The Mathematical Center of the Universe (2021)

Post by zokier » Mon, Jan 30, 2023, 11:26 PM UTC

tmathmeyer wrote: post #5

killjoywashere wrote: post #4

If you want a deep dive on Göttingen, Constance Reid's biography of Hilbert is great. Fun fact: Hilbert was born in Königsberg, a port city on the Baltic with a famous set of 7 bridges, and as part of the WWII peace settlement between the allies, Russia got it. But not without some interest stipulations. Königsberg is now Kaliningrad, in the Kaliningrad Oblast, a geographically separated province of Russia. In order…

I think you've misremembered geography here - a straight line from "mainland" Russia to Kaliningrad cuts through Lithuania and Latvia, and to involve Poland here, you'd have to be drawing a line from Belarus. Additionally, when Kaliningrad was handed over to the Soviets, it was contiguous as part of the USSR. There was no "design" to make the Russians upset about it. Map: https://imgur.com/a/xtBJAig

Post by saiya-jin » Tue, Jan 31, 2023, 7:43 AM UTC

vanderZwan wrote: post #12

Ralfp wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1992 Russia offered Kaliningrad to both Poland and Lithuania, but neither country was interested in a region with seriously underdeveloped economy and inhabited by Russians who wouldn’t feel either Polish or Lithuanian, nor would they speak the language. > And if you look at the borders, it's pretty clear they were designed as a lock Assuming you speak about Suwalki Corridor, those borders reflect pre-war borders of…

> 1992 Russia offered Kaliningrad to both Poland and Lithuania, but neither country was interested in a region with seriously underdeveloped economy and inhabited by Russians who wouldn’t feel either Polish or Lithuanian, nor would they speak the language. I can't speak for Poland, but based on what my Lithuanian ex told me a significant part of the motivation for the rejection might also have been that Lithuania did…