Even in the late Middle Ages, the lands located between the rivers Neman and Vistula got their name East Prussia. Throughout its existence, this power has gone through various periods. This is the time of the order, and the Prussian duchy, and then the kingdom, and the province, as well as the post-war country, up to the renaming due to the redistribution between Poland and the Soviet Union.
The history of the emergence of possessions
More than ten centuries have passed since the first mention of the Prussian lands. Initially, the people inhabiting these territories were divided into clans (tribes), which were divided by conventional boundaries.
The expanses of the Prussian possessions covered the now existing part of Poland and Lithuania. These included Sambia and Scalovia, Warmia and Poghezania, Pomezania and Kulm land, Natangia and Bartia, Galindia and Sassen, Skalovia and Nadrovia, Mazovia and Sudovia.
Numerous conquests
Throughout its existence, the Prussian lands were constantly subjected to attempts at conquest by stronger and more aggressive neighbors. So, in the twelfth century, Teutonic knights - crusaders came to these rich and alluring spaces. They built numerous fortresses and castles, for example Kulm, Reden, Thorn.
However, in 1410, after the famous Battle of Grunwald, the territory of the Prussians began to smoothly pass into the hands of Poland and Lithuania.
The Seven Years' War in the eighteenth century undermined the strength of the Prussian army and led to the fact that some eastern lands were conquered by the Russian Empire.
In the twentieth century, hostilities also did not bypass these lands. Beginning in 1914, East Prussia was involved in World War I, and in 1944 in World War II.
And after the victory of the Soviet troops in 1945, it ceased to exist altogether and was transformed into the Kaliningrad region.
Existence between wars
During the First World War, East Prussia suffered heavy losses. The 1939 map had already changed, and the updated province was in a terrible state. After all, it was the only German territory that was swallowed up by military battles.
The signing of the Versailles Treaty was costly for East Prussia. The winners decided to reduce its territory. Therefore, from 1920 to 1923, the League of Nations began to rule the city of Memel and the Memel region with the help of French troops. But after the January 1923 uprising, the situation changed. And already in 1924, these lands became part of Lithuania as an autonomous region.
In addition, East Prussia also lost the territory of Zoldau (the city of Dzialdowo).
In total, about 315 thousand hectares of land were disconnected. And this is a considerable territory. As a result of these changes, the remaining province fell into a quandary with enormous economic hardship.
Economic and political situation in the 20s and 30s.
In the early twenties, after the normalization of diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Germany, the standard of living of the population in East Prussia began to gradually improve. The Moscow-Konigsberg airline was opened, the German Eastern Fair was resumed, and the Konigsbergsky city radio station began to work.
Nevertheless, the world economic crisis has not spared these ancient lands. And in five years (1929-1933) in Konigsberg alone, five hundred and thirteen different enterprises went bankrupt, and increased to one hundred thousand people. In such a situation, taking advantage of the precarious and insecure position of the current government, the Nazi party took control into its own hands.
Redistribution of territory
Until 1945, a considerable number of changes were made to the geographical maps of East Prussia. The same happened in 1939 after the occupation of Poland by troops. Hitlerite Germany... As a result of the new zoning, part of the Polish lands and the Klaipeda (Memel) region of Lithuania were formed into a province. And the cities of Elbing, Marienburg and Marienwerder became part of the new district of West Prussia.
The Nazis launched grandiose plans for the redivision of Europe. And the map of East Prussia, in their opinion, was to become the center of the economic space between the Baltic and Black Seas, subject to the annexation of the territories of the Soviet Union. However, these plans could not come true.
Post-war time
With the arrival of Soviet troops, East Prussia was also gradually transformed. Military commandant's offices were created, of which there were already thirty-six by April 1945. Their tasks were recount of the German population, inventory and a gradual transition to a peaceful life.
In those years, thousands of German officers and soldiers were hiding throughout East Prussia, and groups engaged in sabotage and sabotage were operating. In April 1945 alone, the military commandant's offices captured more than three thousand armed fascists.
However, ordinary German citizens also lived on the territory of Konigsberg and in the surrounding areas. There were about 140 thousand of them.
In 1946 the city of Konigsberg was renamed Kaliningrad, as a result of which the Kaliningrad region was formed. Later, the names of other settlements were also changed. In connection with such changes, the existing 1945 map of East Prussia was also redone.
East Prussian lands today
Nowadays, the Kaliningrad region is located on the former territory of the Prussians. East Prussia ceased to exist in 1945. And although the region is part of the Russian Federation, they are territorially fragmented. except administrative center- Kaliningrad (until 1946 it bore the name of Konigsberg), such cities as Bagrationovsk, Baltiysk, Gvardeysk, Yantarny, Sovetsk, Chernyakhovsk, Krasnoznamensk, Neman, Ozersk, Primorsk, Svetlogorsk are well developed. The region consists of seven urban districts, two cities and twelve districts. The main peoples living in this territory are Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Armenians and Germans.
Today the Kaliningrad region ranks first in the extraction of amber, storing in its bowels about ninety percent of its world reserves.
Interesting places of modern East Prussia
And although today the map of East Prussia has been changed beyond recognition, the lands with the towns and villages located on them still preserve the memory of the past. The spirit of the disappeared great country is still felt in the present Kaliningrad region in cities named Tapiau and Taplaken, Insterburg and Tilsit, Ragnit and Waldau.
Tours are popular with tourists at the Georgenburg stud farm. It existed at the beginning of the thirteenth century. The Georgenburg fortress was a haven for German knights and crusaders, whose main business was horse breeding.
The churches built in the fourteenth century (in the former cities of Heiligenwald and Arnau), as well as churches of the sixteenth century on the territory of the former city of Tapiau, are still quite well preserved. These majestic buildings constantly remind people of the old days of the prosperity of the Teutonic Order.
Knight's castles
The land, rich in amber reserves, has attracted German conquerors since the earliest times. In the thirteenth century, the Polish princes, together with gradually seized these possessions and rebuilt numerous castles on them. The remains of some of them, being architectural monuments, and today make an indelible impression on contemporaries. The largest number of knightly castles were erected in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The captured Prussian rampart-earth fortresses served as their place of construction. When building the castles, the traditions in the style of the Order's Gothic architecture of the late Middle Ages were surely followed. In addition, all buildings corresponded to a single plan for their construction. Nowadays, an unusual is open in the ancient
The settlement of Nizovye is very popular among residents and guests. It houses a unique museum of local lore with old cellars. Having visited it, we can say with confidence that the whole history of East Prussia flashes before our eyes, from the time of the ancient Prussians to the era of Soviet settlers.
