Kaliningrad Oblast () is the westernmost federal subject of Russia. It is a semi-exclave on the Baltic Sea within the historical Baltic region of Prussia, bordered by Poland to the south, Lithuania to the north and east, and the Baltic Sea to the west. The largest city and administrative centre is Kaliningrad. The port town of Baltiysk is Russia's only port on the Baltic Sea that remains ice-free in winter. Kaliningrad Oblast had a population of roughly one million in the 2021 Russian census. It has an area of .
The territory that is now Kaliningrad was formerly the northern part of East Prussia and overwhelmingly inhabited by Germans. Following the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, the Soviet Union annexed the region into the Russian SFSR. In the post-war era, the flight and expulsion of Germans left the area largely unpopulated until it was resettled by Soviet citizens, mostly ethnic Russians, who make up the area's dominant demographic today.
History The territory of what is now the Kaliningrad Oblast used to be inhabited by the Old Prussians and other Western Balts, prior to the Teutonic conquest in the early Late Middle Ages. Afterwards, it was settled extensively by Germans, with settlement initially concentrated more heavily in the west and later spreading eastward. Lithuanian settlement was particularly significant in the northeast, while Masurians and other Polish-speaking settlers were present in smaller numbers, especially in Königsberg and along the southern fringe. The Old Prussians became extinct due to Germanisation in the first half of the 18th century. The Lithuanian-inhabited areas of the Teutonic State were known as Lithuania Minor, which encompassed all of modern Kaliningrad Oblast until the 18th century.
Late Middle Ages
In the 13th century, the Teutonic Order conquered the region and established the State of the Teutonic Order, a theocracy. In 1255, on the foundations of a destroyed Sambian settlement known as , the Teutonic Order founded the city of Königsberg (modern Kaliningrad), naming it in honour of Ottokar II of Bohemia.
The Northern Crusades, including the Lithuanian Crusade, were partly motivated by colonization. The German colonist peasants, craftsmen, and merchants were predominantly concentrated in the southern part of the Teutonic State and did not move into Nadruvia and Skalvia due to the Lithuanian military threat.
In 1454, following a request by the Prussian Confederation (a league formed in opposition to the Teutonic Order), the territory was incorporated into the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland by King Casimir IV Jagiellon, an event that sparked the Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466). After Poland's victory in the war with the Second Peace of Thorn, the State of the Teutonic Order became a vassal state of Poland. During this war, the capital of the Teutonic state was moved from Marienburg (now Malbork) to Königsberg in 1457. When the rulers of Prussia were vassals of the King of Poland from 1466 to 1660, there were few German colonists.
Early modern period After the Teutonic Order lost the war of 1519–1521 with Poland, the Teutonic Order remained a vassal of the Kingdom of Poland. In 1525, Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg secularized the Teutonic Order's Prussian branch and established himself as ruler of the Duchy of Prussia, the first Protestant state in Europe. Königsberg was the residence of the Duke of Prussia from 1525 until 1701, and was the Duchy of Prussia's capital until 1660, when the capital moved to Berlin.
Polish and Lithuanian culture blossomed in Königsberg, with the city being the place of publication of the first Polish- and Lithuanian-language Catechism (by Jan Seklucjan and Martynas Mažvydas), the first Polish translation of the New Testament, Grammatica Litvanica, the first Lithuanian grammar book, and the Albertina University being the second oldest university of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, after receiving a royal privilege from King Sigismund II Augustus in 1560. Polish printing continued for centuries with the last Polish publication in 1931.
In 1577, the Duke of Prussia forbade serfs—who were mostly Old Prussians, Lithuanians, and Masurians—to leave the land that was the property of the German knights who became proprietary nobles.
In 1618, the Duchy merged with the Margraviate of Brandenburg to form Brandenburg-Prussia, remaining under Polish suzerainty until 1660. There was strong opposition to the separation of the region from Poland, especially in Königsberg. A confederation was formed in the city to maintain Poland's sovereignty over the city and region. The Brandenburg Elector and his army, however, entered the city and abducted and imprisoned the leader of the city's anti-Elector opposition Hieronymus Roth. In 1663, the city burghers, forced by Elector Frederick William, swore an oath of allegiance to him, however, in the same ceremony they still also pledged allegiance to Poland.
In 1724, King Frederick William I of Prussia prohibited Poles, Samogitians and Jews from settling in Lithuania Minor, and initiated German colonization to change the region's ethnic composition. In 1734–1736, Königsberg was the place of stay of Polish King Stanisław Leszczyński during the War of the Polish Succession. In 1756 Russia decided to go to war with the Kingdom of Prussia and annex the territory, which was then to be offered to Poland as part of a territorial exchange desired by Russia. The territory was occupied and annexed by Russia in 1758 during the Seven Years' War before being returned to Prussia in 1762 when Russia switched sides in the war.Roqueplo O: La Russie et son Miroir...2018 It was then reorganized into the province of East Prussia within the Kingdom of Prussia in 1773.
The current oblast also contains the now abandoned village of Narmeln (), which was not part of Ducal Prussia, but of the Pomeranian Voivodeship of the Kingdom of Poland until its annexation by the Kingdom of Prussia the Second Partition of Poland in 1793, and is thus part of the historic region of Pomerania.
