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Kaliningrad: The Fourth (Or Fifth) Baltic State?

© Scott Hegerty

The Baltic States are relatively unknown—and as a result, people often confuse them with other countries. Most commonly they are mistaken for the similarly named Balkan countries, but sometimes even their larger neighbors can be referred to as “the Baltics.” A recent article in the Washington Times, “Russia Transfers Arms To The Baltics,” is actually talking about Russia moving nuclear weapons to a small, non-connected portion of Russia that lies on the Baltic Sea.

The Kaliningrad region (called an “oblast” in Russian) is a small piece of land that lies to the west of Lithuania and to the north of Poland and is completely unattached to the rest of Russia. (Click here for a map of the region.) It is similar in size to the three Baltic states, but the similarities end there. Kaliningrad was part of the Soviet Union from 1945 until the country broke up in 1991; today, it is part of the Russian Federation.

For hundreds of years before the end of WWII, however, this region belonged to Germany. Known as Prussia, this area was part of the core of what would become the most powerful German state before Germany unified in 1871. The capital, Konigsberg, was an important port city, and over two million people inhabited the area. The second World War, however, changed the map of all of Eastern Europe, and Germany was one of the biggest losers.

Most of the territory that Germany lost went to Poland, but East Prussia, a small island of land that was cut off from Germany after the first World War, was divided between Poland and the Soviet Union. The Soviets drew a straight line on the map and took the northern third. Stalin claimed that the port of Konigsberg was essential to the USSR’s interests; also, the area would help compensate his country for the high price it paid in WWII. The city, as well as the surrounding region, was named Kaliningrad. The remaining place-names were changed to Russian ones as well. The Germans who had not fled the invading Red Army or been killed by them emigrated to Germany within three years of the Soviet takeover.

Throughout the Soviet period, the Kaliningrad oblast was on the western edge of the Soviet Union and was contiguously connected to the Russian republic through the Soviet Baltic republics. The population grew again, as workers from other parts of the USSR moved in to this highly industrial region. Whereas the three Baltic States contain at least a bare majority of non-Russian inhabitants, the Kaliningrad oblast is inhabited mostly by Russians.

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