Which Three Current European Countries Were Once Satellite States Under Soviet Control?

Russia'southward exclave on the Baltic Sea

Kaliningrad Map

The city that is now known every bit Kaliningrad has a contentious by. For most of its history information technology was inhabited past Prussian Germans, and was known past its German name Konigsberg. Simply information technology was as well familiar to the Poles, who called information technology Krolewiec. Information technology is now under the control of the Russian Commonwealth, function of the Kaliningrad region that is cut off from the balance of Russia by Poland and Lithuania.

Kaliningrad is part of Russia today because of the ruthlessness of Joseph Stalin, who saw an opportunity to punish Germany for its crimes during the 2d Globe War and gain a valuable port at the same fourth dimension. The Soviet Premier turned a German city into a Russian one, and information technology remains i to this 24-hour interval.

German language Settlements in the Eastward

For most of European history Germans had occupied lands well to the east of the current borders of Federal republic of germany. Germany itself didn't exist as a unified nation. Instead, there were numerous kingdoms and principalities of varying sizes. There were also pockets of High german settlement scattered amid the Slavic nations to the east. These settlements reached every bit far equally the Volga River in Russia.

Much of the country along the Baltic coast, reaching equally far as modern-mean solar day Lithuania, was controlled past the Kingdom of Prussia, one of the more than powerful German language states. Prussia's territory included the mouth of the Pregolya river, where it emptied into the Baltic Sea. This was the location of Konigsberg, an important port city.

Early History of Konigsberg

The City of Konigsberg was founded in 1255 by the Teutonic Knights. The boondocks and surrounding area were mainly populated past Germans, Poles, and Lithuanians. The city grew to get a fellow member of the Hanseatic League, and played an important function in regional trade.

In 1525 it became the capital of the Duchy of Prussia, which at the time was a Shine fiefdom.

In the early 1600s Prussia became increasingly independent from Poland. In 1701 Prussia was united with German Brandenburg, and became the fully independent Kingdom of Prussia. Russia annexed Konigsberg in 1758 during the Seven Years War, but Prussia regained the metropolis in 1762.

Afterwards, Prussia began to consolidate its position every bit a leading German state, leading to its creation of the German Empire in 1871. Konigsberg grew and prospered nether the Prussian and German crowns, reaching a population of almost 250,000.

Berlin was the authoritative capital of Prussia and afterward of Germany, but Konigsberg was the formalism capital of Prussia, where coronations took place. In the Empire information technology was the majuscule of the Province of East Prussia.

The city became famous as the home of Immanuel Kant, ane of the about influential philosophers of the enlightenment. Kant taught at the University of Konigsberg, also known every bit the Albertina, one of the world'due south leading colleges at the time. The Albertina would likewise be the domicile of David Hilbert, a leading mathematician of the tardily 19th and early 20th centuries.

Weimar Federal republic of germany and East Prussia

After suffering defeat in the First Earth War, the German Monarchy was deposed, and the Weimar Republic took its place. Nether the Treaty of Versailles, Poland received a port along the Baltic Coast, and Danzig, another of import Baltic port, came under the command of the League of Nations.

This "Smoothen Corridor" turned East Prussia into an exclave -- a High german territory that was cut off from the remainder of Russia by Poland.

The Weimar Republic proved to be unstable. Information technology was unable to pay hefty state of war reparations, and suffered from astringent aggrandizement. Economical stress and weak democratic institutions created the opportunities that Adolph Hitler and the National Socialists exploited to seize ability. While it was not the party's habitation base, the Nazis did build up solid support in East Prussia.

World War Two

After consolidating their power in Deutschland, the National Socialists followed a reckless form as they sought to regain lost territories and aggrandize. In 1939 and 1940 Hitler initiated wars in the east and the due west. Germany establish itself fighting wars against potent enemies on two fronts.

With avant-garde weapons and tactics, Germany had success on both fronts at the get-go of the state of war, capturing Paris and overrunning most of eastern Europe, including Poland, Ukraine, and a big portion of Russian federation.

German occupation was frequently brutal, specially against Slavic nations that they considered junior. Hitler was determined to wipe out Europe's Jewish population, and the Nazi government killed over six million Jews.

With British and American support, the USSR reversed Frg'southward gains, retaking its territory and replacing German occupation with Marxist satellite governments equally Soviet armies moved into Germany itself. Soviet forced besieged Konigsberg on the sixth of April 1945 and took the city on the 9th.

