Estonian parlt committee recommends using historic name Konigsberg instead of Kaliningrad

The foreign affairs committee of the Estonian parliament made a proposal to the language committee of the Estonian Language Society to consider starting to use the name Konigsberg instead of Kaliningrad in Estonian. Photo: Vitaly Nevar / REUTERS / Scanpix

The foreign affairs committee of the Estonian parliament made a proposal to the language committee of the Estonian Language Society to consider starting to use the name Konigsberg instead of Kaliningrad in Estonian.

Committee chairman Marko Mihkelson said that the committee found that using the Soviet-era name Kaliningrad in the Estonian language should be discontinued and the historic name Konigsberg should be used instead. Members of the committee also pointed out that the city of Kingissepp in Russia should be called by its former name Jamburg or Jaama.

The committee made the proposal to consider changing the name to the language committee of the Estonian Language Society, which participates in defining the standard of the Estonian written language and includes an advisory working group on foreign names. Mihkelson underlined that Latvia, Lithuania and Poland had also decided to use the historic name of the city instead of Kaliningrad.

In 1255, the city with the old Prussian name Twangste was renamed Konigsberg in honor of King Ottokar II of Bohemia. After World War II, the city became part of the Soviet Union and was renamed Kaliningrad after the Soviet politician and a leading figure of Stalinist terror regime Mikhail Kalinin.

The foreign affairs committee discussed the name issue in connection with a draft resolution submitted by the parliamentary group of the Estonian Conservative People's Party (EKRE). The committee will continue discussion on the draft in October. The purpose of the draft resolution is to make a proposal to the government to change Kaliningrad back to Konigsberg in Estonian and carry out all procedures relating to the name change.