Rezeda Lyykorpi

A Place with a Powerful Past: Representations of Königsberg’s Memory in Kaliningrad Museums

My PhD project is focused on the memory of German Königsberg in today’s Kaliningrad – Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea. The main aim of this research is to explore how memory of Königsberg is represented and interpreted by Kaliningraders, who are mostly ethnic Russians. After the end of World War II, the territory of Königsberg and the adjacent areas were transferred to the Soviet Union. This was followed by the expulsion of the German population, which was replaced by settlers from the different parts of the Soviet Union. The Soviet administration tried to control the interest in remains of German culture and pre-war history of the region among Soviet settlers of Kaliningrad Oblast. With rare exceptions, open expression of interest in memory of Königsberg and East Prussia became possible only after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Today, interest in Königsberg’s memory is visible among the local residents of Kaliningrad. I am going to approach Kaliningraders’ interest and attitude towards pre-war memory of the region through examination of representations of German culture in urban space and museum exhibitions. Also, I am going to collect and analyze oral stories about material objects related to Königsberg. In the latest conceptualization of this research, memory of Königsberg is characterized as cultural memory. Thus, memory of Königsberg is transmitted to Kaliningraders predominantly through such media as texts and images, instead of communications with the residents of Königsberg.

• “Immanuel Kant Museum in Kaliningrad and Variations in Representing Königsberg Memory in Kaliningrad Public Museums,” 29th Biennial AABS Conference The Baltic Way: Unity and Giving Aid, organised by the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS), Yale University and University of New Haven, CT, June 13-16, 2024.
• Project presentation in the seminar Königsberg-Kaliningrad im 20. Jahrhundert. Stadtgeschichte(n) im Zeitalter der Extreme, organised by Thomas Rettig, M.A., University of Greifswald, July 13, 2023.
• “Königsberg Is Not Forgotten: Exhibiting German Past in Kaliningrad Museums,” panel Re/creating Belonging in and through Museums, Memory Studies Association (MSA) 7th annual conference Communities and Change, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, July 3-7, 2023.
• Project presentation, PhD colloquium organised by Prof. Dr Stefan Berger, Institute for Social Movements, Ruhr University Bochum, June 28, 2023.
• “The Explosive Power of Hidden Peripeties – the Application of the Concept of Peripety and Memory of Königsberg in Kaliningrad,” international workshop The Same Event? Morphologies, Reflections, Disseminations, organised by the IRTG Baltic Peripeties. Narratives of Reformations, Revolutions and Catastrophes, Institute for Cultural Research, University of Tartu, December 15-17, 2022.
• Project presentation at the Eastern European Memory Studies Summer School Translating Memories in Literature, Film, Museums, and Monuments, organised by the ERC-project Translating Memories: The Eastern European Past in the Global Arena, Roosta/Estonia, July 11-15, 2022.
• “Creeping Germanisation and Debates over Königsberg’s Memory in Kaliningrad,” Interdisciplinary Centre for Baltic Sea Region Research (IFZO) annual conference Baltic Sea in Exchange. Transformations between Conflict and Cooperation, University of Greifswald, July 7-9, 2022.
• “The Myth of Königsberg in Kaliningrad. Reconfiguring History in Museums and Urban Space,” 28th Biennial AABS Conference Baltic Studies at a Crossroads, organized by the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS), Seattle, WA, May 27-29, 2022.
• Panel participation: “Borders, Memories and Europe: Transnational Memory Politics from the Historical and Contemporary Perspective II,” Bomocult seminar Engaging Borders as a Site of Encounters: New Directions in Interdisciplinary Research, Joensuu, October 13, 2017.