Our Authors

VisitPrussia.com

Editorial team

The project is for everyone who takes part in the present, is interested in the past and cares about the future of the Kaliningrad Region and its neighbouring regions. Our mission is to decode and decipher Prussia for everyone interested in the region.

Aleksandr Kazyonnov

Local historian

Born in 1983 in the town of Gusev. A lawyer by training, he has been interested in the history of his native region since his school days. His main fields of interest in local history are “burials and memorials of the First World War”, “the history of the Rominten Heath”, “the a…

Aleksandr Sologubov

Philosopher and researcher of borderland cultures

Born in the town of Gusev in the Kaliningrad Region, he graduated from the Faculty of Physics of Kaliningrad State University (KSU) and completed postgraduate studies in logic there. He holds a Candidate of Sciences degree in Philosophy. His research interests include borderland…

Aleksandr Khramchikhin

Military and political analyst

Born in 1967. Graduated from the Faculty of Physics at Moscow State University. Author of the books "Russians at War" and "Has the Dragon Awoken?" Deputy Director of the Institute for Political and Military Analysis.

Aleksandr Shamshiev

Political commentator and international affairs journalist

Born in Sverdlovsk, he spent his early childhood in Svetlogorsk and has lived in Kaliningrad since his school years. He graduated from the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University. He is a correspondent and political commentator for RuBaltic.Ru. He has written for Komsomolskaya P…

Aleksey Petrushin

Amateur historian, local history researcher

A native of Kaliningrad, he studied at the Tyumen Industrial Institute and the Tomsk University of Control Systems and Radioelectronics. By profession, he is the chief engineer of a telecommunications company. His interests include the history of his home region and photography.…

Aleksey Salikov

Philosopher, political scientist

Graduated in 2001 from Kaliningrad State University (now the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University), Department of Philosophy, Faculty of History. In 2008 he defended his PhD thesis in philosophy on "The Reception of Kant's Ideas in Hannah Arendt's Theory of the Faculty of Jud…

Aleksey Sokolov

Director of the Vištytis Ecological and Historical Museum

Candidate of Biological Sciences (PhD equivalent), Associate Professor. He graduated from the Faculty of Biology of Kaliningrad State University in 1994. Since 2001 he has headed the Kaliningrad regional public institution "Vištytis Ecological and Historical Museum" and is an ex…

Aleksey Shchegolev

Journalist, editor of the Afisha RUGRAD.EU portal

Anatoly Bakhtin

Local history researcher, medieval historian

(1949 – 2023) Anatoly Pavlovich Bakhtin, who served as chief archivist of the State Archive of the Kaliningrad Region (http://www.gako.name/), considered the Teutonic Order and everything connected with it, including the Order's castles, churches and towns, to be his main passi…

Andrey Bolotov

Russian scholar and memoirist

1738 (Dvoryaninovo, Tula Governorate) – 1833 (ibid.) Russian memoirist, moral philosopher, scholar, agronomist, botanist and forester. He lived in Königsberg during the Seven Years' War, from April 1758 to March 1762.

Anton Kovalsky

RE:aktivist

Editor-in-chief of RE:aktivist (http://reaktivist.ru/), a website about life, music, film and travel; art director of the international project "The Faroe Islands Are Closer Than You Think"; music critic and promoter; member of the Union of Journalists of Russia. He graduated fr…

Artyom Ryzhkov

Art director of the ZARYA cinema, founder of the Kvartira art space

My name is Artyom Ryzhkov. I live in Kaliningrad, but it's on the Curonian Spit that I breathe. I write books, run the Kvartira art project, programme the ZARYA cinema, host "Life on the Moon" on Radio Maximum, and put together the programmes of the EU Film Festival and the Koro…

Arthur Sarnitz

Architect, Managing Director of Fort Dönhoff LLC

A native Kaliningrader — and even a Königsberger. (His paternal grandmother was born on the Pregel and lived there until she married.) He spent his childhood in Cuba, where his father worked, and returned to Kaliningrad with his parents in 1976. He did his military service in St…

Barbara Tuchman

American writer and historian

(1912–1989) Two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, one of them for "The Guns of August" (1963; a bestseller about the origins and first month of the First World War).

