Lithuanian MPs from the conservative party Vilius Semeszka and Paule Kuzmickiene, following Poland’s example, submitted an application to the language commission to change the name of the Lithuanian city of Kaliningrad to the historical name Karaliaucius (Królewiec).
It is time to let go of the Soviet legacy and stop polluting our national language. We stand in solidarity with our Polish neighbors and call for the use of artificial names imposed on us in Lithuanian, said Vilius Semeszka, quoted by the ELTA agency.
“The name Kaliningrad is part of the Russian narrative and stems from the aggressive actions of the Soviet Union during World War II,” read the petition of deputies, which was submitted to the State Lithuanian Language Commission on Friday. It emphasizes that “after the Soviet Union occupied part of Germany – Koenigsberg, it was named Kaliningrad in honor of the Bolshevik revolutionary Mikhail Kalinin”.
According to MP Paule Kuzmickiene, who heads the Parliamentary Commission for the Historical Commemoration of the Struggle for Freedom and the State, “The Russification of place names is meant to show that they belong to Moscow.”
This part of East Prussia was given to the Soviet Union as spoils of war. (…) No Russian has ever lived there, and Stalin lied about the history of the Russian land – said the politician.
According to Kuzmickiene, “to justify ownership of the territory, Moscow adopted a deliberate and Russian policy of toponyms of place names and water reservoirs, (…) seeking to make it understandable to occupiers from different parts of the Soviet Union and to legitimize ownership of the territory.”
In Poland, from May 9, the city of Kaliningrad has a new official name. According to the recommendation of the Committee for Standardization of Geographical Names Outside the Republic of Poland, it is called Królewiec.
From Vilnius Alexander Akińczo
Photo. Shutterstock
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