What is gypsy life like? How do modern gypsies live?

Royal Gate

Kaliningrad is one of the most mysterious and unusual cities. This is a place where old Königsberg and modern Kaliningrad coexist at the same time. Shrouded in secrets and legends, this city attracts a large number of tourists. Such famous people as the great philosopher Immanuel Kant lived here, and fantasy stories Ernest Theodore Amadeus Hoffmann is known to many all over the world. This place is also notable for the fact that magnificent coronations of kings took place here, scientific discoveries, precious works of art were kept. The historical past can still be felt at every step: cobblestone streets, forts, churches, order castles, the juxtaposition of German, Soviet and modern architecture.

History of Kaliningrad

The history of Kaliningrad (Königsberg) and the Kaliningrad region goes back more than 8 centuries. Prussian tribes lived on this land for a long time. In the 13th century Knights of the Teutonic Order came to the territory of the South-Eastern Baltic and conquered the autochthonous population living here. In 1255, a fortress was built on the elevated bank of the Pregel River and named “Königsberg”, which means “Royal Mountain”. There is a version that the fortress was named after the Czech king Přemysl (Przemysl) II Ottokar, who led the crusade to Prussia. Three small but closely connected cities gradually formed near the castle: Altstadt, Kneiphof and Löbenicht. In 1724, these cities officially united into one city with the common name Königsberg.

In 1544, the first secular ruler, Duke Albert, built the Albertina University in the city, making Königsberg one of the centers European science and culture. It is reliably known that Russian Tsar Peter I visited Königsberg as part of the Grand Embassy.

In 1657, the Duchy of Prussia was freed from fief dependence on Poland, and in 1701, the Elector of Brandenburg, Frederick III, was crowned Frederick I, making Prussia a kingdom.

In 1756, the Seven Years' War began, during which Russian troops occupied the territory of the kingdom, after which the inhabitants of Prussia took an oath of allegiance to the Russian Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. Thus, until the death of the Empress, this territory was part of the Russian Empire. In 1762, Prussia was again returned to the German crown. After the divisions of Poland in the 18th century. Prussia received part of the Polish territories. Since that time, the territory in which the Kaliningrad region is now located began to be called East Prussia.

View of the Cathedral

Before World War II, Königsberg was a large and beautiful city with developed infrastructure. Residents and guests of the city were attracted by numerous shops, cafes and fairs, beautiful sculptures, fountains, parks - there was a feeling of a garden city. In 1933, A. Hitler came to power in Germany. The Second World War began. In August 1944, as a result of two British air raids, most of the city was turned into ruins. In April 1945, Russian troops took Königsberg by storm. After the Second World War, based on the decisions of the Yalta and Potsdam conferences, from 1945, a third of the former East Prussia began to belong to the USSR, and from that moment a new stage in the history of the amber region began. By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated April 7, 1946, the Koenigsberg region was formed here, which became part of the RSFSR, and on July 4 its administrative center was renamed Kaliningrad, and the region - Kaliningrad.

Today, many wonderful corners of the former Koenigsberg, artifacts of the past, create a unique aura of Kaliningrad. Koenigsberg, like a disappeared Atlantis, beckons and calls for searches and new discoveries of the already known and the still unknown. This is the only city in Russia where you can find authentic Gothic, Romano-Germanic style of architecture and the modernity of a big city.

There was a Prussian fortress Tuvangste (Tvangste, Tvangeste). History has not left reliable information about the founding of Tvangste and descriptions of the fortress itself. According to legend, the Tvangste fortress was founded by Prince Zamo in the middle of the 6th century. There is information about an attempt to establish a settlement near the mouth of the Pregel, undertaken at the end of the 10th century by Khovkin, the son of the Danish king Harald I Blue-lipped. German chronicles for 1242 contain information about negotiations between the deputies of the city of Lübeck and the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Gerhard von Malberg, about the founding of a free trading city on a mountain on the banks of the Pregel.

In the mid-13th century, the toponym Twangste extended to the Prussian fortified settlement, the mountain on which it was located, and the surrounding forest.

The Tvangste fortress was taken and burned at the beginning of 1255 during the campaign of the united army of the knights of the Order and the Bohemian king Přemysl Otakar II. There is a legend according to which King Otakar II advised the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Poppo von Osterne, to build an order fortress on the site of Tvangste. The foundation of the Koenigsberg fortress took place in early September 1255. The first commander of Königsberg was Burkhard von Hornhausen.

There are several versions of the origin of the name Königsberg. The most common version associates the name of the Königsberg fortress, Royal Mountain, with King Otakar II. According to it, the fortress and the future city were named in honor of the King of Bohemia. Other versions of the origin of the toponym associate it with the Vikings or Prussians. Perhaps “Konigsberg” is a form of “Konungoberg”, where “konung”, “kunnigs” are “prince”, “leader”, “head of the clan”, and the word “berg” can mean both “mountain” and “steep, Highland". In Russian chronicles and maps until the end of the 17th century, the toponym Korolevets was used instead of the name Koenigsberg.

The first two wooden blockhouses were built on the mountain on the right bank of the Pregel in 1255. Koenigsberg was first mentioned in a document dated June 29, 1256. In 1257, construction of stone fortifications began to the west of the blockhouses. In 1260, 1263 and 1273, the castle was besieged by the rebel Prussians, but was not taken. Since 1309, Königsberg Castle has been the residence of the Marshal of the Teutonic Order.

On February 28, 1286, the Landmaster of Prussia, Konrad von Thirberg, granted the settlement that arose near the castle walls the status of a city based on the Kulm Law. Most likely, the settlement was originally named after the castle - Koenigsberg. However, later, with the emergence of neighboring settlements, it received the name Altstadt, translated from German meaning “ Old city" The settlement that arose east of the castle was named Neustadt (New Town). Neustadt was later renamed Löbenicht, and on May 27, 1300, Löbenicht received city rights from the commander of Königsberg, Berthold von Brühaven. On an island located south of Altstadt, a settlement was formed, originally called Vogtswerder. In 1327, the settlement on the island received city rights. In the charter granting city rights it is called Knipav, which most likely corresponds to the original Prussian toponym. Since 1333 the city was called Pregelmünde, but gradually it became established original name in Germanized form - Kneiphof.

The cities of Altstadt, Löbenicht and Kneiphof had their own coats of arms, city councils, burgomasters, and were members of the Hanseatic Trade Union from the 14th century.

In 1325, under the leadership of Bishop Johannes Claret, construction of the Cathedral began on the island of Kneiphof. In a document dated September 13, 1333, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Luther von Brunswick, agreed to continue construction of the cathedral; this date is considered the official start date of construction. The construction of the Cathedral was completed in 1380. In the winter of 1390-1391, an English detachment under the command of the Earl of Derby, the future King of England Henry IV Lancaster, stayed in Konigsberg.

After the loss of Marienburg (Malbork, Poland) in the Thirteen Years' War in 1457, Grand Master Ludwig von Erlichshausen moved the capital of the Teutonic Order to Königsberg. In 1523, Hans Weinreich, with the assistance of Grand Master Albrecht, opened the first printing house in Königsberg in Löbenicht, in which the first book was printed in 1524. On April 8, 1525, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order Albrecht of Brandenburg-Ansbach concluded the Peace of Krakow with the King of Poland Sigismund I, as a result of which the Teutonic Order was secularized and the Duchy of Prussia was formed. Königsberg became the capital of Prussia. In 1544, a university was opened in Königsberg, which later received the name Albertina in honor of Duke Albrecht. Since 1660, a city newspaper began to be published in Königsberg. In May 1697, as part of the Great Embassy, ​​Russian Tsar Peter I visited Koenigsberg under the name of nobleman Peter Mikhailov, having lived in the city for about a month. Later, Peter I visited the city in November 1711, June 1712, February and April 1716.

On January 27, 1744, Sophia Augusta Frederica von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, the future Russian Empress Catherine II, passed through Königsberg from Stettin to St. Petersburg. On January 11, 1758, during the Seven Years' War, Russian troops entered Königsberg, after which, on January 24, in the Cathedral, representatives of all city classes took the oath of allegiance to the Russian Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. Until 1762 the city was part of Russian Empire. In 1782, the city's population was 31,368. In 1793, the first obstetrics and gynecology institution opened in the city. On August 8, 1803, an earthquake occurred in Königsberg.

After the battles of Preussisch-Eylau in January and Friedland in June, Königsberg was occupied by the French army on June 15, 1807. On July 10-13, 1807 and June 12-16, 1812, Napoleon Bonaparte stayed in the city. On the night of January 4–5, 1813, the French army left Königsberg, and around noon on January 5, troops of the Russian corps under the command of Pyotr Christianovich Wittgenstein entered the city.

In 1813, a astronomical observatory, whose director was the outstanding mathematician and astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel. In 1830, the first (local) water supply system appeared in the city. In 1834, in the Königsberg laboratory, Moritz Hermann Jacobi demonstrated the world's first electric motor. On July 28, 1851, the Königsberg Observatory astronomer August Ludwig Busch took the first photographic photograph of a solar eclipse in history. On October 18, 1861, Wilhelm I, the future Kaiser of Germany, was crowned in Königsberg. In 1872-1874 the first city water supply network was built, and in 1880 work began on laying the city sewerage system. In May 1881, the first horse-drawn route opened in Königsberg; in 1888, the city's population was 140.9 thousand people; in December 1890, 161.7 thousand people. To protect the city, a defensive ring of 15 forts was built along its perimeter by the mid-1880s. In May 1895, the first trams ran along the streets of Königsberg. In 1896, the Königsberg Zoo was opened, with Hermann Klaas (1841-1914) becoming its director.

The population of Königsberg in 1910 was 249.6 thousand inhabitants. In 1919, Germany's first airport, Devau Airport, was opened in Königsberg. On September 28, 1920, German President Friedrich Ebert opened the first East Prussian fair in Königsberg, located on the territory of the zoo, and later in special pavilions. In 1939, the city had 373,464 inhabitants.

During World War II, Koenigsberg was repeatedly bombed from the air. The first raid on the city was carried out by Soviet aviation on September 1, 1941. 11 Pe-8 bombers took part in the raid, none of which were shot down. The bombing had a certain psychological effect, but did not cause any significant casualties or destruction. On April 29, 1943, a Pe-8 bomber from the USSR Long-Range Aviation dropped a bomb weighing 5 tons on Koenigsberg for the first time. On the night of August 27, 1944, the 5th Group of the British Royal Air Force, consisting of 174 Lancaster bombers, carried out a raid on the city, during which the eastern outskirts were bombed, and the Royal Air Force lost 4 aircraft. The most massive and terrible raid on Koenigsberg was carried out by the British Air Force on the night of August 30, 1944. 189 Lancasters dropped 480 tons of bombs, killing 4.2 thousand people, destroying 20% ​​of industrial facilities and 41% of all buildings in the city, and the historical center of the city was razed to the ground. During the raid, napalm bombs were used for the first time. RAF losses amounted to 15 bombers.

