What if the USA kept the Ryuku Islands from Japan after WW2, like the Soviets took Kalingrad? What would be the economic, cultural and political effects? Would a state be formed from all the Pacific islands?
What's the use of Kaliningrad? As a forward deployed military base.
That, and it also removed a direct German border with the Soviet Union.AFAIK Kaliningrad was more of a prize trophy, the heart of "Prussian militarism" now being under Soviet control (a bad comparison: imagine an enemy of the US annexing Philadelphia and confiscating the Liberty Bell).
AFAIK Kaliningrad was more of a prize trophy, the heart of "Prussian militarism" now being under Soviet control (a bad comparison: imagine an enemy of the US annexing Philadelphia and confiscating the Liberty Bell).
It also has one of the largest stockpiles of amber on the planet. It also served a warm water port to the USSR. So it was not just a trophy city.That, and it also removed a direct German border with the Soviet Union.
Which is rather unfair to the historical legacy of the East Prussians, because that province was not necessarily any more the "heart of Prussian militarism" by the 20th century than any other in the Kingdom and it certainly was no longer the heart of Prussia itself.AFAIK Kaliningrad was more of a prize trophy, the heart of "Prussian militarism" now being under Soviet control (a bad comparison: imagine an enemy of the US annexing Philadelphia and confiscating the Liberty Bell).