Who used to own Koenigsberg? History of Kaliningrad

Kaliningrad. The westernmost regional center Russian Federation, its “foreign territory”, surrounded by European Union countries... But that’s not what this story is about.

Until July 1946, Kaliningrad was called Königsberg. The city became part of Russia by decision of the Potsdam Conference of the USSR, Great Britain and the USA, held in July 1945. Before that, Koenigsberg was part of Germany and was actually the “second capital” after Berlin.

In my opinion, the history of Königsberg began not in 1255 (the year the Königsberg fortress was founded), but a little earlier. In 1190, the Teutonic Order was founded in Palestine. The Order was officially approved by Pope Innocent III in 1198.

Knights of the Teutonic Order

After the end of the Crusades, the Order received some lands in Germany and southern Europe. IN central Europe the land had long been divided and therefore the gaze of the knights of the Order turned to the east.
At that time, Prussian tribes lived on the territory of the Kaliningrad region and part of present-day Poland. This group of tribes was related to the Latvian, Lithuanian and Slavic peoples. The ancient Greeks traded with the Prussians - they bought amber in exchange for weapons. Also, mentions of the Prussians can be found in the works of Pliny the Elder, Tacitus and Claudius Ptolemy. In the 9th - 13th centuries, Christian missionaries visited the lands of the Prussians more than once.

The conquest of Prussia by the Teutonic Order took a long time. In 1255, the crusaders founded the Königsberg fortress on the site of the Prussian village of Tvangeste (according to other sources - Tuvangeste or Twangste). There is a legend that the knights witnessed a solar eclipse. They considered this a sign, and therefore the Königsberg (Royal Mountain) fortress was founded on the site. The honor of founding the city is attributed to the Bohemian king Ottokar II Przemysl. However, there is an opinion that the name is more of a tribute to the knights' respect for royalty.

Ottokar II Przemysl (1233 - 1278)

Königsberg Castle. Pre-war years

Three cities were founded around the Königsberg fortress: Altstadt, Kneiphof and Löbenicht. The cities were part of the Hanseatic Trade League.

Interestingly, the city of Königsberg appeared only in 1724, when Altstadt, Kneiphof and Löbenicht united. Therefore, some historians consider 1724 to be the year of the founding of Königsberg. The first burgomaster of the united city was the burgomaster of Kneiphof, Doctor of Laws Zacharias Hesse.

The most ancient building of those preserved in Kaliningrad is the Juditten Church. It was built in 1288. The building successfully survived the Second World War, but was destroyed by settlers from the USSR. Only in the 1980s was the church actually rebuilt and now the Orthodox St. Nicholas Cathedral is located there.

Juditten-Kirch. Modern look

The main symbol of the city of Kaliningrad is the Cathedral. It was founded in 1325. The first version of the cathedral was realized in 1333 - 1345, and was subsequently rebuilt many times. Initially it was just a church, and the name Cathedral was given only in the 17th century, possibly due to the presence of local church authorities there. The cathedral was very badly damaged by the British air raid on Königsberg on August 29-30, 1944 and the fighting in April 1945. External part It was restored only in 1994 - 1998, now there is a museum there.

Cathedral. Modern look


One of the attractions of the cathedral is the large organ.

Since 1457, Königsberg was the residence of the masters of the Teutonic Order. At this time, the Order waged a war with Poland, which ended in 1466 with the signing of the Second Peace of Torun. The order was defeated and until 1657 was a vassal of Poland. The Order was already greatly weakened and already in 1525 Albrecht Hohenzollern secularized the lands of the Order and founded the Duchy of Prussia.

Duke Albrecht (1490 - 1568)

Before taking such a step, Albrecht consulted, among other things, with Martin Luther. It is interesting that Luther's son Johann (Hans) is buried in Altstadt, in the Church of St. Nicholas (which was demolished in the 19th century). The daughter of the great reformer Margarita married the Prussian landowner Georg von Künheim and settled on the Mulhausen estate (now the village of Gvardeyskoye, Bagrationovsky district). She died in 1570 and was buried in the local church.

The history of the Teutonic Order did not end with the secularization of its lands. The order was dissolved in 1809, restored in 1834 in Austria, existed until the Anschluss of Austria and the seizure of Czechoslovakia by Germany in 1938 - 1939. After the Second World War, the Order was restored and now the residence of the master is in Vienna.

In addition to the masters of the Order, one of the figures of German classical philosophy, Immanuel Kant, whose name is also associated with the city, is buried in the Cathedral. Nowadays the newly formed Baltic Federal University bears his name.

Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804)

The name of Albrecht Hohenzollern is associated with the founding of the Albertina University of Königsberg. Albrecht began his reign as Duke of Prussia in 1525 by ordering the collection of all the necessary books for the university library. Among those who helped Albrecht found the university was the Belarusian pioneer printer Francis Skaryna. A monument to him can now be seen in front of one of the buildings of the Baltic Federal University. I. Kant.

Monument to Francis Skaryna (left)

Over the years, Johann Hamann, Johann Herder, Friedrich Bessel, Carl Jacobi, Ferdinand von Linderman, Adolf Hurwitz, David Hilbert, Hermann Helmholtz worked and gave lectures at Albertina; the founder of Lithuanian fiction, Kristionas Donelaitis, studied theology; listened to lectures on philosophy by the writer and composer Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann. It is also worth mentioning that Immanuel Kant worked here.

The Albertina tradition is continued by the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, which was founded in 2010 on the basis of the Russian State University them. I. Kant by decree of the President of the Russian Federation.

After the Thirty Years' War, another war followed - the Northern War (1655 - 1660). In it, Sweden fought against Poland for the Baltic territories and dominance in the Baltic Sea. During this war, Prussia's dependence on Poland was ended. The Brandenburg-Prussian state was created, with Berlin as its capital. Elector Frederick III declared himself King Frederick the First of Prussia. During his reign, Peter I visited Königsberg several times, to whom Frederick presented the famous Amber Room and the pleasure yacht "Liburica". Frederick I himself, among other things, was very fond of tall soldiers and collected them throughout Europe. Therefore, Peter, as a return courtesy, presented the king with 55 selected grenadiers of the tallest stature.


The Amber Room. Restored view

The Amber Room remained in Pushkin until 1942. Retreating, the Germans took the room to Königsberg, where it was mounted for display to a narrow circle of people. In 1945, it was hidden in the castle cellars. The further fate of the room is unknown. According to one version, it is still located under the ruins of the castle. According to others, she could have ended up on board the Wilhelm Gustloff or somewhere in Germany. For the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg, the Amber Room was restored (including with the involvement of German capital) and is now available for visiting in the Catherine Palace.

