Kaliningrad Oblast
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Location of the Kaliningrad Oblast |
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Map of the Kaliningrad Oblast |
Kaliningrad Oblast (; or
Nordostpreussen, "Northeast Prussia"), informally called
Yantarny kray (, meaning
Amber region) is a
federal subject of
Russia (an
oblast) on the
Baltic coast, with no land connection to the rest of Russia; it is a non-contiguous
exclave of Russia surrounded by
Lithuania,
Poland and the Baltic Sea. As Lithuania and Poland both are members of the
European Union and
NATO, the oblast is, as well, surrounded by territories of these organizations. It is the westernmost part of Russia. Its largest city is
Kaliningrad (
formerly known as Königsberg), which has historical significance as both a major city of
Prussia and the capital of the former
German province
East Prussia, of which the region remains the northern core remnant.
*
Population: 968,200 (2004 est.); 955,281 (2002
Census).
*Area: 15,100 km².
The current governor (since 2005) of the Kaliningrad Oblast is
Georgy Valentinovich Boos. Previously,
Vladimir Yegorov was the governor.
Prussian people
In prehistory this area had been inhabited by
Eastern Balts (eastern parts - most of the territory) and the
Western Balts (
Sambian peninsula and the areas nearby). Over time, the Western Balts consolidated into the
Baltic Prussian nation (not to be confused with East Prussian, which means local German), while the Eastern Balts consolidated into a part of the
Lithuanian nation.
As the indigenous Prussians were
pagans, the
Teutonic Knights entered the area under the pretext of spreading
Christianity. According to German chronicles, the centre of Baltic paganism, which was also adhered to by the
Lithuanians,
Samogitians, and various other Baltic tribes, was a sacred wood known as
Romuva.
Teutonic Order State
Unlike other Baltic tribes, the Prussians were unable to unite and establish their own state, allowing their lands to be quickly overrun by the Teutonic Knights. Atop a destroyed Prussian settlement known as Tvanksta, the Order founded the major city Königsberg, the current
Kaliningrad. The native Prussians formed the bulk of the
Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights, although Germans from the central
Holy Roman Empire, as well as
Flemish and
Dutch pioneers colonized many villages and waste lands. The Baltic Prussians initiated several organized revolts, including one led by
Herkus Mantas. These uprisings ultimately failed, resulting in the eventual destruction of the original Prussian culture, as the nation became thoroughly
Germanised.
The
German language became dominant in government affairs. The
Baltic Prussian language is known to have survived into the early modern period (16th and 17th centuries) as some
Lutheran Bibles from these periods (after the
Protestant Reformation) were written in the Prussian language for people who did not speak German. The west of Königsberg region was a cultural, educational and printing centre for this language before it eventually died out.
In the 13th century, the Teutonic Order conquered what is now the eastern half of the Kaliningrad Oblast, an area which was previously ruled by the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Warfare between the Order and the Grand Duchy continued for several centuries (with some interruptions), and many battles took place in this area.
The
Second Treaty of Thorn in 1466 left western Prussia under Polish control under the name of "
Royal Prussia", while the Knights retained control of eastern Prussia under the sovereignty of Poland. In 1525 following another war with Poland, Grand Master
Albert of Brandenburg secularised the Prussian branch of the increasingly archaic Teutonic Order and established himself as the sovereign of
Ducal Prussia and as a
vassal of the Polish crown.
East Prussia
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Konigsberg Castle (demolished in 1968 to make way for the House of Soviets). This picture shows it prior to World War I. |
The Prussian established the
Albertina University, one of the most important centres of German-language education, in Königsberg in 1544. Gradually,
Ducal Prussia passed to the electors of
Brandenburg, forming
Brandenburg-Prussia. The elector-dukes freed themselves of their Polish vassaldom in the
Treaty of Wehlau in 1657.
The
Hohenzollern dynasty transformed their state into the
Kingdom of Prussia in 1701 and annexed
Warmia, part of Royal Prussia, in the
First Partition of Poland in 1772. Former Ducal Prussia was reorganized into the province of
East Prussia in 1773. Prussian kings were crowned at Königsberg Castle, although the area was briefly overrun by the
Russian Empire during the
Seven Years' War.
By this point Lithuanians made up the majority of the population in the eastern half of what is now the Kaliningrad Oblast, while there were also significant Lithuanian minorities elsewhere. As a result this area was sometimes called
Lithuania Minor. The Lithuanians living in Lithuania Minor (
Lietuvininks) were Lutherans, unlike the
Catholics Lithuanians in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
The four counties where Lithuanian was spoken were referred to collectively as the Lithuanian province.[
1] In this province church sermons were predominantly preached in
Lithuanian. There were Lithuanian Lutheran schools as well, but the number of them decreased over time due to Germanisation and government regulations.
Germans formed a strong majority in the city of Königsberg and the areas around it. The
Curonian Spit and some villages in the east of the
Curonian Lagoon as well as ones on the coast of the
Baltic Sea were inhabited by the
Courlandians, who were later on partly Germanised due to natural assimilation.
Since Germans had been the ruling ethnic group in East Prussia since the conquest of the area by the Teutonic Order in the Middle Ages, the German language was primarily used by the government. Other nationalities, despite inhabiting large chunks of land, were mostly peasants, while landowners and nobility were primarily German. Thus the Lithuanian-speaking areas gradually became Germanised due to the migration of wealthy Germans from other parts of the country into the Lithuanian areas and the fact that the German language was perceived to be more prestigious than Lithuanian and
Baltic Old Prussian. Lithuanian-speaking areas became smaller over time; the same could be said about the Courlandian area. By the 18th century the population in the southwest of then northeastern Prussia was totally German speaking and were the majority, despite significant Baltic minorities, in the other parts of the area as well.
