03 June 2016

Don't you just love Putin's version of history?


This coin is part of a new series of Russian memorial coins, carrying a common theme: "Ancient Russian Cities".

This specific one celebrates Kaliningrad:
Kaliningrad (Russian: Калининград), (former German name: Königsberg).

In the Middle Ages, the locality was the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement and fort Twangste. In 1255, during the Northern Crusades, a new fortress was built on the site by the Teutonic Knights and was named Königsberg (König = "king") in honor of King Ottokar II of Bohemia, who led two crusade expeditions against the pagan Old Prussians. The town was successively part of the monastic State of the Teutonic Order, enfeoffed to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, then part of Prussia and Germany (the latter until 1945).
So there.

0 comments: