Referring to places by the names that a certain group once used doesn’t automatically imply territorial claims, though it can be interpreted as such depending on the context, but it’s also understandable that the current inhabitants might consider it provocative if they now describe those places differently.
“Karaliaucius” will never become Kaliningrad. Yeah, and "Trst" will never become "Trieste" and so on. I come from meeting point of Balkans and Central Europe where such provocations were common in not so distant past. May not be formal territorial claim, but it would be everywhere interpreted as very hostile and unfriendly statement. It just shows some desire that history went the other way it actualy went.
Where are you from if I may ask? My mom's side is from Slovenia, with my grandpa being from Ljubljana and my grandma from Gottschee, which is now known as "Kocevje" after all Gottscheers (a distinct Germanic people) were ethnically cleansed.
It might be unskillful political rhetoric on his part, but I assure you than nobody in Lithuania would interpret Nausėda's words as a territorial claim. Lithuania Minor is an ethnographic term without any geopolitical connotations to our ears, merely a region recognized as one of the cradles of modern Lithuanian ethnic identity and culture, and that's that.
A curious historical sidenote: Kaliningrad oblast (it's northeastern part) was offered to Soviet Lithuania by Molotov in 1944. While the northern parts that were ethnically Lithuanian were a no-brainer, the Lithuanian communists hesitated to annex the ethnically German parts due to potential conflict with the local Germans, and later due to a potential conflict with the ethnically Russian settlers. Ultimately, although Vilnius university and a state commission started preparing Lithuanian toponyms and maps for the annexation even before the war's end, it was decided that inclusion a totally ruined territory would be a money drain for Lithuania and the Baltic economic region at large (in the end Kaliningrad's economy became Lithuanian SSR's responsibility under Khrushchev, so the issue of subsidizing a poorer republic was not avoided), and integration of 1 million ethnic Russians into Lithuania might prove difficult, and possibly even fatal for the ethnic Lithuanian identity, so the offer was refused. Lithuania did not have enough population after the war to settle Kaliningrad, especially since the chief enthoengineering issue of the day was the Lithuanization of Vilnius, which was overwhelmingly Polish at the time.
While it's true that Vilnius was majority Polish-speaking for almost four centuries, for most of that time, its Polish-speaking inhabitants considered themselves Lithuanian, not Polish, just like the Irish did not consider themselves English, despite adopting English language. It certainly was not a cradle of Polish culture in the 14th century yet, when it was rather a cultural heir of the Kievan state, complete with adoption of Kievan law system and cyrylic alphabet. Anyway, it was only in 19th century when modern Lithuanian identity began to take shape and the language one speaks become the chief determinant of one's national identity, and major identity shifts started. While it's certainly the case that Vilnius is one of the top 3-4 cities in importance to Polish-language culture, it never belonged to Poland until interwar. Curiously, both Piłsudski and Źeligowski, although Polish-speaking and statesmen of Poland, were Lithuanian by origin and often proudly emphasized their Lithuanianness. The formation of modern nations is a complicated mess to contemporary sensibilities, but Snyder's book you mention is a good one and highly recommended for those interested.
Very good and detailed points that place everything into context from a Lithuanian perspective, thank you. I'd just add that those Poles who described themselves as Lithuanian were identifying more with the historical region in which they and their descendants were raised, but not necessarily at the expense of their Polishness per se.
As you're probably familiar but I wouldn't assume that most readers are, Adam Mickiewicz ("Poland's Pushkin") famously opened "Pan Tadeusz" with the call "Lithuania! My Fatherland!" I know that Lithuanians and Belarusians claim him as their own, and I'm not interested in arguing about it, but he's also claimed by Poles and considered himself to be much more Polish than Lithuanian in the sense of what the current Lithuanian identity is.
It was the same with Pilsudski and Zeligowski, who despite considering themselves Lithuanians, couldn't imagine a reborn Polish state without historical Lithuania included therein. I'm personally sympathetic to that interpretation of Polishness since my great grandfather on my dad's side was from Kamieniec Podolski in today's Western Ukraine.
