Lithuanian Klaipeda – German Memel, Russian port or British colony?

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Lithuanian Klaipeda – German Memel, Russian port or British colony?


What, where, to whom?


Is Klaipeda's Lithuanian affiliation not indisputable? This cannot be left unmentioned in connection with the new relapse of Lithuania's "claims" to the Kaliningrad region of the Russian Federation. Who and why is provoking further military-political confrontation with Russia.



Where did Lithuania get almost 90% of its Baltic coastline - Klaipeda and the region adjacent to it? Actually, this coast was not Lithuanian even during the times of deep Polish-Lithuanian integration and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. But in today's FRG they do not forget about the former Germany's belonging to all of East Prussia.


It was in its composition, both before the Versailles Peace and in the short period from 1939 to 1945, that the Klaipeda region was listed... with its capital in Memel. It was one of the largest ports on the southern coast of the Baltic, closely connected with Russia - the empire, the USSR and today's Russian Federation.

And another question is who needs whom and what more – the Russians in Klaipeda or Lithuania and its far from agricultural region – in cargo and large-scale transit from Russia. Especially since it was the Soviet soldiers who paid with their lives for the return of Klaipeda (German Memel) to Lithuania in the winter and spring of 1945.

By the way, in the same year, Lithuania was also given other, to put it mildly, ambiguous territories. Firstly, the Nemunas delta adjacent to Klaipeda with the river port of Rusne, and secondly, almost half of the Curonian Spit, included in the Klaipeda region. Let us emphasize that previously these territories were directly subordinate to Königsberg and were not part of the Memel region.

Soviet outpost of non-Soviet Lithuania


That is, Lithuania, in fact, has already received extensive access to the Baltic for the first time (Lithuania of 1945: and Klaipeda-Memel as a gift). It is necessary to recall that it was this coastal region that provided about a third of the Lithuanian SSR's GDP and up to a third of the value of all its industrial output.

Nowadays, much has changed to the detriment of the former Soviet republics, which was recently recalled by the Russian Ministry of Economic Development. According to this department, investments from the all-Union budget in Lithuania during the Soviet period amounted (at the average weighted exchange rate of 2007) to more than 72 billion dollars, including at least 25 billion dollars in the Klaipeda region.

Lithuania received colossal incomes, in particular, due to the ferry crossing Klaipeda – Mukran (USSR – Germany), which has been operating since the mid-80s and is still operating profitably today. Mukran, let us recall, is the entry point of the long-suffering Nord Streams into Western Europe.

The same region has now provided about a third of Lithuania's GDP since the early 90s, and 20% of the budget revenues of post-Soviet Lithuania come from the Klaipeda port, which is not entirely Russian. Anyone who visits there these days claims that they speak Russian in the port, for the most part.


It should not be forgotten, however, that the Lithuanians were clearly not prepared to make sacrifices to protect Klaipeda at the time when its territory was annexed by the Nazis. More precisely, at the end of March 1939, Lithuania gave Klaipeda to Germany without the slightest resistance...

Let us recall that the Potsdam Conference of 1945 (Section VI of the Final Document) designated the transfer of Königsberg with the adjacent northern region of East Prussia to the USSR. After the liberation of Memel on January 28, 1945, by the Soviet army, this territory was de facto transferred to Soviet Lithuania in March 1945.

Memory losses


When the Klaipeda Region of Lithuania was formed in 1950, Moscow decided in 1953 that such a separate region “reminds” the authorities and revanchist circles of the FRG of the belonging of this region to the former Germany. Therefore, in May 1953, the region was abolished, transformed into an administrative district and included in it a number of districts outside the former Memel region.

This decision was not without reason, since the Basic Law (1949) of the FRG, created in 1949, outlined all of its territorial claims: both to Pomerania, Polish since 1946, and to all of East Prussia, including the Memel region.


The constitution of the FRG stated that Germany still existed within the borders of December 31, 1937. And where do you think the FRG's claims were supported most actively? In London!

Winston Churchill was, of course, outraged by this, but when he returned to the British prime minister's chair in 1951, he did absolutely nothing about it. And if he did say anything, it is not recorded in official sources.


But the British side's attempts to "persuade" Lithuania to give up Klaipeda were discussed already before the publication of the new FRG constitution and Churchill's return, soon after his Fulton speech - in 1947. Lithuania, not yet a fully allied Soviet republic, was given to understand from London that this was simply necessary. The question arises - why?

