Here you’ll find a collection of impressions of travelling around Kaliningrad and the North East of Poland.
I’m updating any posts that appeared earlier to keep the information current.
The former East Prussia is a rather unique corner of Europe, with some very picturesque castles, waterways and architecture dating back to the various Kaisers, Napoleon and the Teutonic Knights.
The exclave of Kaliningrad is not so easily accessible since the expansion of EU borders, but it rewards a crossing with a rich history and a Baltic coast unspoiled by armies of tourists or bland Eurostyle fare.
Goodness knows where Igor Yakimov found this old footage. The voice over says: ‘Ost Preussen ist das Deutsche Pferdeland‘ . . . For 200 years indeed it was. King Friedrich Wilhelm 1 had a stud here and bred the famous ‘Trakhener‘ horse. At one time it employed over 3,000 people.
When the Red Army advanced, the horses were moved out with Prussians fleeing west, though few survived the winter and the trek. The stables fell into ruins. They were still ruined when Joost Lemmens photographed them in 2000. Today the local town, Gusev, struggles to employ anyone.
This kind of rural decay characterises much of the Kaliningrad Oblast and explains why people are so unhappy with Moscow. Besides a couple of showpieces in the city, very little has been restored since the war, over sixty years ago.
Here’s 500 years of history in about four minutes. Technology is so cool. Although it’s fun to watch the shaded areas, one tends to forget that these represent people. Thanks to Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt, almost 17 million people were dispossessed when the map of Europe was redrawn at the Potsdam conference. Not only Germans, but Silesians, Pomeranians, Poles, Lithuanians . . .
The way history is rewritten is always fascinating. Here’s a contemporary cartoon of Russia ‘stealing Kaliningrad (Konigsberg) from Poland‘. No such thing of course, the carve up of Prussia between the ‘Great Powers’ happened simultaneously.
I’m finally getting out of kiosks and into restaurants, so watch this category. Lately my favoured eaterie in Kaliningrad has become the Razgulai. It’s easy to find, just across from Ceverny Voksal (North Station) on Sovietsky Prospekt.
It’s a stone-tiled floor, refectory tabled, sleeves up sort of place which makes for an easy atmosphere. The Razgulai specialises in traditional Russian food – like Zharkoye. As with all stews, recipes vary, but here it’s served with a pastry-bread hat (rather like Indian nan bread) and loads of garlic-laced mushrooms in sour cream.
Since I forgot to take a picture with the hat on my first visit I had to eat this twice and it wasn’t a hardship.
I’m also getting into Tabasco, which has a multinational menu of mini-platters. Affordable lunchtime choice. Tabasco is actually underneath the Moskva hotel, in fact underneath its own cafe. La Place seems alright too, fairly central on Leninsky Prospekt. Hmmm . . . may take a few more mouthfuls for feedback on these.
Kaliningrad has many old forts and ramparts. Konigsberg was a fortress city. But only a couple have been restored so far.
Some of the old gates, like the Sackheim gate above, don’t really lend themselves to happy snaps or history rambles. Which is a pity, since the whole of the Litovsky Val – formerly Litauer Valstraat – has many fine examples of the fortifications constructed in 1850.
Surviving sections of the ramparts have been variously converted into things like petrol stations, garages and night clubs, so it simply isn’t possible to wander round the back – or moat and drawbridge side – of many. The courtyard of the Fortress Caserne Kroonprins – largely intact – is a hang out for junkies and alkies.
Probably the best way to see Konigsberg’s ‘Monuments Of Defensive Architecture’ is to buy in advance the beautifully produced book (in English) of the same name by Veniamin Eremeev.
I’ll be documenting all the forts and gates of the city in upcoming posts. Meanwhile this is a wonderful book for armchair historians. ISBN number is 5-902949-07-6
The rear of the Sackheim is accessible, but the drawbridge is long gone
Before the war, East Prussia was home to over two million people. The last of the few thousand survivors were all expelled by 1948.
The first Russian settlers of the new Kaliningrad Oblast arrived to eerie, half-empty houses in an alien landscape. Among the tiled German villas with steep gables, the Baltic sand and pines, there was nothing to remind them of Tver or Pskov. Only some makeshift signs in Russian identified their new location.
The excellent ‘In Your Pocket’ guide wrote of Svetlogorsk: ‘The whole experience is still decidedly Russian. Savour it before it becomes another generic seaside resort.’
This was written before the Schengen curtain went up around Kaliningrad. These days, Svetlogorsk is in scant danger of euro-isation. The main visitors are Moscow property developers and day trippers from Kaliningrad. So you’ll still get dill with everything and a strong whiff of barbecues in the Baltic breeze.
A sunny Sunday is normally the cue for Kaliningraders to head for the coast.
When the Germans were expelled from Kaliningrad, they left behind a wonderful architectural heritage.
Some residential districts of Kaliningrad, and almost all the villas in Svetlogorsk, survived the the war untouched. What they survived less well was being untouched by even a lick of paint for next half century.
Back in the 1930s, Hitler would catch a train from Berlin to Konigsberg. It took him 8 hours.
Today, it takes all of 8 hours just to get from Gdansk in Poland, just 125 kilometers away. The miserably slow border isn’t the only problem. In December, Poland cancelled the overnight sleeper to Berlin. It will now take you 20 hours travel time and four trains minimum to repeat Hitler’s journey.
Last time I looked, a regular daytime journey to Berlin took 35 hours. Er, no, I didn’t book a ticket. So far, Moscow hasn’t cancelled its own Kaliningrad special, the ‘Amber Train‘, but lack of interest might do it. Here’s the schedule:
Kaliningrad isn’t quite like any other city in Russia. That’s because it isn’t in Russia at all. Until 1945, Kaliningrad was the Prussian port of Konigsberg.
Stalin won the territory in all that crude border shuffling that went on after WW2. Poland was pushed to the left and Konigsberg became the western boundary of the Soviet Empire. But today, the independence of the Baltic States and the expansion of the EU has left Kaliningrad as an ‘exclave’ – a dislocated Russian oblast wedged between Poland and Lithuania. The real Russian border and St. Petersburg is 1000 kilometers up the road.
Here you’ll find a collection of impressions of travelling around Kaliningrad and the North East of Poland.
