Russian exclave of Kaliningrad at forefront of a nationwide protest movement

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Washington Post

Russian exclave of Kaliningrad at forefront of a nationwide protest movement
By Philip P. Pan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, March 20, 2010

KALININGRAD, RUSSIA -- Almost every Friday for more than a year, a small band of dockworkers, sailors and other stubborn souls has gathered outside the governor's office in this Russian Baltic port to denounce hospital closings and other cuts in health services. Week after week, the governor ignored the protests, which seemed insignificant in the context of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's top-down political system.

But he is not ignoring them anymore -- and neither is Putin.

In recent months, the protesters have joined thousands of others upset by the failing economy here in larger demonstrations against local authorities. In doing so, they have helped thrust Kaliningrad, Russia's westernmost city, to the forefront of a disjointed, nationwide protest movement that has rattled the Kremlin and sent its operatives scrambling to put out political fires across the country.

The protests have mostly been small and focused on regional issues. But because they have taken place in at least a dozen provinces and tapped into shared anger over Russia's worst recession in a decade, many observers are asking if the formula that has kept Putin in power so long -- steady economic growth and tightening political controls -- might be failing.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/19/AR2010031904767.html

[Hardrada]

1. I think the Russkies should have taken Germany's offer

and sold that place back to them. We could have had Koenigsberg again! And the residents would be doing a lot better since the Baltic port could get a lot more business.

[nealmhughes]

2. Did Germany really try to buy it? I thought Polond had dibs.

My boy Manny Kant was from the dismal gray wet streets as someone once described the city, then I saw all the brick Gothic and warehouses and colors and it was as lovely as Riga or Tallinn or any other Hansa City in photos. So much for myth. I thought the Baltic was where the beaches were up there? A tad bit cheaper bus ride ride from Berlin or Petersburg than a flight to Bodrum or Sunny Beach, I'd wager.

[Hardrada]

3. I read they had made an offer perhaps a decade ago.

The Germans can afford to rebuild it and should be given the opportunity to make it as picturesque as Gdansk (Danzig).

[nodehopper]

5. The Baltic is where the beaches are

Kaliningrad is not on the water exactly, and it is close to a harbor that was used primaraily commercially so you wouldn't go swimming there. Past the harbor there is the Baltic sea and all the nice beaches that were major destinations during the Soviet era are further up north, and now are parts of the Baltic states--Klaipeda, Jurmala, etc.

[Hardrada]

7. Is Memel part of the Baltic states?

[nodehopper]

8. Memel is the former name for Klaipeda

Which is one of the aforementioned resorts (and one my family used to go to when I was wee); it is in Lithuania, so yes.

[amandabeech]

21. I visited there in the summer of '95.

It was a very nice beach town. I grew up on Lake Michigan beaches and I was impressed.

There were lots of Germans and Swedes, but your average Lithuanian couldn't get in. Our driver was able to spend the day there when he took us and picked us up. My friend and I felt badly that he couldn't just go when he wanted to.

The amber market was great. I'm a brown-eyed brunette and the amber jewelry really suited me.

I'd love to go back and see how the place has evolved. And get some more amber jewelry.

[nodehopper]

22. wow, it's strange to imagine it like that

Every summer that my family and I went there, it was still the Soviet republic of Lithuania...so no real foreign tourists, all the beaches open to everyone...no booming market in amber, but we used to look for it in the sand as kids, when we weren't busy picking and eating blueberries by the handful.

[amandabeech]

28. There were no blueberries!

I love blueberries!

I wonder what happened to them. I was there in mid-August and went to the open air food market. (I was looking for bottled water after my episode of Vautaitis (sp) revenge--similar to the Montezuma variety.)

I think that's blueberry season in many places, and you'd think that fresh blueberries would go well with the tourists. Swedes generally go nuts for any kind of berry. I'm part Swedish and I have visited Sweden, so I speak from experience.

You might want to go back and see what it's like. If you do, please post or pm me. I'd just love to hear how things are going there.