Many people know Frederick II the Great. Interestingly, he settled the empty lands of Prussia, trying to increase the number of taxpayers. To increase employment, the king sharply opposed machine technology. In addition, the king believed that roads should be in poor condition to impede the movements of the enemy army. The Prussian army was one of the best in Europe.
In 1758 - 1762 Königsberg was part of Russian Empire. At that time, the city was governed by a governor. One of the governors was Vasily Ivanovich Suvorov - the father of the great commander Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov. After V.I. Suvorov, Pyotr Ivanovich Panin (1721 - 1789), who participated in the suppression of the Pugachev uprising, became governor. By the way, Emelyan Pugachev took part in the Seven Years' War and could well have visited Königsberg.

Vasily Ivanovich Suvorov (1705 - 1775)

We should also remember Queen Louise, the wife of King Frederick William III. Her life is continuously connected with the dramatic events of Prussia's struggle against Napoleon. She died in 1810, before the victory over Napoleon.

Queen Louise (1776 - 1810)

A city alley was named in her honor, and there was a Queen Louise shelter for poor women (the building has not survived). Also in 1901, the Queen Louise Church was built (nowadays a puppet theater is located there). In the village of Nidden (now Nida, Lithuania) on the Curonian Spit there was a boarding house for Queen Louise and a monument in her honor.

Church of Queen Louise. Modern look

According to the Peace of Tilsit, Prussia had to pay a huge indemnity. Of this amount, Königsberg owed 20 million francs (later the amount was reduced to 8 million). It is interesting that the city paid this amount to France until 1901.

During the Napoleonic wars, Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov visited Koenigsberg while passing through. The famous writer Stendhal visited Königsberg twice - first on his way to Moscow, captured by Napoleon. And then Stendhal had to flee Moscow. Moreover, he was in such a hurry that he overtook the retreating French army. Denis Vasilievich Davydov was also in Königsberg.

In the 19th and 20th centuries the city grew and developed. Until the mid-19th century, Königsberg bore the imprint of a typically medieval city - there were very few trees on the streets. It was only in 1875 that the Landscaping Union was created. In 1928, the green area of ​​Königsberg was approximately 6,303,744 m2. Unfortunately, the city's green attire is now experiencing an increasingly persistent attack by industrial and residential buildings.

I have covered only a small fraction of what can be told about the history of Königsberg. The destinies of many people are connected with this city. To tell about everything, you need a book as thick as several volumes of War and Peace. However, what I told are very bright moments in the history of Koenigsberg that should not be forgotten,


Kneiphof after a British air raid. 1944

The Second World War did not spare Koenigsberg. Many unique buildings have been lost forever. The city was not spared by the people who came to develop the new Soviet region. However, a piece of Königsberg is present in today's Kaliningrad, playing a direct role in the history of the new city.

It is worth adding that the Germans show a noticeable interest in the history of Königsberg - Kaliningrad. You can constantly see German tourists on the street. In addition, in Duisburg there is a German center for the study of everything related to the history of Königsberg.

Kneiphof model. The author is a native of Königsberg, Horst Dühring.

To conclude, I will voice the motto of the Year of Germany in Russia: “Germany and Russia - create the future together.” I think this very accurately applies to the history of Kaliningrad - Königsberg.

How German Prussia became Soviet

On April 9, 1945, the Red Army took the German city of Königsberg, which later became the center of the westernmost region of Russia. How Koenigsberg became Kaliningrad not only in name, but also in essence, and what problems accompanied the integration process, read in the material “Yoda”.

Occupation of East Prussia

The current Kaliningrad region joined our country historically quite recently. Less than 70 years ago. The history of the entry of Prussian territory was tragic. This was Germany's price for defeat in World War II. In just a few decades of the 20th century, the region former Koenigsberg has changed seriously - the composition of the population has almost completely changed and the appearance of cities has changed. The initial goals of the accession were purely rational.

Proposals to annex East Prussia, a region of Germany, to the USSR were made back in 1941. In December, at a meeting between Stalin and Molotov with British Foreign Minister Eden, the Soviet side spoke about the possibility of annexing part of East Prussia to the USSR and Poland for 20 years as compensation for losses from the war. The next notable step was the statement of the Soviet delegation at the Tehran Conference in 1943. In the capital of Iran, Stalin called East Prussia “original Slavic lands” and declared the need for the “Russians” to take possession of ice-free ports on the Baltic Sea. The following July, 1944, with the consent of its allies, the USSR signed a border agreement with the Polish émigré government: the situation that arose in 1939 was preserved, and East Prussia was divided along the “Curzon Line” (a direct continuation of the border between Poland and the USSR to the west). The Polish government in London, having learned a few months earlier about Stalin's plans, according to Churchill, received a moral blow, but the British government took the Soviet side.

The operation to eliminate a group of Nazi troops in East Prussia began on January 13, 1945, after the liberation of the Baltic republics, by the forces of the 3rd Belorussian and 1st Baltic fronts. From the sea, the ground forces were supported by the Baltic Fleet. By the end of January German troops, located in East Prussia, were cut off by land from the main army formations. The approaches to Königsberg were seriously fortified with three lines of defense, the city was called a first-class fortress, which made further defeat difficult. In early April, the city's defenses were bombed by Soviet aircraft for four days, allowing civilians to escape the encirclement earlier. The assault on Königsberg began on April 6 and ended four days later. The encircled German command did not surrender immediately - the proposal of front commander Vasilevsky to surrender on April 8 was rejected, but already on the 9th, “Akhtung!” was heard on the city radio in German and Russian. Achtung! Attention attention! The city and fortress of Königsberg capitulates! The garrison capitulated on the square, now called Victory Square. For another week, those hiding in basements and ruins surrendered. But these were not all the remnants of the German army - April 17 Soviet troops occupied the city of Fishhausen (modern Primorsk), and on April 25 - the port of Pillau (Baltiysk), which is located west of Königsberg and has strong fortifications. The Baltic bridgehead was neutralized.

Until the decision of the Potsdam Conference in August 1945, East Prussia was considered an occupied territory, which was planned to be included in the USSR and Poland. Potsdam confirmed the decision - two thirds of the territory went to Poland, one third to the Soviet Union with inclusion in the RSFSR.

Technician of the Nevsky Plant named after Lenin Ilyin, "PRAVDA", AUGUST 7, 1945:

Koenigsberg has long been the main center of Prussian militarism and a springboard for attacks on our country. The decision of the conference to transfer the Königsberg region to the Soviet Union significantly strengthens international security. The three powers are united in their desire to severely punish those responsible for the disasters and suffering of the peoples of Europe.

