Kaliningrad general information

The Kaliningrad Region located on the Baltic Sea shore is the top west part of the Russian Federation. This region is Russian enclave surrounded in the south by the territory of Poland, in the west – by the territory of Lithuania. This territory (the northern part of East Prussia) was given to the USSR after the WW II in accordance with decision of Potsdam Conference (1945). In Soviet period of its history the region was typical Russian province with typical for Russian province attitude to the monuments of pre-Soviet history. The most of them fell into disrepair and went to ruin little by little.

After the crash of the USSR the Kaliningrad Region was opened for foreign visitors. Many tourists from all countries of the world (mostly from Germany) streamed there and locals suddenly felt that history of their land is part of German and West European history. The phenomenon of so-called new East Prussian identification arose here. Citizens of the Kaliningrad Region understood that this is possible to be Russians but to know and to value German cultural heritage of their land! That’s why you will find signs of German style everywhere in this top western region of Russia.   The Kaliningrad Region is located in zone of climate transitional from the marine to the continental with mild winters and warm summers. Average temperature of January is -4 +0.5°C, average temperature of July is +17+18°C.

The main tourist attractions of the region are the capital of the former East Prussia – city of Konigsberg. In 1946 the city together with the region in general was renamed to Kaliningrad in the honour of Mikhail Kalinin, a member of Stalin’s Politburo who died shortly before. Kaliningrad is famous for its unique fortification and closely associated with name of great German philosopher Immanuel Kant.

Other very interesting and original destinations of the Kaliningrad region are  the Curonian Spit, one of the first Baltic sea resorts – Rauschen (in 1946 renamed to Svetlogorsk), the top western Russian city and the main base of the Russian Baltic Navy – Pillau (in 1946 renamed to Baltiysk), ancient castles of the Teutonic Order and the largest in the world center of amber extraction — Palmnicken settlement (in 1946 renamed to Yantarny).