Why Russia owns Kaliningrad, a former part of Germany
Maybe we should start calling it Königsberg again.
I’ve been prepping my next What If Geography episode which is highly focused on Europe (hint: it has a lot to deal with Europe’s current energy crisis), and it reminded me that Russia owns a rather large area of land on the Baltic Sea. Of course, as a geographer, I’ve always known that Russia owned this territory, but I never really dug into the reasons why. It’s weird though, right?
As it turns out, Kaliningrad (formerly known as Königsberg) has had quite an interesting history, but it doesn’t actually intersect with Russia or the Soviet Union all that often. Certainly not before World War II. But it also hasn’t always been German either.
Historically, Königsberg was founded in 1255 by Prussia. Despite the similarity in names, Prussia has no historic relation with Russia. Instead, Prussia was actually a hodgepodge of Germanic and Polish states that formed a larger entity at various points in Europe’s history. If nothing else, the mere fact that Prussia existed at all just goes to show that the territorial history of Europe is incredibly complicated. But, again, aside from a very brief stint in the mid-1700s, Königsberg didn’t actually interact with the state of Russia all that often.
How Russia got Kaliningrad
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As with much of modern day Europe , Kaliningrad can be explained through a singular event: World War II. During the invasion of Europe by allied forces, British, Canadian, American and other allied forces began the invasion in France and Italy respectively. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union began began their invasion in eastern Europe. Given the proximity of Königsberg to Russia, it was always going to be invaded by the Red Army before the rest of the allies arrived. In 1939, at its height before the invasion by the Red Army, Königsberg had a population of 372,000 people. Just 6 years later, only 73,000 remained.
But while the Soviet Union invaded and held Königsberg, it wasn’t until after the war during the Potsdam Conference that it became officially part of Russia. You see the Potsdam Conference was an event that took place after the allies won World War II to decide how the continent could avoid repeating the same mistakes after World War I. Enter Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, and Harry Truman…
Western Betrayal
During the Potsdam Conference, the Soviet Union, United Kingdom and United States made all kinds of decisions about the continent of Europe that largely excluded most eastern Europeans from the decision making. Given that the continent and the allies had been at war for a long time, there was little desire to get into another conflict with each other. As such, much of eastern Europe was ceded in various ways to the Soviet Union. This is largely considered to be the “Western Betrayal” by Polish, Czech and Slovakians (at the time Czechoslovakia). And, of course, as part of the concessions from the U.S. and U.K. was that Königsberg would officially be transferred to the Soviet Union, despite the land mass bordering Poland and never having much of a Russian population prior to 1946.
The rest is, as we say, history. But there’s one little hitch here as well. The Kaliningrad territory was officially part of the Soviet Union, much in the same way that many eastern European countries were. When the Soviet Union collapsed, many formerly Soviet republics were given independence from Russia. Kaliningrad, however, did not receive the same freedom, primarily due to its strategic location on the Baltic Sea.
The geography of it all
Kaliningrad is very important to Russia. While originally Kaliningrad’s location was a relatively simple strategic location along the Baltic Sea, today there are far larger geopolitics at play. This is primarily because of the Russian enclave’s proximity to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
In 2007, Russia declared that if NATO missiles were deployed in Poland, Russia would relocate nuclear armaments to Kaliningrad. And while the 250 mile differences between Russia and Kaliningrad might not seem like that much of a difference, the fact that it’s that much closer really does give Russia a bit of an edge. After all, if Russia wanted to strike out at the heart of NATO, let’s say Berlin, from the Russian mainland, it would have to send missiles over multiple countries and multiple defensive systems. With Kaliningrad, there is far fewer defenses to stop any such attack. In 2009, these plans were suspended, but it does prove the geographic strategic location of Kaliningrad.
Today, Kaliningrad Oblast is very much a Russian state, if we go by the people who live there. As of 2010, Russians made up 87.4% of the population. Germans and Polish made up less than 1% total. It is, for all intents and purposes, a part of Russia mainland.
Still, if we go by historic land ownership, much in the same way that Russia is trying to claim with Ukraine today, then Kaliningrad should definitely be transferred back to Germany or Poland. But I think what it perhaps points to more is just how full of shit Russia’s logic for invading Ukraine really is.