It was passed down through that line of my family that we have some "Lithuanian" connection, though we never really understood what it meant until I later discovered through my own independent research is etymologically the case as regards our surname arguably being of Lithuanian origin, particularly associated somehow with Prince Dmitry Kaributas (Jogaila's/Jagiello's brother) just like was the case with the famous Korybuts:
That's sensible from what I've learned over the years after reading English-translated Polish history books since Korybko clearly isn't a stereotypically Polish surname, but is obviously connected to what we would nowadays describe as "Ukraine" or previously (Kievan/Old) Rus due to the distinctive -ko suffix.
What's more, my great-grandfather's migration document when he entered Poland in January 1920 (a relative still has it and I was able to get a scanned copy) lists his religion as Orthodox despite him being Polish and, from what I can gather from other research, related to other Korybkos in Kaminiec Podolski with other distinctively Polish first names.
So what we can surmise if we incorporate knowledge of the region from the time is that he was a Polish-identifying person of very distant "Ukrainian" or (Kievan/Old) Rus origin with some connection to the pre-Krewo Grand Duchy of Lithuania (due to our Korybko surname being etymologically related to Kaributas as that scholar above argued) and who identified more as a Pole than a "Ukrainian" due to leaving for Poland in January 1920.
That was right after the Second Polish Republic obtained control of Kamieniec Podolski, which had just earlier been the temporary capital of the "Ukrainian People's Republic", so it's sensible that Polish-identifying "Ukrainians"/(Kievan/Old) Rus-descended Poles (which were a very small minority) would leave westward given the violence of the time.
He unfortunately passed away in the mid-1930s shortly after my grandfather was born so we don't know all that much more about him, and my grandfather was raised "traditionally Polish" since his mom and her side of the family had lived for centuries outside of Krakow in close proximity to where Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) was from and therefore didn't have that "Historical Lithuanian"/"Eastern Polish"/"Kresy" identity.
My research over the years has also led to me identifying a lot more with the Eastern Commonwealth ("Historical Lithuanian"/"Kresy") identity than with the traditional Crown Kingdom of Poland's (traditionally Catholic and fully "ethnically Polish" per the contemporary understanding after the counter-Reformation) under which my dad's mom's side lived and under which influence she raised my grandfather as I just explained.
Part of this is due to my Russophilia, which of course sets me apart from the vast majority of contemporary Poles (I'm a dual citizen but born-and-raised in the US and didn't learn Polish since I didn't grow up with my dad after my parents divorced), but I also feel proud of both parts of the Commonwealth's history and the Commonwealth as a whole.
That's not to say that I don't constructively criticize some of that history -- there are quite a lot of parts that I'm very critical of -- but just that I've come to embrace a broader, more inclusive identity of historical Polishness due to my roots and views as they evolved with age, though I also support fiercely conservative-nationalist policies inside Poland today.
That's because I've concluded that it's best for Poles and Poland as a whole given where they are today in terms of the historical continuum, ergo why I'm strongly against illegal immigrant invaders, replacement migration by Ukrainians, etc., but I also oppose ethnic Russophobia while acknowledging (but of course not endorsing!) political Russophobia as a common trait of most Poles due to personal familial and historical political reasons.
It was Baltic. Prussians, Lithuanians and Latvians all spoke (and Lithuanians and Latvians still speak) very related dialects. You can see it if you see translations of the two languages next to each other. They are kind of very distantly related to Slavic languages, but very, very distantly. Prussians were thoroughly Germanized, so the language or dialect got extinct. Lithuanians got partly Polonized, and Latvians - those in the cities started speaking German, those in the woods, still spoke Latvian. So when the original population of Prussians were gone from Memel-Land and East-Prussia, Lithuanians felt the itch to take over.
One shouldn't forget that the Southern 70% of the current Lithuanian littoral was East-Prussian Memel-Land. Versailles treaty in 1919 mandated that it were to be ceded to Lithuania even though 70% of the inhabitants were German speakers. On the map, it's the Northern part of the "Lithuania Minor" shown in red. In March 1939 it was ceded back to Germany. Only after Soviet Union captured East Prussia in 1944/1945 was the territory transferred under right of conquest to its component Lithuanian Soviet Republic. Potentially, Russia could claim it back...
You do not hear the first verse anymore nowadays, but this was the mood in Germany in 1841. It appears that additional people lay claims to Koenigsberg, the city of Immanuel Kant. Etsch is German for the Adige, a river in Northen-Italy. Belt is sea strait in Denmark (between Funen and Seeland) way above Schleswig Holstein. The Maas/Meuse is a river in France, Belgium and Netherlands. And the Memel is what you refer to.