The Klaipeda region, annexed by Germany from Lithuania in 1939, will be transferred to the Lithuanian SSR. Formally, this happened in 1950, when the region was separated from the RSFSR, but legally the action was not carried out impeccably. The final question of the borders of the region was resolved only in 1997. Lithuanians in Soviet time More districts of the Kaliningrad region could have moved, but the leadership of the republic repeatedly refused. The renaming of the city of Königsberg and the region of the same name took place in the summer of 1946. Initially it was supposed to call them “Baltiysk” and “Baltiyskaya”. The draft of such a decree was already ready, but these days the former chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council and the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, Mikhail Kalinin, died. He was connected with the Baltic states only by the fact that for several years in exile, back at the beginning of the century, he worked at an Estonian factory and was married to an Estonian. The date of death and the decision to rename coincided - so the city became Kaliningrad, although by that time the current city of Korolev, located near Moscow, already had the same name. In the same year, other cities in the region received their new names. Renaming streets took longer. Thus, in 1950, a number of names of German artists were replaced by Russian ones: Goethe Street in Kaliningrad became Pushkin Street, Mozart Street became Repin Street, and Strauss Street became Rimsky-Korsakov Street. The names of villages and streets were not specified “from above”. “As a rule, they asked the residents themselves,” recalled settler Nikolai Chudinov. “They say: “In our homeland there was such and such a district, name the village the same.” Or the driver was driving, he said, passing by some village, there were tall ferns. Well, let’s call it “Fern”... Dobrovolsk was called that because volunteers were coming here to the region. The commission sent new names to the region, and from there to the Supreme Council. And there they already issued a decree on renaming.”

German population

The war unwittingly helped displace much of the German population from East Prussia. If in 1939 just over a million people lived in the part that was annexed to the USSR after the war, then by mid-1946 there were only 170 thousand. At the same time, the city of Königsberg accounted for 61 thousand. In the year since September 1945, the German population decreased by 30%, it accounted for 2/3 of total number residents of the region. The labor shortage provoked a struggle for the Germans among military and civilian institutions. For a short time, competition arose between them - workers were bought up and hired to work without civil department orders. Hiring rules were violated by the military command. It was necessary to introduce measures: obligations of the military to transfer unregistered German workers and fines for civilian institutions (100 marks per working day) and the Germans themselves (100 marks for unauthorized departure).

The repatriation (or deportation, opinions vary) of the German population began only in 1947. Previously, permission to leave was obtained by representatives anti-fascist movement and having relatives in the Soviet zone of occupation. About 4 thousand people left under these pretexts. Mass repatriation began in the fall, for good reason.

According to data for May 1947, among the German population of 110 thousand people, 36.6 thousand worked. The rest were in dire straits because they did not receive food ( social support on the part of the new government concerned the disabled and children from orphanages). Soviet citizens often had to feed Germans dying of hunger. Lack of food sometimes forced people to feed on the bodies of fallen animals. According to one eyewitness, one day “a German found a dead stork, sat and plucked it, dead.” Crime grew: robberies, food theft, arson, livestock poisoning. Sometimes the Germans set fire to their own houses, not wanting to give them up to the needs of the new government and settlers. Although, in general, according to eyewitnesses, there was little resistance and aggression from them, there were rumors about German avengers. There were attacks on settlers, but they were not systematic. Let us note that trains with new settlers were attacked, but not by the Germans, but by the Lithuanians.

In addition, as noted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which became the main initiator of the speedy repatriation, the Germans had Negative influence on Soviet citizens and military personnel, contributed to “the emergence of unwanted connections.” This could be due to a discrepancy between the new residents’ ideas about the Germans and the discovered reality. It was difficult for the settlers to communicate with the Germans - the language barrier was a hindrance. Violence against the Germans was punished and manifested itself mainly after the end of hostilities, as in other occupied territories. East Prussia was considered a region with a long military tradition ("Prussian military"), which gave the NSDAP a majority of votes in the last competitive German elections. Several dozen Germans were convicted under the article about anti-Soviet agitation. The Germans prevented the necessary cultural changes. Unlike the Japanese on Sakhalin, who even participated in festive rallies after the war, the Germans had no time for political life.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs was responsible for organizing the mass move. Since January 1945, the territory was controlled by military commandant's offices. Civil administrations were created in October 1945. Party bodies appeared in 1947. In the fall of 1947, 30.3 thousand people officially left the region for the occupation zone. IN next year- another 63 thousand. Composition of the deportees: 50% women, 17% men and 33% children. No more than a thousand Germans survived in the Kaliningrad region until the 1950s. Basically they were irreplaceable specialists. Not most of“Germans”, was able to register as Lithuanians.

The migrants were allowed to take with them up to 300 kilograms of property per family that met customs requirements. But these rules were not always observed in practice. Transportation was carried out by rail and sea, taking into account weather conditions. According to reports from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, during the entire period of mass deportation, 48 people died on the road. At the place of arrival, rations for 15 days were issued according to workers' standards. The rules of deportation were strict - Germans from mixed unofficial marriages could not remain in the USSR. In this regard, the settlers recalled stories with opposite endings. In one case, an officer bought his beloved a certificate of Lithuanian nationality and knocked on the doorsteps of his superiors - five days later an order came from Moscow to issue her a Soviet passport. In another, the lieutenant committed suicide after the deportation of his partner (marriages with German women were not registered) with their three children.

I. Kim (“Development of territories annexed to the USSR after the Second World War”)

New residents

Soviet settlers came to the new territory in several ways. Some were repatriates - Soviet citizens who worked at German enterprises during the war and ended up in Königsberg distribution camps. The other part is demobilized or active military personnel. It was possible to come from the territory of the Soviet Union voluntarily or, in fact, forcibly (by party ticket, by distribution).

Volunteers were lured with benefits. They were similar to those that would later be provided to settlers to another territory annexed to the USSR - South Sakhalin. At first, they didn’t take everyone: because of the border region, it was necessary to select the most reliable: the best in production, those who had been demobilized. The first official civilian migrants from " big land"There were fishermen. They were given not only housing with a plot of land (with payment in installments and the obligation to work for 10 years), but also clothing. It was allowed to bring up to 50 kg of luggage per family member. Livestock could be transported in trains. The allowance was given: 2 thousand rubles per employee and 250 rubles for other family members (the average salary in the country in those years was 442 rubles, in agriculture - half as much). There were also those who independently tried to settle in the region, but they were not entitled to benefits. Mass resettlement began in the second half of 1946. The resettlers were paid lump sum allowance, the size of which depended on salary. Depending on the employee’s specialty and other conditions, the amount of the housing loan (with land plot up to 0.6 hectares) for settlers ranged from 10 to 20 thousand rubles (military personnel gave only half). But the same as for fishermen who arrived in 1945, subject to work for 10 years. Not everyone complied with it. In the first five years after the annexation of the region, the share of “departed” residents was 35%. In 1950, for every person leaving, two were arriving.

