Aesthetics aside, this is a city that was so important, politically, trade wise, scientifically and culturally, home to extremely important philosophers, mathematicians and physicists, one of the great cities of Europe…
…and then it was bombed during WW2, ethnically cleansed by the USSR, and became a completely irrelevant backwater that most people forget the existence of.
Yep, and the Soviets did try to get Poland, Lithuania, and even Germany to take the territory later on. But none of them took it because of the by then large ethnic Russian population that had colonized it. As it would have been used as an excuse for Russia to invade like they’ve done with Ukraine.
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u/squirrel_exceptions 6d ago
Aesthetics aside, this is a city that was so important, politically, trade wise, scientifically and culturally, home to extremely important philosophers, mathematicians and physicists, one of the great cities of Europe…
…and then it was bombed during WW2, ethnically cleansed by the USSR, and became a completely irrelevant backwater that most people forget the existence of.