The Potsdam Conference

In July and August 1945, before long afterward Germany vicious to Soviet, British, and American forces, the leaders of the allied nations met at Potsdam, a suburb of Berlin. The assistants of Germany and eastern Europe were big items on their agenda.

After a long, bitter state of war, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin was determined to exact revenge on Germany in the east. British Prime number Minister Winston Churchill and US President Harry Truman were less vindictive themselves but wanted to put an end to High german militarism. They were willing to give the Soviets a relatively free hand in the areas they controlled.

The allies agreed that Germany would lose further territory in the east, including Due east Prussia and Konigsberg, with most of the lost country going to Poland. Deutschland'southward eastern border would be along the Oder and Neisse rivers, just 50 miles (80 km) east of Berlin. Konigsberg was another 200 miles farther to the east.

The remainder of Federal republic of germany would be divided and occupied by the victorious allies. Almost important for the people of Konigsberg and East Prussia, the Soviet Union and its satellite states were free to expel their German populations.

Expulsion of Germans

Regardless of Stalin'south plans, Germans living in eastern Europe were leap to be the targets of reprisals from the local population on account of the damage and bloodshed from the state of war and the harshness of German occupation.

Many eastern European Germans fled to the westward as Soviet armies advanced. Local governments expelled the remainder in the 5 years after the war'southward end. At least 12 meg people relocated to occupied Deutschland, including both German language citizens and ethnic Germans who had been citizens of other nations.

Konigsberg becomes Kaliningrad

Konigsberg had reached a population of over 360,000 at the get-go of the war, but at the cease merely 72,000 remained. Moscow wasted no time making East Prussia their own. The province was split, with the southern half going to Poland. The Soviets took the northern one-half, including Konigsberg.

In 1946 they renamed the urban center Kaliningrad, after Mikhail Kalinin, an influential Bolshevik who had taken role in the Russian Revolution and passed abroad earlier that year. Kaliningrad and the surrounding territory were made an oblast of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.

Kaliningrad was cut off from Russia, although it did have borders with the Soviet Democracy of Lithuania. It also shared a edge with Poland, a nominally independent country just in reality a Soviet satellite state that could be relied upon to let transit across its territory.

Soviet leaders moved apace to solidify their control. The remaining German language population was forced out between 1946 and 1949. To have their place, 400,000 Soviet citizens, mostly Russians, were moved into the Kaliningrad Oblast.

Throughout the Common cold War the Metropolis of Kaliningrad proved valuable as the home port of the Soviet Baltic Fleet. It was one of the few "warm weather" ports held by the Soviet Union; its waters did non freeze up during the winter, so ships could sheet in and out year-round. The harbor is sheltered by the nearby Curonian Spit, on which the boondocks of Baltiysk provides more docking facilities.

Kaliningrad Today

When the Soviet Marriage broke up in 1991, the Kaliningrad Oblast lost its overland connections to Russia, as Lithuania gained its independence and Poland broke gratuitous from the Soviet orbit. Equally Konigsberg was in one case a German exclave, Kaliningrad became a Russian one.

Some of the old Konigsberg remains, though. The Konigsberg Cathedral has been restored to its prewar appearance, and hosts both Orthodox and Lutheran services along with concerts. Immanuel Kant'south tomb is nearby. The Juditten Church building dates back to the 13th century. The old Prussian fortifications at Dohan have been converted into the Amber Museum.

Kaliningrad remains the main base of Russia's Baltic armada. The Russian Federation uses the Kaliningrad oblast as a base for missiles that it could use to set on North Atlantic Treaty System (NATO) forces in central and eastern Europe.

Poland and Lithuania both edge the Kaliningrad oblast, and the area was historically German, but none of the three nations take fabricated whatever attempt to claim the territory. Federal republic of germany went so far equally to renounce its historical claim as part of the treaty that allowed reunification.

Republic of belarus has expressed some interest in claiming the Kaliningrad region, just it has no borders and little in the way of historical ties. The nearby Baltic nation of Latvia has shown no involvement.

While Kaliningrad is a challenge for NATO, it volition likely remain Russian for many years. Stalin was ruthless and thorough in making the city and surrounding countryside his own. Nearly xc percentage of the population of Kaliningrad is Russian, and most of the remaining population is Ukrainian or Belarussian.

Until the demographic makeup of Kaliningrad changes, information technology is difficult to meet what armed services or diplomatic measures could exist taken to pry it abroad from the Russian Federation.