Hofmann van Fallersleben composed his 'Lied der Deutschen' while he was in exile on Hel(i)goland, which at the time was a British possession of the coast of Germany and Denmark in the Deutsch Bucht/Tyske Bugt/Dutske Bocht (That is in German, Danish and Frisian). How complicated intend these people to make our lives?
These Baltic states with their small populations, petite economies and tiny armies behave themselves as hysterical lap dogs that yap at any legs passing by. They think the are covered by Brussels, but everyone knows that ultimate they are not worth the costs of defending. They will soon find out that only the big boys in school yard matter when Orange Man Bad resumes office. Until that time they are just delusional.
"...(his academic contribution can be appreciated without agreeing with his current views about Russia)..."
He does, however, give himself away as essentially ignorant, however, when he states:
"It's the Ukrainians who have been fulfilling essentially the entire NATO mission all by themselves..." (0:48-0:56, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf18KorSdpk). I guess the memo — the explicit explanation by Putin himself, which I believe he made more than once — about the need for satellite targeting data to use American missiles must have just slipped under his radar somehow. Hey, nobody's perfect! Given the parade of clowns, like Annie Applebaum and others claiming in-depth knowledge at Yale, including the clown from Toronto he's presented himself with on this YouTube clip, 1:59-2:04 "If Russia is allowed to win in [the] Ukraine, it will start attacking the rest of Europe..." I guess you must feel the need to be generous and stretch to appreciation of their academic contributions and reputations. I understand this but I don't feel it's helpful or constructive. I'm more inclined to perceive it as a throwback to a time when the world was ruled by an order determined by the likes of the Pentagon, Ivy League institutions, like Yale, and a variety of their hangers on, like Brzezinski, Sikorsky and his wife. Academic excellence, indeed any academic contribution at all, requires consistency: you can't just cherry-pick-and-choose the facts you like to suit a narrative (and churn out another book). Ergo (to make use of a favourite Korybko word) you can't let big important facts, like how and why missiles are fired, slip under your radar. And let's not forget cluster bombs, nor the Nord Stream bombings, etc. "It's the Ukrainians who have been fulfilling essentially the entire NATO mission all by themselves..." Yeah, right — very authoritative.
My mother's family hail from the north east of what was East Prussia, on the Curonian Spit. From my research, my grandmother's side her family name found in several village books on both sides of the Memel delta, predominately on the Lithuanian side. Her family name had several spellings, the endings being different, but they were Germans. I took my mother back "home" in 2012, big mistake, as it would have been better for her to have her old happy memories than to see what it had become.
Indeed, my mother's immediate family were part of it. Oct 44, my mother and sister sent west, followed by their mother in December. The males were already gone as soldiers/home guard. One Uncle and family remained, only to find themselves transported to a Siberian Gulag, and only the son survived, released in the 1950s!
I have a question at a shallower level: tactically, would it be better that Kaliningrad local officials never bothered to change the name of that library? If everybody insists on the relentless and tireless removal of historical and cultural heritage each time the map is redrawn, there would be endless wars.
When the "new" Ukraine-Russia border was drawn and the Ukrainian government insisted on de-Russify in the east, we get the current war. While the area around Kaliningrad may not have more than a few traces of Lithuanian culture/history, it has not been under Russian control until 1945. If Russia wants to build a new Orthodox Church in the Kaliningrad area, I think there is nothing wrong about that. But if Russians want to tear down an old Germanic Protestant Church to build a new Orthodox Church, then I claim it is unwise even if local governments have all the rights. If such cleansing was done at war-time, such actions could hide under the cover of uncontrollable wartime collateral damages and atrocities. But Russia has held Kaliningrad for almost 80 years now. Even if the whole library has been totally rebuilt, upgraded, by funding completely from Russia proper, would it be better that it keeps its old name? Or, change the name only after a total rebuild with a different architectural style, then at least we will have less resistance and regrets among local people. AFAIK, The USSR did drive most of the Germans out of Kaliningrad, but not completely. I am ignorant about the USSR actions in relocating Russian people into the Kaliningrad area.
