A piece of Russia

[Ronaldo]

What is the story with the small portion of Russia that is located between Lithuania and Poland? Why did it remain part of Russia while the states surrounding it became sovereign states?

[Sunspace]

That’s Kaliningrad oblast. It’s the bit of East Prussia that Russia held on to and that didn’t go to Poland or Lithuania after the war. It surrounded the old city of Konigsberg, which was basically flattened during the war, and which the Russians rebuilt and renamed Kaliningrad.

[Ronaldo]

@Sunspace

That’s Kaliningrad oblast. It’s the bit of East Prussia that Russia held on to and that didn’t go to Poland or Lithuania after the war. It surrounded the old city of Konigsberg, which was basically flattened during the war, and which the Russians rebuilt and renamed Kaliningrad.

After the break-up of the Soviet Union, how was Russia still able to retain this real-estate?

[Sunspace]

Here’s Wikipedia on the subject. Worse than I thought. Königsberg was the capital of East Prussia:

n 1944 Königsberg suffered heavy damage from British air attacks and burned for several days…

The historic city center, consisting of the quarters Altstadt, Löbenicht and Kneiphof was in fact completely destroyed, among it the dome, the castle, all churches of the city, the old and the new university…

Many people fled Königsberg in advance of of the Red Army’s advance after October 1944, particularly after word spread of atrocities at Nemmersdorf and Gumbinnen. Soviet forces encircled the city at the end of January 1945, but a temporary German breakout allowed many of the remaining civilians to escape via naval evacuation from the nearby port of Pillau (now Baltiysk). The siege of Königsberg, which had been declared a “fortress” (Festung) by the Germans and fanatically defended, raged all through February and March. The city was bombed and shelled continuously.

On April 9 — one month before the end of the war in Europe — the German military commander, General Otto Lasch, surrendered the remanants of his forces, which had numbered 35,000. For this act, he was sentenced to death in absentia by Hitler, who declared him a “traitor.” At the time of the surrender, military and civilian dead in the city were estimated at 42,000…

About 50,000 survivors (out of Königsberg’s prewar population of 316,000) cowered in the ruins of the devastated city. These survivors, and a few others who returned immediately after the fighting ended, were held as virtual prisoners until 1949, during which time many died of disease and starvation. A significant number committed suicide. The remaining German residents were expelled in 1949-50.

At the end of World War II in 1945, the city became part of the Soviet Union… as agreed upon by the Allies at the Potsdam Conference. It was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946 after the death of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Mikhail Kalinin, one of the original Bolsheviks. The German population was expelled and the city was repopulated with Russian citizens. Life changed dramatically: the city had a new name (Kaliningrad), German was replaced by Russian as the language of everyday life, and the main religion became Russian Orthodox Christianity. As one of the westernmost territories of the USSR, the Kaliningrad Oblast became a strategically important area during the Cold War. The Soviet Baltic Fleet was headquartered in the city in the 1950s. Because of its strategic importance, Kaliningrad was closed to foreign visitors…

Due to the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Kaliningrad Oblast became a Russian exclave, separated from the rest of Russia. Kaliningrad is the only Russian Baltic Sea port that is ice-free all year.

When Poland and Lithuania became members of the European Union in 2004, the region became completely surrounded by the EU. Special travel arrangements for the territory’s inhabitants have been made.

[Ronaldo]

@Sunspace

Here’s Wikipedia on the subject. Worse than I thought. Königsberg was the capital of East Prussia:

Interesting, Thanks! I assume that to travel to that area, one must adhere to same procedures as if one were traveling to mainland Russia. Which, of course, is a paperwork nightmare.

[carnivorousplant]

Let us not forget Euler and the Konigsberg Bridge Problem. Can’t remember what the hell it had to do with Calculus, though.

[Crescend]

@carnivorousplant

Let us not forget Euler and the Konigsberg Bridge Problem. Can’t remember what the hell it had to do with Calculus, though.

Not much, to my knowledge, but it is pretty important in the development of graph theory.

[carnivorousplant]

@Crescend

Not much, to my knowledge, but it is pretty important in the development of graph theory.

Pretty sure it was Dr. Duplissey, “Anyone can integrate. A blind mongoloid can integrate.” Cal III? I cussed him up and down in an engineering course, and became aware I was speaking to his Wife. She agreed with me. Teaching her higher mathematics made her weep.

[Neptunian_Slug]

@Ronaldo

What is the story with the small portion of Russia that is located between Lithuania and Poland? Why did it remain part of Russia while the states surrounding it became sovereign states?

The only part of the former Soviet Union that was contiguous to Kaliningrad was Lithuania, which had only been annexed into the USSR in 1940. It was made part of the Russian SFSR. Had Kaliningrad been transferred to the Lithuanian SSR, it would have ended up as Lithuanian territory after independence

This would have been analogous to the transfer of the Crimean territory from the Russian SFSR to the Ukranian SSR in 1954. As a result of that transfer, Crimea is now part of independent Ukraine. I suspect (with no evidence to back it up) that the Moscow government didn’t necessarily want to leave such a strategic territory in the hands of a Republic that it had just annexed in 1940.

[Schnitte]

@Ronaldo

Interesting, Thanks! I assume that to travel to that area, one must adhere to same procedures as if one were traveling to mainland Russia. Which, of course, is a paperwork nightmare.

Now that you speak of it, the visa matter is indeed a cause for continous debate between Russia and the Europan Union. The countries surrounding Kaliningrad are all members of the EU, so a citizen of Kaliningrad who wants to travel to mainland Russia by car, bus or train needs to transit the EU. He or she will need the appropriate visa, and generally, EU countries require some paperwork from Russian nationals to be issued visa. Moscow demanded the EU granted its nationals in Kaliningrad esceptions, which the EU denied because it feared misuse that could result in an increase in illegal immigration.

They managed to reach a compromise with some special rules that made it easier for Russians to get transit visa for travel to and from Kalinigrad.