Kaliningrad question

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Location of Kaliningrad Oblast in Europe Kaliningrad Oblast within Europe.svg
Location of Kaliningrad Oblast in Europe
Kaliningrad Oblast on the map of Russia Map of Russia - Kaliningrad Oblast (disputed Crimea).svg
Kaliningrad Oblast on the map of Russia

The Kaliningrad question [lower-alpha 1] is a political question concerning the status of Kaliningrad Oblast as an exclave of Russia, [1] and its isolation from the rest of the Baltic region following the 2004 enlargement of the European Union. [1]

Contents

In Western media, the region is often discussed in relation to the deployment of missile systems, initially as a response to the deployment of missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic. [2] Russia views the region as a vital element of its ability to project power in the Baltic region. [3]

One position calls for the independence of Kaliningrad, and is supported by political forces such as the fringe Baltic Republican Party, which has been banned from electoral participation by the Kremlin. In 2023, it claimed to have held an online referendum, with 72.1 per cent of participants voting for Kaliningrad Oblast to leave the Russian Federation. [4] [5] [6] [7]

A fringe position also considers the return of the province to Germany from the Russian Federation. [8] [9] This question is mostly hypothetical, as the German government has stated that it has no claim to it and has formally renounced in international law any right to any lands east of the Oder by ratifying the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany.

History

Refugees from Konigsberg fleeing to western Germany before the advancing Red Army in 1945 Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1972-093-65, Fluchtlinge auf Schiff.jpg
Refugees from Königsberg fleeing to western Germany before the advancing Red Army in 1945

Kaliningrad, or Königsberg, had been a part of the Teutonic Order, Duchy of Prussia (for some time a Polish vassal), Kingdom of Prussia, and the German Empire for 684 years before the Second World War. The lands of Prussia were originally inhabited by Baltic tribes, the Old Prussians, with their language becoming extinct by the 18th century.[ citation needed ]

The incorporation of the Königsberg area of East Prussia to Russia became a stated war aim of the Soviet Union at the Tehran Conference in December 1943. [10] In 1945, at the end of World War II, the city was captured by the Soviet Union (see Battle of Königsberg). As agreed by the Allies at the Potsdam Conference, northern East Prussia, including Königsberg, was given to the USSR. Specifically, it became an exclave of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, separated from the rest of the Republic by the Lithuanian and Byelorussian SSRs. The southern parts of East Prussia were transferred to Poland. In 1946, the name of the city of Königsberg was changed to Kaliningrad.

In October 1945, only about 5,000 Soviet civilians lived in the territory. [11] Between October 1947 and October 1948, about 100,000 Germans were forcibly moved to Germany. [12] About 400,000 Soviet civilians arrived by 1948. [11] Some moved voluntarily, but as the number of willing settlers proved insufficient, collective farms were given quotas of how many people they had to send to Kaliningrad. [11] Often they sent the least socially desirable individuals, such as alcoholics or the uneducated. [11]

In the 1950s, Nikita Khrushchev suggested that the Lithuanian SSR should annex Kaliningrad Oblast. The offer was refused by the Lithuanian Communist Party leader Antanas Sniečkus, who did not wish to alter the ethnic composition of his republic. [13] [14] In the late Soviet era, rumors spread that the Oblast might be converted into a homeland for Soviet Germans. [15]

Kaliningrad Oblast remained part of the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991, and since then has been an exclave of the Russian Federation. After the Soviet collapse, some descendants of the expellees and refugees traveled to the city to examine their roots. [16] According to the 2010 Russian Census, 7,349 ethnic Germans live in the Oblast, making up 0.8% of the population. [17]

In Germany, the status of Kaliningrad (Königsberg) was one of mainstream political issues until the mid-1960s, when the shifting political discourse increasingly associated similar views with right-wing revisionism. [12]

According to a Der Spiegel article published in 2010, in 1990 the West German government received a message from the Soviet general Geli Batenin, offering to return Kaliningrad. [18] The offer was never seriously considered by the Bonn government, who saw reunification with the East as its priority. [18] However, this story was later debunked by Mikhail Gorbachev. [19]

In 2001, the EU was alleged to be in talks with Russia to arrange an association agreement with the Kaliningrad Oblast, at a time when Russia could not repay £22 billion debt owed to Berlin, which may have given Germany some influence over the territory. [16] Claims of "buying back" Kaliningrad (Königsberg) or other "secret deals" were repudiated by both sides. [20]

Another rumor about a debt-related deal, published by the Russian weekly Nash Continent, alleged that Putin and Edmund Stoiber had agreed on the gradual return of Kaliningrad in return for waiving the country's $50 billion debt to Germany. [21]

After annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in 2014, some newspapers proposed that Kaliningrad Oblast should be returned to West. On 28 April 2014, The Baltic Times proposed that the West should take back Kaliningrad from Russia in exchange. [22] This proposal was quoted by several scholary articles. [23] [24] [25]

Regardless of the reality, Russia's annexation of Crimea opened doors to claim Kaliningrad by others. [26] [23]

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. [27] [28]

Support for independence

Since the early 1990s there has been a proposal for independence of the Kaliningrad Oblast from Russia and the formation of a "fourth Baltic state" by some of the local people. The Baltic Republican Party was founded on 1 December 1993 with the aim of founding an autonomous Baltic Republic. [29] The party was eventually banned from participating in elections by Kremlin authorities in 2003. [30]

The Baltic Republican Party claims that Moscow is a barrier to the region's economic development. [31] The Party also uses the name Königsberg, rejecting the Kaliningrad name's links to a "political criminal", and says that the region “belongs to Europe”. [32] [33] It claims that party membership both within and outside the exclave is increasing, and that secession is only a “matter of time”. [34]

In 2023, the Baltic Republican Party claimed that it held an "online independence referendum" and that 72.1 per cent of participants in the Kaliningrad oblast wished to leave the Russian Federation. [6] [35] [36]

Support for irredentism

Inesis Feldmanis  [ lt ], head of the Faculty of History and Philosophy at the University of Latvia, has been quoted saying that the Soviet Union's annexation of Kaliningrad is "an error in history". [9]

The Freistaat Preußen Movement, one of the most active offshoots of the Reichsbürger movement, considers the Russian (and German) government as illegitimate and see themselves as the rightful rulers of the region. [37] As of 2017, the movement is split into two competing factions, one based in Königsfeld, Rhineland-Palatinate and the other in Bonn. [37]

In Lithuania

Some political groups in Lithuania claim parts of Kaliningrad Oblast between the Pregel and Nemunas rivers (an area known as Lithuania Minor), but they have little influence. [38] Linas Balsys  [ lt ], a former deputy in the Lithuanian parliament, has argued that the status of the exclave should be discussed at international levels. [39]

In 1994, the former Lithuanian head of state Vytautas Landsbergis called for the separation and "decolonization" of Kaliningrad from Russia. [40] In December 1997, the Lithuanian parliament member Romualdas Ozolas expressed his view that Kaliningrad should become an independent republic. [41]

After the annexation of Crimea in 2014, the political analyst Laurynas Kasčiūnas  [ lt ] called for a revisiting of the Potsdam Agreement. [42] He claims that residents of Kaliningrad would support a referendum to separate from Russia. [42] The notion of a Lithuanian claim has been brushed off by Russian media, even the liberal Novaya Gazeta newspaper dismissing it as a "geopolitical fantasy". [43]

In Poland

More than in the form of Polish irredentism over the Kaliningrad Oblast, a Polish annexation of the region has been more mentioned by Russian media, which has accused the Polish authorities of preparing to incorporate the region. These accusations stemmed from online comments made by readers of an article published on the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza : while the article itself did not mention any Polish alleged annexation desire, the comments suggested that the Kaliningrad Oblast should belong to Poland. Pro-Kremlin media such as Pravda.ru misleadingly reported this as an attempt by the Polish government to annex the region. Stanisław Żaryn, spokesperson for the Polish Minister Coordinator for Special Services, dismissed the allegation as "fake news". [44] [45]

German resettlement attempts

The Amtshagen settlement in 1997. Munier-Siedlung Amtshagen 1997.jpg
The Amtshagen settlement in 1997.

In the 1990s, organisations with ties to far-right politics in Germany began to collect money to purchase land in Kaliningrad Oblast, to enable ethnic Germans to settle there. In particular, Gesellschaft für Siedlungsförderung in Trakehnen attempted to establish a settlement in Yasnaya Polyana, known in German as Trakehnen. [46] A separate group, affiliated to convicted terrorist Manfred Roeder collected donations to build housing for ethnic Germans in the village of Olkhovatka, east of Kaliningrad. [47]

At Yasnaya Polyana/Trakehnen, fundraising by the organization Aktion Deutsches Königsberg financed the construction of a German-language school and housing in the neighboring village of Amtshagen. [48] Several dilapidated houses were bought and renovated; tractors, trucks, building materials and machinery were imported into the village. [49] The relatively high salaries attracted newcomers, [49] and the ethnic German population rose to about 400 inhabitants. [50] Most of the settlers were Russian Germans from the Caucasus and Kazakhstan, rather than returnees, [51] or their descendants. Some of the Russian Germans were reportedly unable to speak German and/or had been rejected as immigrants to Germany, due to insufficient evidence of substantial German ancestry.[ citation needed ] The construction of a second settlement in the outskirts of Trakehnen, named Agnes-Miegel-Siedlung, began in 1998. [48]