Medieval Conquistadors of Anglo Saxon, Jutish, Varangian and Ostrogothic Visigothic tribal affiliations were abyssymally parochial in their outlook and inconsolably jealous of just about every other nation on earth including jealousy towards more than three fourths of the populace of the European continent. That trait got inherited by their English and Scandinavian imperialist successors who rose to global political eminence in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This deeply feudalistic minority cabal of viciously vested parichial interests today is vehemently intolerant of social and political autonomy as desired by the majority of Europe's populace, and is jealously working and scheming hard to erode national sovereinties of the peoples of Europe and subordinate them to quasi-colonial exploitative Nordic dominance. In this respect, this cabal is also slowly but surely implementing an agenda of depopulation and weaponisation of mass migration with the aim of permanently destroying individual European nations' capability to preserve political and economic autonomy by rendering those nations unable to fructify economies of scale which are crucial to maintaining viability of a comprehensive economy so very vital to any independent society. This cabal assiduously sabotages all efforts toward rapproachment, reconciliation and collaboration or association among the Slavic people as well as among the nationalities of Europe at large. The dictum is, "All Ye Folks the people of Europe-at-large are destined to be enemies of one another, but we Anglo imperialists are brothers of each one of you in your nations' individual capacities; and as such it is sacriligeous of you folks to even countenance pooling your resources together, however we Anglos have divine right to milk the resources of every one of you nations individually". The EU, GATT, WTO etc are traps set up by the Anglo Nord cabal for undermining the collective sovereignty of Europe's peoples, and are antithetical to the cause of equitable sharing of resources among peoples. And now this cabal has brought Europe tobthe brink of nuclear Armageddon. This cabal in its capacity as the ubiquitous troubleshooter is always yearning to stoke fires of discord wherever it can. Were it not for the insatiable greed of this cabal and the consequent political intrigues, the world (Europe included) could have availed the benefits of modern scisntific advancements on a far more colossal scale for collective and personal material and spiritual emancipation and fulfillment.
“Karaliaucius” will never become Kaliningrad. Yeah, and "Trst" will never become "Trieste" and so on. I come from meeting point of Balkans and Central Europe where such provocations were common in not so distant past. May not be formal territorial claim, but it would be everywhere interpreted as very hostile and unfriendly statement. It just shows some desire that history went the other way it actualy went.
Where are you from if I may ask? My mom's side is from Slovenia, with my grandpa being from Ljubljana and my grandma from Gottschee, which is now known as "Kocevje" after all Gottscheers (a distinct Germanic people) were ethnically cleansed.
It might be unskillful political rhetoric on his part, but I assure you than nobody in Lithuania would interpret Nausėda's words as a territorial claim. Lithuania Minor is an ethnographic term without any geopolitical connotations to our ears, merely a region recognized as one of the cradles of modern Lithuanian ethnic identity and culture, and that's that.
A curious historical sidenote: Kaliningrad oblast (it's northeastern part) was offered to Soviet Lithuania by Molotov in 1944. While the northern parts that were ethnically Lithuanian were a no-brainer, the Lithuanian communists hesitated to annex the ethnically German parts due to potential conflict with the local Germans, and later due to a potential conflict with the ethnically Russian settlers. Ultimately, although Vilnius university and a state commission started preparing Lithuanian toponyms and maps for the annexation even before the war's end, it was decided that inclusion a totally ruined territory would be a money drain for Lithuania and the Baltic economic region at large (in the end Kaliningrad's economy became Lithuanian SSR's responsibility under Khrushchev, so the issue of subsidizing a poorer republic was not avoided), and integration of 1 million ethnic Russians into Lithuania might prove difficult, and possibly even fatal for the ethnic Lithuanian identity, so the offer was refused. Lithuania did not have enough population after the war to settle Kaliningrad, especially since the chief enthoengineering issue of the day was the Lithuanization of Vilnius, which was overwhelmingly Polish at the time.
While it's true that Vilnius was majority Polish-speaking for almost four centuries, for most of that time, its Polish-speaking inhabitants considered themselves Lithuanian, not Polish, just like the Irish did not consider themselves English, despite adopting English language. It certainly was not a cradle of Polish culture in the 14th century yet, when it was rather a cultural heir of the Kievan state, complete with adoption of Kievan law system and cyrylic alphabet. Anyway, it was only in 19th century when modern Lithuanian identity began to take shape and the language one speaks become the chief determinant of one's national identity, and major identity shifts started. While it's certainly the case that Vilnius is one of the top 3-4 cities in importance to Polish-language culture, it never belonged to Poland until interwar. Curiously, both Piłsudski and Źeligowski, although Polish-speaking and statesmen of Poland, were Lithuanian by origin and often proudly emphasized their Lithuanianness. The formation of modern nations is a complicated mess to contemporary sensibilities, but Snyder's book you mention is a good one and highly recommended for those interested.
