Geopolitical transformation of the Kaliningrad oblast of the Russian Federation
24 After the World War II, the part of East Prussia taken by the Soviet Union was transformed into a gigantic Soviet military base. It performed the functions of the outpost in the West on the one hand; and on the other hand, of the barrier which helped the USSR to ensure the dependence of the Eastern Baltics and domination in Poland. After the Cold War, Kaliningrad Oblast, a territory of 15,000 square metres with a population of nearly one million people, owned by the Russian Federation and located the farthest to the West, although on the Baltic Sea, ashore became isolated from the motherland and turned into an exclave. Gradually the exclave found itself first at the crossroads of different security structures and later — surrounded by one of them. Changes in the situation gave rise to the so-called Kaliningrad discourse, i. e. political decisions, academic discussions and research, influenced by the internal transformation in the USSR and the Russian Federation (RF) as well as slips in the international policies of Central and Eastern Europe.