Plan
Introduction
1. History
1.1 V-XIII centuries
1.2 1232-1525: Teutonic Order
1.3 1525-1701: Duchy of Prussia
1.4 1701-1772: Kingdom of Prussia
1.5 1772-1945: Province of East Prussia
1.5.1 1919-1945
1.6 After 1945
East Prussia
Introduction
East Prussia (German. Ostpreußen, Polish. Prusy Wschodnie, lit. Rytų Prūsija) is a province of Prussia. Former member North German Confederation, considered granary(it. Kornkammer) Of the German Empire. The core of Prussia with its capital city of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad) now includes the Kaliningrad region (Russia). The peripheral territories, which make up more than two-thirds of the former German province, liquidated in accordance with the decision of the Potsdam Conference, are governed by Lithuania and Poland.
1. History
1.1. V-XIII centuries
Until the 13th century, the territory of East Prussia was inhabited by the Prussians. Their appearance is attributed to the 5th-6th centuries. The first settlements of the Prussians arose on the coast of the present Kaliningrad Bay. In the era of "migration of peoples", up to the 9th century, the Prussians migrated westward to the lower reaches of the Vistula.
In the XIII century, this territory was captured by the Teutonic Order.
1.2. 1232-1525: Teutonic Order
In 1225, the Polish prince Konrad I of Mazovia asked for help from the Teutonic knights in the fight against the Prussians, promising them the possession of the cities of Kulm and Dobryn, as well as the preservation of the occupied territories. In 1232, the Teutonic Knights arrived in Poland.
As they moved east, the Crusaders immediately consolidated their success by building a fortress or castle. In 1239, the first castle on the territory of the future East Prussia was founded - Balga.
On July 4, 1255, Koenigsberg was founded by the Master of the Teutonic Order Peppo Ostern von Wertheint.
The XIV-XV centuries are the period of the rise of the Order, its treasury was considered the richest in the world. At this time, he settled the sparsely populated territory of Prussia with Germans, creating cities and villages here.
V XV-XVI centuries The order took part in several wars with the Polish-Lithuanian alliance, which arose in 1386. In 1410, during the so-called " The great war»1409-1411, the order's army suffered a major defeat at the Battle of Tannenberg. In February 1412, a peace treaty was signed in Torne (Torun), in accordance with which the parties decided in territorial terms to return to the pre-war situation. However, after the Second Thorn Peace in 1466, the Order lost the territory, which was later called West Prussia, and Ermlandia. The third war (1519-1521) was never over, but it finally weakened the order state.
1.3. 1525-1701: Duchy of Prussia
In 1525, the Grand Master of Prussia, Albrecht Margrave von Brandenburg-Ansbach, converted to the Protestant faith, secularized the territories of the former order state with their capital in Königsberg. Albrecht proclaimed himself the first Duke of Prussia.
Albrecht also reformed the entire state system. New government agencies were created. In 1544 a university was formed in Königsberg, modeled on other German universities.
Albrecht's reforms played a significant role in the development of Prussia, contributed to its economic and cultural development.
Albrecht died on March 20, 1568 at the age of 78 in the Tapiau castle (Gvardeysk) and was buried in the Königsberg Cathedral.
After his death, the situation in Prussia became complicated again. His son, Albrecht Friedrich, practically did not take part in the administration of the duchy. From 1575, regents from the German Hohenzollern dynasty began to rule over Prussia. In 1657, thanks to the policy of the Great Elector Friedrich Wilhelm, Königsberg and East Prussia were legally freed from Polish dependence and it was united with Brandenburg, which had been ravaged by the Thirty Years' War. This is how the Brandenburg-Prussian state was created with its capital in Berlin.
Friedrich Wilhelm's son, Elector of Brandenburg Frederick III, was crowned King of Prussia at Königsberg on January 18, 1701.
1.4. 1701-1772: Kingdom of Prussia
After the coronation, Frederick III began to be called King of Prussia Frederick I, and the name Prussia was assigned to the entire Brandenburg-Prussian state.
Thus, there was a kingdom of Prussia with its capital in Berlin and a province with the same name with its center in Königsberg. The Prussian province was separated from the main territory of the kingdom by Polish lands.
During Seven Years War Russian troops occupied East Prussia, whose citizens (including I. Kant) took an oath of allegiance to the Russian crown. Before the conclusion Peter III Peace with Prussia in Konigsberg on behalf of the Russian empress ruled by the governor-general:
Count V.V. Fermor (1758-1758)
Baron N.A.Korf (1758-1760)
V.I.Suvorov (1760-1761)
Count P.I. Panin (1761-1762)
F.M. Voeikov (1762)
1.5. 1772-1945: Province of East Prussia
In 1773, the Prussian province became known as East Prussia. Later, during the partitions of Poland, the province was divided into West and East Prussia. In 1824, both provinces were united and for 50 years the administrative system of the united province did not change. In January 1871, the unification of Germany and the formation of the German Empire took place. In 1878, the division of East and West Prussia took place and East Prussia became an independent province of the German Empire.
With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, East Prussia became the arena of hostilities. In August 1914, Russian troops crossed its border and within a short time occupied a significant part of the territory, including the cities of Tilsit, Gumbinnen, Insterburg, Friedland. However, the East Prussian operation ended unsuccessfully for the Russians. The Germans rallied and drove the Russian troops back, and in 1915 they managed to move forward into Russian territory (for more details see: Campania 1915).
1919-1945 years
After Germany's defeat in World War I, under pressure from the victorious countries (USA, France, Great Britain), the country was forced to cede a number of its territories in the lower reaches of the Vistula River, plus a 71-kilometer stretch of the Baltic Sea coast to Poland, which thus gained access to the Baltic sea and, accordingly, isolated (at least overland) the territory of East Prussia, which turned into a German semi-exclave. The area was ceded to Poland after World War I by the Treaty of Versailles and formed the Pomeranian Voivodeship (1919-1939). The territories transferred to Poland, however, were inhabited mainly by Poles (80.9% of the population) and in the terminology of those years they were called the Polish Corridor, which was of extremely important strategic importance for both countries. A special administrative unit was also separated from East Prussia - a subject of international law under the control of the League of Nations - the Free City of Danzig, then 95% German-speaking (modern Polish Gdansk). On the other hand, north of the Neman River, East Prussia lost the city of Memel (present-day Klaipeda, Lithuania), also predominantly German-speaking. These losses served as a pretext for the growth of revisionism and revanchism in Germany itself and was one of the reasons for the outbreak of World War II.