Very good and detailed points that place everything into context from a Lithuanian perspective, thank you. I'd just add that those Poles who described themselves as Lithuanian were identifying more with the historical region in which they and their descendants were raised, but not necessarily at the expense of their Polishness per se.
As you're probably familiar but I wouldn't assume that most readers are, Adam Mickiewicz ("Poland's Pushkin") famously opened "Pan Tadeusz" with the call "Lithuania! My Fatherland!" I know that Lithuanians and Belarusians claim him as their own, and I'm not interested in arguing about it, but he's also claimed by Poles and considered himself to be much more Polish than Lithuanian in the sense of what the current Lithuanian identity is.
It was the same with Pilsudski and Zeligowski, who despite considering themselves Lithuanians, couldn't imagine a reborn Polish state without historical Lithuania included therein. I'm personally sympathetic to that interpretation of Polishness since my great grandfather on my dad's side was from Kamieniec Podolski in today's Western Ukraine.
It was passed down through that line of my family that we have some "Lithuanian" connection, though we never really understood what it meant until I later discovered through my own independent research is etymologically the case as regards our surname arguably being of Lithuanian origin, particularly associated somehow with Prince Dmitry Kaributas (Jogaila's/Jagiello's brother) just like was the case with the famous Korybuts:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/278961879_Surnames_of_Lithuanian_origins_in_Polish_anthroponomy
That's sensible from what I've learned over the years after reading English-translated Polish history books since Korybko clearly isn't a stereotypically Polish surname, but is obviously connected to what we would nowadays describe as "Ukraine" or previously (Kievan/Old) Rus due to the distinctive -ko suffix.
What's more, my great-grandfather's migration document when he entered Poland in January 1920 (a relative still has it and I was able to get a scanned copy) lists his religion as Orthodox despite him being Polish and, from what I can gather from other research, related to other Korybkos in Kaminiec Podolski with other distinctively Polish first names.
So what we can surmise if we incorporate knowledge of the region from the time is that he was a Polish-identifying person of very distant "Ukrainian" or (Kievan/Old) Rus origin with some connection to the pre-Krewo Grand Duchy of Lithuania (due to our Korybko surname being etymologically related to Kaributas as that scholar above argued) and who identified more as a Pole than a "Ukrainian" due to leaving for Poland in January 1920.
That was right after the Second Polish Republic obtained control of Kamieniec Podolski, which had just earlier been the temporary capital of the "Ukrainian People's Republic", so it's sensible that Polish-identifying "Ukrainians"/(Kievan/Old) Rus-descended Poles (which were a very small minority) would leave westward given the violence of the time.
He unfortunately passed away in the mid-1930s shortly after my grandfather was born so we don't know all that much more about him, and my grandfather was raised "traditionally Polish" since his mom and her side of the family had lived for centuries outside of Krakow in close proximity to where Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) was from and therefore didn't have that "Historical Lithuanian"/"Eastern Polish"/"Kresy" identity.
My research over the years has also led to me identifying a lot more with the Eastern Commonwealth ("Historical Lithuanian"/"Kresy") identity than with the traditional Crown Kingdom of Poland's (traditionally Catholic and fully "ethnically Polish" per the contemporary understanding after the counter-Reformation) under which my dad's mom's side lived and under which influence she raised my grandfather as I just explained.
Part of this is due to my Russophilia, which of course sets me apart from the vast majority of contemporary Poles (I'm a dual citizen but born-and-raised in the US and didn't learn Polish since I didn't grow up with my dad after my parents divorced), but I also feel proud of both parts of the Commonwealth's history and the Commonwealth as a whole.
That's not to say that I don't constructively criticize some of that history -- there are quite a lot of parts that I'm very critical of -- but just that I've come to embrace a broader, more inclusive identity of historical Polishness due to my roots and views as they evolved with age, though I also support fiercely conservative-nationalist policies inside Poland today.
