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Re. the name "East Prussia" being "both partisan and misleading" I would like to remark that the current Russian inhabitants of the region call their homeland this way (Vostochnya Prussia -- no, maybe not the military and top officials, but the common people anyway) -- just because it IS East Prussia, and they see no need to hide this fact. In fact they are generally quite interested in and open-minded about its German past. Even the town of Kaliningrad is still being called "Kėnigsberg" or simply "Kėnig" by the man in the street, as well as this name being used by many local enterprises. BTW, the name of "Yasnaya Polyana" roughly translates as "Clear Fields", which coincidentially somewhat relates to the old Prussian "Trakehnen", which means something like "Clearings". Coincidentially, probably, because the vast majority of modern Russian names have no relation whatsoever with the original German or Prussian ones. Lastly, there is indeed a small local "movement" to re-form the territory into something like a fourth Baltic Republic -- a new Prussia, indeed -- although I would hesitate to say how wide-spread this sentiment is. Joost Lemmens P.S.: Gdingen/Gdynia? had already been established as a major harbour well before the Communist period: during the time of the "Polish Corridor" it was established by the Poles as an alternative to Danzig, while during the war it was further expanded by Germany (as well as being renamed "Gotenhafen"). |
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