Specific Kaliningrad character of the Russian identity

Abstract

There are different levels of territorial identity perceived as a sense of belonging to a particular social and territorial community. People residing in any region identify themselves with these levels to a different degree. Since 2001, the authors have been doing sociological research into the territorial identity of the population of the Kaliningrad region, which became a Russia’s exclave after the demise the USSR. The research shows that residents of the Kaliningrad region associate themselves with different territorial communities to a varying degree starting with an ever strengthening sense of national identity, followed by the regional and local identity. The sense of macro-regional (European) and global identity is significantly lower.

Image of Kaliningrad (Königsberg) in British media

“…Данная территория привлекала и привлекает внимание исследователей прежде всего из-за своего статуса и положения: это самая западная территория России, к тому же являющаяся эксклавом (см. De Lombaerde 2009; Йокубайтис 2010; Kiknadze 2019; Klemeshev 2017;Минакова 2004;Sukhankin 2014). В связи с расширением Евросоюза на восток эта территория привлекла особое внимание средств массовой информации.…”