19th century
Napoleonic invasion and occupation After the defeats of Jena–Auerstedt, the Kingdom of Prussia was invaded and Berlin was occupied by the French. The Court of Prussia fled to Königsberg, asking for Russian help. Russia intervened, leading to the bloody Battle of Eylau and Battle of Friedland in 1807. Following a French victory in the latter, both sides signed the Treaties of Tilsit.
Historical ethnic and religious structure In 1817, East Prussia had 796,204 Protestants, 120,123 Catholics, 2,389 Jews, and 864 Mennonites.
In 1824, shortly before its merger with West Prussia, the population of East Prussia was 1,080,000 people. According to Karl Andree, Germans were slightly more than half of the people, while 280,000 (~26%) were ethnically Polish and 200,000 (~19%) were ethnically Lithuanian. According to Georg Hassel, in 1819 there were also around 20,000 ethnic Curonians and Latvians combined, as well as 2,400 Jews. Similar numbers are given by August von Haxthausen in his 1839 book, with a breakdown by county. However, the majority of East Prussian Polish and Lithuanian inhabitants were Lutherans, not Catholics like their ethnic kinsmen across the border in the Russian Empire. Only in southern Warmia did Catholic Poles—so called Warmians (not to be confused with predominantly Protestant Masurians)—comprise the majority of the population, numbering 26,067 people (~81%) in county Allenstein (Polish: Olsztyn) in 1837.
German culture and Germanization
In the 19th century, East Prussia was commonly viewed by German commentators as culturally backwards and a part of the "German mission in the East" rather than a core German territory. Pan-Germanist politician criticised the lack of folk identity and imagined community: "It is the case that there is almost no common folk identity [Landsmannschaften] among the Poseners and Prussians at all. [...] Who can recognise a Posener or Prussian by dialect and character? Distinct features hardly exist." While the north of East Prussia was overwhelmingly German, the south was majority Slavic and mostly composed of Poles and Masurians. There was also a slight Lithuanian majority in the north-eastern area of East Prussia, Lithuania Minor. Regional and local identities were particularly strong in East Prussia - local Polish population often identified with Masuria rather than Poland, and Prussian Lithuanians also did not actively identify themselves with the Lithuanian nation. Moreover, confessional identity often prevailed over the national one - German authorities were concerned about the "Catholic-Polish axis"; German Catholics were alienated from the German nation because of the Kulturkampf legislation, and tended to support the Polish national movement. An East German newspaper Thorner Zeitung reported in 1871 that "not only Polish Catholics, but also a great number of German Catholics, are willing to vote for a Polish party candidate".
By the end of the 19th century, East Prussia had a significant Polish minority, and German nationalist circles warned of the prospect of Polonisation of East Prussia. The perceived weakness of Germanness of East Prussia was also reinforced by the Ostflucht, as East Prussia suffered from both underindustrialisation and rural overpopulation. After 1876, farm prices in East Prussia fell by 20 percent, which encouraged local landowners to hire foreign workers from Congress Poland, incidentally strengthening the Polish element in the region. The increased Slavic immigration to the region generated by the requirement of the Junkers for cheap labour and better economic conditions in West Germany caused many German inhabitants to leave the region. Most Germans moved to work in the industrial heartland of western Germany, while others migrated abroad. Poles and Lithuanians of East Prussia also had much higher birth-rate and natural increase rates than the Germans, and rarely emigrated. Discussing the situation in East Prussia, Polish geographer Stanisław Srokowski remarked:
The Memel Territory (Klaipėda region), formerly part of northeastern East Prussia as well as Prussian Lithuania, was annexed by Lithuania in 1923. In 1938, Nazi Germany radically renamed about a third of the place names of this area, replacing Old Prussian and Lithuanian names with newly invented German names.
20th century World War I and II
In September 1914, after hostilities began between the German Empire on the one hand and France and Russia on the other, the Imperial German Army was about to seize Paris, and the French urged Russia to attack East Prussia. Nicholas II launched a major attack, resulting in a Russian victory in the Battle of Gumbinnen. The Russian army arrived at the outskirts of the city of Königsberg but did not take it and settled at Insterburg. This Russian victory and East Prussia's occupation by Russia saved Paris by forcing the Germans to send many troops to their East provinces.Roqueplo O: La Russie et son Miroir..., 2018 Later, Hindenburg and Ludendorff pushed Russia back at the battle of Tannenberg, thereby liberating East Prussia from Russian troops. Yet Russian troops remained in the easternmost part of the region until early 1915.Roqueplo O: La Russie et son miroir...2018
During World War II, the was operated at modern Gromovo mostly interring Polish prisoners, as well as several subcamps of the Stutthof concentration camp, the Oflag 52, Oflag 60 and Dulag Luft prisoner-of-war camps, and a camp interring Romani people in Königsberg (see Romani Holocaust).
On 29 August 1944, Soviet troops reached the border of East Prussia. By January 1945, they had taken all of East Prussia except for the area around Königsberg. Many inhabitants fled west at this time. During the last days of the war, over two million people fled, anticipating imminent Red Army conquest, and were evacuated by sea.
Soviet annexation