As a result of the East Prussian offensive operation of the Red Army, by January 26, 1945, Koenigsberg found itself under siege. However, already on January 30, the Greater Germany tank division and one infantry division from Brandenburg (now the village of Ushakovo) and the 5th tank division and one infantry division from Königsberg pushed back the troops of the 11th Guards Army 5 kilometers from Frisches Huff Bay , releasing Koenigsberg from the southwest. On February 19, counter attacks along the northern shore of the Frisches Huff Bay from Fischhausen (now the city of Primorsk) and Koenigsberg broke through the defenses of the 39th Army and restored communication between Koenigsberg and the Zemland Peninsula.

From April 2 to April 5, 1945, Koenigsberg was subjected to massive artillery strikes and air raids. On April 6, troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front began an assault on the fortress city. The bad weather did not allow the full use of aviation; by the end of the day, assault troops and groups had reached the outskirts of the city. On April 7, the weather improved and Koenigsberg was subjected to massive bombardment. On April 8, the Red Army troops advancing from the north and south split the enemy group into two parts. The 4th German Army of General Müller tried to assist the Koenigsberg garrison with a strike from the Zemland Peninsula, but these attempts were stopped by Soviet aviation. By evening, the defending Wehrmacht units found themselves sandwiched in the city center under continuous attacks from Soviet artillery. On April 9, 1945, the commandant of the city and fortress of Königsberg, General Otto von Lyash, ordered the garrison to lay down their arms, for which Hitler was sentenced in absentia to death penalty. The last pockets of resistance were eliminated on April 10, and the Red Banner was hoisted on the Don tower. More than 93 thousand German soldiers and officers were captured, about 42 thousand died during the assault. The irretrievable losses of the Red Army directly during the assault on Koenigsberg amounted to 3.7 thousand people.

The capture of Koenigsberg was marked in Moscow by 24 artillery salvoes from 324 guns, and the medal “For the Capture of Koenigsberg” was established - the only Soviet medal established for the capture of a city that was not the capital of the state. After the end of World War II, according to the decisions of the Potsdam Conference, the city of Königsberg was transferred to the Soviet Union.

On June 27, 1945, the Koenigsberg Zoo, in which after the April assault only five animals remained: a badger, a donkey, a fallow deer, a calf elephant and the wounded hippopotamus Hans, received its first post-war visitors.

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on July 4, 1946, Koenigsberg was renamed Kaliningrad. The city was populated by settlers from other regions of the Soviet Union; by 1948, the German population was deported to Germany. Due to its important strategic location and large concentration of troops, Kaliningrad was closed to visits by foreign citizens. In the post-war years, special attention was paid to the restoration of production, issues of preserving historical and cultural values were of secondary importance and were often completely ignored. In 1967, by the decision of the first secretary of the Kaliningrad regional committee of the CPSU N.S. Konovalov Konigsberg Castle, seriously damaged during the British air raid in August 1944 and the assault on the city in April 1945, was blown up. The demolition of ruins and a significant part of the surviving buildings continued until the mid-1970s, which caused irreparable damage to the architectural appearance of the city.

Since 1991, Kaliningrad has been open to international cooperation.

How German Prussia became Soviet

On April 9, 1945, the Red Army took the German city of Königsberg, which later became the center of the westernmost region of Russia. How Koenigsberg became Kaliningrad not only in name, but also in essence, and what problems accompanied the integration process, read in the material “Yoda”.

Occupation of East Prussia

The current Kaliningrad region joined our country historically quite recently. Less than 70 years ago. The history of the entry of Prussian territory was tragic. This was Germany's price for defeat in World War II. In just a few decades of the 20th century, the area of ​​​​the former Königsberg has seriously changed - the composition of the population has almost completely changed and the appearance of the cities has changed. The initial goals of the accession were purely rational.

Proposals to annex East Prussia, a region of Germany, to the USSR were made back in 1941. In December, at a meeting between Stalin and Molotov with British Foreign Minister Eden, the Soviet side spoke about the possibility of annexing part of East Prussia to the USSR and Poland for 20 years as compensation for losses from the war. The next notable step was the statement of the Soviet delegation at the Tehran Conference in 1943. In the capital of Iran, Stalin called East Prussia “original Slavic lands” and declared the need for the “Russians” to take possession of ice-free ports on the Baltic Sea. The following July, 1944, with the consent of its allies, the USSR signed a border agreement with the Polish émigré government: the situation that arose in 1939 was preserved, and East Prussia was divided along the “Curzon Line” (a direct continuation of the border between Poland and the USSR to the west). The Polish government in London, having learned a few months earlier about Stalin's plans, according to Churchill, received a moral blow, but the British government took the Soviet side.

The operation to eliminate a group of Nazi troops in East Prussia began on January 13, 1945, after the liberation of the Baltic republics, by the forces of the 3rd Belorussian and 1st Baltic fronts. Supported ground forces from the sea Baltic Fleet. By the end of January, German troops located in East Prussia were cut off by land from the main army formations. The approaches to Königsberg were seriously fortified with three lines of defense, the city was called a first-class fortress, which made further defeat difficult. In early April, the city's defenses were bombed by Soviet aircraft for four days, allowing civilians to escape the encirclement earlier. The assault on Königsberg began on April 6 and ended four days later. The encircled German command did not surrender immediately - the proposal of front commander Vasilevsky to surrender on April 8 was rejected, but already on the 9th, “Akhtung!” was heard on the city radio in German and Russian. Achtung! Attention attention! The city and fortress of Königsberg capitulates! The garrison capitulated on the square, now called Victory Square. For another week, those hiding in basements and ruins surrendered. But these were not all the remnants of the German army - on April 17, Soviet troops occupied the city of Fischhausen (modern Primorsk), and on April 25 - the port of Pillau (Baltiysk), which is located west of Königsberg and has strong fortifications. The Baltic bridgehead was neutralized.

Until the decision of the Potsdam Conference in August 1945, East Prussia was considered an occupied territory, which was planned to be included in the USSR and Poland. Potsdam confirmed the decision - two thirds of the territory went to Poland, one third to the Soviet Union with inclusion in the RSFSR.

Technician of the Nevsky Plant named after Lenin Ilyin, "PRAVDA", AUGUST 7, 1945:

Koenigsberg has long been the main center of Prussian militarism and a springboard for attacks on our country. The decision of the conference to transfer the Königsberg region to the Soviet Union significantly strengthens international security. The three powers are united in their desire to severely punish those responsible for the disasters and suffering of the peoples of Europe.

The Klaipeda region, annexed by Germany from Lithuania in 1939, will be transferred to the Lithuanian SSR. Formally, this happened in 1950, when the region was separated from the RSFSR, but legally the action was not carried out impeccably. The final question of the borders of the region was resolved only in 1997. In Soviet times, Lithuanians could move to more districts of the Kaliningrad region, but the leadership of the republic repeatedly refused this. The renaming of the city of Königsberg and the region of the same name took place in the summer of 1946. Initially it was supposed to call them “Baltiysk” and “Baltiyskaya”. The draft of such a decree was already ready, but these days the former chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council and the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, Mikhail Kalinin, died. He was connected with the Baltic states only by the fact that for several years in exile, back at the beginning of the century, he worked at an Estonian factory and was married to an Estonian. The date of death and the decision to rename coincided - so the city became Kaliningrad, although by that time the current city of Korolev, located near Moscow, already had the same name. In the same year, other cities in the region received their new names. Renaming streets took longer. Thus, in 1950, a number of names of German artists were replaced by Russian ones: Goethe Street in Kaliningrad became Pushkin Street, Mozart Street became Repin Street, and Strauss Street became Rimsky-Korsakov Street. The name of the villages and streets was not specified “from above”. “As a rule, they asked the residents themselves,” recalled settler Nikolai Chudinov. “They say: “In our homeland there was such and such a district, name the village the same.” Or the driver was driving, he said, passing by some village, there were tall ferns. Well, let’s call it “Fern”... Dobrovolsk was called that because volunteers were coming here to the region. The commission sent new names to the region, and from there to the Supreme Council. And there they already issued a decree on renaming.”

German population

The war unwittingly helped displace much of the German population from East Prussia. If in 1939 just over a million people lived in the part that was annexed to the USSR after the war, then by mid-1946 there were only 170 thousand. At the same time, the city of Königsberg accounted for 61 thousand. In the year since September 1945, the German population decreased by 30%; it accounted for 2/3 of the total number of residents of the region. The labor shortage provoked a struggle for the Germans among military and civilian institutions. For a short time, competition arose between them - workers were bought up and hired to work without civil department orders. Hiring rules were violated by the military command. It was necessary to introduce measures: obligations of the military to transfer unregistered German workers and fines for civilian institutions (100 marks per working day) and the Germans themselves (100 marks for unauthorized departure).

The repatriation (or deportation, opinions differ) of the German population began only in 1947. Previously, permission to leave was received by representatives of the anti-fascist movement and those with relatives in the Soviet zone of occupation. About 4 thousand people left under these pretexts. Mass repatriation began in the fall, for good reason.

According to data for May 1947, among the German population of 110 thousand people, 36.6 thousand worked. The rest were in dire straits because they did not receive food (social support from the new government concerned the disabled and children from orphanages). Soviet citizens often had to feed Germans dying of hunger. Lack of food sometimes forced people to feed on the bodies of fallen animals. According to one eyewitness, one day “a German found a dead stork, sat and plucked it, dead.” Crime grew: robberies, food theft, arson, livestock poisoning. Sometimes the Germans set fire to their own houses, not wanting to give them up to the needs of the new government and settlers. Although, in general, according to eyewitnesses, there was little resistance and aggression from them, there were rumors about German avengers. There were attacks on settlers, but they were not systematic. Let us note that trains with new settlers were attacked, but not by the Germans, but by the Lithuanians.

In addition, as noted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which became the main initiator of the speedy repatriation, the Germans had a negative impact on Soviet citizens and military personnel and contributed to “the emergence of unwanted ties.” This could be due to a discrepancy between the new residents’ ideas about the Germans and the discovered reality. It was difficult for the settlers to communicate with the Germans - the language barrier was a hindrance. Violence against the Germans was punished and manifested itself mainly after the end of hostilities, as in other occupied territories. East Prussia was considered a region with a long military tradition ("Prussian military"), which gave the NSDAP a majority of votes in the last competitive German elections. Several dozen Germans were convicted under the article about anti-Soviet agitation. The Germans prevented the necessary cultural changes. Unlike the Japanese on Sakhalin, who even participated in festive rallies after the war, the Germans had no time for political life.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs was responsible for organizing the mass move. Since January 1945, the territory was controlled by military commandant's offices. Civil administrations were created in October 1945. Party bodies appeared in 1947. In the fall of 1947, 30.3 thousand people officially left the region for the occupation zone. Next year - another 63 thousand. Composition of the deportees: 50% women, 17% men and 33% children. No more than a thousand Germans survived in the Kaliningrad region until the 1950s. Basically they were irreplaceable specialists. A small part of the “Germans” were able to register as Lithuanians.

