Kaliningrad Oblast
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 the city of Kaliningrad. The port city 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.
Various peoples, including Lithuanians, Germans, and Poles, lived on the land which is now Kaliningrad. The territory was formerly the northern part of East Prussia. With the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, the territory was annexed to the Russian SFSR by the Soviet Union. Following the post-war migration and flight and expulsion of Germans, the territory was populated with Soviet citizens, mostly Russians.
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 by Germans, Lithuanians and Poles. 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 Tvanksta, the Teutonic Order founded the city of Königsberg, 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 anti-Teutonic Prussian Confederation, the territory was incorporated to the Kingdom of Poland by King Casimir IV Jagiellon, an event that sparked the Thirteen Years' War. After Poland's victory in the war with the Second Peace of Thorn, the State of the Teutonic Order became a vassal of Poland, also considered an integral part of "one and indivisible" Kingdom of Poland. During this war, the capital of the Teutonic state was moved from Marienburg 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 cathechisms, 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. 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.File:Пос. Чистые пруды, музей К.Донелайтиса.JPG|thumb|Memorial Museum of Kristijonas Donelaitis in Chistye Prudy
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 were ethnically Polish and 200,000 were ethnically Lithuanian. As of 1819, there were also 20,000-strong ethnic Curonian and Latvian minorities as well as 2,400 Jews, according to Georg Hassel. 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 —comprise the majority of the population, numbering 26,067 people in county Allenstein 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 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, 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.