/ˈmi.wɔʂ/ Miłosz J. Cordes

Tag: kaliningrad oblast

  • Online Book Discussion on June 30th, 12:00 CET

    Online Book Discussion on June 30th, 12:00 CET

    🗓️ Save the date: on Monday, June 30th at 12:00 CET I will be talking about my latest book, Collective Memory in Post-Soviet Kaliningrad Oblast. Together with Iwona Reichardt and Krzysztof Żęgota, we will look at the intricacies of Kaliningrad Oblast’s history and its uses in the context of contemporary Russia’s domestic and foreign policies.

    Published by Routledge / Taylor & Francis Group, the book summarises debates on the Oblast’s regional identity until 2018 (Vladimir Putin’s third presidential term) and makes the connection between the region’s specific geographical location, its non-Russian civilisational legacy and the weaponisation of memory by the incumbent Russian political regime at the federal and international levels.

    Collective Memory in Post-Soviet Kaliningrad Oblast helps understand the reasons behind Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and shed light on strategies employed to sustain the system created in Russia over the last 25 years.

    Many thanks to the Richard Pipes Laboratory at the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Wojciech Łysek for suggesting and organising the event!

    Registration link: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/PBBaSO1NR3qw7PNZV7qxwA

  • Book Release: Collective Memory in Post-Soviet Kaliningrad Oblast

    Book Release: Collective Memory in Post-Soviet Kaliningrad Oblast

    When I began my postdoctoral research at Lund University’ I did not expect the team of scholars I joined to be so interested in the memory politics in Russia’s Kaliningrad Oblast. I had just spent three years there as a diplomat which, on top of my previous academic research at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, had given me much food for thought. It thus did not take much for Per Anders Rudling and Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation to convince me to revise to my original Ph.D. dissertation to update it and make it fit the rigours of an academic monograph.

    I embarked on a journey which turned out to be more straining and more satisfying than any other one in my hitherto academic life. Three years later, here it is. Collective Memory in Post-Soviet Kaliningrad Oblast has just been published as part of the Routledge Histories of Central & Eastern Europe series.

    The book features summary of debates of what it meant to be an inhabitant of Russia’s westernmost region in the first 25 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It traces changes going beyond the region itself – from the initial high hopes and much uncertainty to the emergence of a certain degree of regional pride and to an increasingly sharp reaction of federal authorities against a diverse, inclusive narrative of the Oblast’s pre-1945 non-Russian and non-Soviet past.

    Kaliningrad Oblast was a playground for refined official Russian memory policies already ten years ago. Its complex history reveals tensions affecting both domestic and foreign policies of the Kremlin and the inability to accommodate the rich cultural landscape of the northern part of East Prussia under the conditions of the increasingly authoritarian regime. The book is also a study of the use of old Wilhelmine, Weimar and Nazi Germany myths about East Prussia in the changed geopolitical circumstances after the Second World War and in the run-up to Russia’s annexation of Crimea, war in Donbas and full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

  • Roundtable on Danish-Ukrainian Academic Research Cooperation

    Roundtable on Danish-Ukrainian Academic Research Cooperation

    Ukrainian scholars staying and working in Denmark have provided a substantial boost to the country’s research capabilities. At the same time, their presence here is marked by tragic consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, already since the annexation of Crime and the regional-scale war in Donbas.

    I was honoured to participate in Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS) – Aarhus University’s and Ukrainian Academic Network in Denmark’s roundtable where I presented my own research on official Russian memory policies. I also talked about DIS – Study Abroad’s cooperation with Ukrainian institutions, part of which is my summer course on security developments in Central and Northern Europe, attented by students from Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. Many thanks to Lesia Heiko, PhD and the team for this opportunity!

  • Journal paper: Kaliningrad Oblast, EU Enlargement and Memory Politics in Russia

    Journal paper: Kaliningrad Oblast, EU Enlargement and Memory Politics in Russia

    The question of European Union’s enlargement and its impact on non-hard security, non-economic issues related to Kaliningrad Oblast remains scarcely addressed in academia. Most works focus on NATO, not the EU as the main factor of geopolitical dynamics in the Baltic Sea Region and parts of Central and Eastern Europe.

