Kaliningrad commemorates heroes of Koenigsberg liberation in 1945

ITAR-TASS ^ | 09.04.2009, 18.20

[pobeda1945]

KALININGRAD, April 9 (Itar-Tass) -- Kaliningrad hosts ceremonial events dedicated to the 64th anniversary of the heroic storming operation of the Koenigsberg city-fortress by the Soviet troops.

On April 9, 1945, during the Eastern Prussian offensive operation of the Soviet troops the forces of the 3rd Belarussian front under the command of Marshall of the Soviet Union Alexander Vasilevsky after a 4-day fierce battle routed the 130,000-strong group of the fascist troops and liberated the Koenigsberg city-fortress that was considered as an unassailable stronghold in Eastern Prussia. The storm of Koenigsberg made the victory over the Hitler Germany closer, as just one month remained until the Great Victory.

The celebrations in Kaliningrad centered at the sacred place for each Kaliningrad resident – the Memorial to 1,200 hero-guards, who fell in the storming of Koenigsberg. This memorial became the first in the Soviet Union monument to the outstanding heroism of Soviet soldiers and officers. The memorial was built after the end of the Great Patriotic War already in September 1945. The Eternal Fire of Glory is burning at the memorial all these years.

Veterans of the Great Patriotic War, chief executives of the Kaliningrad regional government and the city, the command staff of the Baltic Fleet, representatives of the personnel of enterprises, public organisations, clergymen and city residents came to the memorial complex. There were particularly many young people and schoolchildren among those who came to commemorate the war heroes. To accompaniment of the mourning music they laid down wreaths and fresh flowers on the memorial tombs. These flowers are symbols of gratitude to the fallen heroes from people living under the peaceful skies now.

Kaliningrad residents honour and respect the heroes of the Koenigsberg storming on this memorable day. Unfortunately these heroes are becoming fewer every year, at least 400 veterans still live now. Various receptions were given for the war heroes in various districts of the city; they are presented with memorable gifts.

The ceremony to lay down wreaths and flowers was also held at the Monument to Marshall Vasilevsky, which is placed on the square named after the great Soviet commander, as well as on numerous beds of honour.

[goldstategop]

It used to be part of then East Prussia before the Second World War and was known as Koeningsberg. Then it was overwhelmingly German. Today, the exclave's population is mostly Russian. In the Soviet time, it was a closed military zone. Today, it is a tourist site as well as Russia's only port on the Baltic.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[massatoosits]

I am compelled to say that the educational system of this country has steadfastly refused to examine in depth the monumental and utterly savage war between Germany and the Soviet Union. Ideology has stood in the way of a general understanding of that significant part of the Second World War, it’s formative moments in prior history, and it’s influence on world affairs since.

[Verginius Rufus]

Koenigsberg was the home town of the great philosopher Immanuel Kant. It was founded in 1254 and is famous for its bridges. Kalinin was just one of Stalin's lackeys.

Ironically the king being honored in its earlier name was a Slavic king--Ottokar II (the Great) of Bohemia, who was king when the city was founded.

[Fiji Hill]

Königsberg and East Prussia were the site of some of the worst atrocities of World War II. When the Soviets invaded East Prussia in January of 1945, thousands of civilians had to brave subzero weather and blizzards as they fled westward. Those unable to escape were subjected to mass murder, mass rape, and deportation to the Gulag.

[Fiji Hill]

An aquaintance of mine was one of the first Americans allowed into Königsberg after the territory was opened up in the early 1990’s. He described the region as resembling a Third World country, with abject poverty everywhere.

[RedMonqey]

Kaliningrad hosts ceremonial events dedicated to the 64th anniversary of the heroic storming operation of the Koenigsberg city-fortress by the Soviet troops.

The celebrations included the reenactment of the "heroic " and "patriotic" mass raping of German female civilians, none too young nor too old, by the "liberating" Red Army soldiers following the battle.

Reenactors will include veterans handpicked by Putin from the recent "heroic liberation" of Georgia

[massatoosits]

Soviet forces were encouraged to take vengence by radio polemnists like Ilya Ehrenberg who raged for vengence on the Nazi supermen. The Red Army had great difficulty reigning in the bloodletting. First they muzzled the likes of Ehrenberg. Then they started broadcasting solidarity with the German working class. Finally came firing squads for those who ignored the dictates. As I said, it was a savage war, but then , are not most?

[massatoosits]

“Soviet forces were subjected to exhortations from radio polemnists like Ilya Ehrenberg”........Forgive my repitition in the earlier post, I tried to compose while also play acting as teacher for my twin four year old girls and their playmate. A duanting task.

[blackminorca]

These folks wont be celebrating any Russian “heroes”

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hcacQnW1QoBUVrxRqGaCdcjpfytAD97EA6S00

[Greysard]

The siege of Koenigsberg was probably the only time where large caliber guns were used:

210 mm gun M1939
305 mm howitzer M1939

These artillery pieces were fired from a convenient, safe distance for about 4 days; many forts were destroyed; also facing the ground offensive, Germans surrendered.

[nkycincinnatikid]

Too busy celebrating the Sack of Rome to deal with it here.

[Oatka]

Russian atrocities.

Payback's a B!tch.

[glorgau]

Today, it is a tourist site as well as Russia's only port on the Baltic.

Russia has other ports on the Baltic up by Leningrad (Petrograd or what ever they're calling it these days).

[glorgau]

Speaking of bridges, Koenigberg is most famous for Euler's graph theorem

[glorgau]

Bridge link - FR evidently does substitution on the umlauts.