That's because I've concluded that it's best for Poles and Poland as a whole given where they are today in terms of the historical continuum, ergo why I'm strongly against illegal immigrant invaders, replacement migration by Ukrainians, etc., but I also oppose ethnic Russophobia while acknowledging (but of course not endorsing!) political Russophobia as a common trait of most Poles due to personal familial and historical political reasons.
Kaliningrad or Kiningsbur or Krolewiec never was Lithuanians. Lithuanian president must be stupid, uneducated or making lies, or maybe all 3 at once
It was Baltic. Prussians, Lithuanians and Latvians all spoke (and Lithuanians and Latvians still speak) very related dialects. You can see it if you see translations of the two languages next to each other. They are kind of very distantly related to Slavic languages, but very, very distantly. Prussians were thoroughly Germanized, so the language or dialect got extinct. Lithuanians got partly Polonized, and Latvians - those in the cities started speaking German, those in the woods, still spoke Latvian. So when the original population of Prussians were gone from Memel-Land and East-Prussia, Lithuanians felt the itch to take over.
It's much simpler... He is referring to an ethnographic region. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuania_Minor
One shouldn't forget that the Southern 70% of the current Lithuanian littoral was East-Prussian Memel-Land. Versailles treaty in 1919 mandated that it were to be ceded to Lithuania even though 70% of the inhabitants were German speakers. On the map, it's the Northern part of the "Lithuania Minor" shown in red. In March 1939 it was ceded back to Germany. Only after Soviet Union captured East Prussia in 1944/1945 was the territory transferred under right of conquest to its component Lithuanian Soviet Republic. Potentially, Russia could claim it back...
''Deutschland, Deutschland über alles,
Über alles in der Welt,
Wenn es stets zu Schutz und Trutze
Brüderlich zusammenhält,
Von der Maas bis an die Memel,
Von der Etsch bis an den Belt –
Deutschland, Deutschland über alles,
Über alles in der Welt!''
You do not hear the first verse anymore nowadays, but this was the mood in Germany in 1841. It appears that additional people lay claims to Koenigsberg, the city of Immanuel Kant. Etsch is German for the Adige, a river in Northen-Italy. Belt is sea strait in Denmark (between Funen and Seeland) way above Schleswig Holstein. The Maas/Meuse is a river in France, Belgium and Netherlands. And the Memel is what you refer to.
Hofmann van Fallersleben composed his 'Lied der Deutschen' while he was in exile on Hel(i)goland, which at the time was a British possession of the coast of Germany and Denmark in the Deutsch Bucht/Tyske Bugt/Dutske Bocht (That is in German, Danish and Frisian). How complicated intend these people to make our lives?
These Baltic states with their small populations, petite economies and tiny armies behave themselves as hysterical lap dogs that yap at any legs passing by. They think the are covered by Brussels, but everyone knows that ultimate they are not worth the costs of defending. They will soon find out that only the big boys in school yard matter when Orange Man Bad resumes office. Until that time they are just delusional.
"...(his academic contribution can be appreciated without agreeing with his current views about Russia)..."
He does, however, give himself away as essentially ignorant, however, when he states:
"It's the Ukrainians who have been fulfilling essentially the entire NATO mission all by themselves..." (0:48-0:56, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf18KorSdpk). I guess the memo — the explicit explanation by Putin himself, which I believe he made more than once — about the need for satellite targeting data to use American missiles must have just slipped under his radar somehow. Hey, nobody's perfect! Given the parade of clowns, like Annie Applebaum and others claiming in-depth knowledge at Yale, including the clown from Toronto he's presented himself with on this YouTube clip, 1:59-2:04 "If Russia is allowed to win in [the] Ukraine, it will start attacking the rest of Europe..." I guess you must feel the need to be generous and stretch to appreciation of their academic contributions and reputations. I understand this but I don't feel it's helpful or constructive. I'm more inclined to perceive it as a throwback to a time when the world was ruled by an order determined by the likes of the Pentagon, Ivy League institutions, like Yale, and a variety of their hangers on, like Brzezinski, Sikorsky and his wife. Academic excellence, indeed any academic contribution at all, requires consistency: you can't just cherry-pick-and-choose the facts you like to suit a narrative (and churn out another book). Ergo (to make use of a favourite Korybko word) you can't let big important facts, like how and why missiles are fired, slip under your radar. And let's not forget cluster bombs, nor the Nord Stream bombings, etc. "It's the Ukrainians who have been fulfilling essentially the entire NATO mission all by themselves..." Yeah, right — very authoritative.