[Hardrada]

25. Lots of amber jewelry in Berlin too and the young couple

selling some to my wife said it came from the vicinity of Koenigsberg in Preussen (I can speak German so I knew what he was talking about) so I guess the former terms for those places still remain!

[Yupster]

4. The Germans should at least get the right to return to their homes

I'm thinking Poland would then worry though as it took the southern half of East Prussia while Russia took the north.

The German civilians were all driven out by rape and terror in the middle of winter.

It's one of Hitler's many crimes that he wouldn't allow the cvilian population evacuated once the Red Army threatened to cut them off. He thought it would weaken the army's resolve to allow the civilians to evacuate.

[Hardrada]

6. It was amazing that so many million did manage to get out

and to this day they still remember their old homelands. I could sense that as I watched various programs on Berlin television.

[Yupster]

11. One of my customers

was a young man in the German navy in 1945. He was on one of their largest cruisers when their base near Danzig was about to be overrun.

All of the families of the officers were put on a cruise ship and sailed to safety behind the German lines. The cruise ship was sunk by a Russian sub and everyone on the ship, thousands were killed. It is still one of the greatest losses of life at sea.

The cruiser then continued evacuating civilians off the beaches back to central Germany until it too was sunk by a Russian sub. It was in shallow water and just settled in the mud.

This now old man was a gunner and they stayed on the ship and fired off their ammo at passing Russian tanks for a few days and then followed the rest of the shipmates and rowed to safety.

Interestingly, this man, now in his 80's never votes though he's been a US citizen for over 40 years. When I asked him why he said, "Arrgh, it only encourages them."

You'd think growing up in Hitler's Germany you'd fight to vote every time.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

30. The Nazi propaganda apparatus was so effective

that my relatives didn't know that Germany was losing the war until they saw the people fleeing westward on foot. They hurriedly packed their suitcases, joined the line of refugees, and never saw their home again.

[KamaAina]

9. I always thought it would make a nice city-state for the UN

that way they wouldn't have to worry about the host country (coughcough) blocking access to speakers like Yasser Arafat.

[Hardrada]

13. I thought of that too. A rebuilt but neutral city. I'd live there.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

15. Yeah, instead it could demand speakers cross all bridges in the city

without crossing any one twice!

[Hardrada]

18. I tried to figure that out one time but had drunk too many beers.

[Odin2005]

10. It WAS an historically German area, home of Immanuel Kant.

[Yupster]

12. Yes there's no question that historically

It's been a key part of Germany for a thousand years.

The Russian never claimed any right to it.

They just removed every German citizen and took it.

You hear so much talk about Palestinians wanting the right to return to their former homes, but the Germans of East Prussia are ignored regardless of how strong their claim is.

[Kurska]

16. They have no claim, they don't live there anymore Russians do.

It would be just as equally unfair to uprout the Russians as it was to kick the Germans out.

[JVS]

26. No.

[Orrin_73]

14. The original people of east prussia were baltic people

and not germanic. The baltic prussians were killed and assimilated by the invading germans (Teutonic Order).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Prussia



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Prussians

[Hardrada]

17. Were they also called Sorbs?

[liberalpragmatist]

19. Sorbs were and are a different group

nt

[provis99]

23. the Balts had moved in as the Germans were moving towards the Roman Empire

Prussia has always been German territory, as far back as recorded history goes. The people who have the least claim to it are the Russians, who have turned Konigsberg into a drug and crime infested enclave, with the highest rate of AIDS out of any city in Europe. If you don't take care of your stuff, you lose the right to it.

[Hardrada]

24. I think Germany should make the Russians another offer

or at least help rebuild the city and make it attractive to people again. It is a pity Konigsberg and the other cities of East Prussia should be reliant on sagging East European economies.

[Betty Karlson]

27. Experts of hydronyms would disgree with you:

The names of the rivers in the area of Königsberg/ Kalingrad indicates proto-Balto-Slavic settlemet before the arrival of the Germanic tribes around year 1.

[HereSince1628]

20. Chai-baggers??? n/t

[Lydia Leftcoast]

29. My German relatives came from that area in 1899 when it was

still Königsberg. However, it's all Russian now.