Paul
Goble
Staunton, January 12 – Kaliningrad
-- or Koenigsberg as it was historically called and is known to many of its
residents -- because of its geographic situation as an exclave and the current
economic and political situation “simply cries out for the need for separation
from [Moscow], for independence and the setting up of a sovereign republic, Anton
Chadsky says.
In a comment on Rufabula.com today,
the journalist and activist who has been following developments there since
2011 and who last year moved to the exclave says that the current sad state of
the oblast is a reflection of “the barbaric approach of the Muscovites to
culture” and to the life of the people there (rufabula.com/author/anton-chadsky/273).
But despite what the center has
done, he says, “Kaliningrad oblast has not lost its severe and upright as the
walls of ancient churches its romantic nature. Despite the destruction and
ineffective use of its territory, the region appears to be a place full of
prospects for the construction of a new republic.”
It certainly has the economic basis
for independence, including its tourism industry, machine-building factors,
shipping facilities, fishing and agriculture, and amber. But it will only be
able to develop them after it escapes from the Russian yoke of taxes, repression,
and invasive and corrupt bureaucracy.
“The future republic,” Chadsky says,
“must be developed jointly with businessmen, cultural and artistic figures from
Europe and the world without any visa obstacles.” If so, it can be a territory “where
the interests of the republic, Poland, Lithuania and Germany [can] coincide and
move forward together.”
It must be demilitarized with “Russian
bases gradually shipped from the oblast to other regions of Russia, the
activist journalist argues, and it can become “an ideal place for the
introduction of the mechanisms of electronic referenda and voting on all issues
which are important for society.”
Obviously, he acknowledges, the path
for the creation of a fully independent Koenigsberg faces many obstacles, not
least of which is “Moscow’s lack of desire to lose its colony and the economic
destruction (itself thanks to Moscow by the way) and the political degradation
of society,” something that has left the region without the leaders or
political culture it needs.
“But the region has a choice,”
Chadsky says. It can either sit and wait on events or it can recognize what is
necessary and “take responsibility for the fate of its land and its future.” At
present, “while Russia has not weakened to the point where the oblast could
simply calmly declare its independence,” people there must overcome the
imperial legacy of the past.
They need to think about what they
want and to call for a referendum on their future. If a referendum does not
happen – which would be the case “if Russia simply yet again falls apart” – that
would be “a negative scenario for Kaliningrad” because of the chaos that would
arise and because “international trust in the future republic would not be as
high as it could be.”
But first of all, the suppers of an
independent Koenigsberg Republic need to deal with opponents within the
population of the exclave. “At present,” he concedes, they form “an absolute
majority,” not because they have considered the possibility of a republic and
rejected it but because they do not have sufficient information to judge.
Such people, he says, operate on the
basis of perverse notions about reality and “a logical argue alone will not
convince them.” They will say “our grandfathers fought here and shed blood, who
needs you in that Europe … Moscow will send tanks … we can’t earn our own way
[and] Lithuania/Poland/Germany/the US/Mars/Chingiz Khan will immediately
conquer us.”
Such views and such people now exist
“across the entire post-Soviet space.”
What is necessary, Chadsky says, is to face up to that and begin the “enormous”
amount of work necessary to overcome that Soviet Russian legacy at least in
Koenigsberg.
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