Unfortunately, relatively few travelers make their way to Kaliningrad Region, although Kaliningrad is a unique area in Russia. It is not only the westernmost, the youngest and the smallest region, but the territory of Kaliningrad Region is isolated from the rest of the country. Kaliningrad is an enclave, a disconnected wedge of Russia that lies between Lithuania, Poland and the Baltic Sea. The awareness that they live on the foreign soil and are faced daily with the examples of the Western life, gives the population of Kaliningrad a different view of nationhood, national identity than in other parts of Russia.
Read: What to Eat in Kaliningrad
Kaliningrad Region is worth visiting for its old country-side Prussian castle ruins, as well as for its sunny beaches, the highest sand dunes in Europe, thick pine forests and the world’s largest amber mine. So, if in your childhood you were fascinated by novels about knights, their arm-bearers, heroic deeds, if you are dreaming to feel the past or to find a piece of amber on the shore of the Baltic Sea, then Kaliningrad Region is the place you need.
The centre of the region is Kaliningrad city with a population of 422 000 persons. The largest cities in the region are Sovietsk, Cherniakhvsk, Gusev, Baltiysk. The ethnicial composition of the population is: Russians - 77.9%, Belorussians - 8.0%, Ukrainians - 7.3%, Lithuanians -1.9%. The Kaliningrad Region is one of the most densely populated areas of the Russian Federation with an average of 60 inhabitants per square kilometer. In the region's territory are concentrated the world largest deposits (more than 90%) of amber, significant low-sulfur (below 0,2%) oil deposits. "Extra"-class rock salt, peat, and mineral waters at the bottom of the Baltic Sea are discovered iron-managanese nodules, as well as deposits of "heavy sands", containing titanium and zirconium.
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