The migrants were allowed to take with them up to 300 kilograms of property per family that met customs requirements. But these rules were not always observed in practice. Transportation was carried out by rail and sea, taking into account weather conditions. According to reports from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, during the entire period of mass deportation, 48 people died on the road. At the place of arrival, rations for 15 days were issued according to workers' standards. The rules of deportation were strict - Germans from mixed unofficial marriages could not remain in the USSR. In this regard, the settlers recalled stories with opposite endings. In one case, an officer bought his beloved a certificate of Lithuanian nationality and knocked on the doorsteps of his superiors - five days later an order came from Moscow to issue her a Soviet passport. In another, the lieutenant committed suicide after the deportation of his partner (marriages with German women were not registered) with their three children.

I. Kim (“Development of territories annexed to the USSR after the Second World War”)

New residents

Soviet settlers came to the new territory in several ways. Some were repatriates - Soviet citizens who worked at German enterprises during the war and ended up in Königsberg distribution camps. The other part is demobilized or active military personnel. It was possible to come from the territory of the Soviet Union voluntarily or, in fact, forcibly (by party ticket, by distribution).

Volunteers were lured with benefits. They were similar to those that would later be provided to settlers to another territory annexed to the USSR - South Sakhalin. At first, they didn’t take everyone: because of the border region, it was necessary to select the most reliable: the best in production, those who had been demobilized. The first official civilian migrants from the “mainland” were fishermen. They were given not only housing with a plot of land (with payment in installments and the obligation to work for 10 years), but also clothing. It was allowed to bring up to 50 kg of luggage per family member. Livestock could be transported in trains. The allowance was given: 2 thousand rubles per employee and 250 rubles for other family members ( average salary in the country in those years was 442 rubles, in the agricultural sector - half as much). There were also those who independently tried to settle in the region, but they were not entitled to benefits. Mass resettlement began in the second half of 1946. The migrants were paid a one-time allowance, the amount of which depended on their salary. Depending on the employee’s specialty and other conditions, the amount of the housing loan (with land plot up to 0.6 hectares) for settlers ranged from 10 to 20 thousand rubles (military personnel gave only half). But the same as for fishermen who arrived in 1945, subject to work for 10 years. Not everyone complied with it. In the first five years after the annexation of the region, the share of “departed” residents was 35%. In 1950, for every person leaving, two were arriving.

Source: Yu. Kostyashov ("Brotherhood in the process of settling the Kaliningrad region in the post-war years"). Absolute figures taking into account intra-regional movement

Since cities and villages were seriously damaged, visitors often lacked housing. They were crowded into houses with Germans, whom they tried to evict as quickly as possible. Entire buildings were enough only for the first settlers. Those who arrived a year or two after the end of the war had less chance of getting comfortable housing by the standards of that time. At first, cities and villages experienced serious problems with electricity and water. German army during the retreat, she tried to disable strategic objects. It was difficult to heat buildings (especially cold winter 1946/47), everything that could burn was used. There was a case where a street toilet built by the Germans was dismantled into planks. Unofficial trade flourished (note that nationalization ended in the summer of 1946). The poor Germans were ready to sell their property or exchange it for food.

One of the motivations for moving to a new area was rumors about the rich life of the Germans, often brought back by war participants returning from Europe.

There was a lot of destruction in the cities. Königsberg was subjected to massive bombing several times during the war. But they could not hide the fact that the standard of living in these territories was higher than the Soviet one, and the cities were well-kept. For example, in rich houses one could find washing machines. Adding to the impressions was the neatness of the Germans, who cared about cleanliness even amid the devastation around. “Even from the remains of the buildings, one could see how beautiful the city was before the war,” recalled resettled Anna Kopylova. - The streets are paved with cobblestones, green with trees. And, despite the ruins, I was overcome with a feeling of awe. It was clear that people who valued nature, beauty and their comfort used to live here.”

Opening of the first post-war cinema "Pobeda". 1946 Photo: State Archives of the Kaliningrad Region

The Germans had a different attitude towards everyday life: more practicality and order. In the abandoned houses one could find expensive furniture (much of it had to be used for firewood), and in the courtyards there was well-kept land. This was especially noticeable in rural areas, where abandoned farms were occupied by arriving collective farmers. They say that before the war, Kaliningrad land was more fertile due to differences in soil cultivation technologies and inept management of the land reclamation system. Collective farmers restored agriculture ineffectively: reports noted a lack of tools, irrational use of buildings and low interest in work.

The settlers were impressed by the quality of the roads, which was very different from what it was, for example, in the outbacks of central Russia. Some visitors were curious about the asphalt and the order of planting trees along the roads for the first time in their lives. “On the streets of Königsberg and near the houses there were many bicycles of various models and types,” recalled assistant to the district military commandant Pyotr Chagin about entering the city in April 1945. “True, in the first days there were unpleasant surprises when bicycles piled up in piles turned out to be mined. There were special bike paths on some streets.” Many Western concepts, such as bike paths, were new to people. One of the managers who restored the green economy of Kaliningrad, Alexei Talyzin, recalled his surprise at the sight of a German landfill where the garbage was sorted, most of it was taken for recycling, and the less was thrown into a swamp designated for this purpose.

Until 1947, there was no large-scale plan for the development of the Kaliningrad region. System errors occurred that disrupted the pace of recovery. The military authorities did not want to transfer the infrastructure to civilians, maintaining and expanding production was not always the goal - often resources were taken out as if from the occupied territory.

At the end of May 1947, recently arrived from Moscow, acting. first head regional organization All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Pyotr Andreevich Ivanov, in a secret letter to Stalin, complained about the terrible situation in the region’s economy. The leader listened to the report and sent a commission to Kaliningrad approving Ivanov for the position of first leader. But he did not live to see the commission arrive. According to his wife Maria, Ivanov spoke on the phone one evening, saying: “Yes, Comrade Stalin. It will be done, Comrade Stalin...”, lay down in the bath and shot himself. A plan to develop the region and restore industry for the next three to four years was then adopted without him.

Film about Kaliningrad, 1949. Director G. Levkoev

Peter Ivanov, AND ABOUT. HEAD OF THE AUCP(B) OF THE KALININGRAD REGION. FROM A LETTER TO STALIN, MAY 28, 1947:

The accounting and security of the trophy property premises were not truly organized. Valuables were taken away, housing stock and premises were destroyed... Representatives of various ministries and departments who were in the region considered East Prussia as an occupied territory, dismantled equipment, removed materials from enterprises... The Germans, numbering 25 percent of the population, represent more than 100 thousand people of extremely embittered people , ready to do anything to undermine, weaken security, and delay the economic development and development of the region.

The question of what to do with the ruins of buildings and cultural sites took a long time to resolve. There were proposals to break everything so that there would be no traces of the Germans’ past stay. This is partly what happened, but not for ideological reasons, but for economic ones. Huge volumes of bricks were obtained by dismantling houses and rubble. It was proposed to create a republican trust for the dismantling of buildings in the Kaliningrad region, but the idea did not find support.

P.V. Timokhin,CHIEF ARCHITECT OF KALININGRAD:

Here on the spot the issue is not given the respect it deserves. Please give instructions to create in Kaliningrad republican center for the dismantling of buildings, which could centrally supply building materials obtained from dismantling... any construction projects in the country in Kaliningrad alone can receive about two billion pieces of brick from dismantling destroyed buildings, thanks to which it is possible to save the main capital investments for the construction of 20-25 brick factories.

(Note addressed to the Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Malenkov, 1952)

The destroyed houses and areas were dismantled by prisoners, Germans and Soviet workers. “Sundays” (“subbotniks” on Sundays) were held. This was often a dangerous business: there was a real chance of getting hit by a falling beam or brick from above. Large-scale reconstruction of the city began in the 1950s. The general plan intended to make Kaliningrad more of a typical regional center, preserving the radial-ring structure of the city. Whenever possible, we tried to complete the houses by adding floors. Other cities were more fortunate in preserving German architecture. You can see what old German buildings looked like not only in photographs. In 1949, Alexandrov’s film “Meeting on the Elbe” was released, which was filmed in Kaliningrad and other areas of the region.

“Meeting on the Elbe”, 1949:

At first they tried to blow up the remains of the Royal Castle, which stood in the center of the city, and partially dismantled it into bricks. There was a rumor that the final point on the castle issue was put by Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin, who visited the city - so that there would be no museum of “Prussian militarism.” The castle was blown up in 1967. Now in its place stands the unfinished House of Soviets. Much earlier, monuments to German statesmen (Emperor Wilhelm I, Chancellor Bismarck), soldiers of the First World War and, for example, the composer Schubert, were removed or destroyed. After the war, a displaced slab and inscriptions were discovered at Kant’s grave. One of them read: “Now do you understand that the world is material?” In April 1947, the party city committee ordered the grave to be put in order within a week. Churches were very rarely restored; rather, on the contrary, they were destroyed. But the large Cathedral, which burned out during the war, has been preserved and stands in the city center to this day, but without the original interior decoration.

In Königsberg, many art objects taken by the Germans from the territory of the Soviet Union were found. The first information about the possible location of the famous amber room appeared in 1945. Then local art historian Alfred Rohde pointed out that the room burned down in the Royal Castle. After 20 years, a special government commission will be created, the investigation of which will not lead to the discovery of a work of art. Industry and, most importantly, ice-free ports, which were the original purpose of the annexation, were brought into working order within a few years. Many enterprises had to be built, essentially, from scratch. In decades, the Kaliningrad region will become the leader of the fishing industry and the stronghold of the Baltic Fleet.

Film about Kaliningrad (1949, directed by G. Levkoev):

The Kaliningrad region still remains a special economic zone. More recently, programs for the resettlement of Russians have been active. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the region became an enclave, but retained its geopolitical significance. Residents and authorities of Kaliningrad love to look into the German past. But the city did not become a new “window to Europe”.

Alexander Uspensky

70 years ago, on October 17, 1945, by decision of the Yalta and Potsdam conferences, Koenigsberg and the surrounding lands were included in the USSR. In April 1946, a corresponding region was formed as part of the RSFSR, and three months later it main city received a new name - Kaliningrad - in memory of the “all-Union headman” Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin, who died on June 3.

