2017 Vol. 8 №2

This article describes differences and contradictions in identifying the subject of Kaliningrad regional history. Some researchers and media interpret the term ‘Kaliningrad regional history’ as the history of the region per se and others as the whole scope of local history. The ‘History of West Russia: The Kaliningrad Region’, a secondary school discipline taught since 2006, presents an interesting case. The subject of the Kaliningrad regional history has no single definition since it is a matter of politics rather than historiography. The inability to produce such a definition stems from the uniqueness of the region’s geographical position and history. The region’s history was used extensively in the Soviet time for political and ideological purposes. The current confrontation between Russia and the West lends new urgency to the problem of teaching local history, ninety percent of which is the history of a territory that once belonged to Germany — today, a pillar of the EU and a member of NATO. The author examines whether it is reasonable to draw on international experience in patriotic education. The subject ‘History of West Russia: The Kaliningrad Region’ was taken off the school timetable. The article stresses the need to teach a course on East Prussian history and proposes to treat it as the regional aspect of universal history.

Part of East Prussia was ceded to the Soviet Union after the defeat of Nazi Germany. As a result, the local toponymy changed completely. The author analyses the documents from the State Archive of the Russian Federation, the Russian State Archives of Socio- Political History, and the State Archive of the Kaliningrad Region to trace the Russianisation of German toponyms. The decision to establish workers’ settlements in the Kaliningrad region was discussed in September 1946 — July 1947. Local authorities sought to create more settlements of the kind. However, the RSFSR leadership insisted on the establishment of one resort settlement and four workers’ villages. Numerous toponyms were proposed, many of them were changed several times. The only geographic name that was approved immediately by the Government of the RSFSR was Znamensk, since it incorporated the semantic root znamya (banner). The ideologically laden Komsomolsk was replaced with Zheleznodorozhny as a reference to the fact that most residents worked at the railway station. Another settlement was named Tchaikovsky but then was given the ideologically laden name Pionersky.

This article analyses Yu. N. Ivanov’s novel In a Besieged City, which was inspired by the author’s battlefield memories. Yu. N. Ivanov pictures the city as he saw it in April 1945. It is shown how descriptions of the works of architecture and art contribute to the artistic understanding of the history of Königsberg. The literary text based on what the author saw and experienced helps him to not only immerse himself in the past and relive it but also rewrite the past and change it to fit his concept of it.

A comparative analysis of the existence of the main characters in Yuri Ivanov’s Dances in the Crematorium and Michael Wieck’s The Decline of Königsberg demonstrates clear typological convergences. The common toposphere is Königsberg/Kaliningrad, which incorporates a wide range of toponym types and subtypes — the district of Amalienau, Hufen- Allee, Alte Pillauer Landstraße, Paradeplatz, Nordbahnhof, Tiergarten, Luisenwahl, Kneiphof, Pregel, Schlossteich to name just a few. The urbanonyms denoting the main characters’ places of residence are Lawsker Allee and Steffeckstraße (Ivanov) and Steinmetzstraße (Wieck). The works share common themes — memory, faith, physical constraints, the freedom of human spirit, moral and amorality, personal and collective responsibility, and the evil of totalitarian regimes and racial hatred. The analysis shows common motifs in the works, those of destiny, desperate situations, ordeals, and suffering. The texts have a similar structure combining reminiscences of the main characters with interactions between the past and the present. However, the two authors approach the problem of the existence of the main characters differently. Ivanov’s character associates the topos of the city with life and hope while Wieck’s character — with death and disillusionment. Nevertheless, both texts convey the authors’ humanistic attitude to the human being and the world.

Crimea holds a very special place in the biography of B. D. Grekov (1882—1953), an outstanding Russian historian and a fellow of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Crimea was his long-standing research interest and a place of work and leisure. Some of his years spent in Crimea were very productive, and others were hard and lean. This article presents archive materials and other publications to analyse the stages and episodes of the scholar’s life and oeuvre in Crimea.