Exclave

Between 2014 and 2017, I traveled several times to Kaliningrad, Russia’s small and often overlooked exclave nestled between Lithuania and Poland on the Baltic coast. I found myself increasingly drawn to the province’s youth. I engaged them in conversations about their aspirations and concerns. Many spoke of dreams of leaving, yearning for opportunities beyond the isolation and stagnation they felt in their homeland.

Kaliningrad’s history is a tapestry of shifting identities and geopolitical tensions. Once the German city of Königsberg, it became part of the Soviet Union after World War II, severing centuries of German heritage and transforming into a Soviet outpost. Renamed Kaliningrad in honor of a Soviet politician, its past as a cultural and intellectual hub gave way to its new role as a heavily militarized zone during the Cold War.

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left Kaliningrad geographically isolated from Russia, surrounded by NATO and EU members. This detachment, both physical and political, placed the exclave in a peculiar position—a relic of Soviet imperialism cut off from the mainland, yet integral to Moscow’s strategic plans. While the rest of the Baltic region integrated into Western alliances, Kaliningrad remained under Russian control. Its residents were left navigating a landscape marked by historical remnants and uncertainty.

Today, Kaliningrad stands as a strategic epicenter for Russian military power in the Baltic region, hosting the Russian Navy’s Baltic Fleet and serving as a launch point for threats against neighboring NATO countries. The exclave’s heightened significance reflects its role as a microcosm of broader tensions between Russia and the West—a place where history, identity, and geopolitics collide, shaping not just the lives of its inhabitants but the stability of the region as a whole.

When Russia launched its full-scale war in Ukraine in 2022, it cast a new light on my experiences in Kaliningrad. I reached out to some of the young people I had photographed during my visits and discovered that their outlooks had drastically shifted. Some expressed fear, unwilling to share their stories, while others had aligned themselves with the war effort, adopting pro-war stances under the shadow of the state’s pervasive influence.