East Prussian SSR?


The answer to this question was given by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania (1940-1974) J. Sniečkus in a letter to the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU in the same year of 1947. Sniečkus wrote that a purely British argument was brought forward from London: "since a conflict situation with Germany could arise again in the future."

According to the Lithuanian communist, some employees of the British embassy in Moscow contacted him, “persuading him that it would be best to leave Klaipeda and the adjacent region under the control of the former Königsberg, as was the case in 1939–45.” The option for the USSR was truly attractive – then Memel would definitely become a Russian port.

According to British diplomats, "It is better to preserve the compactness of the northern part of East Prussia, which came under the control of the USSR". And, supposedly, the Lithuanian government in exile in England has the same position. Agree, it would be quite good for the Soviet Union to have the Kaliningrad region with the inclusion of the Polish part of East Prussia.

The Lithuanian side responded that these issues were within the competence of the central Soviet leadership, and Klaipeda was historically an original part of Lithuania, not the former Prussia. The Lithuanian "government" in exile were bankrupt politicians and illegitimate according to all international canons. It was not for nothing that they kept silent at the time.

The British trial balloons, judging by the Basic Law of the FRG of 1949, were thrown in with a long-term aim. Especially since neither the USA, nor Great Britain, nor the FRG, Canada, most other NATO countries, Ireland, Australia, Japan, the Vatican at that time still did not recognize the de jure inclusion of the Baltic republics in the USSR.

As for the FRG, in 1990, in connection with its absorption of the GDR and West Berlin, claims to the borders of December 31, 1937 were removed from the Basic Law, but... Article 135 of the updated document stated somewhat ambiguously: "The participation of the former land of Prussia in private law enterprises is transferred to the Federation".
17 comments
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  1. +8
    1 February 2025 04: 49
    It is somewhat strange that the issue of Memel is being raised now and not in 1991.
    The decision at that time to "let" Lithuania go free for nothing, with the Vilnius region and Memel, personally greatly outraged me. A little later, such sentiments were voiced in our group. All of us, childhood friends, studied in a Soviet school and knew history well.
    I believe that today's youth will not be interested in such a topic at all. Our young generation is currently concerned with other priorities.
    But it’s too late to threaten today’s insolent Lithuanians.
    The historical and frontline situation is not the same..
    1. +2
      1 February 2025 10: 56
      Quote: U-58
      It is somewhat strange that the issue of Memel is being raised now and not in 1991.
      The decision at that time to “let” Lithuania go free for nothing, with the Vilnius region and Memel, personally greatly outraged me.

      Read the Constitution of the USSR, where it is clearly written that Lithuania is sovereign state with the right to leave the union. Its lands are rooted in Constitutions of the Lissr..

      You can’t take anything back anymore, it’s too late, you should have thought about it when you thoughtlessly and stupidly generously gave lands to the nationalists at the expense of Russia, trying to buy their loyalty.

      According to the Potsdam Conference, Koenigberg and its part Memel are the USSR, and Koenig is the RSFSR.

      Why was it necessary to give a strategic port to Lithuania, where it never existed?! Utter stupidity.. Even the Brits were surprised....
      The same with Kovno, Vilno...
      Quote: U-58
      with the Vilnius region and Memel, I personally was very outraged.

      In 45 it was appropriate to express indignation in a timely manner....

      Thanks to the authors.
    2. +5
      1 February 2025 14: 24
      Quote: U-58
      The issue of Memel is being raised now, not in 1991.

      Regarding Crimea, too, I (a schoolboy who was born and lived all of my “then” 16 years in Tajikistan) was completely perplexed: how is it that Crimea, for which Russia fought so much, suddenly becomes part of Ukraine...
    3. +3
      1 February 2025 22: 00
      But it’s too late to threaten today’s insolent Lithuanians.

