Published in: Ilta-Sanomat, ? of July, 2003

- USSR AS A BURDEN

- IN A MANY RESPECTS, KALININGRAD IS A RELIC OF USSR AND THAT'S WHY IT'S AN EXOTIC TOURIST ATTRACTION

- At the south coast of Baltic Sea, in the middle of Poland and Lithuania, is located Kaliningrad, part of Russia. The area isn't that large, but still it contains almost a million people. The city of Kaliningrad, the former Königsberg, is well over 700 hundred years old. The coastal area contains the same kind of impressive sand dyne formations, that people are so excited in the Lithuanian and Latvian side of the border.

- Kaliningrad however is not a tourist attraction. It's image is "Soviet" and the city has received it's name from the first president of the Soviet Union, Mihail Kalinin. Also the massive shadow of the Red Army hangs heavily over Kaliningrad. The city was a loot, that Soviet Union took from Germany in 1945. Before that, the area was a part of the East-Prussia that belonged to Germany. During the cold war, Kaliningrad became a place that everyone feared. The headquarters of the Soviet Baltic Fleet were located here. Kaliningrad was a closed place from the outside world and even the ordinary Soviet citizens didn't have a permission to enter the city without a special permission from Moscow. After that, the gates of Kaliningrad have opened, although the traffic into the city is quite slow. 

- There are no regular trips made to Kaliningrad from Finland and if you want to visit the city, you need to organize the trip yourself. Through the travel agency's you can book hotel reservations and the easiest way to reach the city is by a Euroline's night bus, that leaves from Tallinn. You can also use your own car, but it's a different matter, that is there any point of taking your own car to Kaliningrad. The more difficult routes to the city are the boat- train and airplane connections from Moscow and St. Petersburg. 

- Browsing through the encyclopedias and internet, you don't achieve to gather much information about the city. The best book around is the Sankarimatkailijan Kaliningrad (Taifuuni, 2003) (In Finnish). If you like to go to Kaliningrad, you better read this book first. Kaliningrad hasn't received nearly as much international money as Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia and that shows in the city. The city is much more decayed than it's neighboring country's, that are quickly polishing their facade. 

- There seems to be suggestions, that the primary industry for Kaliningrad is smuggling. You can find almost anything from the markets, but rest assured, that if the product isn't what you were promised, the local consumer ombudsman wont run to save you from a bad deal. AIDS, drugs and prostitution are real torments here. When you add the dramatic history, the rootlessness of the people, memories from the Red Army and the location that is outside of mother Russia, you get a place where they would have made Humphrey Bogart movies in the old days. 

- Philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804) is probably the most well known person from this area. He spend most of his life in the former Königsberg. Near the old cathedral that is being renovated, is a museum that is dedicated to Kant. From the Kaliningrad era, the most well known person probably is Ljudmila Putin, wife of Russia's president Vladimir Putin, who was born here in 1958.

- The special or interesting sight here is the "House of Councils". The same spot contained the Castle of Königsberg, before it was destroyed in the British air raid in 1944. Soviet Union finished the job, by destroying what was left of the ruins. The "House of Councils" was started to build on the spot. However, no councils or other people for that matter, never assembled here, because the building was never completed. The building stands on the best spot of Kaliningrad, looking like a huge spooky skeleton, because it's unfinished. Nobody doesn't seem to know what should be done with the building, but we better hope that it wont collapse on it's own. 

- It depends on the person, that how "Soviet" you want to think Kaliningrad to be. If you want to see it, the old system is still very heavily present here, but on the other hand, the old "Soviet feeling" is already starting to quickly vanish into the history. The landscape in the spa town of Svetlogorsk (former Rauschen) is really beautiful and the sand beaches are in active use. There's as much crowd as there was in the beaches of Jurmala in Latvia, when they were submitted to general Soviet use. If you want peace and silence, you need to head for the Kuuri sand isthmus, that connects Kaliningrad and Lithuania. At the same time, you can look at the landscape that probably will be gone for good someday, if the Russian oil company Lukoil will start their oil search program in the near vicinity, for the horror of conservationists.

- So what is the future for Kaliningrad, when it will be completely surrounded by NATO and EU during the year 2004. Instead at looking towards mother Russia, the people in Kaliningrad seem to be looking at the direction of European Union. Only 15% of the youth in Kaliningrad, have visited mother Russia, but 80% of the youth have visited in other European countries. Moscow isn't probably too pleased about this. The administration of president Vladimir Putin, has tighten it's grip on this most western place of Russia. Russia and EU have already argued about the travel permits through Lithuania and Latvia for people of Kaliningrad. In the future, there wont be any lack of quarrel subjects.

- If Kaliningrad would decide to leave Russia and EU would get involved in this matter, the soup could very well boil over the sides. Or will Kaliningrad be a merchandise, that Russia will use to get a freedom of movement for it's citizens in the EU area, including also Finland. A good reason to visit Kaliningrad, is the fact that you will see how the place looks like, that everyone are talking about one day. Because sooner or later, you will hear about the place called Kaliningrad!