On the eve of World War II, the defeat of the german war in Europe has become a foregone conclusion. At this point, countries are in the process of follow-up preparations. At the Yalta Conference, the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union sat down together to discuss the liquidation of Germany. At the meeting, Stalin presented a Soviet loss list. Together, the Soviets lost nearly $130 billion, destroyed nearly 20,000 cities and villages, and left nearly 2,500 homeless.
Before the huge loss, Stalin proposed to let Germany pay $10 billion in reparations, and the Germans had nothing to say about this reparations and were willing to pay $10 billion in reparations. However, this proposal was opposed by Churchill. Eventually, stalin had to take a small german port in order to move forward with liquidation as quickly as possible, and it wasn't until 60 years later that people realized that the Soviet Union was too clever.
This land, now Russia's enclave of Kaliningrad, is Russia's smallest oblast, located between Poland and Lithuania. Its value has now surpassed That of Russia in the four northern islands of Asia. Before World War II, it was originally called Königsberg, which was originally part of Lithuania, but was later taken by the Kingdom of Prussia and became part of Germany.
But whether before or after World War II, it has always been a desolate cold land, why did Stalin not fight for 10 billion, but to go to this port? It turned out that Stalin was only taking a step back. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, all three Baltic states belonged to the Soviet Union, so the Soviet Union had excellent ports everywhere in the Baltic Sea, and taking Kaliningrad was only an increase in the possibility of continuing to increase the advantage.
And Kaliningrad really played a role in the 21st century, when Russia stepped up naval construction. When the Soviet Union had just collapsed, Lithuania and Belarus left one after another, and Kaliningrad became an enclave of Russia, which was more than 500 kilometers away from Russia, which not only had no strategic significance, but also invested a lot of manpower and material resources every year to build.
Therefore, at that time Russia was considering returning it to Germany. However, it was rejected by Germany, because at that time, it was believed that if Kaliningrad and Germany entered the European Union together, Russia would be included. But not many years later, the Germans began to regret it.
In the 21st century, Russia began to rebuild its military strength, and Kaliningrad was like a sharp knife, directly into Western Europe, becoming Russia's most important outpost, enough to push Russia's strategic space forward by 500 kilometers. In addition, Russia has also deployed iskander missiles here, with a powerful range covering all NATO countries. Usually, A few test shots are usually impossible to shoot, which makes it difficult for Europeans to sleep and eat.