ABSTRACT
The history of Kaliningrad region and the whole former region of East Prussia is a drama of five peoples, who all to various extents have used history to buttress territorial claims. When the Baltic states and Belarus became independent in 1991, the Kaliningrad region suddenly became an exclave separated from the rest of Russia. Kaliningrad has been called a "Jerusalem on the Baltic", an almost insolvable problem. The headquarters of the Soviet Baltic fleet was moved from Leningrad to Kaliningrad in 1956, and the deep sea port of Baltiysk became a major naval base. Kaliningrad's exclave position is a problem both for Russia and its neighbours, especially Lithuania, since the most important railways and roads to Russia pass through that country, moreover through its largest cities. In Germany, the migration of Volga Germans to Kaliningrad was supported primarily by right wing xenophobic groups, partly because this served to keep the Volga Germans from emigrating to Germany.
