This book explores how the Soviet Union, after capturing and annexing
the German East Prussian city of Königsberg in 1945 and renaming it
Kaliningrad, worked to transform the city into a model of Soviet
modernity. It examines how the Soviets expelled all the remaining German
people, repopulated the city and region with settlers from elsewhere in
the Soviet Union, destroyed the key remaining German buildings and began
building a model Soviet city, a physical manifestation of the societal
transformation brought about by communism. However, the book goes on to
show that over time many of the model Soviet buildings were uncompleted
and that the citizens, aware of their Polish and Lithuanian neighbours
to both the east and the west and appreciating their place in the wider
Baltic region, came to view themselves as something different from other
Soviet and Russian citizens. The book concludes by assessing present
developments as the people of Kaliningrad are increasingly rediscovering
the city's pre-Soviet past and forging a new identity for themselves on
their own terms.