Source: Yu. Kostyashov ("Brotherhood in the process of settling the Kaliningrad region in the post-war years"). Absolute figures taking into account intra-regional movement

Since cities and villages were seriously damaged, visitors often lacked housing. They were crowded into houses with Germans, whom they tried to evict as quickly as possible. Entire buildings were enough only for the first settlers. Those who arrived a year or two after the end of the war had less chance of getting comfortable housing by the standards of that time. At first, cities and villages experienced serious problems with electricity and water. During the retreat, the German army tried to disable strategic objects. It was difficult to heat the buildings (especially in the cold winter of 1946/47); everything that could burn was used. There was a case where a street toilet built by the Germans was dismantled into planks. Unofficial trade flourished (note that nationalization ended in the summer of 1946). The poor Germans were ready to sell their property or exchange it for food.

One of the motivations for moving to a new area was rumors about the rich life of the Germans, often brought back by war participants returning from Europe.

There was a lot of destruction in the cities. Königsberg was subjected to massive bombing several times during the war. But they could not hide the fact that the standard of living in these territories was higher than the Soviet one, and the cities were well-kept. For example, in rich houses one could find washing machines. Adding to the impressions was the neatness of the Germans, who cared about cleanliness even amid the devastation around. “Even from the remains of the buildings, one could see how beautiful the city was before the war,” recalled resettled Anna Kopylova. - The streets are paved with cobblestones, green with trees. And, despite the ruins, I was overcome with a feeling of awe. It was clear that people who valued nature, beauty and their comfort used to live here.”

Opening of the first post-war cinema "Pobeda". 1946 Photo: State Archive of the Kaliningrad Region

The Germans had a different attitude towards everyday life: more practicality and order. In the abandoned houses one could find expensive furniture (much of it had to be used for firewood), and in the courtyards there was well-kept land. This was especially noticeable in rural areas, where abandoned farms were occupied by arriving collective farmers. They say that before the war, Kaliningrad land was more fertile due to differences in soil cultivation technologies and inept management of the land reclamation system. Restored Agriculture collective farmers were ineffective: reports noted a lack of tools, irrational use of buildings and low interest in work.

The settlers were impressed by the quality of the roads, which was very different from what it was, for example, in the outbacks of central Russia. Some visitors were curious about the asphalt and the order of planting trees along the roads for the first time in their lives. “On the streets of Königsberg and near the houses there were many bicycles of various models and types,” recalled assistant to the district military commandant Pyotr Chagin about entering the city in April 1945. “True, in the first days there were unpleasant surprises when bicycles piled up in piles turned out to be mined. There were special bike paths on some streets.” Many Western concepts, such as bike paths, were new to people. One of the managers who restored the green economy of Kaliningrad, Alexei Talyzin, recalled his surprise at the sight of a German landfill where the garbage was sorted, most of it was taken for recycling, and the less was thrown into a swamp designated for this purpose.

Until 1947, there was no large-scale plan for the development of the Kaliningrad region. System errors occurred that disrupted the pace of recovery. The military authorities did not want to transfer the infrastructure to civilians, maintaining and expanding production was not always the goal - often resources were taken out as if from the occupied territory.

At the end of May 1947, recently arrived from Moscow, acting. The first head of the regional organization of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Pyotr Andreevich Ivanov, in a secret letter to Stalin, complained about the appalling situation in the regional economy. The leader listened to the report and sent a commission to Kaliningrad approving Ivanov for the position of first leader. But he did not live to see the commission arrive. According to his wife Maria, Ivanov spoke on the phone one evening, saying: “Yes, Comrade Stalin. It will be done, Comrade Stalin...”, lay down in the bath and shot himself. A plan to develop the region and restore industry for the next three to four years was then adopted without him.

Film about Kaliningrad, 1949. Director G. Levkoev

Peter Ivanov, AND ABOUT. HEAD OF THE AUCP(B) OF THE KALININGRAD REGION. FROM A LETTER TO STALIN, MAY 28, 1947:

The accounting and security of the trophy property premises were not truly organized. Valuables were taken away, housing stock and premises were destroyed... Representatives of various ministries and departments who were in the region considered East Prussia as an occupied territory, dismantled equipment, removed materials from enterprises... The Germans, numbering 25 percent of the population, represent more than 100 thousand people of extremely embittered people , ready to do anything to undermine, weaken security, and delay the economic development and development of the region.

The question of what to do with the ruins of buildings and cultural sites took a long time to resolve. There were proposals to break everything so that there would be no traces of the Germans’ past stay. This is partly what happened, but not for ideological reasons, but for economic ones. Huge volumes of bricks were obtained by dismantling houses and rubble. It was proposed to create a republican trust for the dismantling of buildings in the Kaliningrad region, but the idea did not find support.

P.V. Timokhin,CHIEF ARCHITECT OF KALININGRAD:

Here on the spot the issue is not given the respect it deserves. Please give instructions to create in Kaliningrad republican center for dismantling buildings, which could centrally supply building materials, obtained from dismantling... any construction site in the country in Kaliningrad alone can receive about two billion pieces of brick from dismantling destroyed buildings, thanks to which it is possible to save the main capital investment for the construction of 20-25 brick factories.

(Note addressed to the Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Malenkov, 1952)

The destroyed houses and areas were dismantled by prisoners, Germans and Soviet workers. “Sundays” (“subbotniks” on Sundays) were held. This was often a dangerous business: there was a real chance of getting hit by a falling beam or brick from above. Large-scale reconstruction of the city began in the 1950s. The general plan intended to make Kaliningrad more of a typical regional center, preserving the radial-ring structure of the city. Whenever possible, we tried to complete the houses by adding floors. Other cities were more fortunate in preserving German architecture. You can see what old German buildings looked like not only in photographs. In 1949, Alexandrov’s film “Meeting on the Elbe” was released, which was filmed in Kaliningrad and other areas of the region.

“Meeting on the Elbe”, 1949:

At first they tried to blow up the remains of the Royal Castle, which stood in the center of the city, and partially dismantled it into bricks. There was a rumor that the final point on the castle issue was put by Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin, who visited the city - so that there would be no museum of “Prussian militarism.” The castle was blown up in 1967. Now in its place stands the unfinished House of Soviets. Much earlier, monuments to Germans were removed or destroyed. statesmen(Emperors Wilhelm I, Chancellor Bismarck), soldiers of the First World War and, for example, the composer Schubert. After the war, a displaced slab and inscriptions were discovered at Kant’s grave. One of them read: “Now do you understand that the world is material?” In April 1947, the party city committee ordered the grave to be put in order within a week. Churches were very rarely restored; rather, on the contrary, they were destroyed. But the large Cathedral, which burned out during the war, has been preserved and stands in the city center to this day, but without the original interior decoration.