1.6. After 1945
By the decision of the Potsdam Conference, Prussia was liquidated as public education... East Prussia was divided between the Soviet Union and Poland. The Soviet Union, together with the capital Königsberg (which was renamed Kaliningrad), included one third of East Prussia, on whose territory the Kaliningrad region was created. A small part, which included part of the Curonian Spit and the city of Klaipeda ( former town Memel, it. Memel, "Klaipeda region"), was transferred to the Lithuanian SSR.
All settlements and many geographical objects (rivers, bays of the Baltic Sea) b. East Prussia were renamed, replacing German names to Russians.
Provinces of Prussia
long time: East Prussia | West Prussia | Province of Brandenburg | Pomerania | Province of Posen | Province of Saxony | Province of Silesia | Province of Westphalia | Rhine province | Hohenzollern Lands | Province of Schleswig-Holstein, Province of Hanover, Hesse-Nassau (1866/68)
disbanded: district Netze, South Prussia, New East Prussia, New Silesia (1807) | Province of the Grand Duchy of Lower Rhine, United Duchies of Julich-Cleve-Berg (1822) | Province of Prussia (1878)
created: Lower Silesia, Upper Silesia (1919) | Posen-West Prussia border mark (1922) | Halle-Merseburg, Kurhessen Province, Magdeburg Province, Nassau Province (1944)
I think that many residents of the Kaliningrad region, however, like many Poles, have repeatedly asked themselves the question - why the border between Poland and the Kaliningrad region passes exactly this way and not otherwise? In this article we will try to understand how the border between Poland and the Soviet Union was formed on the territory of the former East Prussia.
Those who are at least a little versed in history know and remember that before the start of the First World War, Russian and German Empire had, and partly it ran about the same as the current border of the Russian Federation with the Republic of Lithuania.
Then, as a result of the events associated with the coming to power of the Bolsheviks in 1917 and a separate peace with Germany in 1918, the Russian Empire collapsed, its borders changed significantly, and certain territories that were once part of it received their statehood. This is exactly what happened, in particular, with Poland, which regained its independence in 1918. In the same year, 1918, the Lithuanians founded their own state.
Fragment of the map administrative division Russian Empire. 1914.
The results of the First World War, including the territorial losses of Germany, were enshrined in the Versailles Peace Treaty in 1919. In particular, significant territorial changes took place in Pomerania and West Prussia (the formation of the so-called "Polish corridor" and Danzig and its surroundings received the status of a "free city") and East Prussia (transfer of the Memel region (Memelland) under the control of the League of Nations).
Germany's territorial losses after the end of the First World War. Source: Wikipedia.
The following (very minor) border changes in the southern part of East Prussia were associated with the results carried out in Warmia and Mazury in July 1921. At its end, the population of most of the territories that Poland, counting on the fact that a significant number of ethnic Poles live on them, would not mind annexing to itself, to the young Polish Republic. In 1923, the borders in the East Prussian region changed again: in the Memel region, the Union of Lithuanian Riflemen raised an armed uprising, the result of which was the incorporation of Memelland into Lithuania on the basis of autonomy and the renaming of Memel into Klaipeda. 15 years later, at the end of 1938, elections to the city council were held in Klaipeda, as a result of which the pro-German parties (acting as a single list) won with an overwhelming advantage. After Lithuania was forced to accept an ultimatum from Germany on the return of Memelland to the Third Reich on March 22, 1939, Hitler arrived in Klaipeda-Memel on March 23 on the Deutschland cruiser, who then spoke to the residents from the balcony of the local theater and received a parade of Wehrmacht units. Thus, the last peaceful territorial acquisition of Germany before the outbreak of World War II was formalized.
The redistribution of borders in 1939 did not end with the annexation of the Memel region to Germany. On September 1, the Polish campaign of the Wehrmacht began (the same date is considered by many historians to be the date of the beginning of World War II), and two and a half weeks later, on September 17, units of the Red Army entered Poland. By the end of September 1939, the Polish government in exile was formed, and Poland, as an independent territorial entity, again ceased to exist.
Fragment of a map of the administrative division of the Soviet Union. 1933.
The borders in East Prussia again underwent significant changes. Germany, represented by the Third Reich, having occupied a significant part of the territory of the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, again received a common border with the heir to the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union.
The next, but not the last, change in the borders in the region we are considering took place after the end of the Second World War. It was based on decisions taken by the leaders of the Allies in Tehran in 1943, and then at the 1945 Yalta Conference. In accordance with these decisions, the future borders of Poland in the east, common with the USSR, were determined, first of all. Later, the Potsdam Agreement of 1945 finally determined that defeated Germany would lose the entire territory of East Prussia, part of which (about a third) would become Soviet, and most of it would become part of Poland.
By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 7, 1946, the Konigsberg region was formed on the territory of the Konigsberg Special Military District, created after the victory over Germany, which became part of the RSFSR. Three months later, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of July 4, 1946, Koenigsberg was renamed Kaliningrad, and the Koenigsberg region into Kaliningrad.
Below we offer the reader a translation of the article (with small abbreviations) by Wieslaw Kaliszuk, author and owner of the site “History of the Elblg Upland” (Historija Wysoczyzny Elbląskiej), about how the process of border formation wentbetween Poland and the USSR within the territory of the former East Prussia.
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The current Polish-Russian border begins near the town of Vizhainy ( Wiżajny) in the Suwałki region at the junction of three borders (Poland, Lithuania and Russia) and ends in the west, near the town of Nowa Karczma on the Vistula (Baltic) Spit. The border was formed by the Polish-Soviet agreement signed in Moscow on August 16, 1945 by the chairman of the Provisional Government of National Unity of the Polish Republic, Edward Osubka-Moravsky, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, Vyacheslav Molotov. The length of this section of the border is 210 km, which is approximately 5.8% of the total length of Poland's borders.
The decision on the post-war border of Poland was made by the Allies already in 1943 at a conference in Tehran (28.11.1943 - 01.12.1943). It was confirmed in 1945 by the Potsdam Agreement (07/17/1945 - 08/02/1945). In accordance with them, East Prussia was to be divided into the southern Polish part (Warmia and Mazury), and the northern Soviet part (about a third of the former territory of East Prussia), which received the name "Konigsberg Special Military District" (KOVO) from June 10, 1945. From 07/09/1945 to 02/04/1946, the leadership of KOVO was entrusted to Colonel-General K.N. Galitsky. Prior to this, the leadership of this part of East Prussia captured by Soviet troops was carried out by the Military Council of the 3rd Belorussian Front. The military commandant of this territory, Major General M.A. Pronin, appointed to this position on 06/13/1945 already on 07/09/1945, transferred all administrative, economic and military powers to General Galitsky. In the period from 03.11.1945 to 04.01.1946, Major General B.P. Trofimov, who from 05/24/1946 to 07/05/1947 served as head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Konigsberg / Kaliningrad region. Prior to that, Colonel-General V.S. Abakumov.