My mother's family hail from the north east of what was East Prussia, on the Curonian Spit. From my research, my grandmother's side her family name found in several village books on both sides of the Memel delta, predominately on the Lithuanian side. Her family name had several spellings, the endings being different, but they were Germans. I took my mother back "home" in 2012, big mistake, as it would have been better for her to have her old happy memories than to see what it had become.
Memel was among the unlucky cities during WW2. In late 1944-1945, and perhaps a few years afterward, there was major ethnic cleansing and atrocities.
Indeed, my mother's immediate family were part of it. Oct 44, my mother and sister sent west, followed by their mother in December. The males were already gone as soldiers/home guard. One Uncle and family remained, only to find themselves transported to a Siberian Gulag, and only the son survived, released in the 1950s!
If we move back enough in the uman existence Timeline African Umans will reclaim it ALL as theirs.
According to one theory!
I have a question at a shallower level: tactically, would it be better that Kaliningrad local officials never bothered to change the name of that library? If everybody insists on the relentless and tireless removal of historical and cultural heritage each time the map is redrawn, there would be endless wars.
When the "new" Ukraine-Russia border was drawn and the Ukrainian government insisted on de-Russify in the east, we get the current war. While the area around Kaliningrad may not have more than a few traces of Lithuanian culture/history, it has not been under Russian control until 1945. If Russia wants to build a new Orthodox Church in the Kaliningrad area, I think there is nothing wrong about that. But if Russians want to tear down an old Germanic Protestant Church to build a new Orthodox Church, then I claim it is unwise even if local governments have all the rights. If such cleansing was done at war-time, such actions could hide under the cover of uncontrollable wartime collateral damages and atrocities. But Russia has held Kaliningrad for almost 80 years now. Even if the whole library has been totally rebuilt, upgraded, by funding completely from Russia proper, would it be better that it keeps its old name? Or, change the name only after a total rebuild with a different architectural style, then at least we will have less resistance and regrets among local people. AFAIK, The USSR did drive most of the Germans out of Kaliningrad, but not completely. I am ignorant about the USSR actions in relocating Russian people into the Kaliningrad area.
Medieval Conquistadors of Anglo Saxon, Jutish, Varangian and Ostrogothic Visigothic tribal affiliations were abyssymally parochial in their outlook and inconsolably jealous of just about every other nation on earth including jealousy towards more than three fourths of the populace of the European continent. That trait got inherited by their English and Scandinavian imperialist successors who rose to global political eminence in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This deeply feudalistic minority cabal of viciously vested parichial interests today is vehemently intolerant of social and political autonomy as desired by the majority of Europe's populace, and is jealously working and scheming hard to erode national sovereinties of the peoples of Europe and subordinate them to quasi-colonial exploitative Nordic dominance. In this respect, this cabal is also slowly but surely implementing an agenda of depopulation and weaponisation of mass migration with the aim of permanently destroying individual European nations' capability to preserve political and economic autonomy by rendering those nations unable to fructify economies of scale which are crucial to maintaining viability of a comprehensive economy so very vital to any independent society. This cabal assiduously sabotages all efforts toward rapproachment, reconciliation and collaboration or association among the Slavic people as well as among the nationalities of Europe at large. The dictum is, "All Ye Folks the people of Europe-at-large are destined to be enemies of one another, but we Anglo imperialists are brothers of each one of you in your nations' individual capacities; and as such it is sacriligeous of you folks to even countenance pooling your resources together, however we Anglos have divine right to milk the resources of every one of you nations individually". The EU, GATT, WTO etc are traps set up by the Anglo Nord cabal for undermining the collective sovereignty of Europe's peoples, and are antithetical to the cause of equitable sharing of resources among peoples. And now this cabal has brought Europe tobthe brink of nuclear Armageddon. This cabal in its capacity as the ubiquitous troubleshooter is always yearning to stoke fires of discord wherever it can. Were it not for the insatiable greed of this cabal and the consequent political intrigues, the world (Europe included) could have availed the benefits of modern scisntific advancements on a far more colossal scale for collective and personal material and spiritual emancipation and fulfillment.