In Königsberg, many art objects taken by the Germans from the territory of the Soviet Union were found. The first information about the possible location of the famous amber room appeared in 1945. Then local art historian Alfred Rohde pointed out that the room burned down in the Royal Castle. After 20 years, a special government commission will be created, the investigation of which will not lead to the discovery of a work of art. Industry and, most importantly, ice-free ports, which were the original purpose of the annexation, were brought into working order within a few years. Many enterprises had to be built, essentially, from scratch. In decades, the Kaliningrad region will become the leader of the fishing industry and the stronghold of the Baltic Fleet.

Film about Kaliningrad (1949, directed by G. Levkoev):

The Kaliningrad region still remains a special economic zone. More recently, programs for the resettlement of Russians have been active. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the region became an enclave, but retained its geopolitical significance. Residents and authorities of Kaliningrad love to look into the German past. But the city did not become a new “window to Europe”.

Alexander Uspensky

Our city is a strange and paradoxical place. On the one hand - German history, on the other - Soviet and Russian, on the main island there is an ancient Catholic cathedral, and on the main square there is an Orthodox church.

But the most paradoxical thing is that we live in a city with two names - Kaliningrad and Koenigsberg, which have not only entered our lives, but have been fighting for the title of the main one for more than a decade.

Most old-timers, of course, do not recognize the old name, and they can be understood. If we had been taught at school that Koenigsberg was exclusively a stronghold of fascism, Prussian militarism and almost a branch of hell on earth, and “grandfather Kalinin” was a hero of his era, then we would not even think about such a question, and for all these reasoning, I would have been brutally lynched at some party meeting.

But these days are not those times, and Koenigsberg no longer appears before us as a dead fascist beast, but makes us think about the themes of beauty, goodness and culture, which are not alien to any civilized nation. But we live not in Königsberg, but in Kaliningrad, and today we’ll talk specifically about the name of our city, which is no less paradoxical than its long history.

So, what was the first, and what was the name of our city in the old and very bad Teutonic times? I am sure that there will be two possible answers to this question. Most, almost without hesitation, will answer: “Königsberg”, someone will mistakenly call it by the old Prussian name Tuvangste, and someone will understand that there is a catch in this question and will ask, at a minimum, to clarify the time period. In fact, historians have been struggling with the mystery of the name of our city for quite some time. If everything is clear with Kaliningrad, then the word Königsberg has many roots, and, contrary to general opinion, it is not a fact that the city was named after King Ottokar II. But first things first.

As I have already said many times, the history of our city did not begin in 1255, but much earlier, because before the arrival of the knights, people lived here who were quite advanced for their culture. Oddly enough, the name “city on the Pregol”, given by the Prussians, has reached us. In the original it was spelled Twankste, although it was always written differently in different sources. If we talk about the origin of this word, then I will not indulge in lengthy discussions and describe to you all the available versions, but I will give only the main one, according to which the name of the Prussian settlement comes from the word “Twanka” - pond, in full version- “dam”.

Agree, this is not a very meaningful name for a settlement, but this is the first name of our city, given to it in time immemorial, and it is at least worth knowing. Why “Dam”, you ask? And the reason for this was a man-made dam on the Pregol, allowing the Prussians to exact tribute from passing boats. Some researchers believe that local residents have been doing this for many centuries. Be that as it may, everything comes to an end, and for Tuvangste it came in 1255 with the arrival of the troops of the Teutonic Order on Prussian lands. Naturally, the Teutons did not want to leave the previous name of the city, and there was no talk of a new city, for that matter, either - just to withstand the wrath of the rebels and protect themselves.

I will not retell to you the story of the appearance of the castle on the banks of the Pregolya, since I have already devoted lines and even a separate article to this more than once. Instead, let's talk about the very name of the future city. Most Kaliningrad residents think that before the advent of Soviet power, our city was called Königsberg and nothing else. This is true, but not entirely... Koenigsberg is the name of the castle, better known to you as the Royal one, but the city itself did not originally exist, and when it appeared, it did not have a name at all.

It so happened that the Teutonic Order did not particularly care about the names of their castle settlements, and, for lack of a better one, they were given names in honor of the castles themselves. It was the same with Königsberg, but its castle settlement soon acquired another name - Altstadt (old town), and only in 1724, when all three cities united at the Royal Castle, the word Königsberg began to mean what we all know.

But even here there are many questions and “blank spots” to which, alas, we can no longer get an exact answer. My point is that Koenigsberg did not always have such a name - its first name was Regiomontum or Regiomons, which is translated in exactly the same way as Koenigsberg, but only from Latin. According to the most common and probably the most objective version, the castle was named in honor of the king who helped the Teutonic Order conquer Prussia, but today more and more historians began to doubt this, since there are not so few Koenigsbergs in the world and not all are named in honor of the king.

But we will talk about other “namesakes” of our city later, but for now let’s get closer to modern times. To do this, we will need to go back half a century into the past, when the shots of World War II had just started ringing out. By the way, the city was not renamed after the war, or rather, it was not done right away.

For a whole year, Koenigsberg remained Koenigsberg, and the region remained Koenigsberg. Who knows whether this would have remained to this day or not, but June 3, 1946 came, when Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin, the famous “All-Union Elder”, died, in whose honor the Soviet government decided to rename the city with a seven-century history. Kalinin was a multifaceted personality, being partly truly a good man, but his direct participation in Stalin’s repressions and even his reluctance to release his own wife from arrest casts a very unpleasant shadow on his biography. Although personally, I am somewhat angry by the fact that Mikhail Ivanovich personally signed a decree renaming the city of Tver in his honor.

But, as they say, don’t judge, lest you be judged, so I won’t talk about “Grandfather Kalinin,” who was once dearly loved by the people, and I’m not talking about him. By the way, he had never been to our city and whether he knew him is a moot point, but we know well who Kaliningrad is named after. True, now more and more proposals for renaming are heard, which cause a lot of heated debate. On the one hand, there is history, and on the other, “non-humanity,” which many residents of Kaliningrad and the Russian authorities are still afraid of.

Each side makes its own arguments, and each is right in its own way, but let's judge soberly. Is our city Königsberg? Can the place we live in be called Königsberg? With all my love for the old city and the history of our region, I do not agree that the former name should be returned. I admit with bitterness that we still live in Kaliningrad in every sense of the word.