Vadim Chaly

Philosopher, surfer

Born in Kaliningrad, he went to kindergarten on Komsomolskaya Street and to school on Pionerskaya Street. He has worked as a car washer, translator, petrol station attendant, musician, loader, airline ticket agent and postman, and has been a student at the Faculty of Economics a…

Valery Smirnov

Journalist, historian, film critic

In 1974 he graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) University. He completed his student internship in Kaliningrad. He worked for newspapers and television companies in Dushanbe and Tver as a correspondent, deputy editor and editor-in-chief. F…

Viktor Suvorov

Archaeologist, local historian, PhD in History

(1947–2008) A graduate of the A. A. Zhdanov Leningrad State University. Associate professor, founder and head of the Department of the History of the Baltic Region at Kaliningrad State University in 1992–2003, and professor at the Department of Auxiliary Historical Disciplines …

Vladas Povilaitis

Historian of Russian philosophy

Born and raised in Kaliningrad, he graduated from the Faculty of History at Kaliningrad State University (1995) and then, to his own surprise and everyone else's, enrolled in a postgraduate programme in philosophy, which finally put paid to all his hopes of a long, prosperous an…

Vladimir Bespalov

Historian

Candidate of Historical Sciences (PhD) and local historian. He has more than 40 publications on the history and current issues of international relations in the second half of the 20th century and on the history of the Second World War. Author of the book "West Berlin Transit (1…

Vladimir Kuzin

Lecturer at Kaliningrad State Technical University

He headed the Economic Development Committee of the Administration of the Kaliningrad City District and the Department of Strategic Planning for Socio-Economic Development in the Government of the Kaliningrad Region. He is currently director of an analytical centre and an associ…

Vladimir Kulakov

Historian, archaeologist

Russian historian and archaeologist specialising in the antiquities of Western and Central Europe from the Neolithic to the 14th century. Since 1969 he has worked at the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IA RAS). He is also a prolific writer: his bibli…

Gennady Kretinin

Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor at the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, local historian

Russian historian, military inventor and retired colonel. Specialist in Russian military history, the history of East Prussia and international relations in the Baltic region. Candidate of Military Sciences (1982), Doctor of Historical Sciences (2000), Professor (2000), member o…

Günter Grass

German writer

1927 (Danzig) – 2015 (Lübeck) Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (1999), an outstanding German writer and poet who gained international recognition with his debut novel “The Tin Drum” (1959), which was adapted into a film of the same name in 1979.

Dmitry Polyansky

Philosopher, anthropologist

A second-generation native of Kaliningrad. Graduated in philosophy from the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University (at the time, in 2002, it was called Kaliningrad State University). Since then he has taught a whole host of subjects at his alma mater, and even more as a part-ti…

Ekaterina Smirnova

On to Berlin!

Born and raised in Kaliningrad. Graduated from the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University. Contributes to regional and national publications. Since October 2015, she has been working in Berlin on social projects in healthcare and the integration of migrants from Eastern Europe.

Elena Salikhova

Biologist, ecologist

She has lived in Kaliningrad since 1977. She came from Leningrad, where she worked at the Botanical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences, following her husband, who had been assigned to Kaliningrad after completing his postgraduate studies at Leningrad State University. She…

Ilya Dementyev

Historian

Associate Professor at the Institute of Humanities of the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Candidate of Historical Sciences (2004), Associate Professor (academic title, 2008). Editor of the Scholarly Publications Department at the Centre for the Development of Publicatio…

Ilya Klishin

Co-founder of the media consulting agency KFConsulting

Russian journalist and columnist, editor-in-chief of the TV Rain website in 2013–2016, head of the digital newsroom of the international TV channel RTVi in 2016–2019, and co-founder of the media consulting agency KFConsulting.

Irina Kozhevnikova

Historian, art historian

A native of Kaliningrad. She graduated from the Faculty of History at Kaliningrad University, studied at the Repin Institute, and worked at the Kaliningrad Art Gallery and the Friedland Gate Museum. She compiled the catalogue "Monuments of Monumental Painting of East Prussia in …

Kirill Sinkovsky

Journalist

Born in Kaliningrad. After leaving school, he was rash enough to enrol at the KMU (now the KMK) and to graduate from it. He then studied at the history faculty of Kaliningrad State University (now the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University), from which, for some reason, he also…

Konstantin Karchevsky

Editor of the website “A Postcard from East Prussia”

He graduated from the Faculty of Geography at Moscow State University. He loves travel, history and the poetry of the Silver Age. He grows grapes and collects postcards. Yet beyond postcards from former East Prussia and from Königsberg-Kaliningrad, the city where Konstantin has …

Lada Polyanskaya

Journalist and literary editor

Born and raised in Yekaterinburg, she moved to Kaliningrad in 2010. She studied mathematics, sociology and law. Her work covers everything to do with the literary editing of texts. She writes articles for various publications, scripts for TV series and commissioned books. She ha…

Leo Tolstoy

Russian writer

1828 (Yasnaya Polyana, Tula Governorate) – 1910 (Astapovo station, Ryazan Governorate) Count. Took part in the defence of Sevastopol. One of the world's best-known Russian novelists. Corresponding Member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences (1873) and Honorary Academician in the…

Maxim Goryunov

Philosopher

A journalist of international mystery.