The inclusion of Koenigsberg and the surrounding lands into the Russian-USSR was not only of military-strategic and economic significance, and was Germany’s payment for the blood and pain inflicted on the Russian super-ethnic group, but also had a deep symbolic and historical significance. After all, since ancient times, Prussia-Porussia was part of the huge Slavic-Russian world (the superethnos of the Rus) and was inhabited by the Slavic Porussians (Prussians, Borossians, Borussians). Later, the Prussians living on the shores of the Venedian Sea (Wends is one of the names of the Slavic Russians inhabiting Central Europe) were recorded as Balts by “historians” who rewrote them to suit the needs of the Romano-Germanic world. However, this is a mistake or deliberate deception. The Balts were the last to emerge from the single superethnos of the Rus. Back in the XIII-XIV centuries. The Baltic tribes worshiped gods common to the Rus, and the cult of Perun was especially powerful. The spiritual and material culture of the Rus (Slavs) and the Balts was almost the same. Only after the Baltic tribes were Christianized and Germanized, suppressed by the matrix Western civilization, they were separated from the superethnos of the Rus.

The Prussians were slaughtered almost completely, as they showed extremely stubborn resistance to the German “dog knights”. The remnants were assimilated, deprived of memory, culture and language (finally in the 18th century). Just as before this, their kindred Slavs, the Lyutichs and the Obodrichs, were exterminated. Even during the centuries-long battle for Central Europe, where the western branch of the superethnos of the Rus lived (for example, few people know that Berlin, Vienna, Brandenburg or Dresden were founded by the Slavs), many Slavs fled to Prussia and Lithuania, as well as to the Novgorod land. And the Novgorod Slovenes had thousands of years of connections with the Rus of Central Europe, which is confirmed by anthropology, archeology, mythology and linguistics. It is not surprising that it was the Western Russian prince Rurik (Falcon) who was invited to Ladoga. He was not a stranger in the Novgorod land. And during the battle of the Prussians and other Baltic Slavs with the “dog knights,” Novgorod supported its relatives and supplied.

In Rus', the memory of a common origin with the Porussians (Borussians) was preserved for a long time. The great princes of Vladimir traced their origins to the Rus (Prussians) of Ponemanya. Ivan the Terrible, an encyclopedist of his era, wrote about this, having access to chronicles and annals that did not survive to our time (or were destroyed and hidden). Many noble families of Rus' traced their ancestry to Prussia. So, according to family tradition, the ancestors of the Romanovs left for Rus' “from Prussia.” The Prussians lived along the Rossa (Rusa) River, as the Neman was called in its lower reaches (today the name of one of the river branches is preserved - Rus, Rusn, Rusne). In the 13th century, the Prussian lands were conquered by the Teutonic Order. The Prussians were partly destroyed, partly driven out to neighboring regions, and partly reduced to the status of slaves. The population was Christianized and assimilated. The last speakers of the Prussian language disappeared at the beginning of the 18th century.

Königsberg was founded on a hill on the high right bank in the lower reaches of the Pregel River on the site of a Prussian fortification in 1255. Otakar and the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Poppo von Osterna, founded the Order fortress of Königsberg. The troops of the Czech king came to the aid of the knights who had suffered defeats from the local population, who, in turn, were invited to Prussia by the Polish king to fight the pagans. Prussia for a long time became a strategic springboard for the West in the fight against Russian civilization. First, the Teutonic Order fought against Rus'-Russia, including Lithuanian Rus' (a Russian state in which the official language was Russian), then Prussia and the German Empire. In 1812, East Prussia became the focus of a powerful group of French troops for a campaign in Russia, shortly before the start of which Napoleon arrived in Königsberg, where he held the first reviews of troops. The French troops also included Prussian units. During the First and Second World Wars, East Prussia was again a springboard for aggression against Russia and more than once became the scene of brutal battles.

Thus, Rome, which was then the main command post of Western civilization, acted on the principle of “divide and conquer,” pitting the peoples of the Slavic civilization against each other, weakening them and “absorbing” them part by part. Some Slavic Russians, like the Lyutichs and Prussians, were completely destroyed and assimilated, others, like the Western Glades - Poles, Czechs, submitted to the Western “matrix”, becoming part of European civilization. We have observed similar processes in the last century in Little Rus' (Little Russia-Ukraine), especially accelerated in the last two or three decades. The West is rapidly turning the southern branch of the Russians (Little Russians) into “Ukrainians” - ethnographic mutants, orcs who have lost the memory of their origin, are quickly losing native language, culture. Instead, the death program is loaded, the “orc-Ukrainians” hate everything Russian, Russians and become the spearhead of the West for a further attack on the lands of Russian civilization (the superethnos of the Rus). The masters of the West gave them one goal - to die in battle with their brothers, weakening Russian civilization with their death.

The only way out of this civilizational, historical catastrophe is the return of Little Rus' to a single Russian civilization and the denazification of the “Ukrainians”, the restoration of their Russianness. It is clear that this will take more than one decade, but as history and the experience of our enemies show, all processes are manageable. Kharkov, Poltava, Kyiv, Chernigov, Lvov and Odessa must remain Russian cities, despite all the machinations of our geopolitical opponents.

The first time Koenigsberg almost became Slavic again was during the Seven Years' War, when Russia and Prussia were opponents. In 1758, Russian troops entered Königsberg. Residents of the city swore allegiance to the Russian Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. Until 1762 the city belonged to Russia. East Prussia had the status of a Russian general government. However, after the death of Empress Elizabeth, Peter III came to power. Once in power, Emperor Peter III, who did not hide his admiration for the Prussian king Frederick II, immediately stopped military operations against Prussia and concluded the St. Petersburg Peace Treaty with the Prussian king on conditions extremely unfavorable for Russia. Pyotr Fedorovich returned conquered East Prussia to Prussia (which by that time had already been an integral part of the Russian Empire for four years) and abandoned all acquisitions during the Seven Years' War, which was practically won by Russia. All the sacrifices, all the heroism of the Russian soldiers, all the successes were wiped out in one fell swoop.

During World War II, East Prussia was the Third Reich's strategic springboard for aggression against Poland and the Soviet Union. East Prussia had a developed military infrastructure and industry. The German Air Force and Navy bases were located here, which made it possible to control most of the Baltic Sea. Prussia was one of the most important regions of the German military-industrial complex.

The Soviet Union suffered enormous losses, human and material, during the war. Not surprisingly, Moscow insisted on compensation. The war with Germany was far from over, but Stalin looked to the future and expressed the Soviet Union's claims to East Prussia. Back on December 16, 1941, during negotiations in Moscow with A. Eden, Stalin proposed attaching a secret protocol to the draft agreement on joint actions (they were not signed), which proposed separating East Prussia and part of it with Königsberg to transfer to the USSR for a period of twenty years as guarantees of compensation for losses incurred by the USSR from the war with Germany.

At the Tehran Conference, in his speech on December 1, 1943, Stalin went further. Stalin emphasized: “The Russians do not have ice-free ports on the Baltic Sea. Therefore, the Russians need the ice-free ports of Königsberg and Memel and the corresponding part of East Prussia. Moreover, historically these are primordially Slavic lands.” Judging by these words, Soviet leader not only realized the strategic importance of Königsberg, but also knew the history of the region (the Slavic version, which was outlined by Lomonosov and other Russian historians). Indeed, East Prussia was an “original Slavic land.” During the conversation between the heads of government during breakfast on November 30, Churchill said that “Russia needs to have access to ice-free ports” and “... the British have no objections to this.”

In a letter to Churchill dated February 4, 1944, Stalin again addressed the problem of Königsberg: “As for your statement to the Poles that Poland could significantly expand its borders in the west and north, then, as you know, we agree with this with one amendment. I told you and the president about this amendment in Tehran. We claim that the northeastern part of East Prussia, including Königsberg, as an ice-free port, will go to the Soviet Union. This is the only piece of German territory that we claim. Without satisfying this minimal claim of the Soviet Union, the concession of the Soviet Union, expressed in recognition of the Curzon line, loses all meaning, as I already told you about this in Tehran.”

Moscow's position on the issue of East Prussia on the eve of the Crimean Conference is set out in a brief summary of the note of the Commission on Issues peace treaties and the post-war device “On the treatment of Germany” of January 12, 1945: “1. Changing the borders of Germany. It is assumed that East Prussia will go partly to the USSR, partly to Poland, and Upper Silesia to Poland...”

Great Britain and the USA have long tried to push the idea of ​​decentralizing Germany, dividing it into several state entities, including Prussia. At the Moscow Conference of the Foreign Ministers of the USSR, USA and Great Britain (October 19-30, 1943), British Foreign Minister A. Eden outlined the British government's plan for the future of Germany. “We would like,” he said, “the division of Germany into separate states, in particular we would like the separation of Prussia from the rest of Germany.” At the Tehran Conference, American President Roosevelt proposed discussing the issue of the dismemberment of Germany. He said that in order to “stimulate” discussion on this issue, he would like to outline the plan he personally drew up two months ago for the dismemberment of Germany into five states. So, in his opinion, “Prussia should be as weakened as possible and reduced in size. Prussia should be the first independent part Germany..." Churchill put forward his plan to dismember Germany. He proposed, first of all, to “isolate” Prussia from the rest of Germany. “I would keep Prussia in harsh conditions,” said the head of the British government.

However, Moscow was against the dismemberment of Germany and eventually achieved the concession of part of East Prussia. England and the United States agreed in principle to satisfy Moscow's proposals. In a message to J.V. Stalin received in Moscow on February 27, 1944, Churchill indicated that the British government considered the transfer of Koenigsberg and the surrounding territory to the USSR “a fair claim on the part of Russia... The land of this part of East Prussia is stained with Russian blood, generously shed for common cause... Therefore, the Russians have a historical and well-founded claim to this German territory».

In February 1945, the Crimean Conference took place, at which the leaders of the three Allied powers practically resolved issues related to the future borders of Poland and the fate of East Prussia. During the negotiations, British Prime Minister W. Churchill and American President F. Roosevelt stated that, in principle, they were in favor of the dismemberment of Germany. The British Prime Minister, in particular, again developed his plan for the separation of Prussia from Germany and “the creation of another large German state in the south, the capital of which could be in Vienna.”

In connection with the discussion at the conference of the “Polish question”, it was essentially decided that “the whole of East Prussia should not be transferred to Poland. The northern part of this province with the ports of Memel and Koenigsberg should go to the USSR. The delegations of the USSR and the USA agreed to provide compensation to Poland “at the expense of Germany,” namely: parts of East Prussia and Upper Silesia “up to the line of the Oder River.”

