Kaliningrad

Home to the mission control centre for Russian space flights, a facility owned and operated by the Energiya Rocket and Space Complex. The city and port in western Russia has a population of 425,000 (2003 est). Industries include shipbuilding, fisheries, machinery, engineering, and paper manufacture. The port of Kaliningrad remains ice-free throughout the year; as well as being an important commercial centre, it is also the principal base of the Russian Baltic fleet. There are amber deposits nearby that are considered to be the richest in the world.

History
The city developed from 1255 onwards around a castle of the Teutonic Knights; from 1457 it was the residence of the grand master of the Teutonic Order. During the Middle Ages, it was a member of the important Hanseatic League trading federation. It was the seat of the Dukes of Prussia from 1525–1618 and was capital of East Prussia from 1618 to 1945, when this territory was divided between the USSR and Poland under the Potsdam Agreement and renamed in honour of Soviet President Mikhail Kalinin (1875–1946). The centre of the city was extensively destroyed in the 1945 siege, but the 14th-century cathedral has been restored.