Kaliningrad Oblast

Kaliningrad Oblast (Russian: Kaliningradskaya Oblast') is a small administrative district (see oblast?) and the westernmost parcel of land belonging to Russia. Its largest city is Kaliningrad, which has considerable historical significance. The territory also includes the cities of Tapiau, Wehlau, Insterburg, Gumbinnen?, Heiligenbeil, Pr. Eylau, Allenburg, Gerdauen, Gross Rominten, and Trakehnen.

(Part of) The History of Kaliningrad Oblast

Before 1945, what is now Kaliningrad Oblast made up the northern part of [East Prussia]? from the Baltic Sea to the east up to Lithuania and north of todays Poland.

The area around the city of Kaliningrad was completely sealed off for fifty years because the Soviet Union had built huge military installations there and used the harbor as a year round port--it was one of the few Soviet ports on the Baltic which was operable in winter-time. With the fall of the Iron Curtain, the enormity of the installations and the sheer magnitude of the environmental destruction (where? to the city and surrounding area?) has been exposed.

/Talk