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The former East Prussian town of Cranz as it looked in 1920. It is now the resort town of Zelenogradsk. |
East Prussia was an important centre of German culture. Many important figures, such as
Immanuel Kant, originated from this region. The cities of Kaliningrad Oblast, despite being heavily damaged during
World War II and after, still bear typical German architecture, such as
Jugendstil, showing the rich German history and cultural importance of the area.
Lithuania Minor within East Prussia was also an important centre for Lithuanian culture. The less conservative Lutheran government of Prussia promoted science, culture, and education, allowing Lithuania Minor to advance scientifically and culturally faster than the Lithuanians within the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, where
Polish was seen as more prestigious than
Lithuanian. The first books printed in Lithuanian were published in Königsberg in the 16th century. Printing in Lithuanian increased after the Grand Duchy was
annexed to Russia and again as Lithuanians in the Russian Empire were subject to
Russification. Lithuanian-language publications were then
smuggled from East Prussia into Russia.
The Lithuanian-speaking population in East Prussia continued to diminish due to further Germanisation; in the early 20th century Lithuanians made up a majority only in the far northeast of what is now Kaliningrad Oblast, the rest of the area being predominantly German-speaking.
The Memel Territory (
Klaipėda region), formerly part of northeastern East Prussia, came under Lithuanian control in 1923 after
World War I.
When the
Nazis came to power in
Weimar Germany in the 1930s, they radically altered about a third of the place names of this area by Germanising most names of Old (Baltic) Prussian or Lithuanian origin in 1938.
Kaliningrad Oblast
During
World War II the
Soviet Red Army entered the eastern-most tip of Prussia on
August 29 1944. Rumours of massacres committed by the Soviet troops spread panic in the province and caused a mass flight westward. More than two million people were
evacuated, many of them via the
Baltic Sea. The remaining population was deported after the World War II ended and the area was repopulated primarily by
Russians and, to a lesser extent, by
Ukrainians and
Belarusians (see the demography section).
The
Yalta Conference of world powers assigned northern East Prussia to the
Soviet Union.
Sir Winston Churchill remarked that "this part of East Prussia is red from the Russian blood liberally shed for the common cause. Therefore the Russians have historical and well-grounded claims on this German area" [
2].
According to some documents written during the administration of
Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet government had planned to make the rest of the area a part of the
Lithuanian SSR. The area was administered by the
planning committee of the LSSR, although the area had its own Party committee. However, the leadership of the Lithuanian SSR (especially
Antanas Sniečkus) refused to take the territory mainly because of its devastation in
World War II. Instead the region was added to the
Russian SFSR and since 1946 it has been known as Kaliningrad Oblast. According to some historians, Stalin created it as an oblast separate from the LSSR because it further enclosed the
Baltic republics from
the West.[
3]
Names of the towns, cities, rivers and other geographical objects were changed into newly-created Russian ones.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Germans began to migrate to the area again, especially
Volga Germans from other parts of Russia.
In recent times, the situation has slowly changed as the people of Kaliningrad begin to look back to their past. Germany and Lithuania have renewed contact with Kaliningrad Oblast through
town twinning and other projects. This has helped to promote interest in the past and the culture of the East Prussian and Lietuvinink communities. Kaliningrad Oblast is also the world's largest producer of amber.
The Kaliningrad Oblast is a non-contiguous
exclave of Russia surrounded by
Lithuania,
Poland and the
Baltic Sea.
Geographical features include:
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Curonian Lagoon - shared with Lithuania
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Vistula Lagoon - shared with Poland
Time zone
Kaliningrad Oblast is located in the
Eastern European Time Zone (known locally as the
Kaliningrad Time Zone or the Russia Zone 1).
UTC offset is +0200 (USZ1)/+0300 (USZ1S).
2002
According to the
Russian Census (2002), the population of the region is 955,300; 78% urban, 22% rural. The Kaliningrad Oblast is the fourth most densely populated
oblast in the Russian Federation (62.5 persons per sq.km).
97 nationalities and ethnic groups live in the region, including Russians - 78.1%, Byelorussians - 7.7%, Ukrainians - 7.6%, Lithuanians - 1.9%, Armenians - 0.8%, Germans - 0.6%, Poles - 0.5%.
Almost none of the pre-World War II Lithuanian population (
Lietuvininks) or German population remains in the Kaliningrad Oblast.
History section:#Simon Grunau, Preussische Chronik. Hrsg. von M. Perlbach etc., Leipzig, 1875.#A. Bezzenberger, Die litauisch-preubische Grenze.- Altpreußische Monatsschrift, XIX"XX, 1882"1883.#K. Lohmeyer, Geschichte von Ost- und Westpreußen, Gotha, 1908#R. Trautmann, Die Altpreußischen Sprachdenkmaler,Göttingen, 1909#L. David. Preussische Chronik. Hrsg. von Hennig, Königsberg, 1812#M. Toeppen, Historische-comparative Geographie von Preußen, Gotha, 1959
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Anthem of the Kaliningrad Oblast*
Music of Kaliningrad*
Official site *
Kaliningrad Oblast on Google Maps*
Recent photos taken by Joost Lemmens of the Netherlands shows examples of small towns neglected under the Soviet Union around Kaliningrad Oblast. This site gives the Prussian German town names and the corresponding Russian names after 1945/49. It starts out with the gate of the horse breeding stables in
Trakehnen, and hopeful signs of new beginnings for this devastated land.
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Master's thesis by Sergey Naumkin on the possibility of Kaliningrad integrating with the EU as a
special economic zone*
Life in Kaliningrad Oblast 
