Just perusing a map of Europe for some random reason or another, and I happened to notice a little patch of unmarked land north of Poland and west of Lithuania - had to search through a couple of other maps to discover it's actually part of Russia!?! WTF is that about, seeing as how it's totally removed, you'd think they'd at least give it its own name...
Geography question
- Thread starter Metaltastic
- Start date
DominikJW
aka utarefson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad_Oblast
It's a federal subject of Russia. Ah cmon dude, is this really so weird? Wait... whats this piece of territory west to Canada...? Holy shit it's USA
It's a federal subject of Russia. Ah cmon dude, is this really so weird? Wait... whats this piece of territory west to Canada...? Holy shit it's USA
TheDriller
Member
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad_Oblast
It's a federal subject of Russia. Ah cmon dude, is this really so weird? Wait... whats this piece of territory west to Canada...? Holy shit it's USA
Oooo.... BBBUUURRRRNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
slashvanyoung
Dopefish lives!
Well, there is - surprise, surprise - a reason for this. In a nutshell:
- This area, known for the better part of its existence as east-prussia, originally belonged to Germans (when states were about to be established) but was given as a fiefdom to Poles for some time
- later on it became a part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation and eventually, upon its foundation, the most eastern extent of the German Reich
- after WWI it got separated from the remaining landmass of Germany/Weimar Republic but remained German territory up until the collapse of the Third Reich
- at the end of WWII most Germans fled from that area because of the approaching Russians and after WWII Russia evicted the remaining German population from that area, annexed it and basically erased the German heritage by renaming everything etc.
Touchy subject...
Felix Neumann
Member
Torniojaws
They call me Juha
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad_Oblast
It's a federal subject of Russia. Ah cmon dude, is this really so weird? Wait... whats this piece of territory west to Canada...? Holy shit it's USA
Oooo.... BBBUUURRRRNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Except everyone knows it's Alaska, and it's clearly marked as such on maps...
Thanks for the lowdown dude - so would you say most people there are of German heritage, or Russian?
sash poask
Member
- Mar 24, 2008
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slashvanyoung
Dopefish lives!
Russian definitely. Basically everyone with a German passport fled from that area when the Russian army was about to arrive and those who stayed were forced to leave or being deported... in the best case.
People would rather die on a trail then having to confront the approaching Russian army... they knew that the Russians would basically do the same to them what their own soldiers did to the Russians. (Same reason why German soldiers were also fleeing westward at the end of the war, not to escape being captured - that was inevitable, but to be captured by the Allies/US)
When the Russians arrived at east-prussia, they just took the abandoned homes of more or less innocent people and gave them to Russians while exterminating the German cultural heritage...
But who will listen to your complaints when you just started the most horrific war in the history of mankind?
Anyway, if you ever happen to be in Kaliningrad, the former Königsberg, and take a look around, you can still trace its German roots... in every building that's older than 60 years.
J.DavisNJ
\m/
Thanks for the history lesson! I'm a big WWII buff so this was very interesting to me!
-Joe
slashvanyoung
Dopefish lives!
Felix Neumann
Member
sash poask
Member
- Mar 24, 2008
- 440
- 0
- 16
Cool, it's such an interesting time frame!
you know what i find really interesting....
i was born in russia, moved to the UK when i was 12, so i studied WWII to a certain extent in history lessons in both countries, and the way events were presented were VERY VERY different
sash
J.DavisNJ
\m/
Of course dude! It is like this everywhere though. Here in the U.S.A., they will briefly skim over the first 4-5 years of the war, then jump right into the allied invasion lol. Like..."Hitler invaded the Sudetenland...errr ummm...the Nazis were bad...alright kids, onto D-Day!!"
I'm very proud of my country's service in the war, don't get me wrong. While the allied invasion during the war was quite critical, I'm still quite baffled that the early period of the war isn't covered in greater detail. It's all very significant and should be taught!
-Joe
Felix Neumann
Member
@slash
You know a lot, dude. Respect for that Do you study history or are you just an walking history book? I´m also interested in this period of time. It´s interesting to read your stuff!!
You know a lot, dude. Respect for that
Do you study history or are you just an walking history book? I´m also interested in this period of time. It´s interesting to read your stuff!!
PortionThief
Member
- May 29, 2008
- 92
- 0
- 6
Man, I did the same thing a few years back. I was kinda like WTF? when I found out it was part of Russia.
And greetings to all you other history buffs.
And greetings to all you other history buffs.
Razzee
Kolja
My Grandma was born there
mine too.
my other grandma was from Silesia. (Schlesien)
And she doesn't liked prussian for some reason, I don't remember what they did to them exactly.
Kazrog
Kazrog, Inc.
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