At the end of 1945, the Soviet part of East Prussia was divided into 15 administrative regions. Formally, the Königsberg region was formed on April 7, 1946 as part of the RSFSR, and on July 4, 1946, with the renaming of Königsberg to Kaliningrad, the region was also renamed Kaliningrad. On September 7, 1946, a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was issued on the administrative-territorial structure of the Kaliningrad region.
"Curzon Line" and Poland's borders after the end of World War II. Source: Wikipedia.
The decision to move the eastern border to the west (approximately to the "Curzon line") and "territorial compensation" (Poland lost 175 667 in the east square kilometers its territory as of September 1, 1939) was adopted without the participation of the Poles by the leaders of the "big three" - Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin during a conference held from November 28 to December 1, 1943 in Tehran. Churchill had to convey to the Polish government in exile all the "advantages" of this decision. During the Potsdam Conference (July 17 - August 2, 1945) Joseph Stalin put forward a proposal to establish Poland's western border along the Oder - Neisse line. Poland's "friend" Winston Churchill refused to recognize Poland's new western borders, believing that "under the rule of the Soviets" it would become too strong due to the weakening of Germany, while not opposing Poland's loss of eastern territories.
Border options between Poland and the Kaliningrad region.
Even before the conquest of East Prussia, the Moscow authorities (read "Stalin") defined the political boundaries in this region. Already on July 27, 1944, the future Polish border was discussed at a secret meeting with the Polish Committee for People's Liberation (PKNO). The first draft of the borders on the territory of East Prussia was presented to the PKNO The State Committee Defense of the USSR (GKO USSR) February 20, 1945. In Tehran, Stalin drew in front of his allies the outlines of future borders on the territory of East Prussia. The border with Poland was to run from west to east directly south of Königsberg along the Pregel and Pissa rivers (about 30 km north of the current Polish border). The project was much more profitable for Poland. She would receive the entire territory of the Vistula (Baltic) Spit and the city of Heiligenbeil (Heiligenbeil, now Mamonovo), Ludwigsort (Ludwigsort, now Ladushkin), Preußisch Eylau, now Bagrationovsk), Friedland (Friedland, now Pravemdinsk) (Darkehmen, after 1938 - Angerapp, now Ozersk), Gerdauen (now Zheleznodorozhny), Nordenburg (Nordenburg, now Krylovo). Nevertheless, all cities, regardless of which of the banks of the Pregel or Pissa they are located on, will then be included in the USSR. Despite the fact that Koenigsberg was supposed to move to the USSR, its location near the future border would not have prevented Poland from using the exit from the Frisches Hough Bay (now the Vistula / Kaliningrad Bay) to the Baltic Sea together with the USSR. Stalin wrote to Churchill in a letter dated February 4, 1944 that the Soviet Union plans to annex the northeastern part of East Prussia, including Konigsberg, since the USSR would like to receive an ice-free port on the Baltic Sea. Stalin in the same year mentioned this more than once in communication with both Churchill and the British Foreign Minister Anthony Eden, as well as during a Moscow meeting (10/12/1944) with the Prime Minister of the Polish government in exile Stanislav Mikolajczyk. The same issue was raised during the meetings (from September 28 to October 3, 1944) with the delegation of the Krajowa Rada Narodowa (KRN, Krajowa Rada Narodowa - a political organization created during the Second World War from various Polish parties and which was planned to subsequently be transformed into parliament .- admin) and PKNO, organizations opposed to the London-based Polish government-in-exile. The Polish government in exile reacted negatively to Stalin's claims, pointing out the possible negative consequences of Koenigsberg's inclusion in the USSR. On November 22, 1944, in London, at a meeting of the Coordination Committee, consisting of representatives of the four parties that make up the government in exile, it was decided not to accept the Allied diktat, including the recognition of borders along the "Curzon Line".
Map showing variants of the Curzon Line drawn up for the 1943 Tehran Allied Conference.
The draft borders, proposed in February 1945, were known only to the State Defense Committee of the USSR and the Provisional Government of the Polish Republic (VPPR), which was transformed from the PKNO, which ceased its activity on December 31, 1944. At the Potsdam Conference, it was decided that East Prussia would be divided between Poland and the Soviet Union, but the final demarcation of the border was postponed until the next conference, already in Peaceful time... The future border was only outlined, which was to begin at the junction of Poland, the Lithuanian SSR and East Prussia, and pass 4 km north of Goldap, 7 km north of Brausberg (Brausberg, now Braniewo) and end on the Vistula (Baltic) spit about 3 km north of the current village of Nova Karchma. The position of the future border on the same conditions was also discussed at a meeting in Moscow on August 16, 1945. There were no other agreements on the passage of the future border the way it is now.
By the way, Poland has historical right the entire territory of the former East Prussia. Royal Prussia and Warmia ceded to Prussia as a result of the First Partition of Poland (1772), and the Polish crown lost its fief rights to the Duchy of Prussia according to the Velauska-Bydgoszcz treatises (and the political shortsightedness of King Jan Casimir), agreed in Velau on September 19, 1657, and ratified in Bydgoszcz November 5-6. In accordance with them, Elector Friedrich Wilhelm I (1620 - 1688) and all his descendants in the male line received sovereignty from Poland. In the event that the male line of the Brandenburg Hohenzollerns was interrupted, the Duchy was again to retreat under the Polish crown.
The Soviet Union, supporting the interests of Poland in the west (east of the Oder-Neisse line), created a new Polish satellite state. It should be noted that Stalin acted primarily in self-interest... The desire to move the borders of Poland under his control as far west as possible was the result of a simple calculation: the western border of Poland will be at the same time the border of the USSR's sphere of influence, at least until the fate of Germany becomes clear. Nevertheless, violations of the agreements on the future border between Poland and the USSR were the result of the subordinate position of the Polish People's Republic.
Agreement on Polish-Soviet state border was signed in Moscow on August 16, 1945. The change in the preliminary agreements on the border on the territory of the former East Prussia in favor of the USSR and the consent of the United Kingdom and the United States to these actions undoubtedly indicate their unwillingness to territorially strengthen Poland, doomed to Sovietization.
