Why is Kaliningrad not part of Lithuania (or Poland)?

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Why did Russia hold onto it? Why is it not part of Lithuania?

Kaliningrad was already a part of the Russian Soviet Federative Republic, which transformed into Russia we know today.

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The entire population is ethnic Russian. There are no Lithuanians or Poles there at all, and never really were, at least in the last few centuries. It was nearly 100% German, and then, after the Germans were expelled, was settled almost exclusively with Russians (not Poles or Lithuanians).

The Crimea or Transnistria are also majority-Russian, but since didn't constitute the part of RFSSR, are not part of Russia now.

Had Kaliningran been assigned to the Lithuanian SSR, it would remain with Lithuania after 1991.

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It's strategically important - assigning Kalingrad to Lithuania would mean Russia would have lost its only permanently non-frozen port.

So is Crimea, which didn't prevent Nikita Sergeyevich from transferring it to the Ukrainian SSR. Of course since it was still one big Soviet Union it didn't matter until the thing actually collapsed. I don't think Stalin or Khrushchev ever thought along "well, the USSR might dissolve one day, so we better keep this with Russia..." lines.

My guess is that Stalin wanted to keep both Lithuanians and Poles in check. Very much like him.

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It's strategically important - assigning Kalingrad to Lithuania would mean Russia would have lost its only permanently non-frozen port.

St Petersburg? All the ports in the Black Sea? All their ports in the far east? (like say, Vladivostok)

St. Petersburg freezes in winter.

And that is why, aside of other strategically important reasons, Russia wouldn't and won't give up the oblast.

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Exactly which bits of the Soviet Union went into which 'Republic' was at the time not terribly relevant; the Empire was not a genuine federal entity and it was never supposed to break up.

Yes. For example the Ukrainian SSR had been enlarged in the west by bits of Russia for optics.

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Yes, so why wasn't this part of Lithuania, since it's not continuous with the rest of Russia?

My guess is Uncle Joe simply playing Divide et Impera.

And now, in order to get anything out of the oblast in wintertime to the rest of actual Russia, it needs to either pass through NATO states by air or land...

You still have the sea route. Beside, Russia is certainly very happy to have such an enclave in the middle of NATO territory, just like Americans, British and French valued West Berlin.

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Yes, so why wasn't this part of Lithuania, since it's not continuous with the rest of Russia?

My guess is Uncle Joe simply playing Divide et Impera.

And now, in order to get anything out of the oblast in wintertime to the rest of actual Russia, it needs to either pass through NATO states by air or land...

You still have the sea route. Beside, Russia is certainly very happy to have such an enclave in the middle of NATO territory, just like Americans, British and French valued West Berlin.

If they still have the sea route, then there's no need for Kaliningrad.

I'm sorry, but I don't see any sense in this post.

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Königsberg (RIP) was only ever the capital of the part of the Hohenzollern domains outside the boundaries of the Holy Roman Empire; i.e. what was then known as the Duchy of Prussia and which later became East Prussia.

East Prussia, Prussia.

I read it here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%B6nigsberg

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As Al pointed out earlier, from the formal standpoint, Berlin was not the capital of Prussia but the Electorate of Brandenburg, which was part of the Holy Roman Empire, while the Duchy, and subsequently Kingdom of Prussia, was not. Of course Brandenburg-Prussia was effectively an unified state.

Dukes-Electors used Prussia to elevate themselves to Kings, which wouldn't be allowed within the HRE.

But you said they need Kaliningrad because it's the only seaport that's not frozen in the winter in that area of Russia. And I said it still doesn't make much sense, since anything that's imported into Kaliningrad would need to go through NATO countries by air or land to make it to the rest of Russia.

So? Why should it make Kaliningrad not being strategically important for Russia?

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St Petersburg? All the ports in the Black Sea? All their ports in the far east? (like say, Vladivostok)

St Petersburg can freeze and to get out of the Black Sea, you need to go through the Bosphorous, which is Turkish on both sides.

Russian/Soviet Naval situation always sucked for geographic/climate reasons.

1. The only non-freezing Baltic port is Kaliningrad, which is not contiguous with the rest of Russia
2. In order to leave the Baltic, you have to go through the Danish straits
3. In order to leave Black Sea, you have to go through the Turkish straits. In order to leave the Mediterranean, you have to go through either Gibraltar or the Suez Canal

Of course it's no problem (legally speaking) in peacetime, but in wartime it would be a serious handicap.

The main reason annexation of Crimea happened was because of the naval bases. Also, air bases, since it gives you a perfect point to quickly reach Turkey.

Russians are very serious about having a proper sea access.

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I once read that Gorbatschow offered Königsberg to our then Chancellor Kohl in the reunification talks in 1990 but we declined.

That'd poison Poland-Unified Germany relations I imagine.

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You have to remember that western states never formally recognised the Baltic States as part of the Soviet Union, we always legally recognised them as independent states and right through to 1991 in some places you had "ambassadors" representing the three countries.  ht have worked in 1990; certainly not now though.

Oh yes, it's quite a fascinating issue. I remember Latvian sovergnity being largely represented by Anatols Dinbergs, a pre-war diplomat who became a head of Latvian diplomatic service abroad, even though neither Latvia nor Lithuania had governments in exile, while Estonia had one.

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In 1941, a British official suggested making East Prussia the location of a Jewish state in talks with David Ben-Gurion, who later became the first Prime Minister of Israel.

Marek Edelman, the last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, once suggested, half-seriously, the best place to establish the Jewish state was Bavaria, because it would be historically fair (payback to the birthplace of the Nazism), and "the climate is more bearable." Not being a Zionist himself (as he came from the Bund), he said so in response to those saying establishing a Jewish state in Palestine was "historically the fairest option".

I can't think of all proposed places for Jewish homelands other than Palestine: there was Africa, Canada, Crimea, Madagascar and now I'm learning about East Prussia. I doubt any of these would even work, given the symbolic importance of returning to Palestine. It would probably end in a failure like the Jewish Autonomous Oblast.