About Kaliningrad

Kaliningrad (Russian: Калининград; IPA: [kəlʲɪnʲɪnˈgrat]; former German: Königsberg; Old Prussian: Twangste, Kunnegsgarbs, Knigsberg; Lithuanian: Karaliaučius; Polish: Królewiec) is a seaport city and the administrative center of Kaliningrad Oblast, the Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea. The territory borders on NATO and European Union members Poland and Lithuania, and is geographically separated from the rest of Russia.

The locality was a site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement/fort Twangste. In 1255, a new fortress was built on this site by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named "Königsberg" in honour of King Ottokar II of Bohemia. The town was part of the State of the Teutonic Order, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Prussia and Germany (until 1945). Until the end of World War II, the area formed the northern part of the former East Prussia. The city was largely destroyed during World War II; its ruins were captured by the Red Army in 1945 and its German population fled or was forced out. It was named Kaliningrad in 1946 in honor of Mikhail Kalinin. After the fall of the USSR Russian cities named after Bolsheviks has either been given new Russian names (Volgograd is an example of a new Russian name, before Stalingrad it was called Tsaritsyn, "City of the Tsar") or retrieved their old one's, with Kaliningrad as only exception.

According to the 2010 Census, its population was 431,902—an increase from 430,003 recorded in the 2002 Census. Its ethnic composition is 77.9% Russians, 8.0% Belarusians, 7.3% Ukrainians, 1.9% Lithuanians, 0.6% Germans, and 0.5% Poles.

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