Kaliningrad
The territory, the northern part of the former East Prussia, borders on NATO and EU members Poland and Lithuania, and is geographically separated from the rest of Russia.
Originally named Königsberg, the Prussian and German town had been founded in 1255, and was then largely destroyed during World War II. Its ruins were occupied by the Soviet Army in 1945 and it was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946 in honour of Mikhail Kalinin.
In the meantime, the original German name was briefly Russified as Kyonigsberg (Кёнигсберг).
At the 2002 Census, its population was 430,003, an increase from the 401,280 recorded in the 1989 Census. The town became a member of the Hanseatic League, then in 1457 headquarters of the Teutonic Order, and seat of the secular Duchy of Prussia in 1525.
Königsberg became a centre of education when the Albertina University was founded by Duke Albert of Prussia in 1544. By the act of coronation in Königsberg in 1701, Prince-elector Frederick III of Brandenburg became Frederick I, King in Prussia.
After World War I, the creation of the Polish Corridor cut off East Prussia and Königsberg from the rest of mainland Weimar Germany.
What remained of Königsberg City Centre in 1949.
King's castle in 1950s
In the bombing of Königsberg in World War II in 1944, the town suffered heavy damage from British air attacks and burned for several days. The historic city center, including Altstadt, Löbenicht and Kneiphof, was completely destroyed: the cathedral, the castle, all the churches of the old city, the old and the new universities and the old shipping quarter were destroyed.
About 50,000 residents (compared to Königsberg's population on January 1, 1940 of 372,270) remained in the ruins of the devastated city. The remaining German population was expelled from 1945–48.
The city is famous in the history of mathematics in connection with the famous Seven Bridges of Königsberg problem.
The solution of this problem by Leonard Euler was the beginning of the branch of mathematics known as graph theory, and the first example of methods which were to form the mathematical discipline of Topology.
Soviet Union
Map of Kaliningrad Oblast in the historical Northeastern Prussia
The "House of the Soviets", built on the former site of Königsberg Castle.
The 2006 finished Russian Orthodox Cathedral of Christ the Saviour
At the end of World War II in 1945, the city became part of the Soviet Union pending the final determination of territorial questions at the peace settlement (as part of the Russian SFSR) as agreed upon by the Allies at the Potsdam Conference:
VI. CITY OF KOENIGSBERG AND THE ADJACENT AREA
The Conference examined a proposal by the Soviet Government that pending the final determination of territorial questions at the peace settlement the section of the western frontier of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics which is adjacent to the Baltic Sea should pass from a point on the eastern shore of the Bay of Danzig to the east, north of Braunsberg and Goldap, to the meeting point of the frontiers of Lithuania, the Polish Republic and East Prussia.
The Conference has agreed in principle to the proposal of the Soviet Government concerning the ultimate transfer to the Soviet Union of the city of Koenigsberg and the area adjacent to it as described above, subject to expert examination of the actual frontier. The President of the United States and the British Prime Minister have declared that they will support the proposal of the Conference at the forthcoming peace settlement.
Koenigsberg 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. As the westernmost territory 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.
In 1957 an agreement was signed and later came into force which delimited the boundary between Poland and the Soviet Union.
(Full text: ), for other issues of the frontier delimitation see .
Russian Federation
Kaliningrad is the only Russian Baltic Sea port that is ice-free all year around and hence plays an important role in maintenance of the Baltic Fleet.
Due to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Kaliningrad Oblast became an exclave, geographically separated from the rest of Russia. All military and civilian land links between the region and the rest of Russia have to pass through members of NATO and the EU.
The colonnade in front af the entrance was modeled after the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
The regionally famous Kaliningrad puppet theater has its seat since 1975 in the Queen Louise Remembrance Church. This neoromatic church, designed by architect Fritz Heitmann, was built in 1901.
Architecture
King's Gate
Brandenburg Gate
Gate of the Friedrichsburg Castle
The former Königsberg Stock Exchange
The pre-war city centre (Altstadt and Kneiphof) currently consists of parks, broad avenues, a square on the site of the former Königsberg Castle, and only two buildings: the House of the Soviets ("Dom Sovyetov"), roughly on the site of the former Castle, and the restored Königsberg Cathedral on the Kneiphof island (now "Kant island").
The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, consecrated in 2005, is located on that square.
Also worth seeing are the former Stock Exchange, the surviving churches, and the remaining city gates. In anti-clockwise order these gates are: the Sackheim Gate (German: Sackheimer Tor), King's Gate (German: Königstor), Rossgarten Gate (German: Rossgärter Tor), Attack Gate (German: Ausfallstor), Railway Gate (German: Eisenbahntor), Brandenburg Gate (German: Brandenburger Tor), and Friedland Gate (German: Friedländer Tor).
Apart from the already mentioned Dohna tower, which houses the Amber museum, the Wranger tower also remains as a reminder of the former Königsberg city walls. The statue was made by famous sculptor Christian Daniel Rauch and unveiled in 1864.
Other statues and monuments include the statue for count Albrecht, the statue for Friedrich Schiller, the statue for tsar Peter the Great, the "Mother Russia" monument, and the Monument for the 1200 Guardsmen, remembering the Battle of Königsberg.
Parks
The Kaliningrad Zoo was opened as the Königsberg Zoo in 1896. The collection, which extends over 16.5 ha, comprises 315 species with a total of 2264 individual animals (as of 2005).
The Kaliningrad zoo is also an arboretum.
Lower Pond
Centrally located in the city is Lower Pond (Russian: Нижний пруд), an artificial lake. Since the early 1990s many new restaurants have opened in the city.
Königsberger Fleck, a bovine tripe soup and yet another culinary speciality from former Königsberg, no longer belongs to the eating culture of Kaliningrad.
The people of Kaliningrad generally imported their respective culinary traditions to the region when they settled in the area after 1945. Borshch and okroshka are very popular, like in the rest of Russia.
Transport
Kaliningrad central railway station
A Kaliningrad tram
Kaliningrad's airport is located near Khrabrovo.
In Baltiysk one can take a ferry to Saint Petersburg, Copenhagen, Riga, and Kiel. Trains depart to Zelenogradsk and Svetlogorsk and also once a day to Sovetsk.
In 1881 the Königsberg tramway was opened, and it still functions to this day.
In 1975 also a trolleybus system was introduced.
Economy
In 1996 Kaliningrad was designated a Special Economic Zone. Moscow has declared it will turn the region into "the Russian Hong Kong".
The region has begun to see increasing trade with the countries of the EU as well as increasing economic growth and rising industrial output.