Kaliningrad: the former capital of Prussia
In addition to its strategic and military importance, Kaliningrad carries a lot of historical significance for both European and Russian history.
While the city has a Russian name, which comes from Mikhail Kalinin, one of the leading members of the communist Bolshevik movement and the official head of the Soviet Union between 1922 and 1946, it was founded by Teutonic Knights, a German-origin Catholic crusading order, who ruled Prussia from the 13th Century to the 15th Century.
The Teutonic Order named the city Konigsberg, which means king’s mountain, referring to King Ottokar II of Bohemia. The city had been the capital of the Prussian monarchy, a German-led state, for centuries until 1701, when the royal family moved its capital to Berlin. Prussia is the predecessor state of current Germany.
During WWII, the city witnessed intense fighting between the Soviet forces and Nazi Germany, which was defeated at the Battle of Konigsberg, and was lost to Moscow in 1945. After the 1945 Potsdam Agreement between the Allies and the Soviets, the city was ceded to Moscow by Western powers and became part of the USSR.
After claiming it from Berlin, the Soviet leadership named the city Kaliningrad in 1946, forcibly displacing its German population to Germany. But following the dissolution of the Soviets in 1991 and with the emergence of independent Baltic states, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, the city lost its land connection to the Russian Federation.
While Russians changed all Soviet-era names of cities, which commemorated communist leaders like Lenin and Stalin, they did not follow that policy for Kaliningrad, making it the centre of the country’s Kaliningrad Oblast. Russian leaders might think that going back to the city’s former name would remind people of its German past.
Kaliningrad Oblast’s current total population stands at nearly one million, as it is a magnet for internal migration from other parts of Russia. It’s also one of Russia’s largest industrial centres. A picturesque location, it has been elected as the best Russian city many times in the past.
Immanuel Kant, Germany’s leading philosopher , was also a native of Kaliningrad. His “perpetual peace” theory was one of the inspirations for the European Union’s integration project, according to some academics.
During a brief Russian invasion of Kaliningrad between 1758 and 1762, Kant swore allegiance to the then-Russian Empress Elizabeth. Interestingly, the German philosopher refused to renounce his allegiance to Russia even after Prussia claimed Kaliningrad back later.
Today, his statue stands in front of the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University in Kaliningrad. - TRT
