Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis

The article focuses on the controversies of WWII, how the intertwining of history and politics impacts evaluation of the events of the war, the emphasis that is placed on historical memory and the possibilities of “forgetfulness”, and politicization of the holocaust memory. On the basis of diaries and contemporary notes, the situation in German-occupied Lithuania, episodes of the holocaust, the activities of the Lithuanian police battalions, and the actions of the Soviet Army in occupied German territory is analyzed.

In this article there is the analysis of specifics of the interpretation of the events of the end of the Second World War in the Russian historical politics from the point of view of the subject integration (historical, cultural-anthropological and psychological). The main concepts, defining the evaluation of the situation of the Soviet occupation of the region of Koenigsberg in Russian historical politics and culture, are presented. Also there is the analysis of the problem of the impact of the conception of the “genocide of the Lithuania Minor” on the Lithuanian historical politics. The problems, presented in the article, haven’t been analyzed in complex in Lithuania so far.

The author attempts to reconstruct how Joseph Stalin viewed the future of the German province of East Prussian and its development within the USSR. The problems Moscow had formulating policy with respect to the newly annexed region are considered from the point of view of the conflicts between military and civil authorities. Newly discovered documents from central and local archives describe the history of the so-called Stalin Plan that outlined the development of the Kaliningrad region (1947). The results of the realization of “the Stalin Plan” are analyzed, the consequences to relations between Moscow and the Kaliningrad area are evaluated, and also their influence on the formation of Kaliningrad government structures is estimated.

The history of the founding of the Kaliningrad region, as part of the USSR, is one of the most vital issues for Kaliningrad historians. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, this problem is actively investigated. The article presents the background and history of these investigations, draws the characterization of them, defines the main historical documents published on this issue, point out the progress of the regional researchers and gives general characteristics of contemporary Kaliningrad historiography.

This article analyses commemorations of World War II events in the northern part of former East Prussia, comparing discourses and practices of commemoration in post-war Klaipėda region and Kaliningrad oblast. It reviews the socio-cultural developments in this region and distinguishes between private and public forms of commemoration. Author argues that two main plots were important in the public commemoration of war: the plot of “liberation” and that of the victory achieved in the “struggle against Fascism”. Analyzing the public commemoration of these plots, it distinguishes and exhaustively examines its three functions: legitimation of territorial subordination, founding myth, and payment of homage to the warriors as strategies of regime legitimation and the formation of valuable orientations.

The paper gives an overview of military developments on the final stage of Second World War in the East Prussia territory. The events in this area had been sticked in collective German memory as an Apocalypse. The extensive crimes committed by the conqueror, the motives for the mass criminality in East Prussia are examined as well. These events left a collective trauma in the culture of German remembrance, but the consequences for the Soviet Union were also negative.

The article compares historical literature that conveys the Soviet story of ‘liberation’ of Memel/Klaipėda during World War II, and compares them with post-war German publications dealing with the issue of seizure of Klaipėda that emerged in the post-war period. On the basis of this comparison, verification is sought of the story of ‘liberation’, highlighting its major factual and interpretational problems. The analysis corrects some episodes of the story of Klaipėda’s seizure, thoroughly covering the course of World War II events in the approach of the Eastern Front toward Klaipėda during the period from October 1944 till the end of January 1945.

The end of the Second World War vitally influenced the fate of East Prussia not only from a historical point of view, but also its collective memory. The main object of the article is an analysis of the local aspects of this issue. This included the Curonian Spit as an important evacuation route for Klaipėda/Memel inhabitants at the end of 1944 and a reflection of this process in the collective memory. An important aspect of this analysis is connected with the problem of contemporary Curonian Spit residents in relating with the past as a part of their identity.

Technical and technological construction questions of Memel / Klaipėda tunnel bombshelters of the World War II are analyzed in the following article. These questions help to reconstruct historical aspects of function and presumable purpose of these bombshelters during the siege of the town. The researches allowed to systematize the attributes, typical of such constructions. For the research of bombshelters’ constructions and materials, a comparative method was used: the received results were compared with analogous research results of Memel / Klaipėda and its surroundings’ structures – antiaircraft (Flak) and coast artillery battery – which functioned during the World War II. The constructions of remained German bombshelters are more than modest; the technological mistakes allow suppose, that the builders of the shelters didn’t dispose such material and human resources like ones of the batteries. Beside this, the durability of the bombshelters leads to believe that builders used some building materials of high quality, for example, the slag cement, the waterproof concrete and plaster.