Kaliningrad why it is not independent
In the vast territory of Russia, there is hidden an enclave that is tightly bitten by Europe, a little-known piece of land with only 1The territory of 50,000 square kilometers, which was already occupied during the Soviet era, is regarded as a thorn in the side of European countries.
This is Kaliningrad, formerly known as Königsberg.
Before the Soviet Union incorporated it, Kaliningrad was known as Königsberg, an important center of German culture and the home of the famous philosopher and writer Immanuel Kant.
Originally, Königsberg became a stronghold of the ancient Prussians due to its strategic location. However, in 1255 the Teutonic Knights conquered the tribes of Old Prussia and a fortress was built on the site, which was named Königsberg.
Since then, this famous European order has been based in Königsberg and has established the Teutonic Knights state in ancient Prussia. For more than a hundred years, the Prussians in Königsberg were unable to break free from the control of the Teutonic Knights, despite their revolt.
By 1410, Poland and Lithuania had united to form the "Most Noble Commonwealth". At this time, the East Slavic brothers in Poland were still making cattle and horses for the Mongols, while Poland was slaughtering all over Europe.
In this year, Poland finally confronted the Teutonic Knights, and after a battle, the Knights were defeated, and the western part of the country, along with Danzig and Mariaburg, was ceded to Poland, and Königsberg, the eastern capital, remained part of the Order, but was forced to submit to Poland.
In 1525, the last Grand Master of the Teutonic Order established the Duchy of Prussia in Königsberg, and since then the city has become the largest city and port in Prussia, with great autonomy and an independent currency, and German has become the dominant language.
Despite the fact that the Duchy of Prussia needed allegiance to the Polish king, Königsberg's prosperity was not affected. At the end of the 16th century, Königsberg and Danzig were one of the few Baltic ports where more than a hundred foreign ships visited each year, which led to a flourishing commodity economy and culture.
The cultural flourishing of the Duchy of Prussia reached its peak, and the University of Königsberg, founded in 1544, became one of the centers of cultural transmission in Europe at that time. However, this treasure naturally aroused the covetousness of other European powers.
In 1656, Sweden, the overlord of Northern Europe, intervened first, not only to collect taxes, but also to make the Duchy of Prussia a vassal.
The wheels of history rolled forward, and Königsberg witnessed the changes in Germany. In 1757, the edict of Empress Elisabeth Petrovna of Tsarist Russia marked the transfer of Königsberg from the Swedish Nordic overlord to the Russian Empire.
By 1772, Königsberg was once again under Prussian rule. In the next 70 years, under the leadership of Bismarck, the "iron-blooded prime minister", Germany experienced three dynastic wars: the Austro-Prussian War, the Prussian-Danish War, and the Franco-Prussian War, and finally completed its unification in 1871.
As a historic city with a deep imprint on German culture, Königsberg has also become an inseparable part of the German Empire.
Königsberg, once a quiet place, has been in turmoil by two world wars. After the end of World War I, Poland took the opportunity to restore its country and acquire the territory of West Prussia, making Königsberg an "enclave".
Despite this, Königsberg continued to develop quietly under German control. However, only 20 years later, World War II broke out, Germany was defeated again, and had to cede land and pay reparations, and Königsberg's fate was once again ruthlessly played.
At the Yalta Conference in 1945, the Triumvirate agreed to remove the area east of the Oder-Neisse from Germany's territory. Because Stalin believed that any land that once belonged to the Russian Empire should be the homeland of the USSR.
Therefore, when the Soviet Red Army captured Königsberg, Stalin refused to give it to anyone. The Potsdam Agreement, which they signed together, made Königsberg part of the Soviet Union.
In honor of the late Soviet leader Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin, the city was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946. On the day of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Kaliningrad did not choose independence or return to Germany, but quietly waited for Russia to take over.
So why did Kaliningrad make such a decision? Let's work together.
Kaliningrad did not choose independence, nor did it strive for independence, because of Stalin's usual strategy of "changing the demographic composition of the occupied territories". This tactic was practiced many times in the history of the Soviet Union.
For example, the Soviet Union moved a large number of ethnic Russians into the eastern industrial regions, which fundamentally changed the demographic composition of eastern Ukraine, turning the region into a Russian-speaking region.
For example, the Soviet Union exiled 50,000 Tatars in 1927 and 250,000 in 1944 in order to eliminate the resistance of the Crimean Tatars to the Soviets.
The exiled Tatars were not allowed to return to their homeland until 1989, when the population of Crimea was already predominantly Russian. Finally, the example of Chechnya also illustrates this tactic of Stalin.
In 1941, Stalin ordered the exile of 400,000 Chechens to Central Asia, but the united Caucasus was not occupied by ethnic Russians.
Stalin was well aware of Kaliningrad's disposition. He knew that the German cultural center had a long tradition of German culture, so it could not be solved by ideological and cultural transformation alone.
Thus, beginning in 1946, Stalin began a mass expulsion of the original German inhabitants of the Kaliningrad region, with those who were obedient being sent back to the Allied-occupied territories and those who did not obey being sent to Central Asia or Siberia to reclaim wasteland.
After the elimination of the aborigines, Stalin then moved the Soviet population into Kaliningrad. After 20 years of demographic adjustment, by 1966 the Russian population of the Kaliningrad region had reached 80%, and German had been replaced by Russian as the main language.
Therefore, even if after the collapse of the USSR and Kaliningrad becomes an overseas enclave of Russia, there will be no idea of independence, because there is no need for independence because it is dominated by Russians, everyone is attached to Moscow.
Although the overall impact of Kaliningrad on Russia is minimal, for the countries of Europe it is as disgusting as eating a fly. Kaliningrad, located on the shores of the Baltic Sea, is like a nail deep into the heart of Europe.
It is 400 kilometers from Warsaw and only 600 kilometers from Copenhagen, Stockholm and Berlin, and is in the heart of several countries around the Baltic Sea.
If European countries make up their minds, it is not impossible to blockade this place, but unless they really tear their faces and move their faces, European countries will not dare to pull out this nail.
I could only watch the nail dangle in front of my eyes.