Sovetsk, Russia is part of the Kalingrad enclave, physically separated from mainland Russia. It’s even further separated from mainland Russia as planes can no longer fly over the Baltics but instead fly through a narrow corridor on the Baltic Sea before re-entering Russia near St. Petersburg.
Sovestsk was previously the East Prussian town of Tilsit, from where Tilsit cheese originated. More interesting, Tilsit was nearly 500 miles from the German capital Berlin, 600 miles from Hamburg, and almost 800 miles from Dusseldorf in the industrial Rhine Valley.
New York City to Chicago is also about 800 miles, which only gets you a third of the way across the United States. By comparison, European Russian almost 1600 miles wide. And yet, aside from Russia, pre-WW II Germany was one of the largest European states.
Image Credit
- “File:MS-IV-12 tram in Sovetsk 2.jpg” by Gerodot777 at Russian Wikipedia is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