    In my recent paper for “Sprawy Międzynarodowe”, I address the evolution that memory politics in Russia has undergone since Vladimir Putin’s comeback to presidential seat in 2012 and the so-called new conservative project. His campaign programme articles paved the way for redefining official understanding of Russianness, which particularly affected Kaliningrad Oblast with its pre-1945 past.

    The subsequent years witnessed an attempt to holistically redefine the existing narratives of the past in the semi-exclave and weave them into the concept of Russia as a unique civilisational centre and the Oblast as its frontier.
    The foundations of this process were laid already in the early to mid-2000s and were linked to the 2004 EU enlargement with neighbouring Poland and Lithuania joining and the emergence of EU’s redefined Neighbourhood Policy. This paper seeks to look at these events to identify linkages between enlarging the EU and redefining part of its external policies and Russian memory politics in the particular case of Kaliningrad Oblast.

  • Speaking at CBSE Cambridge 2025

    Speaking at CBSE Cambridge 2025

    I will be speaking at the upcoming Conference on Baltic Studies in Europe at Cambridge University, organised by the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies. My presentation will be about memory politics in Kaliningrad Oblast. I will also host a panel discussion on weaponisation of memory in contemporary Russia.

  • DIIS report: Kaliningrad Oblast 2024

    DIIS report: Kaliningrad Oblast 2024

    What do we know about Russia’s Kaliningrad Oblast as of early 2024 and what do we make of it?

    For a long time, this semi-exclave remained among few Russian regions which enjoyed more civil activity and represented openness despite growing authoritarian pressure in the country.

    Over two years after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian authorities claim Kaliningrad Oblast is at the forefront of Russia’s defensive war against the West. It is a bulwark of Kremlin-defined Russianness with its traditional values and militarisation of history. Regional politicians, rather than advocating for the Oblast’s interests, use it as a trampoline to Moscow. Regional economy is being overtaken by federal-level oligarchs and security services.

    Most importantly, Kaliningrad Oblast poses a threat to security in the Baltic Sea Region, including the Danish island of Bornholm, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden, as well as critical infrastructure in the area.

    If you want to learn more, read the report I prepared for DIIS – Danish Institute for International Studies.

  • On Kaliningrad Oblast for the IQ Magazine

    On Kaliningrad Oblast for the IQ Magazine

    ‘Since Kaliningrad Oblast is geographically separated from Russia, its situation is complex and completely different from other regions. Especially now [that the ferry connection is responsible for supplying the region] it becomes clear that Kaliningrad will be completely dependent on Saint Petersburg.’

    Lithuanian IQ magazine interviewed me about the state of affairs in Kaliningrad Oblast. The title – A military place and nothing more (Karinis miestelis ir nieko daugiau) – is somewhat provocative but gives a good feeling of what the region has become in the last decade.

    Many thanks to Agnė Baltrūnaitė for an interesting talk!

    Karinis-miestelis-ir-nieko-daugiauDownload
  • On Kaliningrad Oblast for Casimir Pulaski Foundation

    On Kaliningrad Oblast for Casimir Pulaski Foundation

    In Casimir Pulaski Foundation’s latest policy paper, I argue that Kaliningrad Oblast faces the biggest challenges ever since the disintegration of the Soviet Union and that these challenges are impossible to overcome under the current circumstances.

    It happened so not only because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but also because of the events that had led up to it: growing centralisation, ignoring the semi-exclave’s natural needs related to trade and cross-border cooperation, as well as its militarisation.

    The Oblast and its inhabitants is have been cut off from main sources of economic growth. Russia will not be able to provide effective and efficient supply lines to make up for it as the Kremlin has different priorities.

    As a result, Kaliningrad Oblast has become a besieged fortress that is drifting further away both from Moscow and the West. In the eyes of Russian authorities, it only exists to threaten.

    Big thanks to Katarzyna Pisarska and Andrzej Kozłowski for a great cooperation opportunity!