Meanwhile, the Red Army had practically resolved the issue of liberating East Prussia from the Nazis. As a result of successful offensives in the summer of 1944, Soviet troops liberated Belarus, part of the Baltic states and Poland and approached the German border in the region of East Prussia. In October 1944, the Memel operation was carried out. Soviet troops not only liberated part of the territory of Lithuania, but also entered East Prussia, surrounding the city of Memel (Klaipeda). Memel was captured on January 28, 1945. The Memel region was annexed into the Lithuanian SSR (a gift from Stalin to Lithuania). In October 1944, the Gumbinnen-Goldap offensive operation was carried out. The first assault on East Prussia did not lead to victory. The enemy had too strong a defense here. However, the 3rd Belorussian Front advanced 50-100 kilometers and took over a thousand settlements, preparing a springboard for a decisive push towards Königsberg.

The second assault on East Prussia began in January 1945. During the East Prussian strategic operation (it was divided into a number of front-line operations), Soviet troops broke through German defenses, reached the Baltic Sea and eliminated the main enemy forces, occupying East Prussia and liberating the northern part of Poland. On April 6 - 9, 1945, during the Königsberg operation, our troops stormed the fortified city of Königsberg, defeating the Königsberg Wehrmacht group. The 25th operation was completed with the destruction of the Zemland enemy group.

At the Berlin (Potsdam) conference of the leaders of the three allied powers on July 17 - August 2, 1945, which took place after the end of hostilities in Europe, the issue of East Prussia was finally resolved. On July 23, at the seventh meeting of the heads of government, the issue of transferring the Königsberg region in East Prussia to the Soviet Union was considered. Stalin stated that “President Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill gave their consent on this matter at the Tehran Conference, and this issue was agreed upon between us. We would like this agreement to be confirmed at this conference.” During an exchange of views, the US and British delegations confirmed their agreement, given in Tehran, to transfer the city of Königsberg and the surrounding area to the USSR.

The minutes of the Potsdam Conference stated: “The Conference considered the proposals of the Soviet government that, pending the final resolution of territorial issues in a peaceful settlement, the part adjacent to the Baltic Sea western border The USSR passed from a point on the Eastern shore of the Bay of Danzig to the east - north of Braunsberg-Goldan to the junction of the borders of Lithuania, the Polish Republic and East Prussia. The Conference agreed in principle to the Soviet Union's proposal to transfer to it the city of Königsberg and the surrounding area, as described above. However, the exact boundary is subject to expert research.” In the same documents, in the “Poland” section, the expansion of Polish territory at the expense of Germany was confirmed.

Thus, the Potsdam Conference recognized the need to exclude East Prussia from Germany and transfer its territory to Poland and the USSR. “Expert studies” did not follow this due to changes in the international situation, but this does not change the essence of the matter. The Allied powers did not set any deadlines (“50 years”, etc., as some anti-Soviet historians claim) for which Koenigsberg and the surrounding area were supposedly transferred to the USSR. The decision was final and indefinite. Koenigsberg and the surrounding area became Russian forever.

On August 16, 1945, an agreement on the Soviet-Polish state border was signed between the USSR and Poland. In accordance with this document, the Mixed Soviet-Polish Demarcation Commission was formed, and demarcation work began in May 1946. By April 1947 the line was demarcated state border. On April 30, 1947, the corresponding demarcation documents were signed in Warsaw. On April 7, 1946, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a Decree on the formation of the Koenigsberg region on the territory of the city of Koenigsberg and the adjacent region and on its inclusion in the RSFSR. On July 4, it was renamed Kaliningradskaya.

Thus, the USSR eliminated a powerful enemy bridgehead in the northwestern direction. In turn, Königsberg-Kaliningrad became a Russian military-strategic bridgehead in the Baltic. We have strengthened the naval and air capabilities of our armed forces in this direction. As Churchill, who was an enemy of Russian civilization, but a smart enemy, correctly noted, this was a just act: “The land of this part of East Prussia is stained with Russian blood, generously shed for a common cause... Therefore, the Russians have a historical and well-founded claim to this German territory.” The Russian superethnos returned part of the Slavic land that was lost many centuries ago.

Ctrl Enter

Noticed osh Y bku Select text and click Ctrl+Enter

City, time, power

Three cities of Königsberg

It is known that in the winter of 1255 a detachment of crusaders invaded the northern part of Prussia and the Samland Peninsula. The most senior “in rank” in the detachment was the Czech king Otakar II Přemysl. The knights captured and destroyed the Prussian fortress of Twangste, and in its place they erected a new fortification. The fortress was named Koenigsberg, which means: Royal Mountain. Gradually, settlements arose near the fortress, which became cities.

The settlement between the fortress and the Pregel River was named Altstadt. On February 28, 1286, according to the charter of the Prussian landmaster Konrad von Thierenberg, Altstadt began to officially be called a city.

On May 27, 1300, the Königsberg commander Bruhaven granted city rights to the second settlement. At first it was called Neustadt, but then another name took root - Löbenicht. This city is located east of the fortress.

In April 1327, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Werner von Orseln, announced the granting of city rights to Kneiphof, which was located on an island formed by branches of the Pregel River.

Over time, nearby craft settlements, villages and settlements began to merge into the Königsberg cities. Thus, a kind of urbanized conglomerate was formed at the mouth of the Pregel. It was dominated by a fortress-castle on the mountain, which, in fact, was called Koenigsberg. Adjoining it was a small territory to the north and north-west, which was the property of the Teutonic Order.

Near the castle, as already mentioned, three medieval cities nestled: Altstadt, Löbenicht and Kneiphof. They had a fairly wide range of privileges included in the concept of Kulm (Helm) law. A system of sovereign city rights developed in Germany back in the 13th century under the name “Magdeburg Law”. Its Prussian version focused on the highest courts of appeal in the city of Kulm (Helm), and then in the city of Thorn (Toruń). City rights, guaranteeing relative independence from feudal authorities, remained in gradually decreasing importance until the 19th century.

It should be noted here that, in addition to Altstadt, Löbenicht and Kneiphof, medieval village-communities located outside the boundaries of the Königsberg cities also had fairly broad powers. Some of them had their own office work, seal and coat of arms. These included the Königsberg suburbs: Burgfreiheit, Tragheim, Hinter-Rossgarten, Vorder-Rossgarten, Neue-Sorge; related to Altstadt: Steindamm, Neu-Rossgarten, Laak, Lastadi, Lomse; related to Löbenicht: Anger, Sackheim; related to Kneiphof: Vorder-Forstadt, Hinter-Forstadt, Haberberg, Alter-Garten. Expanding, the fortress and cities absorbed new territories.

How did administrative services work in the Königsberg cities? The entire urban population, as a rule, was divided into several classes. The group of large burghers consisted of merchants and brewers. The category of small burghers included artisans and shopkeepers. Separate layers made up other groups of the population. At first, the right to vote belonged only to the city elite; over time, the majority of citizens received the right to vote.

In each city, a city council of just over ten people was elected. The City Council, in turn, elected the burgomaster and vice-burgomaster, and appointed officials responsible for areas of work. It must be said that at first the members of the Council did not receive wages, working, as we would say, on a voluntary basis. It follows from this that city officials were quite wealthy people, they served not for gold, but for conscience, however, then selfless service for the benefit of the citizens became obsolete. At the beginning of the 18th century, the burgomaster of Altstadt, for example, received 300 thalers per year. Let’s compare: Immanuel Kant, working around the same years as an assistant librarian, received 62 thalers per year, the highest government salary that I. Kant received as a professor did not exceed 620 thalers per year, and the philosopher’s house after his death was sold for 130 thalers .

Of course, there was no division into districts in the medieval Königsberg cities. There were communities of citizens, usually coinciding in territory with church communities. At the head of the civil communities were elected elders. The opinion of the elders often played decisive role when discussing tax policy issues at the City Council. To consider cases concerning the life of the three cities of Königsberg, representatives of the three city halls and all urban and suburban communities gathered together.

Lack of space does not allow me to describe in detail the administrative structure of each city and community, especially since the system of interactions and relationships between authorities at all levels was quite complex. Democratic freedoms combined with the dictates of a centralized system. Therefore, I will not go deeper into the jungle, especially since all this relates to matters a long time ago days gone by. For interest, I will only note that in 1700 in the City Council of Altstadt, among other elected positions, there was one lifelong position of a clerk, who, although not a member of the Council, nevertheless worked in its composition.

Unification of cities

On June 13, 1724, the Prussian king Frederick William I signed a decree to unite the three cities and suburban communities into one city Koenigsberg. At the turn of the 19th and 20th years, a specific system management.

The city municipality had about one hundred elected deputies elected from three classes for a period of six years. The election procedure was organized in such a way that every two years a third of the members were re-elected. Members of the municipality elected the city council of 21 people. The Chairman of the Council was called the Oberburgomaster, his deputy - the Burgomaster. Councilors in charge of city services were appointed.

There was no regional division, as already mentioned, in our understanding of the word in Konigsberg. In terms of police, Koenigsberg was divided into 12 districts. At some sites there were additional posts and departments. In parallel with the police, seven criminal commissariats and two criminal authorities functioned in the city.

The church divided the territory of the city in its own way. The most significant in terms of influence, the Evangelical Church had more than 30 parishes, the Catholic Church - 6 parishes, the New Apostolic Church - 5 associations, and so on. There was a small Orthodox community in Königsberg. Certain parts of Koenigsberg bore traditional historical names, making it easier to navigate the city.

After all opening remarks You can go directly to the Koenigsberg mayors. You just have to keep in mind that the post of mayor was officially introduced in 1809; before that, the head of the city was called burgomaster. I will start my story about the mayors from 1724, since I have not studied the personal composition of the burgomasters of the cities of Altstadt, Löbenicht and Kneiphof.

Taking this opportunity, I would like to remind you that in 1994 it will be 270 years since the formation of the united city of Königsberg.

Koenigsberg mayors

1. In 1724, Doctor of Law, Mayor of Altstadt 3. Hesse became the first mayor of the newly formed city of Königsberg. 3. Hesse remained in this position for six years until his death in 1730.

It must be assumed that a lot of all sorts of worries related to the establishment of a unified city mechanism fell on his shoulders. The population of Koenigsberg was more than 40,000 people, which was quite large at that time. The consequences of the terrible plague of 1709-1710, when about 18,000 people died from the epidemic, were not completely eliminated in the city.

A few months before the unification, in April 1724, Immanuel Kant was born in the Kneiphof suburb of Forstadt. It’s a pity that burgomaster Z. Hesse was not destined to learn about the great fate of his brilliant peer glorious city Koenigsberg.

2. Royal Commissioner I. Fokkeradt replaced the deceased 3. Hesse. He served in office for two years. Residents of Koenigsberg should have been very grateful to him for the fact that during his time oil lamps were installed in the city. After all, before this, late walks around the city at night turned into a complete nightmare. Wealthy people hired torchbearers. And when the use of flammable torches was banned in 1704, they walked around with small lanterns or no lights at all.