Maksim Megem

Historian, local history researcher

Director of the Center for Historical Memory Studies at the Institute of Regional Studies, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University.

Maria Kokhanovskaya

Geoecologist, lecturer

A graduate of the Faculty of Geography at Kaliningrad State University (now the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University), she holds a Candidate of Sciences degree in Geography. Her interests include environmental issues and inclusion. A feminist, she advocates for gender equalit…

Mikhail Ogorodnikov

Keeper of the Keys

Founder and editor of VisitPrussia.com. More than a quarter of a century in the media. For the past ten years he has worked professionally on tourism portals for Russian regions.

Natalya Antonova

Kaliningrad writer

Born on 1 January 1977 in the settlement of Yantarny, Kaliningrad Region. In 1999 she graduated from the Literature Department of the Faculty of Philology at Kaliningrad State University. She taught Russian language and literature at a school, then worked at the Baltic Institute…

Natalya Rachenkova

Journalist, translator, educator

She graduated from Tver State University, from both the Faculty of Romance and Germanic Philology and the Faculty of Psychology. In 1981 she completed an internship at Martin Luther University in Halle (GDR). She has worked as a German teacher, as a translator for the company Lo…

Nikolay Karamzin

Russian writer and historian

(1726 – 1826) Russian writer and historian. Actual State Councillor. Honorary Member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. The leading figure of Sentimentalist literature in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and one of the reformers of the Russian literary language.

Olga Dmitrieva

Kaliningrad artist and passionate blogger

She began her career as an artist by studying at the San Alejandro Academy in Havana (Cuba), and continued her education at the Rachmaninoff Music College in Kaliningrad. In 1989 she became a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR. She has taken part in more than 60 group ex…

Paulina Siegień

Polish journalist and Kaliningrad enthusiast

A cross-border journalist working between Gdańsk and Kaliningrad and a doctoral student at the Faculty of Languages at the University of Gdańsk. She once lived, studied and worked in Warsaw, and for several years now has been based mainly in Gdańsk, taking breaks to visit Kalini…

Richard Armstedt

German historian and educator

1851 (Osterburg) – 1931 (Königsberg) German historian, philologist and educator. He received his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Tübingen in 1885. The following year he became a senior teacher at the Altstädtisches Gymnasium in Königsberg. From 1900 to 1921 he wa…

Roman Shiroukhov

Historian, archaeologist, writer

PhD in history and archaeology, specialist in Baltic archaeology, science communicator, writer and music critic. Since 2003 he has taken part in archaeological research in the Baltic region and Eastern Europe, above all in historical Prussia and Western Lithuania. In 2006 he gra…

Tatyana Kolivay

Translator, author of the blog "Fairy Tales of Germany"

Graduated from Moscow State University with a degree in Russian Language and Literature, and from the Maurice Thorez Institute of Foreign Languages (now Moscow State Linguistic University), where she qualified as a German translator and reviewer. Author of the blog Fairy Tales o…

Taya Tilzitskaya

Journalist

Born in Sovetsk, Kaliningrad Region. In 2005 she moved to Kaliningrad and enrolled in the Faculty of Philology at the Immanuel Kant State University of Russia, majoring in journalism. During her studies and after graduating, she worked with various media outlets: the newspapers …

Fritz Gause

German historian

1893 (Königsberg) – 1973 (Essen) German historian, archivist and educator. Veteran of the First World War. He was associated with the nationalist historical movement known as Ostforschung. During the Second World War, he headed Königsberg's Historical Museum, City Archive and P…

Ernest Lavisse

French historian

1842 (Le Nouvion-en-Thiérache) – 1922 (Paris) French historian, corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, and author of works on the history of Prussia.

Yulia Lyovkina

Lecturer in Philosophy

Born in Gusev, she studied and now lives and works in Kaliningrad. In 2008 she graduated from the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University with a degree in Philosophy, went on to complete her postgraduate studies there, and now teaches philosophy and aesthetics at the same univer…

Yana Vorozheina

Expert at the ANO "Institute of Russian-Polish Cooperation"

In 2013 she graduated from the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University with a degree in cultural studies, and in 2015 she earned a master's degree in political science. She is currently working on her PhD thesis in political science and regional studies. She has worked as a free…