I had a graph theory class way back when in college.

[Verginius Rufus]

That's what I was thinking of, the problem of crossing the seven bridges, but didn't remember the details. Nice of Wikipedia to have a link to Euler's original treatise in Latin.

Petrograd has gone back to the original name of St. Petersburg (Sankt-Peterburg in Russian, I believe).

[Fiji Hill]

In a few months, we can celebrate the anniversary of the heroic liberation of Hungary in 1956, the heroic construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, and the heroic and patriotic liberation of Czechoslovakia in 1968 by the glorious Workers' and Peasants' Red Army.

Slava KPSS!

[RedMonqey]

Payback’s a B!tch.

True, the Germans were asking for it due to their armies criminal actions on Russian soil but those truly responsible were not gang-raped. It made a joke of the war crimes trials when one of the judges on the panel was from a country that committed equally heinous crimes against humanity. Not to mention was a partner in starting WW2

Made a joke out of seeking justice.

Plus were if it were American troopers doing the raping, we would never heard the end of it and always mentioned at ceremonies like this to put America in her place.

[M. Espinola]

Stalin stole this land.

[HenpeckedCon]

To the victors go the spoils. The treatment the Russians gave the German civilians was ghastly and can never be excused but... Had the Germans won the war, some very hard years were in store for the Russian People. The Germans were planning to starve to death 25 million in the first year alone. Millions of Russian POW’s died like flies in German POW camps from starvation. The Germans were deliberately starving them. When the Red Army liberated occupied villages in Russia and saw the German atrocities, it's not hard to understand their behavior when they were taking German cities and towns.

[M. Espinola]

I do not in any way disagree with your comments relating to the countless beastly atrocities the Nazis committed and planned for throughout the Eastern front.

It should be recalled that under the 'Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact', the non-aggression treaty agreed to by Hitler & Stalin on August 23rd 1939, which resulted in both totalitarian dictatorships carving up Poland off the map as an independent nation. Behind Nazi lines the Jewish Holocaust was viciously accelerated, The Nazi SD/SS deviously utilizing the most inhuman methodologies including a mandated profit margin for each murdered victim (Nazi Murder Inc.), as well as the murder of anti-Nazi Poles. While in the Russian sector Polish officers captured by the invading Russian Bolsheviks were tortured & gunned down in the many thousands by Stalin calculating state police liquidators.

During the same time frame (mid-1939 to mid-1941) the three independent Baltic states were also invaded & enslaved by Stalin's barbaric Russian hordes, coupled with the customary, additional, savage NKVD liquidation squads. Thousands of Baltic nationals were murdered or deported to Siberia, for a slightly slower, miserable frozen death. During the same time frame Stalin sent his Red Army on an invasion & terror air bombing binge against Finland, only to be severely thrashed by the small home army of determined fighting Finns. The deplorable end result was the Russians stole large portions of eastern Finland, land they still occupy to this day. (as if Russia is not large enough)

In terms of the issue of Königsberg (East Prussia); long before the end of World War II on the European front, the population of the area was overwhelmingly ethnic German and Lithuanian. Dictator Stalin’s brutal communist annexation of East Prussia along with other territory (demanded by the Kremlin under the so-called Curzon line) should be null & void, and that goes for Finish territory Stalin and his henchmen grabbed.

"In April 1946, northern East Prussia became an official province of the Russian SFSR as "Kenigsbergskaya Oblast", with the Memel Territory becoming part of the Lithuanian SSR. In June 1946 114,070 German and 41,029 Soviet citizens were registered in the Oblast, with an unknown number of disregarded unregistered persons. In July of that year, the historic city of Königsberg was renamed Kaliningrad to honour Mikhail Kalinin and the area named the Kaliningrad Oblast. Between 24 August and 26 October 1948 21 transports with in total 42,094 Germans left the Oblast to the Soviet Occupation Zone. The last remaining Germans left in November 1949 (1,401 persons) and January 1950 (7 persons)[11]. After the expulsion of the German population ethnic Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians were settled in the northern part."

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Prussia

The Königsberg region is not geographically connected to the rest of Putin's Russian empire and should be made into a free four Baltic nation. Russians belong in Russia, not having the Russian army directly on the lower Baltic Sea & the Polish border, coupled with pointing Russian missiles at Poland & other Eastern European nations from the Russian occupied Königsberg region.

I realize what I have stated is tantamount to totally reorganizing Stalin's dictated borders during the pre & immediate post WWII period, however the way things are going it's very likely Putin's dictatorship, or a future like-minded Russian dictatorial régime will once again make a military plunge toward Eastern & Western Europe, plus southward (again), considering Moscow has already clearly demonstrated their imperial ambitions with the invasion of Afghanistan (and a Moscow defeat) and far more recently, the Russian invasion of Georgia (more land stolen), in conjunction with current, continuous Kremlin-ploted border instigation(s) plus internet hacking underway against bordering 'former Russian dominated Warsaw Bloc' countries, which are now free nations, but the Russians still consider these former communist/Soviet 'captive nations' theirs to control.

Under Considering the ongoing Kremlin instigated, vehement anti-Western atmosphere, plus the fact that under Obama the Russians will likely be issued a free hand to do as they desire in former Russian subjected nations -- sooner or later the Russian bear will launch its aggression against the West.

[HenpeckedCon]

Wow, nicely done!

[Kozak]

Popguns.

THOR

[M. Espinola]

Thank you Sir! :)