3. In 1732, the post of mayor went to J. Grube. During his seven years in office, he had to deal with the troubles associated with the arrival of settlers from distant Salzburg in Konigsberg. Lutheran refugees, unable to bear the oppression from the Catholic environment, were forced to leave their homes and go to the shores of the cold, as it seemed to them, Baltic. Salzburgers played a positive role in the industrial development of Königsberg, as among them there were many business people, skilled artisans and skilled craftsmen.

4. Ernst von Müllenheim did not remain in office for long, only a few months at the turn of 1739 and 1740. He had a very harsh winter. Even the usually ice-free Baltic Sea became covered with ice, and snow fell on May 7. The residents' fuel supplies were quickly dwindling, they were freezing and needed help.

5. In 1740, I. Schroeder was chosen as the head of Koenigsberg, who ruled the city for five years. The beginning of his activities in an honorary post coincided with the beginning of the reign of King Frederick the Great. The Prussian king didn’t really like Koenigsberg. The stingy monarch held the traditional coronation in Königsberg very modestly, although he donated a thousand thalers for the poor. After the coronation, the king ordered the creation of a large park in the city north of the castle on the site of the old royal garden.

6. The next mayor in 1746 was I. Kiesewetter (until 1751). On the one hand, this burgomaster contributed to the development printed word: under him, the large newspaper and printing business of Hartung was founded in Königsberg. But on the other hand, there was no proper supervision of city bridges. As a result of negligence, the rotten pillars of the Green Bridge collapsed, and it collapsed into the river along with four random passers-by. But this loss did not significantly affect the size of the urban population - it reached 50,000 people.

7. In 1752, Daniel Ginderzin took over as mayor. He served in office for 28 years, breaking the record for the duration of all mayors of Konigsberg and Kaliningrad. But these years were not the calmest in the life of the city.

In 1758-1762, Königsberg, during the unsuccessful Seven Years' War for Prussia, became part of the Russian Empire. German self-government bodies needed to establish contacts with the Russian administration. Although the city privileges of Königsberg remained intact, the Prussian eagles on the coats of arms installed on the facades of some buildings were replaced by the double-headed Russian eagle. Only on the tower of the Orphanage in Sackheim is the Prussian eagle preserved.

On January 24, 1756 - the birthday of the Prussian king Frederick the Great - a ceremony was held in Königsberg to take the oath of allegiance to the Russian Empress Elizabeth. King Frederick did not like this turn of events; he was terribly offended by Konigsberg and never came to East Prussia again.

The Russian governor of Corf, who replaced the governor of Fermor, treated the city favorably and even completed the eastern wing of the Royal Castle. In July 1762, power in the city again passed completely to the German administration and Russian troops began to leave Koenigsberg. The Russian commandants of Koenigsberg during this period were General Rezanov and Brigadier Treiden.

But it was not only the concerns of relations with the Russians that worried the burgomaster. Severe fires in 1756, 1764, 1769, 1775 led to great disasters. The cold winter of 1761 created certain problems. The unfavorable economic situation led to a slight decrease in industrial production in Königsberg. But in contrast to this, there has been a revival cultural life in the city.

8. In 1780, Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel was appointed burgomaster of Königsberg. He was born in 1744 in Gerdauen (now the village of Zheleznodorozhny) and made a career as a successful official. His hobby is literature, where he has achieved notable success. A close acquaintance with I. Kant does T. Hippel a great honor. His wonderful collection of paintings later became the property of Königsberg.

Theodor Hippel served as mayor until his death in 1796. His name was given to one of the city streets. Now this street is called Omskaya.

After a series of large fires under the previous burgomaster, the city gradually established normal life. Already in 1781, there were 224 breweries in Königsberg with excellently tasty beer. Trouble approached from the other side: overcrowding of the population and insufficient sanitation led to a cholera epidemic in 1794. With the onset of winter, cholera subsided, but very severe cold came again.

The next coronation in Königsberg took place on September 17-23, 1786. The new king Frederick William II, paying great attention to East Prussia, did not bypass Königsberg. True, the city did not receive any special generosity from him. But Koenigsberg very wisely and skillfully began to use the important benefit granted to it by the previous king Frederick II. This is the right of “marriage”, that is, the ability to determine the quality of goods passing through the city, which brought great benefits, given the presence of port facilities and transit transportation of goods in Konigsberg.

9. Bernhard Gervais, who replaced T. Hippel, remained burgomaster until 1808. It is possible that the French sound of his surname had some positive impact on the state of the city during the period of confrontation with the French Emperor Napoleon. After all, it is known that in 1807, after a short battle, French troops entered Konigsberg. Emperor Napoleon himself honored the city with his visit.

Natural disasters were added to the military misfortunes. In the autumn of 1801, severe hurricanes led to flooding that inundated Kneiphof. In 1803 there was a big fire, and in December 1806 a terrible hurricane hit the city again. In 1807, war travelers - epidemics of typhus and dysentery - took the lives of 10,000 people from the city. But still, despite the misfortunes, the population grew steadily and by 1800 it amounted to about 55,000 people.

Royalty often visited Königsberg, although, admittedly, many visits were forced. The coronation of Frederick William III took place at the Royal Castle from 3 to 9 June 1798. And then, from December 1806 to January 1807, the royal couple, forced to leave Berlin, lived in Königsberg. The military situation in the fight against France was clearly not in favor of Prussia. Therefore, Queen Louise, from January 1808 to December 15, 1809, was forced to live most of the time in Königsberg, and here on October 4, 1809, her son Albrecht was born.

10. Martin Deetz, who took office in March 1808, became officially known as Mayor in 1809. But it is not the place that makes the man, but the man the place. M. Deetz saw that, even with a new title, he could not cope with the avalanche of complex cases, and had the courage to resign the following year.

11. August Heidemann took up the management of the city with great energy during the difficult time of the actual French occupation of Königsberg. In the summer of 1812, Napoleon again arrived in Konigsberg and from here he set off on his inglorious Russian campaign.

The defeat of Napoleon in Russia caused a panicked retreat of the French through Konigsberg and brought a lot of trouble to the city. In this difficult situation, A. Heidemann showed patriotism and statesmanship, trying to preserve the city. Fortunately, in January 1813, Russian troops, pursuing the French, entered Konigsberg. Units of the Prussian liberation army also entered Konigsberg.

Military expenses placed a heavy burden on the residents of Königsberg. To pay indemnity to the French conquerors, they transferred 1,784,450 thalers to the city treasury. The Prussian government then paid this huge debt to its people to the citizens of Königsberg until 1901!

Nevertheless, public life in Königsberg did not freeze. In 1809, the construction of the city opera house was completed on the territory of the Royal Garden. In 1810, astronomer F. Bessel came to Konigsberg and headed the observatory, built by 1813. In 1811 the university was created Botanical Garden. But the severe fire of 1811 destroyed 144 houses and went down in the history of the city as one of the largest disasters.

In 1811, the streets of Königsberg received official names, and all houses were numbered according to a single system.

August Heidemann died on December 15, 1813. A small street in Sackheim, now Cherepichnaya Street, is named after him.

An interesting message appeared in the press that for a short period from the beginning of 1813, the Russian mayor of Koenigsberg, Major Pyotr Semenovich Stepanov, was appointed. But confirming. no documents have been found yet. But it is absolutely known that the Russian Lieutenant General Karl Karlovich Sivers was appointed commandant of the Königsberg fortress at that time. However, the Russians’ stay in Koenigsberg was short-lived this time.

12. Karl Horn became mayor of Königsberg on March 23, 1814, at the age of 35. He had work experience: for three years he held the position of burgomaster, the second in importance. His patriotic sentiments during the period of the French invasion were widely known and earned respect. Karl Horn served as mayor until 1826 and died five years later. His name was given to the street, which is now called Sergeant Koloskov Street.

Mayor Horn paid a lot of attention to the organization of city government and streamlining the work of city services. And of course, it was not his fault that in January 1825 the city experienced severe flooding caused by a hurricane westerly wind.

13. Under this number in June 1826 as mayor. Johann List became the ruler of Königsberg and ruled the city until 1838. Natural disasters did not leave Koenigsberg. A flood in April 1829 inundated the western part of Kneiphof, and a cholera epidemic in 1831 killed 1,327 people. A cholera riot broke out in the city, resulting in the death of more than 30 people. In July 1832 there was a frost that destroyed part of the crop, but in the summer of 1838 it was so hot that the plants bloomed twice.

Koenigsberg gradually changed its medieval appearance. The first attempts are being made to replace old city wells with water supply. The first steamship sailed along the Pregel River.

14. Rudolf von Auerswald served as mayor of Königsberg for four years (1838-1842). The city continued to grow, incorporating suburbs outside the fortress walls. Its population reached 70,000 people.

But fires continued to plague residents. In 1839 there was a severe fire in Altstadt, which caused great losses.

The coronation of Friedrich Wilhelm IV in Königsberg took place on September 10, 1840 in the usual manner.

15. In March 1843, the Königsberg City Council was headed by August Kra. His concerns for the good of the city extended to the founding of the Urban Resources society, where donations from private individuals were concentrated. He tried to attract citizens to participate in financial support of the city. Unfortunately, A. Kra died of cholera on October 9, 1848, without having time to complete all his plans.

Under him, a new building for the university was laid on Parade-Platz. But the fires continued to rage: in 1845, 14 warehouses burned down. During the reign of A. Kra, construction began on a modernized ring of fortifications around the city with new gates.

16. The work begun by August Kra was continued by Karl Sperling. At first he served as the mayor of the city, and was officially elected on February 7, 1853. He held office until 1864. The city quickly began to join the benefits of civilization. In 1853, the first bright gas lamps were installed, replacing the dim and smoky oil lamps. In August of the same year, under the glare of gas lamps, the first train to Berlin departed from the brand new East Station. Telegraph machines were installed to communicate with the stations.

The winter of 1849 turned out to be cold; on January 11 the temperature dropped to minus 35 degrees. In 1857, cholera again visited Königsberg. To more successfully fight fires, a professional fire brigade was created in the city in 1858.

In 1855, the city authorities intended to magnificently celebrate the 600th anniversary of the founding of the Königsberg fortress. But due to a bad harvest and the king’s illness, he had to limit himself to church liturgy and a festive dinner for a limited circle of invited guests.

The new Prussian constitution did not allow the next Prussian king, William I, to be officially crowned in Königsberg. However, paying tribute to tradition, the royal couple visited the city in October 1861 and held a ceremony at the Royal Castle. Later in 1864, construction began on a new castle tower with a height of 97.87 meters above sea level, which was finally built in 1866.

17. After the death of Karl Sperling on July 8, 1864, the duties of the head of the city were performed by Mayor Bigork (until August 8, 1865). Due to the short duration of his tenure, it is difficult to assess the results of his activities. I will only note that in 1865 the railway connection between Koenigsberg and Pillau (Baltiysk) opened.

