It is closer to Berlin than St Petersburg, the former Prussian royal capital that was only annexed by the Soviet Union after the Second World War. Kaliningrad, formerly Königsberg, is Russia’s western-most spur and the base for its Baltic fleet. The city’s hodgepodge of influences is evident on its main thoroughfare, Leninsky Prospekt, where the former stock exchange was turned into a Communist “Palace of Culture”. Construction on the House of Soviets, a famous brutalist building, began shortly after the city castle was demolished in 1968; it has never been completed.
Until recently, Leninsky Prospekt was also home to both a Kalinin Express fast-food joint, named for a long-standing ally of Stalin, Mikhail Kalinin (and the city’s present namesake), and an “Obama Pizza” restaurant, complete with Masonic eye. East meets west, à la Putin.
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