Smart Metropolia 2014, AmberExpo Gdańsk

1. Kaliningrad identity. Theses.
1. Kaliningrad was in three different countries for the last 70 years, once it
changed all the people who lived in and it’s name;
2. It has at least four different names. Karaliaučius in Lithuanian, Königsberg
in German, Kaliningrad in Russian and Królewiec in Polish;
3. Most popular word to describe local identity is “uniqueness” but for
Kaliningrad this word is more than true(even though I’m from Kaliningrad
myself);
4. We’re westernmost and smallest Russian region but the one of the most
popular thing Kaliningrad people do all their life is comparing themselves to
people from our capitals – Moscow and Saint Petersburg and explaining
why we’re better than they are
5. While Russia discussing whether it’s European country or not Kaliningrad is
sure. According to the recent survey – 73% of Kaliningrad people thinks that
the most valuable thing we have is German heritage. Our main educational
organization called Immanuel Kant Baltic federal university;
6. Still we’re Russian. According to the same survey almost 80% of people are
against renaming Kaliningrad back to Königsberg. Kaliningrad people are
very patriotic. For example, after winning quarter-finals Euro 2008 football
cup Kaliningrad people were partying till dawn;
7. Land we live were never was Russian(except 4 years 1758-1762) but now
we count it as ours;
8. Whether it is about Hansa membership or the fact that in 1946 Kaliningrad
was settled by the people from different parts of Soviet union but one thing
about people in Kaliningrad is their high ability to negotiate;
9. One word about media. Company I work in called mediagroup “Western
press”. We publish newspapers and magazines with total print run of 1,5
million copies monthly and our competitors prints about 0,5 million copies
extra. Population in Kaliningrad is about 1 million people. Our penetration
index(number of copies per 10 000 of people) is highest in Russia;
10. I work in newspaper and quantity of articles about history of our region is
much higher than in other region so the main thing about Kaliningrad is that
we love our city.