18. The duties of the mayor were then entrusted to the Landrat Commissioner Ernst von Ernsthausen, who remained in office until June 30, 1866.

19. And this short-term leapfrog of the authorities was completed by E. Retzenstein, who served as mayor until April 1, 1867. During his reign, cholera made itself known again: in 1866, 2,671 people died from it. By this time, the construction of new city gates in Königsberg had been completed.

20. The next mayor was Landrat Commissioner F. Kischke (from 1867 to 1872). The population of Koenigsberg by this time had reached 110,000 people. But the epidemics did not stop: in 1871, 771 people became infected with smallpox, and 1,790 people died from cholera.

In 1869, King Wilhelm honored with a visit to Königsberg. During the high visit, a great misfortune occurred: the railings of the bridge on Castle Pond collapsed, killing 33 people. And that same year there was a significant flood.

Meanwhile, in 1871, the state of Prussia ceased to exist, and Koenigsberg became part of Germany, retaining its significance as the capital of the Prussian province. King Wilhelm received the title of Emperor of Germany.

21. After the voluntary resignation of Friedrich Kischke in February 1872, Karl Szepanski acted as mayor. He was officially elected to the post on November 5, 1872. He headed the City Council for two years and did a lot of good things. Only cholera did not want to retreat and in 1873 it visited Koenigsberg again. And the next year, the first line of water supply networks came into operation, which contributed to a significant improvement in the sanitary situation in the city.

22. After the voluntary resignation of K. Shepanski, from October 1, 1874 to April 6, 1875, the City Council was headed by Brown.

23. In 1875, I. Selke, who had previously been the mayor of Elblag, was confirmed as the head of Königsberg. He was born in 1836 and served in the war with France in 1870/71. Having become the mayor of Königsberg, Johann Selke actively contributed to the development of the city. During his presence there were held great work for sewerage and gasification.

In 1875, the construction of the trading exchange was completed, and in 1881, horse-drawn carriages opened in Koenigsberg - transporting passengers on rails in carriages driven by horses. This was the first sign of the beginning of democratic public transport.

Railway construction continued: in 1885, Koenigsberg was connected by a line with Kranz (Zelenogradsk), in 1891 - with Tilsit (Sovetsk). In 1892, the Walter-Simon-Platz sports ground (now the Baltika Stadium) was built and the first 544 telephone sets were supplied. In 1890, the city's first industrial power plant was built.

The population of Königsberg grew rapidly. If in 1880 there were 140,000 residents in the city, then in 1890 there were 160,000 people.

I. Selke died on June 29, 1893, and a street was named after him in the city, now Maly Lane.

24. Hermann Theodor Hoffmann was born in 1836 into the family of a Königsberg merchant. From the beginning of the seventies he worked as treasurer in the municipality, after 10 years he became burgomaster, and in 1893 - chief burgomaster. He died in 1902 and a small street in Koenigsberg was named after him; now it is part of Epronovskaya and Krasnooktyabrskaya streets.

The activities of this mayor were quite intense, as a simple listing of events can tell: 1895 - a pulp factory was founded in the Liep region and a meat processing plant in the Rosenau region. In the same year, an electric tram route was put into operation. Königsberg became the first city in Germany where the tram was city property. 1896 - opening of the zoo. 1897 - a construction school was opened on Schönstrasse. 1898 - a large student house was built - “Palaestra Albertina”. 1900 - construction of the small railway Koenigsberg - Neuhausen (Gurieven) - Curonian Lagoon was completed. In the same year, trains began operating on the lines Koenigsberg - Neukuren (Pionersky) - Rauschen (Svetlogorsk). 1902 - a new gas plant is built in Kosei and construction of a modern harbor begins. We still use much of what was built then.

True, the elements did not give up. On February 12, 1894, a strong storm was accompanied by a large surge of water. Then there was a small outbreak of cholera, but it seems that this disease visited Konigsberg in last time. The heavy snowfall of 1899/1900 put a lot of work into the city's cleanup service.

The population of Königsberg at the beginning of 1900 was 190,000 people, the area of ​​the city was 2,000 hectares.

Koenigsberg becomes a major shopping center. More than 2,100 thousand tons of cargo pass through it annually. The revenue side of the city budget is expressed in the amount of 5,900 thousand marks per year.

25. Hermann Hoffmann died on June 30; from September 5, his deputy Paul Kunkel (1848-1925) began to perform the duties of mayor. When Z.Kerte was elected mayor on February 3, 1903, Paul Kunkel remained his deputy until 1913 and provided great assistance in the improvement of Königsberg. Quite deservedly, in 1933 a street was named after him - Kunkelstrasse, now it is a section of Karl Marx Street from Cosmonaut Leonov Street to Georgiy Dimitrov Street.

26. The fate of Lord Mayor Siegfried Körte was tragic. He was born in 1861 in Berlin in the family of a doctor, studied finance and law, then moved to Königsberg. In 1903 he was elected head of the city.

The beginning of his management was successful. Although strong westerly winds brought floods to the city seven times in 1905, they did not cause significant harm. The snowy winter in 1908 forced the municipality to mobilize all forces to remove snow. A severe winter occurred in 1911/1912, followed by a very hot summer. In 1913, as a result of a storm, the water in Pregel rose to 163 centimeters higher than usual.

Koenigsberg continued to modernize. In 1905, the Kaiser-Brücke Bridge was built across the Pregel arm, connecting the island of Lomse with the densely populated area south of the island of Kneiphof. The following year the bridge on Castle Pond was reconstructed. In 1907, a powerful power plant was put into operation in the Kosee area, which gave a new impetus to the development of the industrial potential of Koenigsberg. Since 1910, the annexation of new suburbs to the city began, which continued until 1939. Therefore, the population of Koenigsberg immediately increased sharply and amounted to about 250,000 people.

The war that began in 1914 disrupted the peaceful course of events. The front approached Koenigsberg. Russian troops approached Tapiau (Gvardeysk). Although they were soon forced to retreat, the battles raged very close to the city.

Then came the days of revolutions. On November 10, 1918, Mayor 3. Körte held the last meeting of the magistrate. After this, power in the city passed into the hands of the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies.

Removal from work, the ensuing serious operation, and the death of his beloved daughter undermined the strength of 3. Körte. He died on March 4, 1919, the day after the cessation of Soviet power in Königsberg. In the city, one of the beautiful streets in the Amalinau area, which is now called Kutuzov Street, was named after him.

We owe the abundant green spaces that have remained in our city to this day to Lord Mayor Körtha. It was under him that the urban gardening industry was founded, green areas were created and the landscaping of the fortress ramparts was carried out.

27. Between November 10, 1918 and January 1919, the leadership of the city council was taken over by Albert Borowski (1876-1945), manager of the Königsberg branch of the Social Democratic Party. Albert Borowski was one of the organizers of consumer cooperation in the city and surrounding area, and worked as a city councilor for a long time. In 1934 he retired and lived in Rudau (Melnikov) and, apparently, died during hostilities.

The difficult situation that developed in Koenigsberg during the revolutionary events required the city authorities to exert maximum effort to prevent anarchy. To their credit, it should be noted that relative order and tranquility were ensured in the city; there were no robberies or violence.

28. For some time, from January to October 27, 1919, the post of mayor of Königsberg was filled by Erdmann, the city treasurer. At this time, government troops of General Winning entered the city, and Soviet power in Koenigsberg was eliminated.

29. In the same 1919, G. Lohmeiter, born in 1881, became the mayor of Königsberg from July 23. This was the last mayor elected democratically in Königsberg. He did everything in his power to not only preserve the appearance and well-being of the city, but also bring it to a higher level of development in the conditions of the severe post-war crisis. In Königsberg, intensive urban construction continued, which began in late XIX century. The Koenigsberg-Moscow airline opens, the city radio station begins operating, and the East Prussian Fair begins to be held regularly. In 1927, the city magistrate moved to a new building on Hansaplatz (now Victory Square).

The area of ​​Königsberg in 1927 was 8,474 hectares, the population was about 280,000 people. The revenue side of the city budget in 1925 amounted to 31,560 thousand Reichsmarks.

With the Nazis coming to power, G. Lohmeiter was removed from office in 1933. He survived Hitler's regime, the destruction of Königsberg during World War II, and died in Berlin in 1968.

30. Helmut Bill was nominated for the post of Mayor of Königsberg by the Nazi Party in 1933 and remained in office until April 9, 1945, that is, until the city’s surrender to the Red Army. After the surrender, G. Ville was taken into Russian captivity, where he remained for about ten years.

At first, life in the city continued to develop in peacetime conditions. The population of Königsberg in 1939, according to various estimates, ranged from 340,000 to 370,000 people; the latter figure is apparently more accurate. In 1941, the city had a population of about 380,000 people; the area of ​​Königsberg was 193 square kilometers.

In 1939, World War II began. The following January there was a very harsh winter. In June 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union.

Koenigsberg suffered from air raids. At the end of August 1944, two massive air raids on the city turned its central part into ruins. The furious assault on Königsberg in April 1945 added to the destruction. The civilian population experienced enormous upheaval and hardship.

The surrender of the Königsberg garrison opened another page in the history of the city.

Military Administration

After the capture of Koenigsberg by the Red Army in April 1945, the city was smoking with fires and gaping with destruction. All power in Konigsberg was transferred to the military commandant. On April 10, Major General M.V. Smirnov was appointed commandant of the city and fortress of Koenigsberg. In June 1945, he was replaced by Guards Major General M.A. Pronin.

On May 10, 1945, a Provisional City Administration for Civil Affairs was created under the military commandant. It had seven departments. Four days earlier, the German population was allowed to walk the streets from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The Civil Affairs Department was headed by the Deputy Commandant. The city was divided into eight district commandant's offices, and a Temporary Civil Administration was also created at each district commandant's office.

This is the first period from martial law to peaceful life. It was necessary to extinguish fires, clear the streets, register the local population and provide them with food. The supply of water and electricity had to be established. Quite quickly we managed to put a pulp and paper mill into operation, open school No. 1, and create the first city construction organization UNR-230. In September 1945, the grand opening of the monument to fallen soldiers took place on Gvardeysky Prospekt.

On November 12, 1945, the Provisional City Administration for Civil Affairs compiled a certificate on the size of the German population of Königsberg. There were 60,642 Germans in the city, of which 18,515 were men. 29,681 people were registered as able-bodied, 12,276 were children.

On November 19, 1945, a Provisional Civil Administration was created under the Military Council of the Special Military District, commanded by Guard Colonel General K. N. Galitsky. Guard Major General of the Technical Troops V. G. Guziy was appointed head of the Provisional Civil Administration.