Relations between the local Russian administration and the Trakehnen project were initially cordial, [48] but the activities of the group were suppressed by the Russian government after being publicized by German media. [12] Dietmar Munier, the initiator of the project, was banned from traveling to Kaliningrad Oblast. [48] In 2006, he sold his stake in the association to one Alexander Mantai, who turned it into a for-profit concern and evicted the original settlers. [52] The association was liquidated in 2015 for violating the Russian law on NGOs. [53]

Official positions

Although negotiations in 2001 were instigated around a possible Russian trade deal with the EU, that would have put the exclave within Germany's economic sphere of influence, [16] the current German government has indicated no interest in recovering Kaliningrad Oblast. [54] The governments of Poland and Lithuania similarly recognize Kaliningrad as part of Russia, [40] as does the European Union. [55] Germany formally waived all territorial claims to the former East Prussia as part of the Two Plus Four Agreement that led to German reunification. [56] In July 2005, the German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder declared that "in its heart [the city] will always be called Königsberg", but stated that Germany did not have any territorial claim to it. [57] According to Ulrich Speck, the prospect of returning Kaliningrad to Germany lacks support in Germany, even among fringe nationalist groups. [58] In 2004, the German politician Jürgen Klimke asked the German federal government about its view on the establishment of a Lithuanian-Russian-Polish euroregion, to be named "Prussia". The initiator denied any revanchist connotations to the proposal. [59]

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia's claim to Kaliningrad was not contested by any government, [60] though some groups in Lithuania called for the annexation of the province, or parts of it. [41]

Poland has made no claim to Kaliningrad, and is seen as being unlikely to do so, as it was a beneficiary of the Potsdam Agreement, which also decided the status of Kaliningrad. [38]

See also

Notes

    • German: Kaliningrad-Frage or Königsberg-Frage
    • Lithuanian: Kaliningrado klausimas or Karaliaučiaus klausimas
    • Polish: Kwestia Kaliningradu or Kwestia Królewca
    • Russian: Калининградский вопрос, romanized: Kaliningradsky vopros

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kaliningrad Oblast</span> Exclave of Russia bounded by Poland, Lithuania, and the Baltic Sea

Kaliningrad Oblast is the westernmost federal subject of the Russian Federation, in Central and Eastern Europe. It is a semi-exclave situated on the Baltic Sea. The oblast is surrounded by two European Union and NATO members: Poland to the south and Lithuania to the north and east. 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 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sambia Peninsula</span> Peninsula in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia

Sambia or Samland or Kaliningrad Peninsula is a peninsula in the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia, on the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea. The peninsula is bounded by the Curonian Lagoon to the north-east, the Vistula Lagoon in the southwest, the Pregolya River in the south, and the Deyma River in the east. As Sambia is surrounded on all sides by water, it is technically an island. Historically it formed an important part of the historic region of Prussia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chernyakhovsk</span> Town in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia

Chernyakhovsk, known prior to 1946 by its German name of Insterburg, is a town in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, and the administrative center of Chernyakhovsky District. Located at the confluence of the Instruch and Angrapa rivers, which unite to become the Pregolya river below Chernyakhovsk, the town had a population in 2017 of 36,423.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East Prussia</span> Historic province of Prussia and Germany

East Prussia was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 ; following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's Free State of Prussia, until 1945. Its capital city was Königsberg. East Prussia was the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gusev, Kaliningrad Oblast</span> Town in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia

Gusev is a town and the administrative center of Gusevsky District of Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Pissa and Krasnaya Rivers, near the border with Poland and Lithuania, east of Chernyakhovsk. Population: 28,177 (2021 Census); 28,260 (2010 Census); 28,467 (2002 Census); 27,031 (1989 Census).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baltic region</span> Geographical region in North-eastern Europe

The terms Baltic Sea Region, Baltic Rim countries, and the Baltic Sea countries/states refer to slightly different combinations of countries in the general area surrounding the Baltic Sea, mainly in Northern Europe. The term "Baltic states" refers specifically to one such grouping.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prussia (region)</span> Historical region on the south-eastern coast of the Baltic Sea in Europe

Prussia is a historical region in Central Europe on the south-eastern coast of the Baltic Sea, that ranges from the Vistula delta in the west to the end of the Curonian Spit in the east and extends inland as far as Masuria, divided between Poland, Russia and Lithuania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baltiysk</span> Town in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia

Baltiysk is a seaport town and the administrative center of Baltiysky District in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the northern part of the Vistula Spit, on the shore of the Strait of Baltiysk separating the Vistula Lagoon from Gdańsk Bay. Population: 33,946 (2021 Census); 32,697 (2010 Census); 33,252 (2002 Census); 27,070 (1989 Census).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curonian Spit</span> Sand dune spit on the Baltic