After the adjustment, the border between Poland and the USSR was to pass along the northern borders of the former administrative regions of East Prussia (krays. - admin) Heiligenbeil, Preussisch-Eylau, Bartenstein (now Bartoszyce), Gerdauen, Darkemen and Goldap, about 20 km north of the current border. But already in September-October 1945, the situation changed dramatically. In some areas, the border moved arbitrarily by the decision of the commanders of individual units Soviet army... Allegedly, Stalin himself controlled the passage of the border in this region. For the Polish side, it came as a complete surprise to the eviction of the local Polish administration and population from the cities and villages already inhabited and taken under Polish control. Since many settlements were already inhabited by Polish settlers, it came to the point that a Pole, leaving in the morning for work, could find out upon his return that his house was already on the territory of the USSR.
Władysław Gomulka, at that time Polish Minister for Returned Lands (Returned Lands (Ziemie Odzyskane) is a common name for territories that belonged to the Third Reich until 1939, and were transferred after the end of World War II to Poland by decisions of the Yalta and Potsdam conferences, as well as the results of bilateral agreements between Poland and the USSR. admin), noted:
“In the first days of September (1945), the facts of unauthorized violation of the northern border of the Mazur region by the Soviet army authorities were recorded in the territories of the Gerdauen, Bartenstein and Darkemen districts. The border line, defined at that time, was moved into the interior of the Polish territory at a distance of 12-14 km. "
A striking example of the unilateral and unauthorized change of the border (12-14 km south of the agreed line) by the Soviet army authorities is the Gerdauen region, where the border was changed after the delineation act signed by the two sides on July 15, 1945. Commissioner for the Mazury District (Colonel Jakub Pravin - Jakub Prawin, 1901-1957 - member of the Communist Party of Poland, brigadier general of the Polish Army, statesman; He was the plenipotentiary representative of the Polish government at the headquarters of the 3rd Belorussian Front, then the government representative in the Warmia-Mazury region, the head of the administration of this district, and from May 23 to November 1945 the first voivode of the Olsztyn Voivodeship. - admin) was informed in writing on 4 September that Soviet authorities the order was given to the Gerdauen elder Jan Kashinsky to immediately leave local administration and resettle the Polish civilian population. The next day (September 5), representatives of J. Pravin (Zygmunt Valevich, Tadeusz Smolik and Tadeusz Lewandowski) expressed a verbal protest against such orders to representatives of the Soviet military administration in Gerdauen, Lieutenant Colonel Shadrin and Captain Zakroev. In response, they were told that the Polish side would be notified in advance of any changes to the border. In this area, the Soviet military leadership began to evict the German civilian population, while barring access to these territories for Polish settlers. In this regard, a protest was sent from Nordenburg to the District Prosecutor's Office in Olsztyn (Allenstein) on 11 September. This indicates that as early as September 1945, this territory was Polish.
A similar situation was in the Bartenstein (Bartoszyce) district, whose headman received all the acceptance documents on July 7, 1945, and already on September 14, the Soviet military authorities issued an order to free the territories around the villages of Schönbruch and Klingenberg ( Klingenberg). Despite the protests of the Polish side (09.16.1945), both territories were ceded to the USSR.
In the Preussisch-Eylau area, the military commandant, Major Malakhov, on June 27, 1945, transferred all powers to the elder Pyotr Gagatko, but already on October 16, the head of the Soviet border troops in this area, Colonel Golovkin, informed the elder about the transfer of the border a kilometer south of Preussisch-Eylau. Despite the protests of the Poles (10/17/1945), the border was pushed back. On December 12, 1945, on behalf of Pravin's deputy Jerzy Boerski, the burgomaster of Preussisch-Eylau freed city administration and handed it over to the Soviet authorities.
In connection with the unauthorized actions of the Soviet side to transfer the border, Yakub Pravin repeatedly (September 13, October 7, 17, 30, November 6, 1945) appealed to central authorities to Warsaw with a request to influence the leadership of the Northern Group of Forces of the Soviet Army. The protest was also sent to the representative of the Server Group of Forces in the Masurian District, Major Yolkin. But all of Pravin's calls had no effect.
The result of arbitrary border adjustments not in favor of the Polish side in the northern part of the Mazury Region was that the borders of almost all northern counties (powiat - district. - admin) were changed.
Bronislav Saluda, a researcher of this problem from Olsztyn, noted:
“... subsequent adjustments to the border line could lead to the fact that some of the villages already occupied by the population could be on Soviet territory and the labor of settlers in its arrangement was wasted. In addition, it happened that the border separated a residential building from the outbuildings or land plot assigned to it. In Shchurkovo it happened that the border passed through a cattle shed. The Soviet military administration responded to complaints from the population that the loss of land here would be compensated for by land on the Polish-German border. "
The exit to the Baltic Sea from the Vistula Lagoon was blocked by the Soviet Union, and the final demarcation of the border on the Vistula (Baltic) Spit was carried out only in 1958.
According to some historians, in exchange for the consent of the Allied leaders (Roosevelt and Churchill) to include the northern part of East Prussia with Koenigsberg in the Soviet Union, Stalin proposed to transfer Bialystok, Podlasie, Chelm and Przemysl to Poland.
In April 1946, the official demarcation of the Polish-Soviet border on the territory of the former East Prussia took place. But she did not put an end to changing the border in this region. Until February 15, 1956, there were 16 more border adjustments in favor of the Kaliningrad region. In reality, the borders were moved 30 km to the south from the initial draft of the border crossing, presented in Moscow by the USSR State Defense Committee for consideration by the PKNO. Even in 1956, when the influence of Stalinism on Poland weakened, the Soviet country “threatened” the Poles with “adjusting” the borders.
On April 29, 1956, the USSR offered the Polish People's Republic(Poland) to resolve the issue of the temporary state of the border within the Kaliningrad region, which has been preserved since 1945. The border treaty was signed in Moscow on March 5, 1957. Poland ratified this treaty on April 18, 1957, and on May 4 of the same year, an exchange of ratified documents took place. After a few more minor adjustments, in 1958 the border was determined on the ground and with the installation of border pillars.
The Vistula (Kaliningrad) Lagoon (838 sq. Km) was divided between Poland (328 sq. Km) and the Soviet Union. Poland, contrary to the original plans, found itself cut off from the outlet from the bay to the Baltic Sea, which led to the disruption of the once established shipping routes: the Polish part of the Vistula Lagoon became a "dead sea". The "naval blockade" of Elblag, Tolkmitzko, Frombork and Braniewo also affected the development of these cities. Given that an additional protocol was attached to the agreement of July 27, 1944, which stated that peaceful ships would be allowed free exit through the Pilau Strait to the Baltic Sea.
