Order's State under its last Grand Master
Albrecht von Hohenzollern, Ragnit on April 10, 1525 became a part of the
Duchy of Prussia, which was ruled by the
House of Hohenzollern as a fief of the
Kingdom of Poland until 1657. The duchy was inherited by the Hohenzollern margraves of
Brandenburg in 1618, becoming an integral part of
Brandenburg-Prussia, whereby remote Ragnit retained its status as a regional capital. Ragnit was devastated by
Tatars during the
Second Northern War in 1656 and again by
Swedish forces during the
Scanian War in 1678, while the "Great Elector"
Frederick William of Brandenburg had achieved full sovereignty over Ducal Prussia by the 1657
Treaty of Wehlau. His son and successor Elector
Frederick III elevated himself to a
King in Prussia in 1701. He granted Ragnit
town privileges on April 6, 1722. It was again destroyed during the
Seven Years' War, this time by
Russian forces in 1757. Incorporated into the
Province of East Prussia from 1815, Ragnit became a part of the
German Empire upon the Prussian-led
unification of Germany in 1871. Its castle, having long lost its defensive purpose, became a court and prison. On November 1, 1892, a railroad line linking the town with Tilsit (now Sovetsk) was opened. It was built to develop the wood industry in the area, but the development did not actually start and the area's economy remained dominated by food production. When Germany had to cede the
Klaipėda Region north of the Neman River to the
Conference of Ambassadors according to the 1919
Treaty of Versailles, Ragnit became a border town. In 1922, it lost its status as an administrative capital in favor of Tilsit. It was the location of a Nazi prison under
Nazi Germany. During
World War II, on January 19, 1945, Ragnit was captured without a fight by the
3rd Belorussian Front of the
Red Army in the course of the
East Prussian Offensive. Much of the town was destroyed, including the castle, which remains ruined. In accordance to the 1945
Potsdam Agreement, the town became a part of
Kaliningrad Oblast of the
Russian SFSR. It was renamed to Neman in 1946. Most of the local inhabitants who had not fled during the Soviet conquest of
East Prussia were subsequently
expelled to Germany in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement. ==Administrative and municipal status==