By making history our own, we move from history to eternity.
In the long years of human existence, war always seems to accompany us, we use war to resolve irreconcilable contradictions between the two sides, to win victories for the country and for ourselves, and then, to plunder each other's land, property and all the resources that can enhance our own strength. In such a continuous plundering and plundering, the human world has come to such a relatively peaceful and stable situation as it is today.
For many people, change is only a moment, not to mention, human beings have been developing on the earth for so long, the changes in the world are even more obvious, people win victories, get land, people lose war, lose land. In the process, many new terms have been produced, and "enclave" is one of them.
The term "enclave" first appeared in the Middle Ages, and from the national level, simply put: "That is, the land belonging to this country is in another country, in which case the land in another country is called an "enclave". "It's like my stuff is in your house, but it's mine, and it has nothing to do with you."
At present, there are many cases like the territory of one country in the territory of another country, and what we are going to introduce today is Kaliningrad, a piece of land that appears in other countries. The land now belongs to Russia, and we have to start with the Period of World War II about how it became Russia's wandering land. But before we do that, let's talk about the history of this land before that.
In fact, the place was originally the residence of a certain knight, and in honor of their patrons, they named the place Königsberg, which means the king's castle. In the 16th century, a new state was born here, namely Prussia, which naturally became the capital of the principality. By the time of the Kingdom of Prussia, the region remained an important strategic city, although the center of Germany had shifted to other cities.
Königsberg's strategic significance was extraordinary, but the importance of this land was not only seen by Prussia, but also by the Russians. In 1758, Russia occupied the area for the first time, but only a few years later, Russia was forced to withdraw from the area. For a long time after that, Königsberg was an important strategic base, and by 1871, the era of the German Empire had arrived, and it naturally became one of the important cities.
Königsberg's geographical location is very important, it is a geographical fortress in times of relative stability, and in times of war, the importance of the place is becoming more and more apparent.
The first was in World War I.
The tragedy of the First World War made most people who did not live in that period feel fortunate, and when people living in peacetime mentioned the First World War, although they could not personally feel the despair of the people at that time, their mood would be inexplicably heavy. Germany, on the other hand, as a participant in the First World War, had many enemies. Here, let us first talk about the contradiction between it and France.
The grievances of these two countries are summed up in nothing more than these two points:
The first point is that both countries are quite strong, and no one obeys anyone, so they feel that they are the boss of the European world, and they are competing openly and secretly;
The second point is that in the beginning, Germany was not yet Germany, it was scattered, and the main leading big brother was the leader of Prussia at that time. In order to realize the beautiful vision of a unified Germany, this man was destined to fight a war with France, which could not be avoided.
In 1870, the two countries finally met on the battlefield, and after the war, France was severely damaged, and the compensation that could be claimed and the compensation that could not be claimed were all asked for by Prussia, and the contradictions between the two countries were even more impossible to eliminate. Moreover, in World War I, the German Empire was defeated by the Allies and the Weimar Republic was established. With the abdication of William II, the Kingdom of Prussia came to an end and its territory was inherited by the Prussian Free State. Königsberg and East Prussia were separated from the rest of the Weimar Republic by the Polish Corridor.
Having said the hatred between these two countries, let's talk about the contradictions between Britain and Germany. Although the contradiction between the two may not seem so tense, in the future, it is actually the one that hinders Germany more. We all know that Germany in the First World War was active and proactive, and its greatest hope of its leaders at that time was to make itself the strongest country and plunder the most resources.
In fact, not only Germany will think of this, every country will have such ambitions, not to implement but only the time has not yet come. It can be said that Germany's active expansion of its own power is something that Britain does not want to see, and it prefers that countries can maintain a situation of equal strength, so it will limit Germany's development in all aspects.
Well, having said that there are several grievances between several countries, we are going to talk about Königsberg during the First World War.
In 1871, the land came under German ownership, after which it was greatly developed by connecting it with several other important cities by means of the Eastern Railway, but on the whole it was not good enough. At this time, Königsberg had not really shown its importance, and its own development was not enough to support the expectations it should bear, in short, it was not strong enough.
During world war I, Germany did not get the desired ending, and even suffered a major blow and was divided in two by another country, but the Germans were still full of hope and used Königsberg in the east as an important stronghold for eastward expansion. This idea in Germany proved to be very wise. With a sense of revenge and ambition for expansion, Germany made a comeback in World War II, and the importance of Königsberg was evident at the beginning of the war.
Germany's initial target was Poland, and with its geographical advantage, Germany adopted an east-west attack to quickly remove this obstacle. Königsberg also played a great role in the following time, and in the later stages of the war, after the Soviet Union occupied East Prussia, out of jealousy of the place, the Soviet Union used it as a quid pro quo for a joint attack on Japan, and did not send troops if it was not given.
It can be said that the Soviet Union at this time had a long-term view, and it did not want Germany to have it, after all, no one wanted to repeat the mistakes of Poland. The other countries, based on various considerations, eventually agreed to the Soviet Union's request, and Königsberg was eventually placed on the map of another country. After the war, according to the Potsdam Agreement, Königsberg was naturally the territory of the Soviet Union. And, after the Capture of Königsberg by the Red Army, the city was briefly renamed Kyonigsberg.
Moreover, the Germans in the city were either repatriated to the Allied occupation zones or sent to the Siberian Gulag, where about half of them died of disease and starvation. In 1946, the site came under Russian ownership in honor of mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin, chairman of the presidium of the recently deceased Supreme Soviet of the USSR, and Königsberg was renamed Kaliningrad.