The renaming campaign in Warmia and Masuria after World War II
Abstract
Using documents, the press, and studies of Polish scholars, this article analyses the problem of changing German toponyms during the remaining campaign in Warmia and Masuria in the early postwar years. The historical background, conditions, and principles of renaming settlements, natural objects, streets, and squares are identified and the practical problems of the renaming campaign are analysed. It is concluded that these processes were quite dissimilar in Poland and the USSR, which is explained by different historical pasts and different approaches to solving the problem of ‘appropriating’ the space of former East Prussia by the authorities and communities of the Masurian district of the Olsztyn voivodeship in Poland and the Kaliningrad region in the RSFSR.