The Soviet government worked hard to ensure that the name of the city corresponded to reality, bulldozing the ancient quarters and blowing up what was left to us as an inheritance. Yes, not everything has been demolished! Yes, there are still entire streets that have preserved the spirit of the past, but as long as our city remains as it is, until our consciousness and culture reach the level of a hundred years ago and while the government robs its own people and disfigures the center for profit, there will be no Koenigsberg , but there will only be Kaliningrad. But people cannot be deceived, and no matter how one views the history of the city, it is and will always be.

Koenigsberg is alive, if only because we remember and love it, and Kaliningrad should not be renamed... Think for yourself, how often do we use the historical word? It seems to me that more and more people call the city nothing other than König, and when talking with someone from central Russia about Kaliningrad, they will definitely mention Königsberg, talking about the blown-up Royal Castle, the tomb of Immanuel Kant and the ugly House of Soviets.

Who knows, maybe the times will come when not we, but our children and grandchildren will be able to see the restored castle, stroll through the reconstructed quarters of medieval buildings and the former promenade of the Lower Lake, which will be renamed the Castle Pond. Maybe this will be the case, and then the issue of renaming will not cause controversy. Now there is no need to disgrace yourself in front of Europe, which, by the way, does not recognize Kaliningrad.

This year, leaving Lithuania after another European tour, for a long time I could not find the name Kaliningrad in the list of departures at the Kaunas bus station, until one of the Lithuanians pointed my finger at a strange word - Karaliaučius, which the Lithuanians used to call Königsberg for many centuries. Something similar happened at the Polish station - Krolewiec, only there was the word Kaliningrad in small print and in brackets. However, Poland and Lithuania have restored and preserved their Prussian heritage, which cannot be said about us, doomed to live in Kaliningrad.

There was a Prussian fortress Tuvangste (Tvangste, Tvangeste). Reliable information History has left no descriptions of the founding of Tvangste and the fortress itself. According to legend, the Tvangste fortress was founded by Prince Zamo in the middle of the 6th century. There is information about an attempt to establish a settlement near the mouth of the Pregel, undertaken at the end of the 10th century by Khovkin, the son of the Danish king Harald I Blue-lipped. German chronicles for 1242 contain information about negotiations between the deputies of the city of Lübeck and the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Gerhard von Malberg, about the founding of a free trading city on a mountain on the banks of the Pregel.

In the mid-13th century, the toponym Twangste extended to the Prussian fortified settlement, the mountain on which it was located, and the surrounding forest.

The Tvangste fortress was taken and burned at the beginning of 1255 during the campaign of the united army of the knights of the Order and the Bohemian king Přemysl Otakar II. There is a legend according to which King Otakar II advised the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Poppo von Osterne, to build an order fortress on the site of Tvangste. The foundation of the Koenigsberg fortress took place in early September 1255. The first commander of Königsberg was Burkhard von Hornhausen.

There are several versions of the origin of the name Königsberg. The most common version associates the name of the Königsberg fortress, Royal Mountain, with King Otakar II. According to it, the fortress and the future city were named in honor of the King of Bohemia. Other versions of the origin of the toponym associate it with the Vikings or Prussians. Perhaps “Konigsberg” is a form of “Konungoberg”, where “konung”, “kunnigs” are “prince”, “leader”, “head of the clan”, and the word “berg” can mean both “mountain” and “steep, Highland". In Russian chronicles and maps until the end of the 17th century, the toponym Korolevets was used instead of the name Koenigsberg.

The first two wooden blockhouses were built on the mountain on the right bank of the Pregel in 1255. Koenigsberg was first mentioned in a document dated June 29, 1256. In 1257, construction of stone fortifications began to the west of the blockhouses. In 1260, 1263 and 1273, the castle was besieged by the rebel Prussians, but was not taken. Since 1309, Königsberg Castle has been the residence of the Marshal of the Teutonic Order.

On February 28, 1286, the Landmaster of Prussia, Konrad von Thirberg, granted the settlement that arose near the castle walls the status of a city based on the Kulm Law. Most likely, the settlement was originally named after the castle - Koenigsberg. However, later, with the emergence of neighboring settlements, it received the name Altstadt, translated from German language meaning "old city". The settlement that arose east of the castle was named Neustadt ( New town). Neustadt was later renamed Löbenicht, and on May 27, 1300, Löbenicht received city rights from the commander of Königsberg, Berthold von Brühaven. On an island located south of Altstadt, a settlement was formed, originally called Vogtswerder. In 1327, the settlement on the island received city rights. In the deed of granting city rights it is called Knipav, which most likely corresponds to the original Prussian toponym. Since 1333, the city was called Pregelmünde, but gradually the original name in the Germanized form – Kneiphof – was established.

The cities of Altstadt, Löbenicht and Kneiphof had their own coats of arms, city councils, burgomasters, and were members of the Hanseatic Trade Union from the 14th century.

In 1325, under the leadership of Bishop Johannes Claret, construction of the Cathedral began on the island of Kneiphof. In a document dated September 13, 1333, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Luther von Brunswick, agreed to continue construction of the cathedral; this date is considered the official start date of construction. The construction of the Cathedral was completed in 1380. In the winter of 1390-1391, an English detachment under the command of the Earl of Derby, the future King of England Henry IV Lancaster, stayed in Konigsberg.

After the loss of Marienburg (Malbork, Poland) in the Thirteen Years' War in 1457, Grand Master Ludwig von Erlichshausen moved the capital of the Teutonic Order to Königsberg. In 1523, Hans Weinreich, with the assistance of Grand Master Albrecht, opened the first printing house in Königsberg in Löbenicht, in which the first book was printed in 1524. On April 8, 1525, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order Albrecht of Brandenburg-Ansbach concluded the Peace of Krakow with the King of Poland Sigismund I, as a result of which the Teutonic Order was secularized and the Duchy of Prussia was formed. Königsberg became the capital of Prussia. In 1544, a university was opened in Königsberg, which later received the name Albertina in honor of Duke Albrecht. Since 1660, a city newspaper began to be published in Königsberg. In May 1697, as part of the Great Embassy, ​​Russian Tsar Peter I visited Koenigsberg under the name of nobleman Peter Mikhailov, having lived in the city for about a month. Later, Peter I visited the city in November 1711, June 1712, February and April 1716.

