The original name of the settlement is of
Baltic origin. In 1454, the region was incorporated by
Casimir IV Jagiellon to the
Kingdom of Poland upon the request of the anti-Teutonic
Prussian Confederation. After the subsequent
Thirteen Years' War, since 1466, it formed part of the Kingdom of Poland as a
fief held by the
Teutonic Order, and after 1525 held by secular
Ducal Prussia. From the 18th century the settlement was part of the
Kingdom of Prussia, and was granted
town rights in 1725. Four annual
fairs and a weekly market were held in the town in the late 19th century. and a subcamp of the Stalag I-D POW camp in the town. The town was almost completely destroyed by Soviet
Red Army artillery during the
East Prussian Offensive in World War II; it was the first town of pre-war Germany that was reached by Russian infantry. In contrast to Pillkallen (
Dobrovolsk) and Goldap (
Gołdap), Schirwindt was never recaptured by the
Wehrmacht. After the war, the northern part of the formed province of East Prussia was transferred to the
Russian SFSR of the
Soviet Union. The few German inhabitants still remaining in the shelled-out town were
expelled in accordance to the
Potsdam Agreement, and Schirwindt was renamed Kutuzovo in honour of the
Napoleonic era Russian general
Mikhail Kutuzov, who crushed the
invading forces of Imperial France in 1812. The town has not been rebuilt since, and the area looks approximately the same as it did immediately after the war. The settlement was deprived of town rights. It was almost completely uninhabited, and was eventually abandoned in the 2000s. Only part of the former school has been preserved, and now functions as a barracks for border patrol guards. The foundations of the old village church (
Immanuelkirche), designed by
Friedrich August Stüler and blown up by the Soviets in 1947, can still be seen in the town centre. ==Notable people==