Civil administration

On April 7, 1946, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a Decree renaming Koenigsberg to Kaliningrad. At the same time, the Council of Ministers of the USSR creates a Civil Affairs Directorate in Kaliningrad, subordinate to the regional Civil Affairs Directorate.

On May 22, 1946, P.I. Kolosov was appointed head of the Kaliningrad Civil Affairs Department. Management services were located on Svyazistov Street (now Kommunalnaya Street).

In April 1947, Vladimir Mikhailovich Dolgushin, who had previously been deputy chief, was appointed acting head of the Kaliningrad Department of Civil Affairs.

The city gradually transitioned to peaceful life. In August 1946, the first settlers from Russia and Belarus began to arrive in Kaliningrad in an organized manner. The Pobeda cinema opened, and the Kaliningradskaya Pravda newspaper began publishing. German street names have been renamed. An important stage in the life of Kaliningrad was the launch of tram route No. 1.

Kaliningrad mayors

1. May 28, 1947 Supreme Presidium; The Council of the RSFSR abolished the Office of Civil Affairs and appointed the Executive Committee of Kaliningrad. V. M. Dolgushin (born in 1905) became the acting chairman of the city executive committee. He worked in this position until July 1947, and then became head of the public utilities department.

From the certificate compiled by V. Dolgushin, it is clear that the population of Kaliningrad in June 1947 was 211,000 people, including 37,000 Germans, of whom 1,700 were able-bodied. By this time, Kaliningrad was divided into six districts according to numbers.

2. On July 26, 1947, Pyotr Kharitonovich Murashko, born in 1899, was approved as chairman of the city executive committee. After elections to local councils were held in December 1947, a session of the city Council of Workers' Deputies confirmed the appointment of P. Murashko as chairman of the city executive committee. He remained in office until December 22, 1949 and was released from work at the proposal of the city committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) for the unsatisfactory state of affairs.

On July 25, 1947, four districts were formed in Kaliningrad: Baltiysky, Leningradsky, Moscow and Stalingrad. Later, the Central District was created, and the Stalingradsky District was renamed Oktyabrsky.

In 1946-1947, the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a number of resolutions on the development of the Kaliningrad region. To implement government resolutions, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers A. N. Kosygin came to Kaliningrad.

Peaceful life was improving in the city. The Kaliningrad theater showed its first performance, Kaliningrad radio started talking. In 1948, a fishing expedition headed to the North Atlantic, Kaliningrad began to acquire the importance of an important fish supply point. Classes began at the pedagogical institute.

In 1947-1948 The resettlement of Germans from Kaliningrad to Germany was carried out.

The year 1949 was filled with many events, among them: the opening of the Energy College (later the Polytechnic), the commissioning of the restored South Station.

3. In the period from December 22, 1949 to March 1950, the duties of the chairman of the city executive committee were entrusted to N. S. Serov.

4. Sergei Aleksandrovich Veselov, sent to Kaliningrad by decision of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, was elected as the next mayor in March 1950. He worked in this post until February 1951, after which he was elected chairman of the regional Trade Union Council.

The development of the fishing industry continued in the city. In May 1950, the Vessel Ferry Agency was formed.

5. On February 22, 1951, Vladimir Evgrafovich Pavlov was elected chairman of the Kaliningrad city executive committee (until March 1955).

The population of Kaliningrad stabilized for some time and fluctuated around 200,000 people. This may have been due to some uncertainty about the future of the Baltic city, although the media persistently carried out a campaign to prove that the lands of East Prussia belonged to the Slavic territories. In 1953, the first plan for the reconstruction of Kaliningrad was adopted. It should be noted that many central areas of the city were still in ruins, so Kaliningrad in those years made a rather gloomy impression, significantly lagging behind other Russian cities that suffered from the war in the pace of restoration work.

6. Alexander Nikitovich Nekipelov was nominated for the post of mayor on March 11, 1955 and served in office for two years.

In April 1956, on the way to England and upon returning back, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR N.A. Bulganin and Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee N.S. Khrushchev visited Kaliningrad. Apparently, this visit served as some impetus to intensify restoration work, although the consequences did not appear immediately.

7. On March 19, 1957, the session of the City Council elected Nikolai Fedorovich Korovkin, who headed the executive committee until 1963, as chairman of the executive committee.

The number of residents of Kaliningrad has finally exceeded the two hundred thousand mark and began to grow steadily. In 1961, 230,000 people lived in the city, in 1963 - about 240,000 people.

Finally, they began systematically clearing the city of war ruins. Unfortunately, under the hot hand, buildings suitable for restoration were demolished. But here the directive for the decisive eradication of elements of Gothic architecture in Kaliningrad was steadily in effect.

In September 1960, on his way to New York, Kaliningrad was again visited by the Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee N. S. Khrushchev. Leaders of Eastern European countries also visited here: E. Ya. Kadar (Hungary), G. Georgiu-Dej (Romania), as well as heads of delegations of the union republics: K. T. Mazurov (Belarus) and N. P. Podgorny (Ukraine) .

8. On May 9, 1963, Nikolai Petrovich Loshkarev became chairman of the Kaliningrad City Executive Committee. On March 2, 1966, he was removed from office for improper distribution of apartments.

N.S. Khrushchev visited Kaliningrad again on his way to Denmark and Norway. During this visit of the Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, the city looked incomparably better than during previous visits. The Rossiya cinema was built in the center, and a pavilion for the North Station was built. Destroyed urban areas were intensively built up.

In July 1965, the holiday “Fisherman’s Day” was celebrated for the first time in Kaliningrad. The city was visited by cosmonauts Alexey Leonov and Pavel Blinov, who were awarded the title of honorary citizens of the city.

But the fight against German Gothic architecture spread to urban landscapes. For example, the construction of a large car park was allowed in the green zone behind the Lithuanian Val. Due to the delay in the construction of sewer networks, they gave the go-ahead to discharge feces into city water bodies. Some subsequent mayors can also be blamed for this.

9. Dmitry Vasilyevich Romanin headed the executive committee in March 1966. He was born on June 22, 1929 in the Bryansk region, graduated from a mechanical college and technical institute. Before being elected mayor of the city, he worked as second secretary of the Kaliningrad city committee of the CPSU. Resigned as mayor on August 17, 1972 in connection with his election as first secretary of the Kaliningrad city committee of the CPSU.

In 1967 it was approved General plan reconstruction, construction and development of Kaliningrad. This plan, to some extent, sought to introduce variety into the monotony of block and panel construction. Some of the facilities included in this plan were built, but overall it was not implemented.

In 1968, they began to actively demolish the ruins of the Royal Castle, the next year they blew up the remains of the towers and began to build a multi-story House of Soviets, which is still unfinished.

The population of Kaliningrad was constantly increasing. In 1970 there were 300,000 people in the city, by 1972 there were already about 315,000 people. In 1971 Kaliningrad awarded the order Red Banner of Labor.

The elements continued to rage under any government. In 1967, during a strong storm, the water in Pregol rose 160 cm above normal. And in the 1970s, the city suffered a planned disaster: all fences and fences near houses, squares and front gardens were removed. As a result, all courtyards turned into walk-through, trampled and littered areas.

10. On August 17, 1972, Viktor Vasilyevich Denisov was elected chairman of the city executive committee. Of the mayors of the Soviet period, he served in office for the longest time - 12 years. Under him, at the end of 1973, the city executive committee moved to a building on Victory Square, the same one where the German municipality was located.

Intensive development continued in the city's microdistricts: along Gorky, Oktyabrskaya, and Batalnaya streets. Large-panel housing construction has acquired a dominant influence.

The improvement of the area around the Lower (Castle) Pond and a number of other measures to improve the appearance of the city made a favorable impression. In some places they began to restore fences near houses and public gardens again, although in general this work has not been completed to this day.

During this period, the construction of a new large overpass bridge was completed, connecting the central areas of Kaliningrad with the main railway and bus stations. The Puppet Theater opened in the restored Queen Louise Church in 1976, and the city concert hall began operating in the former Catholic church in 1980.

Length tram tracks(in single-track terms) was about one hundred kilometers, the number of tram cars was 210. In the same year, a trolleybus was launched in the city.

As for natural disasters, as a result of a strong hurricane on the night of January 5-6, 1975, water flooded the low-lying areas of the city. In January - February 1983, three hurricanes hit Kaliningrad; on January 18, the water in Pregol rose to a record high of 183 cm above normal.

The area of ​​Kaliningrad in 1983 was 198 square kilometers, the population was 374,000 people.

11. Boris Andreevich Fomichev, who worked at the Yantar plant, was elected to the position of mayor on December 26, 1984, worked in this post for four years, after which he returned to the Yantar plant.

By this time, the population of Kaliningrad was approaching 400,000 people, and they had to freeze a little in January 1987, since such a cold winter had not happened in the city for the last forty years.

So, gradually going through the mayors, we came closer to our days. The winds of perestroika blew. Changes took place in the echelons of power: they were divided into legislative and executive. According to the new laws, legislative power in Kaliningrad is concentrated in the City Council, which must elect a chairman by secret ballot. Executive power is vested in the head of the city administration, who must be elected to office through direct universal elections. But at the time of writing, he was appointed by Decree of the President of Russia.

12. On October 14, 1988, Nikolai Grigorievich Khromenko was elected chairman of the Kaliningrad City Executive Committee. At the end of March 1990, when the authorities were divided into two parts, N. Khromenko was elected chairman of the city council, continuing to simultaneously serve as head of the city administration until April 1990. In April 1990, Georgy Nikolaevich Isaev was appointed head of the administration.

A year later, on April 5, 1991, N. Khromenko voluntarily left the post of chairman of the City Council.

About life in Kaliningrad during this time transition time I won’t talk, she’s in plain sight for all of us. It seems that the division of powers, at first, did not bring much benefit to the city. Let me just say that the revenue side of the city budget in 1990 was 90,290,000 rubles. But since the division also affected financial bodies, it makes no sense to delve into the area of ​​monetary issues.

13. On April 29, 1991, Vitaly Valentinovich Shipov was elected chairman of the Kaliningrad City Council. On June 6, 1991, in connection with the departure of G. Isaev from work, V. Shipov simultaneously held the position of head of the city administration.

14. In January 1992, the situation with the two authorities became somewhat clearer. Nadezhda Ivanovna Lazareva, who worked as an assistant professor in the Department of Physics at the Technical Institute, was chosen for the position of chairman. And a little earlier, by Decree of the President of Russia of December 24, 1992, Vitaly Valentinovich Shipov, captain of the second rank of the Navy, was appointed head of the administration of Kaliningrad.

So, the city authorities sat down in their chairs. Now we'll wait positive results. The next elections to local government, unless the laws change, should take place in 1995. Time flies inexorably...

List
mayors of Koenigsberg and Kaliningrad

Koenigsberg 1724-1945