Place:Kaliningrad, Severo-zapadny, Russia

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Kaliningrad Oblast is the westernmost federal subject of Russia. It is a semi-exclave situated on the Baltic Sea. The largest city and administrative centre of the province (oblast) is the city of Kaliningrad, formerly known as Königsberg. The port city of Baltiysk is Russia's only port on the Baltic Sea that remains ice-free in winter. Kaliningrad Oblast had a population of roughly 1 million in the Russian Census of 2010.

The oblast is bordered by Poland to the south, Lithuania to the north and east, and the Baltic Sea to the west. It is impossible to travel overland between the oblast and the contiguous part of Russia proper without passing through at least two other countries. The territory was formerly the northern part of the Prussian province of East Prussia, the southern part of which is today part of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship in Poland. With the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, the territory was annexed as part of the Russian SFSR by the Soviet Union. Following the post-war migration and flight and expulsion of Germans, the territory was populated with mostly Russians.

History

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The territory of what is now the Kaliningrad Oblast used to be inhabited by the Old Prussians and other Western Balts, prior to the Teutonic conquest in the early Late Middle Ages. The Old Prussians became extinct due to Germanisation in the first half of the 18th century.^[1] The Lithuanian-inhabited areas of the Teutonic State were known as Lithuania Minor, which encompassed all of modern Kaliningrad Oblast until the 18th century.^[1]

Late Middle Ages

In the 13th century, the Teutonic Order conquered the region and established a monastic state. In 1255, on the foundations of a destroyed Sambian settlement known as , the Teutonic Order founded the city of Königsberg (modern Kaliningrad), naming it in honour of Ottokar II of Bohemia.

The Northern Crusades, including the Lithuanian Crusade, were partly motivated by colonization. The German colonist peasants, craftsmen and merchants were predominantly concentrated in the southern part of the Teutonic State and did not move into Nadruvia and Skalvia due to the Lithuanian military threat.^[2]

15th century

After Poland's victory in the Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466) with the Second Peace of Thorn, the State of the Teutonic Order became a vassal of the Kingdom of Poland. During this war, the capital of the Teutonic state was moved from Marienburg (now Malbork) to Königsberg in 1457.^[1] Following the war, Royal Prussia was established on part of the Teutonic Order's territory. When the rulers of the Duchy of Prussia were vassals of the King of Poland, which was the case from 1466 to 1660, there were few German colonists.^[1]

16th century

After the Teutonic Order lost the war of 1519–1521 with Poland, the Teutonic Order remained a vassal of the Kingdom of Poland. In 1525, Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg secularized the Teutonic Order's Prussian branch and established himself as ruler of the Duchy of Prussia. Königsberg was the residence of the Duke of Prussia from 1525 until 1701.^[3] It was the Duchy of Prussia's capital until 1660, when the capital moved to Berlin^[3] The Duchy of Prussia was the first Protestant state in Europe.^[4]

In 1577, the Duke of Prussia forbade serfs, who were mostly Old Prussians, Lithuanians, Masurians, to leave the land that was the property of the German knights who became proprietary nobles.

17th century

In 1618, the Duchy merged with the Margraviate of Brandenburg into Brandenburg-Prussia.^[5]

18th century

During the Seven Years' War it was occupied by the Russian Empire. The region was reorganized into the Province of East Prussia within the Kingdom of Prussia in 1773. The territory of the Kaliningrad Oblast lies in the northern part of East Prussia. The territory was briefly occupied and annexed by Russia in 1758  during the Seven years War before being returned to Prussia in 1762 when Russia switched sides in the war.

19th century

Napoleonic occupation

After the defeats of Jena–Auerstedt, the Kingdom of Prussia was invaded and Berlin was occupied by the French. The Court of Prussia fled to Königsberg, asking for Russian help. Russia interfered and this led to the bloody battle of Eylau and battle of Friedland in 1807. The French won and signed the Treaties of Tilsit.^[6]

Historical ethnic and religious structure

In 1817, East Prussia had 796,204 Protestants, 120,123 Roman Catholics, 2,389 Jews, and 864 Mennonites.

