Borderland and Peripherality: Discussing the Contexts of Identity Shaping of the Kaliningrad Region Inhabitants

Abstract

This article focuses on the significant internal heterogeneity of the Kaliningrad region, the unevenness of its territorial development and the presence of significant differences in the lifestyles and perceptions of its people. We show the diversity of contexts that influence the structure and meaning of the identities of the Kaliningrad population, in addition to the geopolitical position of the region and the active cross-border contacts of its inhabitants. A comparison of the typology of the municipalities of the region, developed on the basis of socio-economic and demographic criteria, with the results of a representative survey of the population (autumn 2020) led the authors to conclude there is a territorial expression of ideological boundaries, marking not only the space of social relations, but also specific geographical areas. The key factors of spatial differentiation are the peripherality and the disorganization of many settlements; frustration caused by the socio-economic polarization of society; and social inertia. The exclavity and borders of the region are significant in the formation of Kaliningrad identity, if the cross-border activity of people becomes a consequence of the need to compensate for the deficit of local resources and development. The phenomenon of a liminal society, distancing itself from the cultural core of the country, does not have a significant scale in the region, contrary to the widespread opinion about the “double world” of the Kaliningrad region and the cosmopolitanism of its inhabitants.