East Prussia

East Prussia was the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.

The Treaty of Versailles following World War I granted West Prussia to Poland and made East Prussia an exclave of Weimar Germany. Following Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II in 1945, war-torn East Prussia was divided at Joseph Stalin's insistence between the Soviet Union (the Kaliningrad Oblast in the Russian SFSR and the constituent counties of the Klaipėda Region in the Lithuanian SSR) and the People's Republic of Poland (the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship). The capital city Königsberg was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946. The German population of the province was largely evacuated during the war or expelled shortly thereafter in the expulsion of Germans after World War II.

East Prussia in The War That Came Early
East Prussia was one of several launch points for Germany's invasion of Czechoslovakia in October, 1938. However, its location also made it a target for Soviet aerial bombardment throughout the course of the Second World War.