From 2007 to 2013 the Kaliningrad region was quite actively involved in the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument cross-border cooperation programme "Lithuania–Poland–Russia 2007–2013", co-financed by the EU. The programme was intended primarily for the infrastructural development of the border areas of Lithuania, Poland and the Kaliningrad region, but the themes of the projects carried out under it went far beyond purely material interests. It was the theme of Russian-Polish-Lithuanian cultural interaction that ran like a red thread through most of the programme's projects.
It seems that a number of projects aimed at stimulating cultural cooperation deserve attention even after their completion, if only because they answer questions such as why museums have no borders, how far Kaliningrad is from Atlantis, how to cross Crossroads 2.0, and many others.
"Museums Beyond Borders" is a project carried out by the Archaeological and Historical Museum in Elbląg and the Kaliningrad museum "Friedland Gate".
Of course, from a financial point of view a substantial part of the project went precisely to infrastructure development – modernising the museums' equipment. But the main emphasis in "Museums without Borders" was nevertheless placed on stimulating cultural cooperation, popularising the shared cultural heritage and searching for common patterns in the development of Elbląg and Kaliningrad–Königsberg, past and present.
The search for points of cultural and historical contact gave rise, within this project, to the documentary film "Testimonies", based on the stories and childhood memories of eyewitnesses to the rise and collapse of Elbląg and Königsberg in the first half of the 20th century. Russian-Polish tourist guidebooks were also prepared, and many exhibitions, educational events and so on were held.
Perhaps the most important thing about "Museums without Borders", and the most valuable for the development of cultural cooperation, was that the project's conceptual component was aimed at accumulating facts capable of uniting the history of the two cities, showing the overall picture of life in the regions, their interdependence and the inseparable ties between cultures in the border area.
"Borderland Atlantis" is a cooperation project between Poland, Lithuania and the Kaliningrad region whose aim was to create a common cultural route leading from the Polish towns of Sejny and Krasnogruda through Kėdainiai in Lithuania to Kaliningrad. Although "Borderland Atlantis" received little coverage in the media of the Kaliningrad region, Poland or Lithuania and had no substantial financial backing, it stands out noticeably among all the projects carried out under the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument cross-border cooperation programme. First of all, one should understand that tourism cooperation between the Kaliningrad region, Poland and Lithuania is currently asymmetrical, since Kaliningraders are far more interested in "the abroad next door" than Poles and Lithuanians are in our region. For this reason any project, even a small one, aimed at popularising Kaliningrad tourist routes is extremely valuable to us.
In this context it is worth noting that one of the outcomes of the project was the publication of the "Guide to the Cultural Route of Borderland Atlantis: Krasnogruda-Sejny, Kėdainiai, Kaliningrad". In addition, the project's website is one of the few English-language internet platforms where one can find information about the Kaliningrad region's attractions for tourists.
Multicultural dialogue – multicultural theatres
The partners in this project were the Aleksander Sewruk Theatre in the Polish city of Elbląg, the Kaliningrad Regional Drama Theatre and the Klaipėda State Music Theatre of Lithuania.
The minimum goal of "multicultural theatres" was to build cooperation between these theatres; the maximum goal was to take Russian-Polish-Lithuanian cultural cooperation to a qualitatively new level.
It must be said that the results of the project confirmed that even small cooperation programmes can achieve maximum goals.
Thus, during the project a single common script for a play was developed in Polish, Lithuanian and Russian. In the end the trilingual production was staged at the theatres taking part in the project, which, without exaggeration, made this cooperation programme a genuine breakthrough in developing a cultural trialogue between Russia, Poland and Lithuania.
It is also worth noting that a rather unusual result of the project was a methodology for multicultural cooperation in the theatre, worked out over a series of rehearsals of "Romeo and Juliet" with a Polish-Lithuanian-Russian group of 60 actors, 30 stagehands, 13 producers and 3 coordinators.
"Close Stranger: developing mutual understanding between the populations of Gdańsk, Kaliningrad and Klaipėda"
The main goal of the "Close Stranger" project was to develop three-way cooperation between cultural institutions and professionals working in contemporary culture and art in Kaliningrad, Gdańsk and Klaipėda. The partners in this project were the Baltic Branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts, the Łaźnia Centre for Contemporary Art (Gdańsk, Poland) and the Klaipėda Culture Communication Centre (Klaipėda, Lithuania).
From the point of view of developing cultural cooperation, this project too can be described as one of the most valuable among the many carried out under the Lithuania–Poland–Russia 2007–2013 cross-border cooperation programme, since it contributed above all to developing three-way contacts and the exchange of experience between people in specific creative professions.
During the "Close Stranger" project, artists from the Kaliningrad region, Poland and Lithuania created works devoted to Russian-Polish-Lithuanian neighbourly relations.
The search for what is shared and unifying was, as in the previously mentioned projects, the main criterion.
Connoisseurs of contemporary art may wish to look at the catalogues of the exhibitions "Witosław Czerwonka. Three Dreams", "Made in Kaliningrad", "Russian Red", "Encounter. The Stolen Past", "9000 km" and "Close Stranger", and at the collection of texts "RussianRed: PolishWaysofSeeing", published as part of the project.
It is worth noting separately that the "Close Stranger" project also touched on tourism cooperation. In 2013 an exploratory art expedition took place, as a result of which 5 common (three-way) cross-border tourist routes were developed and an artistic guidebook, "Art Guide: Gdańsk – Kaliningrad – Klaipėda", was published.
"Lagoons as crossroads of tourism and interaction between the peoples of the South-Eastern Baltic – CROSSROADS 2.0"
"Crossroads 2.0", another project carried out under the Lithuania–Poland–Russia 2007–2013 cross-border cooperation programme, was perhaps the best known of those presented above and one of the largest. Thirteen partners from Lithuania, Poland and the Kaliningrad region took part in it. The project's lead partner on the Russian side was the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University.
One of the particularly valuable priorities of this project from the point of view of three-way cultural cooperation was support for various themed festivals aimed at developing the cross-border tourist appeal of the participating parties: Lithuania, Poland and the Kaliningrad region. It is also worth mentioning the Days of Ancient Crafts held at the Viking-age open-air museum "Ancient Sambia" (which was itself built with funds from the "Crossroads 2.0" project), located in the Curonian Spit National Park.
In addition, in 2013 and 2014 the "Crossroads 2.0" project took under its "wing" the international festival of historical re-enactment and music "Peoples of the Baltic", which has been held in the Kaliningrad region since 2006. Both festivals in 2013–14 were attended by some 100 representatives of historical re-enactment clubs, craftspeople and music groups from Russia, Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Sweden.
Of course, one may ask what happened after these projects reached the end of their implementation, and point out that some of the project work found no further realisation or development.
Yet, strange as it may seem, the completed projects are valuable in themselves, since they are united by an idea – the search for what makes us kin – which helps to overcome mistrust and prejudice and lays the foundation for future cooperation.
Even if their implementation did not attract all-round interest and wide coverage, it has certainly laid the ground for future achievements.
Translated from Russian with the help of AI (Claude, Anthropic), October 2026.
