Paysage urbain et identités collectives à Kaliningrad

Abstract

Urban landscape is an indicator which reveals the organisation of society as well as the political and social strategies it develops. Kaliningrad is not new to this. The Russian city and region of the same name, landlocked within the European Union, has experienced many historical ruptures which can be seen in its landscape. Kaliningrad, the Soviet city, acquired and renamed in 1946 after the end of the Second World War, had to model its new Soviet identity. The city’s German past was erased from official narratives. As a war trophy, the city’s layout structures the organisation of social life and celebrates the Soviet victory with numerous monuments. At the end of the 20th century, Kaliningrad rediscovers Königsberg, the German city of which few material traces remain. This historiographical opening is accompanied by a new materialisation process of the German identity in the urban landscape, which becomes a new identity attribute for the city as well as a dissonant tourist attraction. This period is synonymous with significant autonomy for local authorities following the fall of the USSR, interrupted at the beginning of the 2000s by the strengthening of the vertical of federal power and the Russian national affirmation in urban areas in Kaliningrad. Recurrent debates to rename the city will not succeed. Regardless of these ruptures, the local population created its own identity, without completely distancing itself from its Russian belonging. A phenomenon that is particularly illustrated by the local name of the current city used by its young inhabitants: “Kenig,” a shortened form for Königsberg.