Why does Russia Own Kaliningrad/ Königsberg? (Short Animated Documentary) — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00If you look at a modern map of Europe,
2. 0:01you'll see a curious exclave along the
3. 0:03Baltic Sea. This is Kiningrad and has
4. 0:05been a part of the Russian Federation
5. 0:07since 1991. The more observant of you
6. 0:09will have noticed that it isn't attached
7. 0:11to Russia, which raises the question,
8. 0:13why does Russia own Kiningrad and how
9. 0:15did it come to possess it? Well, first
10. 0:16of all, the region centered on a city of
11. 0:18the same name hasn't been known as
12. 0:20Kolingrad for very long, but prior to
13. 0:21this was known as Kernigburg. From the
14. 0:2313th century, it was a part of the lands
15. 0:25of the Tutonic Order. And by the 16th
16. 0:27century, Kernigburg was the central part
17. 0:29of the newly formed duche of Prussia, a
18. 0:31puppet state of the Polish Lithuanian
19. 0:33Commonwealth. It wasn't long before
20. 0:34Prussia broke free, and Kernigburg was
21. 0:36the site which saw the first king of
22. 0:38Prussia crowned. Within a few centuries,
23. 0:39it had grown to this, and by the late
24. 0:4119th century, it was the dominant force
25. 0:43within the newly formed German Empire.
26. 0:44As you'll be able to guess, Kernigburg,
27. 0:46whilst not the capital, held a special
28. 0:48place within the German Empire as one of
29. 0:49its cultural centers and the birthplace
30. 0:51of its ruling dynasty. The point I'm
31. 0:53trying to get at is for about six
32. 0:54centuries prior to this point, Koigburg
33. 0:56and its surrounding area was primarily
34. 0:58German. Although you should note that
35. 0:59there were sizable Polish and Lithuanian
36. 1:01minorities there, too. The status of
37. 1:03this land didn't really change until the
38. 1:04Second World War. Although, you should
39. 1:06be aware that the 1919 Treaty of
40. 1:08Versailles after the First World War saw
41. 1:10Germany lose this territory in its
42. 1:11ruling Prussian dynasty. As you'll
43. 1:13notice, it did keep Kernisburg itself,
44. 1:14but this time as its own exclave known
45. 1:16as Eastern Prussia. You'll also notice
46. 1:18that it did lose this land to the newly
47. 1:20formed Lithuania which throughout the
48. 1:22period of the VHimar Republic was a hot
49. 1:24bed of support for the growing national
50. 1:25socialist movement which soon saw a
51. 1:27certain Adolf Hitler running the show
52. 1:29who got this land back from Lithuania
53. 1:30and also Q World War II which Germany
54. 1:33lost. In 1945, Soviet forces advanced on
55. 1:36Kernigburg and this led to many of the
56. 1:37people living there fleeing west deeper
57. 1:39into Germany. After a destructive siege,
58. 1:41the city fell to the Soviets and after
59. 1:43Germany's surrender, its borders were
60. 1:44once again redrawn by the victorious
61. 1:46powers. This time Germany was to lose
62. 1:48Kernigsburg and the area around it to
63. 1:50Stalin's USSR and its new eastern
64. 1:51European puppet states. The region of
65. 1:53East Prussia was thus divided into three
66. 1:55parts. The southern part went to Poland
67. 1:57and the northern part went to the USSR
68. 1:59but as a part of the Lithuanian Soviet
69. 2:01Republic. And as for the center, which
70. 2:03included the city of Kernigburg itself,
71. 2:04this went to the USSR's Russian Soviet
72. 2:07Republic. So why wasn't it given to
73. 2:08Lithuania despite being next door? Well,
74. 2:10at this point, Lithuania had only
75. 2:12recently been incorporated into the
76. 2:13USSR, mostly against the will of those
77. 2:15who lived there. and thus Stalin didn't
78. 2:17trust them with an area of such military
79. 2:19importance. Furthermore, the region was
80. 2:21subject to widespread ethnic cleansing
81. 2:22which saw most of its remaining Germans
82. 2:24deported to East Germany and replaced
83. 2:26mostly with Russians. That said, when
84. 2:28Stalin died, his successor Nikita
85. 2:29Krushchov did offer Koliningrad to
86. 2:31Lithuania who said no. Why? Because the
87. 2:33people there weren't Lithuanian and its
88. 2:35leaders felt that incorporating so many
89. 2:37Russians into its territory would cause
90. 2:38long-term issues. Thus, Kolinrad would
91. 2:41remain a part of the Russian Soviet
92. 2:42Republic throughout the lifespan of the
93. 2:44USSR until its collapse in 1991. This
94. 2:47marked a point in which the status of
95. 2:48the area could have changed. Lithuania
96. 2:51still wasn't interested in Kiningrad for
97. 2:53the same reasons as before. And this
98. 2:54view was shared by Poland. That left
99. 2:56Germany, which had a long-standing
100. 2:58historical claim to the area. So, why
101. 3:00didn't they get it? First of all, it was
102. 3:01because the Russian Federation inherited
103. 3:03the lands of the Russian Soviet Republic
104. 3:05and also because Germany didn't want it.
105. 3:07During the process of reunification, the
106. 3:09West German Chancellor Helmet Cole
107. 3:10didn't push to regain the exclave. His
108. 3:12first priority was the reunification of
109. 3:14East and West, and he felt that trying
110. 3:16to force the issue of Galiningrad would
111. 3:17upset the global powers he was trying to
112. 3:19negotiate with. Britain and France were
113. 3:21already wary of a reunified Germany and
114. 3:23to give it extra land was to them a
115. 3:25cause for yet more concern. And so,
116. 3:27Germany never tried to reclaim
117. 3:28Kernigburg, which was barely even German
118. 3:30anymore. And for Russia, Kiningrad was
119. 3:32just as Russian as any other bit of it.
120. 3:34And so, why would they even contemplate
121. 3:35letting it go? I hope you enjoyed this
122. 3:37episode and thank you for watching. With
123. 3:39extra thanks to my Patreon supporters
124. 3:40which you can see on screen and with an
125. 3:42extra special thanks to James Bizernet,
126. 3:44David Archaeologist Aarka Flash, Party
127. 3:46Boyco, Rob Waterhouse, Chris Wicker,
128. 3:49Michael Reynolds, Gustav Swan, David
129. 3:51Silverman, Spinning Three Plates, Maggie
130. 3:53Paxcowski, Christian Czech, Anthony
131. 3:55Beckett, Ike Sky Chappelle, and Winston
132. 3:57Cwood.