On January 27, 1744, Sophia Augusta Frederica von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, the future Russian Empress Catherine II, passed through Königsberg from Stettin to St. Petersburg. On January 11, 1758, during the Seven Years' War, Russian troops entered Königsberg, after which, on January 24, in the Cathedral, representatives of all city classes took the oath of allegiance Russian Empress Elizaveta Petrovna. Until 1762, the city was part of the Russian Empire. In 1782, the city's population was 31,368. In 1793, the first obstetrics and gynecology institution opened in the city. On August 8, 1803, an earthquake occurred in Königsberg.

After the battles of Preussisch-Eylau in January and Friedland in June, Königsberg was occupied by the French army on June 15, 1807. On July 10-13, 1807 and June 12-16, 1812, Napoleon Bonaparte stayed in the city. On the night of January 4–5, 1813, the French army left Königsberg, and around noon on January 5, troops of the Russian corps under the command of Pyotr Christianovich Wittgenstein entered the city.

In 1813, an astronomical observatory was opened in Königsberg, the director of which was the outstanding mathematician and astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel. In 1830, the first (local) water supply system appeared in the city. In 1834, in the Königsberg laboratory, Moritz Hermann Jacobi demonstrated the world's first electric motor. On July 28, 1851, the Königsberg Observatory astronomer August Ludwig Busch took the first photographic photograph of a solar eclipse in history. On October 18, 1861, Wilhelm I, the future Kaiser of Germany, was crowned in Königsberg. In 1872-1874 the first city water supply network was built, and in 1880 work began on laying the city sewerage system. In May 1881, the first horse-drawn route opened in Königsberg; in 1888, the city's population was 140.9 thousand people; in December 1890, 161.7 thousand people. To protect the city, a defensive ring of 15 forts was built along its perimeter by the mid-1880s. In May 1895, the first trams ran along the streets of Königsberg. In 1896, the Königsberg Zoo was opened, with Hermann Klaas (1841-1914) becoming its director.

The population of Königsberg in 1910 was 249.6 thousand inhabitants. In 1919, Germany's first airport, Devau Airport, was opened in Königsberg. On September 28, 1920, German President Friedrich Ebert opened the first East Prussian fair in Königsberg, located on the territory of the zoo, and later in special pavilions. In 1939, the city had 373,464 inhabitants.

During World War II, Koenigsberg was repeatedly bombed from the air. The first raid on the city was carried out by Soviet aviation on September 1, 1941. 11 Pe-8 bombers took part in the raid, none of which were shot down. The bombing produced a certain psychological effect, but no significant casualties or destruction were caused. On April 29, 1943, a Pe-8 bomber from the USSR Long-Range Aviation dropped a bomb weighing 5 tons on Koenigsberg for the first time. On the night of August 27, 1944, the 5th Group of the British Royal Air Force, consisting of 174 Lancaster bombers, carried out a raid on the city, during which the eastern outskirts were bombed, and the Royal Air Force lost 4 aircraft. The most massive and terrible raid on Koenigsberg was carried out by the British Air Force on the night of August 30, 1944. 189 Lancasters dropped 480 tons of bombs, killing 4.2 thousand people, destroying 20% ​​of industrial facilities and 41% of all buildings in the city, and the historical center of the city was razed to the ground. During the raid, napalm bombs were used for the first time. RAF losses amounted to 15 bombers.

As a result of the East Prussian offensive operation By January 26, 1945, Koenigsberg was under siege by the Red Army. However, already on January 30, the Greater Germany tank division and one infantry division from Brandenburg (now the village of Ushakovo) and the 5th tank division and one infantry division from Königsberg pushed back the troops of the 11th Guards Army 5 kilometers from Frisches Huff Bay , releasing Koenigsberg from the southwest. On February 19, counter attacks along the northern shore of the Frisches Huff Bay from Fischhausen (now the city of Primorsk) and Koenigsberg broke through the defenses of the 39th Army and restored communication between Koenigsberg and the Zemland Peninsula.

From April 2 to April 5, 1945, Koenigsberg was subjected to massive artillery strikes and air raids. April 6 troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front began the assault on the fortified city. The bad weather did not allow the full use of aviation; by the end of the day, assault troops and groups had reached the outskirts of the city. On April 7, the weather improved and Koenigsberg was subjected to massive bombardment. On April 8, the Red Army troops advancing from the north and south split the enemy group into two parts. 4th german army General Müller attempted to assist the Koenigsberg garrison with a strike from the Zemland Peninsula, but these attempts were stopped by Soviet aviation. By evening, the defending Wehrmacht units found themselves sandwiched in the city center under continuous attacks from Soviet artillery. On April 9, 1945, the commandant of the city and fortress of Königsberg, General Otto von Lyash, ordered the garrison to lay down their arms, for which Hitler was sentenced in absentia to death penalty. The last pockets of resistance were eliminated on April 10, and the Red Banner was hoisted on the Don tower. More than 93 thousand German soldiers and officers were captured, about 42 thousand died during the assault. The irretrievable losses of the Red Army directly during the assault on Koenigsberg amounted to 3.7 thousand people.

The capture of Koenigsberg was marked in Moscow by 24 artillery salvoes from 324 guns, and the medal “For the Capture of Koenigsberg” was established - the only Soviet medal established for the capture of a city that was not the capital of the state. After the end of World War II, according to the decisions of the Potsdam Conference, the city of Königsberg was transferred to the Soviet Union.

On June 27, 1945, the Koenigsberg Zoo, in which after the April assault only five animals remained: a badger, a donkey, a fallow deer, a calf elephant and the wounded hippopotamus Hans, received its first post-war visitors.

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on July 4, 1946, Koenigsberg was renamed Kaliningrad. The city was populated by settlers from other regions of the Soviet Union; by 1948, the German population was deported to Germany. Due to its important strategic location and large concentration of troops, Kaliningrad was closed to visits by foreign citizens. In the post-war years Special attention was paid to the restoration of production, issues of preserving historical and cultural values were of secondary importance and were often completely ignored. In 1967, by the decision of the first secretary of the Kaliningrad regional committee of the CPSU N.S. Konovalov Konigsberg Castle, seriously damaged during the British air raid in August 1944 and the assault on the city in April 1945, was blown up. The demolition of ruins and a significant part of the surviving buildings continued until the mid-1970s, which caused irreparable damage to the architectural appearance of the city.

Since 1991, Kaliningrad has been open to international cooperation.

If they tell you that there is nothing to see in Kaliningrad, do not believe it. Yes, his old city with world masterpieces has sunk into oblivion and is built up with the worst examples of Soviet architecture, and yet in modern Kaliningrad there is about 40% of Koenigsberg. The city is now only slightly larger than it was on the eve of the war (430 thousand versus 390), and it’s as if it has been turned inside out: in the center there is almost no antiquity, but on the outskirts there is enough for several provincial towns. And this antiquity itself is not ours, and since in its very essence, what is interesting and unusual here is something that in Russia one would pass by without noticing. Here - and.

