All About Russias Exclave of Kaliningrad

All About Russia's Exclave of Kaliningrad Russias smallest oblast (region) of Kaliningrad is an exclave located 200 miles away from the border of Russia proper. Kaliningrad was a spoil of World War II, allocated from Germany to the Soviet Union at the Potsdam Conference that divided Europe between the allied powers in 1945. The oblast is a wedge-shaped piece of land along the Baltic Sea between Poland and Lithuania, approximately one-half the size of Belgium, 5,830 mi2 (15,100 km2). The oblasts primary and port city is also known as Kaliningrad. Founding Known as Konigsberg prior to Soviet occupation, the city was founded in 1255 near the mouth of the Pregolya River. The philosopher Immanuel Kant was born in Konigsberg in 1724. The capital of German East Prussia, Konigsberg was the home to a grand Prussian Royal Castle, destroyed along with much of the city in World War II. Konigsberg was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946 after Mikhail Kalinin, formal leader of the Soviet Union from 1919 until 1946. At the time, Germans living in the oblast were forced out, to be replaced with Soviet citizens. While there were early proposals to change the name of Kaliningrad back to Konigsberg, none were successful. Key History The ice-free port of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea was home to the Soviet Baltic fleet; during the Cold War 200,000 to 500,000 soldiers were stationed in the region. Today only 25,000 soldiers occupy Kaliningrad, an indicator of the reduction of the perceived threat from NATO countries. The USSR attempted to build a 22-story House of Soviets, the ugliest building on Russian soil, in Kaliningrad but the structure had been built on the property of the castle. Unfortunately, the castle contained many underground tunnels and the building began to slowly collapse though it still stands, unoccupied. After the fall of the USSR, neighboring Lithuania and former Soviet republics gained their independence, cutting Kaliningrad off from Russia. Kaliningrad was supposed to develop in the post-Soviet era into a Hong Kong of the Baltic but corruption keeps most investment away. South Korean-based Kia Motors has a factory in Kaliningrad. Railroads connect Kaliningrad to Russia through Lithuania and Belarus but importing food from Russia is not cost-effective. However, Kaliningrad is surrounded by European Union member-states, so trade on the wider market is indeed possible. Approximately 400,000 people live in metropolitan Kaliningrad and a total of nearly one million are in the oblast, which is approximately one-fifth forested.

Text types matrix Essays

Text types matrix Essays Text types matrix Essay Text types matrix Essay Text Type Context Purpose Audience Relationship Experts to learners Give out detailed information about a particular topic Interested people Information Nons Encyclopedia Dictionary References Leaflets/Brochures Those wishing to be informed Explanation Instruction Exposition Narrative Explains a process or procedure; how and why something works, or how a procedure is carried out designed to give information on how something should be done. Oral or written text in which someone takes a position on an issue and argues the case or presents a point of view Generally everyone Explains a process Gives a detailed step by step procedure on how to do something Expresses point of view; or persuades the listener or reader Written or spoken narration of an event that happened in the past. Three main kinds: factual, personal, and imaginative To relate in chronological order a sequence of past events Oral or written literary texts such as short stories, poems, novels. May also include songs. UT chiefly for entertainment purposes