In 1824, shortly before its merger with West Prussia, the population of East Prussia was 1,080,000 people. According to Karl Andree, Germans were slightly more than half of the people, while 280,000 (~26%) were ethnically Polish and 200,000 (~19%) were ethnically Lithuanian. As of 1819 there were also 20,000 strong ethnic Curonian and Latvian minorities as well as 2,400 Jews, according to Georg Hassel. Similar numbers are given by August von Haxthausen in his 1839 book, with a breakdown by county. However, the majority of East Prussian Polish and Lithuanian inhabitants were Lutherans, not Roman Catholics like their ethnic kinsmen across the border in the Russian Empire. Only in Southern Warmia (German: Ermland) Catholic Poles – so called Warmians (not to be confused with predominantly Protestant Masurians) – comprised the majority of population, numbering 26,067 people (~81%) in county Allenstein (Polish: Olsztyn) in 1837.^[7] Another minority in 19th-century East Prussia, were ethnically Russian Old Believers, also known as Philipponnen – their main town was Eckersdorf (Wojnowo).

German culture and Germanization

East Prussia was an important centre of German culture. Many important figures, such as Immanuel Kant and E. T. A. Hoffmann, came from this region. Despite being heavily damaged during World War II and thereafter, the oblast's cities still contain examples of German architecture. The Jugendstil style showcases the rich German history and cultural importance of the area.

By the early 20th century, Lithuanians formed a majority only in rural parts of north-eastern East Prussia (Memelland and Prussian Lithuania). The same was true of the Latvian-speaking Kursenieki who had settled the coast of East Prussia between Gdańsk and Klaipėda. The rest of the area, except the Polish Masurians in Mazury (southern Prussia), was overwhelmingly German-speaking.

The Memel Territory (Klaipėda region), formerly part of north-eastern East Prussia as well as Prussian Lithuania, was annexed by Lithuania in 1923. In 1938, Nazi Germany radically renamed about a third of the place names of this area, replacing Old Prussian and Lithuanian names with newly invented German names.

20th century

World War I

In September 1914, after hostilities began between Germany on the one hand and France and Russia on the other, the Reich was about to seize Paris, and the French urged Russia to attack East Prussia. Nicholas II launched a major attack, resulting in a Russian victory in the Battle of Gumbinnen. The Russian army arrived at the outskirts of the city of Königsberg but did not take it and settled at Insterburg. This Russian victory and East Prussia's occupation by Russia saved Paris by forcing the Germans to send many troops to their East provinces. Later Hindenburg and Lüdendorff pushed Russia back at the battle of Tannenberg, thereby liberating East Prussia from Russian troops. Yet Russian troops remained in the easternmost part of the region until early 1915.

World War II

On 29 August 1944, Soviet troops reached the border of East Prussia. By January 1945, they had taken all of East Prussia except for the area around Königsberg. Many inhabitants fled west at this time. During the war's last days, over two million people fled before the Red Army and were evacuated by sea.

Soviet takeover

Under the Potsdam Agreement's terms, the city became part of the Soviet Union pending the final determination of territorial questions at a peace settlement. This final determination took place on 12 September 1990, with the signing of the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany. The excerpt pertaining to the partition of East Prussia including the area surrounding Königsberg is as follows (note that Königsberg is spelt "Koenigsberg" in the original document):

VI. CITY OF KOENIGSBERG AND THE ADJACENT AREA
The Conference examined a proposal by the Soviet Government that pending the final determination of territorial questions at the peace settlement, the section of the western frontier of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics which is adjacent to the Baltic Sea should pass from a point on the eastern shore of the Bay of Danzig to the east, north of Braunsberg – Goldep, to the meeting point of the frontiers of Lithuania, the Polish Republic and East Prussia. The Conference has agreed in principle to the proposal of the Soviet Government concerning the ultimate transfer to the Soviet Union of the city of Koenigsberg and the area adjacent to it as described above, subject to expert examination of the actual frontier. The President of the United States and the British Prime Minister supported the proposal of the Conference at the forthcoming peace settlement.

Königsberg was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946 in memory of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Mikhail Kalinin. The remaining German population was forcibly expelled between 1947 and 1948. The annexed territory was populated with Soviet citizens, mostly ethnic Russians but to a lesser extent also Ukrainians and Belarusians.

