Russia has an enclave surrounded by deadly enemies. Why have you never been independent?

When we open the map of Europe, we will find a small piece of land in the southeast corner of the Baltic Sea, which belongs to Russia. This place borders Poland and Lithuania, but it is thousands of miles away from Russia. This land is the famous Russian enclave-Kaliningrad.

Kaliningrad was originally a land of Germany. As early as 1255, it became the frontier of Teutonic knights against northern aliens. During Prussian rule, it was called Konigsberg. This land is not only the cultural center of Germany, but also regarded as one of the birthplaces of Germany. However, after World War II, the Soviet Union, the United States and Britain signed the Potsdam Proclamation, and Germany, the defeated country, had to cede this land to the Soviet Union.

After the Soviet Union got Konigsberg, it immediately built a military fortress here. 1946, this land officially became a state of the Russian Soviet Republic and was named after the late Soviet leader Kalinin. Because Germany gave up the idea of recovering the lost land in World War II, Kaliningrad has not been disturbed much under the rule of the Soviet Union. However, with the disintegration of the Soviet Union, an embarrassing problem emerged.

Kaliningrad, which was originally bordered by the Soviet Union, became an enclave because the three Baltic countries left the Soviet Union. After the formal disintegration of the Soviet Union, there was another Belarus between Kaliningrad and Russia. In this way, Kaliningrad is getting farther and farther away from Russia. What is even more embarrassing is that Kaliningrad stands alone on the Baltic Sea, but all the neighbors on the road have a deep hatred for Russia.

The first is the Baltic countries. During World War II, the Soviet Union annexed these three countries by despicable means, so that Lithuania and other three countries remained indifferent to the countries of the former Soviet Union until the disintegration of the Soviet Union. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, among the original members of 15, 12 formed the Commonwealth of Independent States, and the three Baltic countries were missing.

Followed by Poland, which is a feud with Russia. Several times in the history of Poland's national subjugation, all have the "credit" of the Russians. Far from saying, during World War II alone, the Russians made the Poles suffer a lot. Soviet troops not only occupied eastern Poland, but also made Katyn forest miserable and slaughtered countless Poles. After the war, the Soviet Union turned Poland into a puppet regime attached to itself, which made Poland experience the pain of national subjugation for half a century. The Soviet Union also engaged in ethnic migration in Poland, destroying the lives of Poles.

With the Baltic countries joining the European Union, Kaliningrad is in a more difficult situation. The connection between this enclave and the Russian mainland is almost only through the ocean. If Russians want to go to Kaliningrad by land, they even have to apply for visas twice, which is really more troublesome than going abroad.

However, even under the siege of the enemy, Kaliningrad has always been stable and has never been as independent as Chechnya. Why?

First, as early as the Soviet Union took over Kaliningrad, Stalin made a cruel decision. He expelled nearly 2 million Germans and immigrated Russians here. So there are few Germans in Kaliningrad today. Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians account for more than 95% of the total population of Kaliningrad. This ethnic composition also determines that Kaliningrad has no intention of rebelling.

Second, Kaliningrad has always been the most militarized area in the Soviet Union, with the Baltic Fleet as its headquarters. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Kaliningrad was of greater significance to Russia. It can provide Russia with a vast Baltic Sea estuary and is a frontier position bordering the west. Therefore, Russia must not give up this treasure.

Third, in order to promote the development of Kaliningrad and ease the relationship with the West. Russia has also formulated the "Hong Kong Plan" in Kaliningrad to stabilize and unite this enclave far from home by providing Kaliningrad with more preferential policies. Today, Kaliningrad has become an important link between Russia and the West.

For the above three reasons, although Kaliningrad is far away from Russia, it will still be loyal to their motherland.