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 quickly reclaimed 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 . During World War II , Insterburg 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 . The German population was either evacuated or expelled and replaced with Russians . In 7 April 1946 , Insterburg was renamed as Chernyakhovsk in honor of the Soviet World War II General of the Army , Ivan Chernyakhovsky , who commanded the army that first entered East Prussia in 1944
Potsdam Conference
Potsdam Conference
Chernyakhovsk