Back in the early 20th century, there was once a city called Königsberg on the eastern periphery of the technologically-advanced Imperial Germany. It was a vibrant German-speaking city with a long and fascinating history. It was home to famous philosophers such as Immanuel Kant. The city, along with the entire region of East Prussia was a shining beacon of prosperity and culture in a part of Europe that was otherwise extremely impoverished and backward. But then, tragedy struck.

WWI began, which was not initiated by any particular European great power. Although Germany was able to defend East Prussia from an Imperial Russian attack at the start of the war, and managed to defeat the Russians on the Eastern Front, their defeat on the Western Front forced them to withdraw from a part of Europe that was being quickly swept by Russian communist violence and instability.

Thankfully, nothing bad happened to East Prussia as a result of WWI, aside from some minor territorial losses. But, after the Nazis seized power in Germany, suppressed all opposition, and tried to make their demented racial and expansionist dreams into a reality, Königsberg's situation became increasingly desperate. And when the genocidal Nazis invaded the genocidal Soviet Union, there was no turning back. The USSR's evil, demented, and utterly paranoid leader, Joseph Stalin, demanded the northern part of East Prussia as a military base, and Königsberg as a naval port city, in traditional Russian imperialist tradition.

He eventually took it over, just as he so desired, with the help of the British and the Americans, who bombed the region during WWII. The rest of East Prussia, along with all German lands east of the Oder-Neisse line, were given to Poland, a newly-established Soviet communist satellite state, which had itself lost its eastern lands to the USSR back in 1939 during the joint Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland. The Germans living there were also forced out, in a little-known event that is actually the largest ethnic cleansing in history. In northern East Prussia, Stalin also sought to remove the entirety of the region's original inhabitants, and replace it with ethnic Russians who were loyal to the Soviet Union.

Germany had no say in this matter, and the Western Allies did not protest this move, not only because they could not do much about this without launching an invasion against Soviet forces, but also because they viewed this as retribution for the Nazis' crimes in the war. A mistake for sure, as not all Germans were Nazis, and the NSDAP's first victims were Germans (including German Jews that had even hailed from the easternmost parts of the country). After Königsberg was briefly Russified in 1945 as Kyonigsberg, it was renamed a year later to Kaliningrad, in honour of a brutal Soviet politician who had died that year. Other settlements in the region were given similarly Soviet-style names, all of which remain to this day.

During the Cold War, northern East Prussia served as a closed-off Soviet military zone, which was virtually ignored by almost all of the outside world. One of the zone's few remaining monuments to the past, Königsberg Castle, was blown up in 1968 on Leonid Brezhnev's personal orders, and replaced with a useless House of Soviets building that more closely resembles some weird robot. But what was peculiar was that this zone was referred to as the Kaliningrad Oblast, which was within the Russian SFSR (the USSR's largest Soviet republic), despite it completely bordering the Lithuanian SSR, which itself did not border any other part of the Russian SFSR. This would not matter until the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but this is when things start to get interesting.

In 1990, Germany was forced to renounce its claims over all of its former eastern territories, including Königsberg, as one of the conditions of what we today call German reunification (which was nothing but the FRG absorbing the GDR). This proved to be a weird decision, as when the USSR dissolved, the Russian SFSR became the Russian Federation, and the Lithuanian SSR became the newly-independent Lithuania. This made northern East Prussia into an exclave of Russia, which was recognised internationally as the successor state to the Soviet Union. Although the military zone was now opened up to the rest of the world, Russia still chose to maintain its claim over the region, and as nobody else challenged their claim to it (and for Poland and Lithuania, it would be rather hypocritical for them to do so), the Russians were free to continue driving its economy and historical culture into the ground.

Their claim over this region became even more questionable in 2014, when Russia chose to annex the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. This act of blatant neo-imperialist aggression was justified by claiming that the territory was historically Russian, and was transferred to Soviet Ukraine by Nikita Khrushchev in 1954 as a "gift". But, if Crimea is historically Russian, then what Russia refers to as the Kaliningrad Oblast historically isn't. The Russians know this, and they're incredibly paranoid of Königsberg rediscovering its German roots, which is why they're cracking down on what they refer to as "secessionist" activity.

But enough of the long history lesson. Why is Russia's annexation of Crimea being condemned, but their Königsberg annexation gets very little attention, and is just accepted as something "normal"? What we must do is to put enormous pressure on Russia, so that they can come to understand that imperialism is unacceptable in our modern society. We also must put pressure on NATO to be tougher on the Russians, and consider seizing northern East Prussia from them if Moscow continues to attack its neighbours. With the current events unfolding in Belarus, the Russians might launch their next attack there. This can be the perfect opportunity to retaliate against Russia, and seizing the "Kaliningrad Oblast" by military force or encouraging it to secede from Moscow could be an appropriate measure. Doing so can further encourage Moscow to go home, so to speak, as well as further undermine Putin's popularity there.

Not only will a threat to NATO countries such as Poland and Lithuania be eliminated, but a region that has become both useless (because supply routes to it can easily be blocked) and unjustifiable for the Russians to keep will be reincorporated into the Western sphere. Then, it can be handed back to Germany. But the only problem is all of those Russians that the Soviets settled there as colonisers, specifically to justify the Russian presence there. The solution is simple. They can either be encouraged to move to the contiguous mainland of Russia, or they can become assimilated as an ethnic Russian community within Germany. The latter option is not something that is difficult to undertake, as Germany is already home to some ethnic Russian communities.

Why Russia is allowed to keep this piece of land is honestly beyond me. Russia is already the world's largest state, and they haven't done anything to benefit that strip of land. At least Poland is able to manage its annexed lands much better, and its reasons for possessing them are somewhat more justifiable because of its lost lands towards the east in what is now Belarus, Ukraine, and Lithuania. If Russia was willing to give this piece of Baltic land up, then maybe it can in exchange be allowed to keep the Crimean Peninsula for itself. But that's a big maybe.

But what you need to do now is to sign this petition, so that European peace can be reinforced, and a historical wrong can be corrected! Let NATO, the EU, Germany, and Russia know about this! NATO must realise that a threat can be easily eliminated along the southeastern Baltic coast, which strengthens transatlantic security! The EU must realise that this is the key to further European integration, and another border can be opened to free travel and commerce. The German government must realise that they can finally get a lost piece of their eastern land back, and that they're not doomed to permanently suffer the consequences of losing two world wars! The Russian government must realise that there are consequences for every aggressive action that they undertake, and that the same logic used against their neighbours can also be used against Russia itself!

We must not allow this petition to remain in obscurity, so you must sign it now!!!!