Russia-Poland tension, Warsaw changes the name of Kaliningrad. Moscow: “Madness”

There is a new battleground between Mosca e Warsawagainst the background of the war in Ukraine: and the exclave of Kaliningradwhich the Poles will henceforth call by the ancient denomination in the mother tongue of Konigsberg. Amid protests from the Kremlin, which spoke of a “decision bordering on madness” and called it “a hostile act”.

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The proposal

The initiative came from the Polish commission for toponyms, which suggested that the authorities no longer use the “imposed name” of Kaliningrad on the area geographically belonging to Poland, on the border with Lithuania, but which passed under the control of the Union Soviet after World War II. The proposal was implemented by the regional authorities and by the Warsaw government and the name Kaliningrad will disappear from maps and official documents.

What will the new name be and what does it mean

In its place will return Krolewiec, the Polish translation of Konigsberg, the German name of the Prussian era. The city was renamed Kaliningrad by the Soviets in honor of Mikhail Kalinin, one of the leaders of the Bolshevik revolution: a deep wound for Warsaw, which considers him “co-responsible” for the massacre of Polish officers ordered by Stalin in Katyn in 1940, as Minister Waldemar recalled Buda.

The Kremlin’s reaction

But the battle against the “Russification of Poland” is also a way to further distance oneself from Moscow after the invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin’s reaction was not long in coming. “Poland over the centuries has slipped into a form of madness driven by its hatred of Russians which has done no good for them,” warned Dmitry Peskov. Kaliningrad is a strategically important region for the Russians because it hosts the Baltic Fleet in the port of Baltiysk. And whoever touches it, even just by changing its name, is to be considered an enemy.

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