Businesses and Intellectuals Promoting Re-Germanization of Kaliningrad, Dmitriyev Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 6 – One can only welcome Kremlin aide Vladimir Medynsky’s article on “The Russian City of Kaliningrad” and its lashing out against the toponomical assault on all things Russian there (svpressa.ru/society/article/522671/), although one needs to question his sincerity given his liberal pro-Western past, Andrey Dmitriyev says.

            But Medynsky’s article should not lead anyone to ignore the combined efforts of businessmen and intellectuals in promoting the re-Germanization of what is today a Russian region, even though the reasons that each group is doing so are different, the editor of the APN North West portal says (svpressa.ru/society/article/522671/).

            Businessmen see the Germanization of street and store names as a way to make money because such things will attract more tourists than Russian names less familiar to Europeans; and intellectuals hope that this will root not just Kaliningrad but Russia as a whole in Europe, something they have never given up on, Dmitriyev says.

            Both must be fought, he continues; and that is important so that the people in Kaliningrad will view the restoration of German influence and the possibility of some “fourth Baltic republic” just as negatively as Russians in the Far East would view the emergence of some Japanese or Chinese-backed statelet within what is now Russian territory.

            What is most noteworthy and even disturbing about Dmitriyev’s comments is not his attack on members of the Russian intelligentsia but rather his criticism of Russian businessmen who, in pursuit of profit, are helping the intelligentsia achieve its goals and harming Russia, something seldom mentioned in the past.