Kaliningrad

Kaliningrad (known as Königsberg until 1946 as well as currently by several countries) is the largest city and administrative centre of Kaliningrad Oblast, an exclave of Russia between Lithuania and Poland (663 kilometres (412 mi) west of the bulk of Russia), located on the Pregolya River at the head of the Vistula Lagoon, it is the only ice-free Russian port on the Baltic Sea. Its population in 2020 was 489,359. Kaliningrad is the second-largest city in the Northwestern Federal District, after Saint Petersburg and the seventh-largest city on the Baltic Sea.

The city had been founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement Twangste by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and named Königsberg ("king's mountain") in honor of King Ottokar II of Bohemia. A Baltic port city, it successively became the capital of the State of the Teutonic Order, the Duchy of Prussia and the provinces of East Prussia and Prussia. From 1454 to 1455, the city under the name of Królewiec belonged to the Kingdom of Poland, and from 1466 to 1657 it was a Polish fief. It was the coronation city of the Prussian monarchy, though the capital was moved to Berlin in 1701. Königsberg was the easternmost large city in Germany until World War II.

The city was heavily damaged by Allied bombing in 1944 and during the Battle of Königsberg in 1945; it was then captured by the Soviet Union on 9 April 1945. The Potsdam Agreement of 1945 placed it under Soviet administration. The city was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946 in honor of Russian Bolshevik leader Mikhail Kalinin and repopulated by Russians starting in 1946 in the ruins of Königsberg, in which only Lithuanian inhabitants were allowed to remain. Meanwhile, the German population was expelled.

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Kaliningrad has been governed as the administrative centre of Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast, the westernmost oblast of Russia. As a major transport hub with sea and river ports, the city is the headquarters of the Baltic Fleet of the Russian Navy and is one of the largest industrial centres in Russia. It was deemed the best city in Russia in 2012, 2013, and 2014 in Kommersant's magazine The Firm's Secret, the best city in Russia for business in 2013 according to Forbes, and was ranked fifth in the Urban Environment Quality Index published by Minstroy in 2019. Kaliningrad has been a major internal migration attraction in Russia over the past two decades and was one of the host cities of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

The history of the city may be divided into four periods: the Old Prussian settlement known as Twangste before 1255; the Polish city of Królewiec from 1454 to 1455 and then fief of Poland from 1456 to 1657; the German city of Königsberg from 1657 to 1945; and the Russian city of Kaliningrad from 1945 to present.

Königsberg was preceded by a Sambian (Old Prussian tribe) fort called Twangste (Prussian word tvinksta means "a pond made by a dam"). The declining Old Prussian culture became extinct around the early 18th century with the Great Northern War plague outbreak, and the surviving Old Prussians were integrated through assimilation.

During the conquest of the Sambians by the Teutonic Knights in 1255, Twangste was destroyed and replaced by a fortress named Königsberg in honor of Bohemian King Ottokar II. The crusade was followed by a settlement of Germans, and the city became predominantly German, with Polish (up to 30% in the 17th century), Lithuanian, French (Huguenot community founded in 1686) and Latvian minorities.

In 1454, Königsberg integrated within borders of Poland for a year as the capital of the Królewiec Voivodeship, and became a fief of Poland from 1466, also considered part of "one and indivisible" Kingdom of Poland. After the secularization of the Teutonic Order in 1525, Königsberg became the capital of the Duchy of Prussia, remaining under Polish suzerainty, and the black Prussian eagle had a crown around its neck bearing the letter "S" from the Latinized name of Polish King Sigismund I the Old. The multi-ethnic city was an important center of Polish and Lithuanian culture, especially as one of the pioneering centers of Polish and Lithuanian printing, and also thanks to the University of Königsberg, the second-oldest university of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The population became predominantly Lutheran, although in the 17th century Roman Catholic and Calvinist churches were erected with Polish and German services in both rites, Lithuanian in the Catholic and French and English in the Calvinist.