The German language was replaced with the Russian language. In 1950, there were 1,165,000 inhabitants, which was only half the number of the pre-war population.

The city was rebuilt after WWII. The territory became strategically important as the Soviet Baltic Fleet's headquarters, as the port is ice-free in winter unlike Saint Petersburg (then Leningrad). Hence, the city was closed to foreign visitors.

The reconstruction of the Oblast, threatened by hunger in the immediate post-war years, was carried out through an ambitious and efficient policy of oceanic fishing with the creation of one of the main fishing harbours of the USSR in Kaliningrad city. Fishing not only fed the regional economy but also was a basis for social and scientific development, in particular oceanography. The region remained ocean-oriented until 1990.

In 1957, an agreement was signed and later came into force which delimited the border between Poland and the Soviet Union.

The region was added as a semi-exclave to the Russian SFSR; since 1946 it has been known as the Kaliningrad Oblast. According to some historians, Stalin created it as an oblast separate from the Lithuanian SSR because it further separated the Baltic states from the West. Others think that the reason was that the region was far too strategic for the USSR to leave it in the hands of another SSR other than the Russian one.^[8] The names of the cities, towns, rivers and other geographical features were changed to Russian names.

The area was administered by the planning committee of the Lithuanian SSR, although it had its own Communist Party committee. In the 1950s, Nikita Khrushchev offered the entire Kaliningrad Oblast to the Lithuanian SSR but Antanas Sniečkus refused to annex the territory because it would add at least a million ethnic Russians to Lithuania.^[9]

In 2010, the German magazine Der Spiegel published a report claiming that Kaliningrad had been offered to Germany in 1990 (against payment). The offer was not seriously considered by the West German government which, at the time, saw reunification with East Germany as a higher priority. However, this story was later denied by Mikhail Gorbachev.

Current status

Kaliningrad's isolation was exacerbated by the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 when Lithuania became an independent country and even more when both Poland and Lithuania became members of NATO and subsequently the European Union in 2004. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the independence of the Baltic states, Kaliningrad Oblast has been separated from the rest of Russia by other countries instead of by other former Soviet republics. Neighboring nations imposed strict border controls when they joined the European Union. All military and civilian land links between the region and the rest of Russia have to pass through members of NATO and the EU. Russian proposals for visa-free travel between the EU and Kaliningrad have so far been rejected by the EU. Travel arrangements, based on the Facilitated Transit Document (FTD) and Facilitated Rail Transit Document (FRTD) have been made.^[10][11] On 12 January 1996, Kaliningrad Oblast, alongside Sverdlovsk, became the first oblasts of Russia to sign a power-sharing treaty with the federal government, granting it autonomy. However this agreement was abolished on 31 May 2002.

The territory's economic situation was badly affected by its geographic isolation and the significant reduction in the size of the Russian military garrison, which had previously been one of the major employers and helped the local economy.

After 1991, some ethnic Germans immigrated to the area, such as Volga Germans from other parts of Russia and Kazakhstan, especially after Germany raised the requirements for people from the former Soviet Union to be accepted as ethnic Germans and have a "right of return". These Germans are overwhelmingly Russian-speaking and as such were rejected for resettlement within Germany under Germany's new rules. A similar migration by Poles from the lands of the former Soviet Union to the Kaliningrad Oblast occurred at this time as well. The situation has begun to change, albeit slowly. Germany, Lithuania, and Poland have renewed contact with Kaliningrad Oblast, through town twinning and other projects. This has helped to promote interest in the history and culture of the East Prussian and Lietuvininkai communities.

In July 2007, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov declared that if US-controlled missile defense systems were deployed in Poland, then nuclear weapons might be deployed in Kaliningrad. On 5 November 2008, Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev said that installing missiles in Kaliningrad was almost a certainty. These plans were suspended in January 2009, but implemented in October 2016. In 2011, a long range Voronezh radar was commissioned to monitor missile launches within about . It is situated in the settlement of Pionersky in Kaliningrad Oblast.

A few months after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Lithuania started implementing EU sanctions, which blocked about 50% of the goods being imported into Kaliningrad by rail, not including food, medicine, or passenger travel. Russia protested the sanctions and announced it would increase shipments by sea.

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