The city of Königsberg has been founded in 1255. In its long history the city has been the member of the Hanseatic League, it was also the capital of Prussia before Berlin took over. However, after the WWII Königsberg, in accordance with the Conferences of the Allies in Berlins 1945, was given (along with East Prussia) to the Soviet Union. Soon afterwards (1946) the city was given a new name - Kaliningrad - after Mikhail Kalinin. During the Soviet times, the region of Kaliningrad has been of great strategic importance, many of its areas were off limits. The HQ of Russia's Baltic Fleet has remained in the Kaliningrad Oblast. At present, the population of Kaliningrad City is 423 700. Today, the city and the Oblast are trying to benefit from the status of the special economic zone.
Before the Second World War, the economy of the Kaliningrad region was predominantly agrarian. The regional economy was severely afflicted during the Second World War, when 90% of the Kaliningrad, then Königsberg was destroyed. During the USSR time Kaliningrad became a predominantly industrial and urban region, and was completely integrated into the Soviet economy. The Kaliningrad Oblast consists of 13 administrative districts. There are 22 towns and 5 urban-type villages in the Oblast. The proportion of the urban population in the Oblast is high, 77,7%.
Up until recently, the structure of sub-regional units in the Kaliningrad Oblast was the same as it was in USSR times. One explanation of this phenomenon is partly based on the security status of the Oblast, which is still considered to be Russia's outpost inside the NATO-controlled area. Another explanation is the lack of understanding of the importance of local self-rule the stability and economic development of the Oblast. The old Soviet system of sub-regional power institutions was based on districts, small territories with a middle-size town as a capital. In fact, there are more districts in the Kaliningrad Oblast than there are towns: 22 towns and 23 rayons. At present, average district has between 20 000 and 40 000 inhabitants with the only exception of Kaliningrad. There are five districts inside the capital of the Oblast with 55 000 to 120 000 inhabitants in each of them.
Currently sub-regional institutions in the region are functioning within the borders of the old-style Soviet districts with districts' heads as chief executives. This system hinders normal functioning considerably. For example, federal and regional finances are usually dealt with in the districts, and seldom reach small towns and villages. Due to shortage of finances, many small municipalities are not able to fulfill their mandatory functions, including development of infrastructure and financing of even modest social programs for citizens. There is also lack of qualified specialists in management and public finances, because qualified personnel is not interested to take underpaid and not very prestigious municipal jobs.
In autumn 2004 the reform of local self-rule has been initiated in the Kaliningrad Oblast as an attempt to fulfill newly adopted federal legislation. In the near future there will be 18 towns' municipalities and four municipal districts. Each of them will consist of several lower-level municipalities. In general, there will be more then 40 municipalities in Kaliningrad in 2005.
As of today, the Kaliningrad Oblast has adopted and implemented two essential laws:
These documents can be found here.