The final border passed through the iron and car roads, channels, settlements and even subsidiary farms. For centuries, the emerging single geographic, political and economic territory has been arbitrarily dismembered. The border passed through the territory of six former krais.
Polish-Soviet border in East Prussia. Yellow color indicates a variant of the border for February 1945; blue - for August 1945, red - the real border between Poland and the Kaliningrad region.
It is believed that as a result of numerous border adjustments, Poland received less than 1125 sq. km of territory. The line drawn line has led to numerous negative consequences. For example, between Braniewo and Goldap, out of 13 roads that once existed, 10 turned out to be cut by the border, between Sempopol and Kaliningrad, 30 out of 32 roads were violated. The unfinished Mazur Canal was also cut in half. Numerous power lines and telephone connection... All this could not but lead to a deterioration of the economic situation in the settlements adjacent to the border: who wants to live in a settlement whose belonging is not determined? There was a fear that the Soviet side might once again move the border to the south. Some more or less serious settlement of these places by migrants began only in the summer of 1947, during the forcible resettlement of thousands of Ukrainians to these regions during the operation "Vistula".
The border, practically drawn from west to east along the latitude, led to the fact that the economic situation did not improve throughout the entire territory from Goldap to Elblag, although Elbing, which became part of Poland, was once the largest and most economically developed city (after Königsberg ) in East Prussia. New capital Olsztyn became the region, although until the end of the 1960s it was less populated and less developed economically than Elblag. The negative role of the final partition of East Prussia affected the indigenous population of this region - the Mazurs. All this significantly delayed the economic development of the entire region.
Fragment of a map of the administrative divisions of Poland. 1945 year. Source: Elbląska Biblioteka Cyfrowa.
Legend for the above map. The dotted line is the border between Poland and the Kaliningrad region under the agreement of 08.16.1945; solid line - voivodeship boundaries; dot-dotted line - district borders.
The option of drawing the border using a ruler (a rare case in Europe) was later often used for the gaining independence of African countries.
The current length of the border between Poland and the Kaliningrad region (since 1991, the border with the Russian Federation) is 232.4 km. This, including, 9.5 km of the water border and 835 m of the land border on the Baltic Spit.
Two voivodeships have a common border with the Kaliningrad region: Pomorskie and Warmia-Mazurskie, and six poviats: Novodvorskiy (on the Vistula Spit), Braniewski, Bartoszycky, Kenshynskiy, Vengorzhevskiy and Goldapskiy.
There are border crossings on the border: 6 land (road Gronovo - Mamonovo, Grzechotki - Mamonovoi II, Bezledy - Bagrationovsk, Goldap - Gusev; railway Braniewo - Mamonovo, Skandava - Zheleznodorozhny) and 2 sea ones.
On July 17, 1985 in Moscow, an agreement was signed between Poland and the Soviet Union on the delimitation of territorial waters, economic zones, zones marine fisheries and the continental shelf of the Baltic Sea.
The western border of Poland was recognized by the German Democratic Republic by the treaty of July 6, 1950, by the Federal Republic of Germany, the Polish border was recognized by the treaty of December 7, 1970 (paragraph 3 of Article I of this treaty states that the parties do not have any territorial claims to each other and waive any claims in the future.However, before the unification of Germany and the signing of the Polish-German border treaty on November 14, 1990, the Federal Republic of Germany officially declared that the German lands ceded to Poland after the Second World War were in the “temporary possession of the Polish administration ".
The Russian enclave on the territory of the former East Prussia - the Kaliningrad region - still does not have an international legal status. After World War II, the victorious powers agreed to transfer Koenigsberg to the jurisdiction of the Soviet Union, but only before the signing of an agreement in accordance with international law, which, ultimately, will determine the status of this territory. An international treaty with Germany was signed only in 1990. I got in the way of signing it before cold war and Germany, divided into two states. And although Germany officially renounced claims to the Kaliningrad region, Russia has not formalized its formal sovereignty over this territory.
As early as November 1939, the Polish government-in-exile was considering incorporating the entire East Prussia into Poland after the end of the war. Also in November 1943, the Polish ambassador Edward Raczynski, in a memorandum handed over to the British authorities, among other things, mentioned the desire to include all of East Prussia in Poland.
Schönbruch (now Szczurkowo / Schurkovo) is a Polish settlement located at the very border with the Kaliningrad region. During the formation of the border, part of Schönbruch ended up on Soviet territory, part on Polish. The settlement on the Soviet maps was designated as Shirokoe (now it does not exist). It was not possible to find out whether Shirokoye was inhabited.
Klingenberg (now Ostre Bardo / Ostre Bardo) is a Polish settlement a few kilometers east of Shchurkovo. It is located at the very border with the Kaliningrad region. ( admin)
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It seems to us that it would be appropriate to cite the texts of some official documents, which formed the basis of the process for the division of East Prussia and the delimitation of the territories ceded to the Soviet Union and Poland, and which were mentioned in the above article by V. Kalishuk.
Excerpts from the Materials of the Crimean (Yalta) Conference of the Leaders of the Three Allied Powers - USSR, USA and Great Britain
We have gathered for the Crimean Conference to resolve our differences on the Polish question. We have fully discussed all aspects of the Polish question. We reaffirmed our common desire to see a strong, free, independent and democratic Poland established, and as a result of our negotiations, we agreed on the conditions under which the new Provisional Polish Government of National Unity would be formed in such a way as to gain recognition from the three main powers.
The following agreement was reached:
“A new situation has been created in Poland as a result of complete liberation by her Red Army. This requires the creation of a Temporary Polish Government, which would have had a broader base than was possible before, until the recent liberation of the western part of Poland. The Provisional Government currently operating in Poland must therefore be reorganized on a broader democratic basis with the inclusion of democratic leaders from Poland itself and Poles from abroad. This new government would then be called the Polish Provisional Government of National Unity.
V.M. Molotov, Mr. W.A. Harriman and Sir Archibald K. Kerr are authorized to consult in Moscow as a Commission primarily with members of the present Provisional Government and with other Polish democratic leaders both from Poland itself and from borders, meaning the reorganization of the current Government on the basis indicated above. This Polish Provisional Government of National Unity must commit to holding free and unhindered elections as soon as possible on the basis of universal suffrage by secret ballot. In this election, all anti-Nazi and democratic parties must be eligible to participate and nominate candidates.