      I think that Memel can be used to blackmail Lithuania in opposition to transit from Kaliningrad to Belarus. Since Lithuania has stopped letting through some cargo, i.e. violated its obligations, then Russia can also annul some of its agreements. At the same time, demand the return of Memel to the Kaliningrad region. It does not hurt to scare the Lithuanians.
  2. +5
    1 February 2025 05: 05
    By the way, Khrushchev, when transferring Crimea to the Ukrainian SSR, also initiated the transfer of the present-day Kaliningrad region to the Lithuanian SSR, but Snechkus, the then First Secretary of the Communist Party of Lithuania, persuaded the commission created in Moscow for such an annexation that the Lithuanian SSR could not "pull" such an annexation. And this is the Lithuania to which Moscow was then giving billions in subsidies. So when Lithuania today wants the Kaliningrad region, it wants, as a subordinate NATO bridgehead, to create as much tension as possible on all borders with Russia. It is clear that today Lithuania can only bark in vain on such a topic, but with the legacy of Khrushchev's activities, everything could have turned out differently then, and after Gorbachev-Yeltsin, Russia would not have its outpost in Kaliningrad today. But it is quite possible that then drunk Yeltsin would have ordered Lithuania to hand over these lands to Germany, and Kohl would have ordered Lithuania to do the same. Thank God, everything did not work out under Khrushchev, and today the Kaliningrad region is forever Russian land and territory of the Russian state.
  3. +6
    1 February 2025 05: 59
    The authors constantly confuse the concepts of the Basic Law and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany.
    The Federal Republic of Germany currently has no constitution.
    1. 0
      1 February 2025 06: 06
      Quote: pudelartemon
      The authors constantly confuse the concepts of the Basic Law and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany.
      The Federal Republic of Germany currently has no constitution.
      The constitution and the basic law are synonyms. A state without a constitution simply cannot function. Only the Papuans and the wild tribes of the Amazon do not have a constitution.
      1. +7
        1 February 2025 06: 15
        You are mistaken, dear. In Great Britain and Israel, for example, there are no constitutions and they live perfectly well without them. As for the FRG, there is no constitution there. Open the Basic Law of Germany and read the last article, which proclaims the adoption of the constitution after the unification of the FRG and the GDR. Almost 40 years have passed, and the constitution has not been adopted.
        1. 0
          1 February 2025 06: 20
          Quote: pudelartemon
          In Great Britain and Israel, for example, there are no constitutions.
          In Britain the country lives by a collection of royal or parliamentary laws, only this is not called a Constitution. I don't know about Israel, you surprised me with this wink
          1. +7
            1 February 2025 06: 22
            The same situation is in Israel - a set of laws. So the Constitution is just a fetish, not an obligation. They live as they are more accustomed to.
            1. +2
              1 February 2025 06: 25
              Quote: pudelartemon
              The constitution is just a fetish
              Actually, what difference does it make what the fundamental document is called, the Constitution, the Basic Law or just a collection of documents? The main thing is that the country lives according to a prescribed Law, which is mandatory for execution and it does not matter what country it is, Israel without a Constitution or the USA with a Constitution
              1. +5
                1 February 2025 06: 29
                In principle, yes. But the situation in Germany is comical now. There is a Constitutional Court, an Office for the Protection of the Constitution, but formally there is no Constitution itself, and this is written in black in German in the Basic Law. By the way, most Germans don't even know about it.
        2. +1
          1 February 2025 10: 31
          It seems to me that there is no particular difference: whether the fundamental laws are highlighted in the constitution or not. The constitution, in essence, is a set of fundamental laws.
          1. +1
            1 February 2025 18: 57
            Quote: Dimax
            It seems to me that it makes no particular difference whether the fundamental laws are included in the constitution or not.

            So we can agree that there was a constitution under feudalism too. It was just called something else.
            Now, however, the situation is rather the opposite - formally, many have a constitution, but de facto its effect in limiting the arbitrariness of the elites is more of a propaganda than a real character.
  4. +2
    1 February 2025 06: 02
    There is a city of Kovno, which became Kaunus by the will of the Lithuanians who stuck their dirty noses out of their farmsteads, on whom the Germans and Slavs wiped their feet throughout their unenviable history. This city, with the adjacent region, should rightfully belong to today's Belarus, and not to some shabby Lithuania, the same artificial quasi-state as Ukraine.
  5. +1
    2 February 2025 10: 32
    They bought it, they conquered it, but the Foreign Ministry is embarrassed to ask? At least ask. What a wonderful example we have from the beacon of democracy.
  6. 0
    2 February 2025 10: 34
    The year is 2025. Half of the countries are not hungry. In some countries, fewer and fewer children are being born. In some countries, boobs sleep with boobs, and pussies sleep with pussies.
    But the debate about who, or rather which great ruler, owns these 100 square kilometers continues.