The Kremlin declared on Wednesday that Poland’s move to rename the Russian city of Kaliningrad in its official documents was a “hostile act,” amid strained relations due to the Ukraine conflict.
Polish Decision to Rename Kaliningrad
Kaliningrad, a Baltic exclave between Lithuania and Poland, was formerly called Koenigsberg until the Soviet Union conquered it during World War II and changed its name to honour politician Mikhail Kalinin.
On Wednesday, Poland’s Development Minister Waldemar Buda announced that Kaliningrad would be renamed Królewiec, the name it had when the Kingdom of Poland governed it in the 15th and 16th centuries.
According to Warsaw, Kalinin’s association with the 1940 Katyn massacre, wherein Soviet forces killed thousands of Polish officers, carries negative connotations, due to which, the city should henceforth be known as Królewiec.
Poland's government on Wednesday said it will stop calling Russia's neighboring enclave Kaliningrad and instead refer to it by the historical name Konigsberg ('Krolewiec' in Polish) — a move Moscow described as "close to madness."
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) May 10, 2023
Read more: https://t.co/H1FFOBbYCy pic.twitter.com/tn7FuHQOuo
Buda quoted the state commission entrusted with standardising foreign names in the Polish language, saying, “We do not want Russification in Poland, and that is why we have decided to change the name in our native language of Kaliningrad and the Kaliningrad region.”
Poland’s committee on geographical standardisation stated, “The current Russian name of this city is an artificial baptism unrelated to either the city or the region.” The committee noted that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and propaganda activities had led Poland to reconsider contentious “imposed names.”
Although the recommendation of the state committee is not legally binding, the Polish government will likely refer to Kaliningrad as Królewiec. Poland’s Foreign Ministry has given the name change an optimistic assessment.
Russia’s Response
Kaliningrad is strategically significant to Moscow as it is one of Russia’s only ice-free European ports and houses the Russian Baltic Fleet at the port of Baltiysk.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed the decision “bordered on madness.” “We know that throughout history, Poland has slipped from time to time into this madness of hatred towards Russians,” he added during a press conference.
Kremlin slams Poland for changing name of Russian city Kaliningrad https://t.co/oL3Ehcy4jH pic.twitter.com/cKTdbEqACV
— The Hill (@thehill) May 11, 2023
Regional government spokesperson Dmitry Lyskov told TASS, “Our city has a name and its official place-name is Kaliningrad. Anything else is nothing but an insinuation. For our part, we could just as easily call Gdansk ‘Danzig’ and the Republic of Poland the ‘Kingdom of Poland.’ However, we respect official place-names and demand that others do the same.”
Moscow claims to have liberated Poland when its soldiers pushed out Nazi forces at the very end of the war. Most Poles believe the Soviet Union replaced Nazi occupation with a new type of repression. When Lithuania declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Kaliningrad was cut off from Moscow.
Poland, a NATO member, strongly backed Ukraine during the war and has accelerated the demolition of memorials to fallen Soviet forces around the country. Poland has also begun strengthening its border with the exclave after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.