When the Polish Provisional Government of National Unity is properly formed in accordance (270) with the above, the Government of the USSR, which currently maintains diplomatic relations with the current Provisional Government of Poland, the Government of the United Kingdom and the US Government will establish diplomatic relations with the new Polish Provisional Government of National Unity. and will exchange ambassadors, according to whose reports the respective governments will be informed about the situation in Poland.
The Heads of the Three Governments believe that the eastern border of Poland should go along the Curzon line, with deviations from it in some areas from five to eight kilometers in favor of Poland. The Heads of the Three Governments acknowledge that Poland should receive substantial gains in territory in the North and in the West. They believe that the opinion of the new Polish Government of National Unity will be asked about the size of these increments in due course, and that after that the final determination of Poland's western border will be postponed until the peace conference. "
Winston S. Churchill
Franklin D. Roosevelt
13. Former Gumbinen County Administration.
But since that time there is more than enough architecture here! Moreover, many small towns are well preserved:
14. Street in Chernyakhovsk (Insterburg)
15. Kurhaus in Zelenogradsk (Krantz)
The neo-Gothic style appears in the chirchs, which is so familiar in Russia. And how much the neo-Gothic church is rougher than the Gothic ...
16. Catholic Church of the Holy Family (1906-07), now the Philharmonic, in Kaliningrad.
However, these young churches are far from the brightest elements in the landscapes of Prussian cities. The grandiose barracks, the heirs of the Teutonic castles, seem to hint that "Prussian militarism" is by no means an empty cliché.
17. Barracks in Sovetsk.
And Koenigsberg is fortified simply unprecedented - I have not yet seen such a large fortress of Novy Vrenmya, except perhaps the St. Petersburg sea forts. And if the famous gate was a purely decorative element:
18. Rossgarten Gate
Then the towers and bastions of the Inner Rim look menacing:
19. Wrangel Tower
And the grandiose forts of the Outer Rim are theirs the last battle adopted in the spring of 1945 ... and already belonged to our military until very recently:
20. Third fort.
It is, however, clear. Having finished "collecting lands", Prussia discovered that in the west there is nothing good in general, but in the east there is black soil and empty land, so it is not surprising that the Königsberg region was rapidly arming itself in the 19th century. And here another point is interesting: with the naked eye you can see how a hundred years ago Germany was a more developed country than Russia. It is, of course, even now more - but it seems that for a hundred years this chasm at least has not widened. Bruchastka, even in the villages, has an unspeakably more developed infrastructure, but for me the main evidence of what was said was the schools.
They are huge, very beautiful, and extremely numerous. They are the same dominants as the churches. Here you can remember that in St. Petersburg best schools in the 18-19th centuries it was held by the Germans.
Gymnasiums, of course, were very noticeable in Russia too ... but still not so much. And what interiors there are!
And Germany was also very, very industrial. In principle, the Germans were the legislators of industry in the Middle Ages, then they lagged behind the British and Russians, but under the Second Reich they quickly made up for it. The largest industrialists in Europe at the beginning of the twentieth century were the British Armstrongs, followed by the Germans Krupp, and only behind them were the Russian Putilovs. Ruhr, Silesia, Dresden and Hamburg ... Prussia, of course, was far from industrial giants, but something old industrial can be seen here in almost every city.
Moreover, the German factories themselves may not have been larger or more numerous than the Russian ones ... but they are distinguished by much more capital pipes. Even a hundred years ago, the Germans did not care how to breathe.
Although, in general, Prussia was an agricultural region, the breadbasket of all Germany and the "gateway" of Russian grain imports. Most of her "factories" are industrial mills:
And here it is time to move on to perhaps the main impression of the Kaliningrad region - the German architecture itself, as it is. Now I understand that the German handwriting in architecture cannot be confused with anything. Take a look at these pictures and try to understand why - and I will write about it below.
taiohara formulates it something like this: in architecture there are, as it were, two principles - literary and musical. Literature is, let's say, plot and syllable. In Russia, Austria-Hungary, Poland, really everyone old house as if telling a story. Well, the music of architecture is its rhythm. German houses are amazingly rhythmic, they generally don't tell anything, but you naturally listen to them with your eyes. The German city is the melody of clatter. And it is no coincidence that Bach, Beethoven, Mozart emerged from the Germans and Austrians ...
Another German "trick" I would call the attitude to detail. At first glance, Germanic architecture is very austere, you cannot see such a riot of details as in Austria-Hungary. But a favorite German trick is one very weighty detail, inscribed in a strict house.
Perhaps this goes back to the Hanseatic times, when there were no postal addresses yet, and every house had a name and a symbolic sculpture. In the house-melody it is neither the musician performing it, nor the final chord, nor just the name of the song.
The Germans managed to build something like that even into completely utilitarian buildings. But - a highlight:
The Germans have always lived in extreme scarcity of resources, and the only way to get the most out of the minimum is to structure the minimum. Hence - and ordnung, and music, and philosophy.
And all this gained particular relevance in "Weimar" Germany - ravaged by the war and put in a debt hole. Moscow of the 1920s is considered the birthplace of modern architecture ... but not the only homeland. Back in 1907, the Werkbund appeared - a union of architects and industrialists, designed to unite architecture and industrial progress, in fact, functionalism began with this. The next step was the Bauhaus - Higher School of Construction, which opened in 1919 in Weimar, and in 1925 relocated to Dessau. Its influence on the world of the twentieth century was tremendous, but such buildings were built by its graduates in the 1920s and 1930s. The name Bauhaus stuck to all this architectural style - the German analogue of constructivism.
Bauhaus students studied music, painted to different rhythms, the cornerstone was the interaction of simple forms. How to make a snowflake from rectangles. The Bauhaus has become an international phenomenon. Soviet avant-gardists with the Germans quickly found mutual language and the two schools interacted. Let's just say: the avant-garde side of modern architecture emerged from Moscow, the functional side from the Bauhaus.
37. right
And not only the Bauhaus. Then someone told me just now that in Germany many buildings look like Stalin's, as if hinting at the well-known hypothetical sign of equality. No, that's not the point - we just learned from each other.