The Curonian (Courish) Spit is a 98-kilometre (61 mi) long, thin, curved sand-dune spit that separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site shared by Lithuania and Russia. Its southern portion lies within Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia, and its northern within southwestern Klaipėda County of Lithuania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nida, Lithuania</span> Town in Lithuania

Nida is a resort town in Lithuania, the administrative centre of Neringa municipality. Located on the Curonian Spit between the Curonian Lagoon and the Baltic Sea, it is the westernmost point of Lithuania and the Baltic states, close to the border with the Russian Kaliningrad Oblast exclave. It currently has about 2,385 residents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lithuania Minor</span> Lithuanian ethnographic region in former Prussia

Lithuania Minor, or Prussian Lithuania, is a historical ethnographic region of Prussia, where Prussian Lithuanians lived, now located in Lithuania and the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia. Lithuania Minor encompassed the northeastern part of the region and got its name from the territory's substantial Lithuanian-speaking population. Prior to the invasion of the Teutonic Knights in the 13th century, the main part of the territory later known as Lithuania Minor was inhabited by the tribes of Skalvians and Nadruvians. The land depopulated during the incessant war between Lithuania and the Teutonic Order. The war ended with the Treaty of Melno and the land was repopulated by Lithuanian newcomers, returning refugees, and the remaining indigenous Baltic peoples; the term Lithuania Minor appeared for the first time between 1517 and 1526.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Königsberg</span> Historic Prussian name of Kaliningrad, Russia

Königsberg is the historic German and Prussian name of the medieval city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. The city was founded in 1255 on the site of the small Old Prussian settlement Twangste by the Teutonic Knights during the Baltic Crusades. It was named in honour of King Ottokar II of Bohemia, who led a campaign against the pagan Old Prussians, a Baltic tribe.

The Yantar Special Economic Zone is a Special Economic Zone in Russia that was established in 1996 in the Kaliningrad Oblast of the Russian Federation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yasnaya Polyana, Kaliningrad Oblast</span> Rural settlement in Russia

Yasnaya Polyana is a rural settlement (posyolok) in the Nesterovsky District of Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia. It is located in the southeast of the oblast, north of the Romincka Forest. Nearby Diwnoje Nowoje is a railway station on the former Prussian Eastern Railway from Kaliningrad to Kybartai in Lithuania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curonian Lagoon</span> Freshwater lagoon separated from the Baltic Sea by the Curonian Spit

The Curonian Lagoon is a freshwater lagoon separated from the Baltic Sea by the Curonian Spit. Its surface area is 1,619 square kilometers (625 sq mi). The Neman River supplies about 90% of its inflows; its watershed consists of about 100,450 square kilometres in Lithuania and Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amber Coast</span>

The Amber Coast is the name given to a coastal strip of the Baltic Sea in the northwest of Kaliningrad. In this area amber has been excavated since the mid-19th century and up to today in open-pit mining. Two deposits – Palmnikenskoe and Primorskoe, containing 80% of world amber reserves, were found near Yantarny on the Western coast of the Sambia Peninsula in 1948-1951’s.

Russian Prussia refers to two periods in the history of Prussia. Since 1991 Russian Prussia has been a synonym for Kaliningrad Oblast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kaliningrad</span> Russian Baltic city between Poland and Lithuania

Kaliningrad, until 1946 known as Königsberg, is the largest city and administrative centre of Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave between Lithuania and Poland. The city sits about 663 kilometres (412 mi) west from mainland Russia. The city is situated on the Pregolya River, at the head of the Vistula Lagoon on the Baltic Sea, and is the only ice-free port of Russia on the Baltic Sea. Its population in 2020 was 489,359, with up to 800,000 residents in the urban agglomeration. Kaliningrad is the second-largest city in the Northwestern Federal District, after Saint Petersburg, the third-largest city in the Baltic region, and the seventh-largest city on the Baltic Sea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lithuania–Russia border</span> International border

The Lithuania–Russia border is an international border between the Republic of Lithuania and Kaliningrad Oblast, an exclave of the Russian Federation. It is an external border of the European Union. The 274.9 km (170.8 mi) long border passes through the Curonian Spit and Curonian Lagoon, and then follows along the Neman River, Šešupė, Širvinta, Liepona, and Lake Vištytis. The sea border is another 22.2 km (13.8 mi). There is a tripoint between Lithuania, Russia, and Poland with a stone monument at 54°21′48″N22°47′31″E.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suwałki Gap</span> Lithuania–Poland border area

The Suwałki Gap, also known as the Suwałki corridor ( ), is a sparsely populated area around the border between Lithuania and Poland, and centres on the shortest path between Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad Oblast on the Polish side of the border. Named after the Polish town of Suwałki, this choke point has become of great strategic and military importance since Poland and the Baltic states joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

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Further reading