What remains of Königsberg are two medieval buildings (including the Cathedral), a bit of the 18th century, a grandiose belt of fortifications from the 19th century, but most of its architecture dates back to the 1870-1930s, be it the garden city of Amalienau, the villas of Maraunienhof, the proletarian Rathof and Ponart , Devau airfield, train stations and railway infrastructure and individual buildings throughout. Also - the grandiose Museum of the World Ocean, where only sea ​​vessels four. I suddenly had about 12-15 posts worth of materials about Kaliningrad, a little less than about Lvov. And in the first of them - mainly what did not fit into the others: I deliberately do not show bright monuments yet - only the everyday buildings of pre-war Königsberg.

The center of Königsberg was destroyed by three strikes.
The first was a raid by the Anglo-American Air Force in August 1944. Like Dresden, Hamburg, Pforzheim and many others, Königsberg fell into the program of “psychological bombing”: the Anglo-Saxons targeted the historical center. without touching either the train stations, or the port, or factories, or forts. The scale was, of course, not Dresden - and yet 4,300 people died here in one night... and most of the historical center.
The next blow was the storming of the city by the Red Army in 1945. Koenigsberg was one of the most powerful fortresses in the world, and the destruction in that assault was especially large-scale in the north and east. However, oddly enough, this blow to the old city was the least destructive of the three. However, after the war, the city seemed to shift to the west, to the former Amalienau, Hufen, Rathof, Juditten. It was these areas, built up at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, that became the historical center of Kaliningrad, while old Koenigsberg lay in ruins for another twenty years. After all, even 10 years after the war the city was approximately half the size of the pre-war one, and therefore there were quite enough surviving houses. They looked for valuables in the ruins; children were playing; they made a movie about the war, the houses were gradually dismantled into bricks, and in general, many here still remember what the Royal Castle looked like.
Only in the 1960s did the authorities become concerned about using the “dead city”, and this was the third, control blow to old Königsberg - its ruins were simply demolished, and the vacant space was built up with high-rise buildings. And in general, having arrived in Kaliningrad and finding in place of Altstadt, Löbenicht, Kneiphof a panel district of the worst quality, it is easy to think that there is nothing interesting further down the line. And this is not true at all:

I lived for two weeks north of Amalienau, in these “dormitory areas” of the 1920s and 30s between Karl Marx Avenue and Borzov Street. Their architecture in German is simple and rhythmic. On the first day of my stay, cold rain poured from morning to evening. Katerina taiohara took me deep into an unfamiliar and incomprehensible city, telling me how after the First World War, ruined but not broken in spirit Germans invented an “ideal city” for ordinary people:

As you can see, there is a lot in common between pre-war German architecture (mostly of the Weimar era) and early Soviet architecture - the same low-rise buildings, the same spacious courtyards and wide green streets. But in the USSR they built cottages almost nowhere - but here they are all outskirts, and in one of these (not these specifically) I lived:

One of the first discoveries for me were these houses - sort of townhouses from the 1920s:

The main feature of which is the bas-reliefs and sculptures decorating each entrance. According to Katerina, there was an art academy nearby, and its workshops supplied the entire area with such decorations. Most of the sculptures have long been broken; “Child and Cat” from the introductory frame is one of just a few surviving examples. But the bas-reliefs - what will happen to them? I wonder - did the owner of each apartment hang them according to his own taste, or was the house originally designed that way?

Another notable object in this area is the clock tower. It seems (no one I talked to knows for sure) - an auto repair plant in the 1920s:

Such is the kingdom of types - both German and Soviet. There are also individual houses of individual projects in this area - again, both new buildings and German:

The area to the south, between Karl Marx and Mira avenues, connecting the center with Amalienau, looks completely different. It clearly took shape before the First World War, and it can be correlated with the provincial cities of the Russian Empire, only instead of Art Nouveau there is Art Nouveau, and instead of stylizations of Ancient Rus' - stylizations of the Old Hansa.

However, there are also a lot of houses here that look like interwar buildings - but still not massive, like in the neighboring area.

One of many old German schools. As I already wrote, in the German Empire they were numerous and grandiose:

An impressive building on Sovetsky Prospekt, just shy of the main square:

And this, for comparison, is literally the opposite end of the former Königsberg, the Haberberg district near the South Station:

Like Koenigsberg, I was impressed with its details. And as has been said more than once, the German and Austrian approaches here were radically different: if the Austrians almost every house was essentially a stand for parts, the Germans’ houses are remembered for one - but very catchy detail. The only exception, perhaps, are these wonderful houses on Komsomolskaya Street (formerly Luisenallee) near the intersection with Chekistov Street, literally strewn with “sazochny” bas-reliefs. Note that they are very easy to mistake for Stalinist:

On the same “storyteller houses” there are also these metal things - I don’t even know their purpose:

But more often the Königsberg house “does” something like this:

If in Lvov I was most impressed by the doors, in Königsberg - by the portals:

Moreover, a masterly command of rhythm made it possible to make them beautiful even in completely utilitarian buildings. And here on the right is a modern creative:

There are also a lot of German “artifacts” in Königsberg, including inscriptions (they want him to be far from the small towns of the region!):

A collection of stone slabs near one of the houses, the location of which I don’t remember. They look suspiciously like gravestones...

But the most memorable thing is the German bomb shelters that mark hundreds of yards here. Koenigsberg was bombed from the first months of the war, its surroundings were the “patrimony” of the Luftwaffe, and it was not for nothing that Soviet journalism called it a “citadel city.” Bombari (as they are called here) is one of the most characteristic features Koenigsberg. This one is in front of the school:

Also characteristic are reminders of those who died storming this citadel. Monuments and almost mass graves in courtyards are commonplace here:

And there is a military memorial in almost every district:

A few more random sketches. A street in the former Altstadt, not far from the place where the famous Lastadia warehouses stood.

One of the rivers crossing the city, not every old-timer knows the names of most of them:

As in countries of Eastern Europe, graffiti is popular here - compared to “mainland” Russia, they are more numerous, more meaningful and more noticeable:

A typical TV tower. I came across these in about a dozen cities, most of them in the western regions of the former USSR:

A very unusual new building. There is “flaming gothic”, and here there is “flaming postmodernism”:

There are also paving stones left from Koenigsberg, which look very strange against the backdrop of the Khrushchev-era buildings.

And old mossy trees with the seal of complex destinies. Trees and pavements - they remember everything:

The next three posts are about the ghosts of Königsberg. What was and what remains.

FAR WEST-2013