Both we and the Germans were looking for the formula of the "ideal city" then. The Germans built a "garden city", examples of which have survived in Königsberg - Amalienau and Maraunienhof. We were building a social city - according to the samples of this genre, it is time for me to introduce a separate tag. The Germans also participated in this - in Magnitogorsk, Orsk (instead of a link - hello to the KGB of Kazakhstan!) And many other places. It seems to me that we have advanced further in the construction of a "district for workers", the Germans - in the construction of a "district for all". This is what a German mutton looks like:
Another concept is "color building". Very recognizable architecture of residential areas in European cities:
But few people know that the first example of this style is located on the outskirts of Chernyakhovsk (Insterburg) - "Colorful row" by architect Hans Scharun (1921-24):
This was the name of the exhibition that took place in 1923 at the Mannheim Art Museum, although it originated before the First World War. Wikipedia quotes Gustav Hartlaub, director of the museum and organizer of this exhibition: “It [this style] was associated with the general mood of cynicism and resignation to fate that gripped the Germans after their bright hopes for the future were turned to dust (they found an outlet in Expressionism). Cynicism and resignation to fate were negative side"New materiality". Positive side was that the immediate reality was treated with heightened interest, since the artists had a desire to perceive real things as they are, without any idealizing or romantic filters. " Basically, this phenomenon encompassed sculpture and painting, but it also penetrated into architecture ... In general, very little is known about this style in Russia, a sensible selection of photographs was found in the English Wikipedia, and there you can appreciate that this style is very diverse. But those of his samples that I met in Prussia, emotionally I find it monstrously gloomy. It is as if on every stone it is written - "do what you must, and come what may." In my perception, this is such a "black functionalism", the horror of the "world infected with logic".
Much was built in a similar gloomy style then. Railway stations:
And then Hitler came and said: "Germans! Get up! I will save you from new materiality!" (of course, this is not about art, but about its premises). The Bauhaus was closed as a hotbed of communism, and the "new materiality" was declared an art of degeneration. There are no large buildings of the Third Reich in the Kaliningrad region, but some idea is given, say, by the houses on Victory Square - of the whole variety of "Weimar" architecture, the fascists turned out to be the closest of all to something like this:
Hangars of the Luftwaffe base "Neityf" near Baltiysk. From here they flew to bomb us. This is how the Germans were left without Prussia.
And although, contrary to popular belief, East Prussia was the least loyal region of the Third Reich to the NSDAP, where the Nazis won only 34% of the vote in the 1932 elections (there are, however, and I don’t know which of them to believe), nevertheless it was Prussia has traditionally been a source of personnel for the German army. From Prussia came the flower of the officers of both the Second and the Third Reichs. The descendants of the Teutons still could not fight, and it is no coincidence that Prussia after the war was eliminated without a trace. I heard somewhere that when 2 million refugees from there came to Germany, they were not at all happy there: "You dragged us into this nightmare!" For half a century they were afraid to remember the German past of the Kaliningrad region, interest in the German heritage was perceived as almost secret fascism. For all my love for Soviet architecture, I have the feeling that in Kaliningrad under the Soviets they deliberately tried to build as ugly as possible.
However, new buildings here are no longer the same as in the rest of Russia. Someone is closer to neo-Gothic:
Someone - Bauhaus:
In the next part - about the German infrastructure. Railways and highways, airports, power lines.
FAR WEST
... Sketches, thanks, disclaimer.
.
East Prussia
... Outpost of the Crusaders.
An ode to German architecture.
German infrastructure.
Foreign Russia. Modern flavor.
Kaliningrad / Konigsberg.
The city that is.
Ghosts of Koenigsberg. Kneiphof.
Ghosts of Koenigsberg. Altstadt and Löbenicht.
Ghosts of Koenigsberg. Rosgarten and Tragheim.
Victory Square, or simply Square.
Koenigsberg transport.
Museum of the World Ocean.
Inner Königsberg ring. From Friedland Gate to Ploshchdi.
Inner Königsberg ring. From the market to the amber museum.
Inner Königsberg ring. From the amber museum to Pregolya.
Garden City Amalienau.
Rathof and Juditten.
Ponart.
Sambia.
Natangia, Warmia, Bartya.
Nadrovia, or Lithuania Minor.
Western Prussia(Westpreussen) is a Prussian province, bordered in the west by Brandenburg and Pomerania, in the north by the Baltic Sea, in the south by Poznan and Russia (Vistula provinces) and in the east by Eastern Poland, with which it was one province until 1878 Prussia. Space 25521 sq. km. Western Poland occupies part of the North German lowland, through which the hilly North German ridge passes here. The Vistula River cuts through this ridge with a wide, fertile valley. The main heights of the plateau: Karthaus with Mount Turmberg (331 m) and the Elbing Mountains (198 m).
The rivers: Vistula, dividing at the Montauerspice mountain into the Vistula and Nogat, and at Danzig into the Danzig and Elbing branches; on the right, the Vistula receives Drevenc and Ossa, and on the left: Schwarzwasser, Montau, Ferse and Motlau. Other rivers: Liebe, Elbing, Reda, Leba, Stolpe and Kyuddov. Lakes: Drauzen, Gezerikhskoe, Zorgenskoe, Tsarnovitskoe, Radaunskoe, Gros-Tsitenskoe, Muskendorfskoe, Feitskoe and Groß-Bettinskoe. Channels: Elbing-Oberland.
Climate: average annual temperature 7.6 °, Konits 6.6 °, Schoenberg (on the Korthaus plateau) 5.6 °. Annual precipitation is 50 cubic meters. m.
Population... In 1895 there were 1,494,360 people; Lutheran 702030, Catholics 758168 and Jews 20238. By nationality (1890): Poles 439577, Kashubians 53616, the rest are Germans. From 1886-1894 the resettlement commission to strengthen the German element here acquired 21890 hectares. land. Arable land and orchards 55.1%, meadows 6.4%, pastures 7.0%, forests 21.3%, the rest is inconvenient land. In 1895, 111.5 thousand tons of wheat, 311.8 thousand of rye, 93 thousand of barley, 170.8 thousand of oats, 1706 thousand of potatoes, 672 thousand of beetroot, 367 thousand of hay were harvested. tobacco 1685 thousand kg. 554 thousand large cattle, 1300 thousand small, 425 thousand pigs, 221 thousand horses. Significant poultry farming and fishing. Extraction of amber and peat. Industry is concentrated mainly in the cities: Danzig, Elbing, Dirschau and Thorn. Shipbuilding, sawmills, glass, distilleries and breweries. Trade is significant in the harbors of Danzig and Elbing. In 1896 the merchant fleet consisted of 69 vessels. Railways 1457 km. 13 gymnasiums, 4 real gymnasiums, two real schools, 19 gymnasiums, a commercial academy, an agricultural school, 6 teachers' seminaries, 3 institutes for the deaf and dumb, an institute for the blind, etc. Main city- Danzig. History - see Prussia (Duchy) and the Teutonic Order. Literature - see Prussia (kingdom).
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