I have long used the name Königsberg. I do not intend to honor the Soviet criminal Kalinin, whose signature appears on the order to execute Polish officers, a position voiced by Deputy Minister of Culture and National Heritage Jarosław Sellin on TV Republika.
“For a historian, Königsberg has always been the name”
At the April meeting, the Committee for Standardization of Geographical Names Outside the Republic of Poland, operating under the Chief National Surveyor, decided that the Polish designation Królewiec should be used for the city now known as Kaliningrad and for the Kaliningrad Oblast, effectively naming the region as Królewiec Oblast. The resolution took effect on the date of its publication on the Commission’s website, 9 May this year.
This stance is not new to the speaker. A native of Gdańsk, he has traveled the region in the 1990s due to journalistic assignments. He notes that in his practice he never used the term Kaliningrad and, for him, Königsberg has always been the historical name.
— emphasized the deputy head of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
“I do not intend to honor the criminal Kalinin”
He recalled that “Kalinin was among those Stalinist figures whose signatures endorsed the order to kill Polish officers as part of the Katyn massacre.”
In Poland, the name Królewiec is tied to a long history—the name appeared, first under Soviet and later under Russian administration, yet for many it remains the historic form that should be preserved. The speaker stressed that it is a name he does not accept as a form of honor.
He added that “Królewiec is a wonderful historical Polish name for the city originally established by the Teutonic Knights as Königsberg.”
He noted that Poles began using Królewiec, especially from 1466 after the Second Peace of Toruń, when part of the German lands came under the Polish crown, and the other part was administered as a Polish fief. In common usage, the name Królewiec was widely adopted.
— said Jaroslaw Sellin.
“The change is symbolic”
According to information provided to the press by the Ministry of Development and Technology, the name change was initiated by local officials and supported by a request from the Minister of Development and Technology. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs offered a positive assessment, stressing that Poland is returning to its traditional nomenclature tied to national history and cultural heritage.
The ministry described the change as symbolic and stated that it does not reflect the nationality of the Kaliningrad region.
The change does not impose new obligations on businesses or require updates to documents, it noted. The plan will include the name Königsberg on maps.
“We do not want Russification in Poland, so we chose Królewiec over Kaliningrad and Kaliningrad Oblast in our native language. The naming feels imposed and artificial, not connected to our history. A large city near our border bearing Kalinin’s name evokes negative emotions in Poland,” the minister explained.
He added that the Russian name for the city is an artificial construct unrelated to the city or its region.
Events surrounding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the imposition of the so-called Russian world, and Russia’s information war have shifted Polish views on imposed names. These considerations have sparked controversy and contested acceptance within Poland.
— emphasized the Minister of Development and Technology.
For centuries the city was known as Königsberg
The Ministry of Agriculture and Tourism recalled that Königsberg grew around a castle built in 1255 by the Teutonic Knights at the mouth of the Pregola River. The fortress was named Coningsberg, or Royal Mountain, in honor of the Czech king Ottokar II Przemysł who led German campaigns in Prussia. The city has been known as Karaliaučius in Lithuanian, Karalauč in Latvian, Královec in Czech, and its historic Russian name was Korolevets.
Königsberg was part of the Teutonic Order’s state for nearly three centuries, later within Prussia and Germany for more than four centuries. It was Poland’s fief for about two hundred years, and after World War II the city joined the USSR. In 1946 Moscow renamed it Kaliningrad, the name used in Russia up to the present.
Additional references emphasize the policy shifts and the ongoing discussion over historical names. The present debate is seen against a backdrop of national memory and regional geopolitics, not merely local naming preferences.
Source references: wPolityce [Citation: wPolityce], and related discussions in regional press and government statements [Citation: regional archives].