Відео

We are actually researching about Narva and Ivangorod at the moment and want to go there soon :) Hope you’ll stick around and watch it.

Nice, Narva is worth a visit. Especially when symbolically, there are the two medieval castles, confronting each other - the border was there for hundreds of years. Maybe less interesting example as the two parts are very unequal in size, can be found in Lithuania. There is this town of Sovetsk in Russia, Kaliningrad region, former Tilsit (Tilžė in Lithuanian) and its part across the river was added to Lithuania in 1923. It was used to be "a resort part" of Tilsit as people used to go there to the restaurants and to the more rural part of Tilsit for a walk. This is the place where the famous cheese was "created" and later produced at the city as on the other side of the river were these grassfields for cows (cattle were eating grass there). This part of Tilsit was named Panemunė in 1923. Before the WWI, even electric tramway would ride to the other side of the river, there was the final stop of the route. Now it has only 300 inhabitants and functions as a small Lithuanian town. Sovetsk has 40 thousand inhabitants and after 2022 they put all their museum tanks in the centre, all aimed at Lithuania - "a message" to Lithuanians. They also painted large militarist letters Z on some buildings, facing the river. These are painted in the colours of the Ribbon of Saint George, a symbol of Russian militarism and aggression, what is letter Z too, so that Lithuanians on the other side of the river see these signs every day. Recently barbed wire, fences and anti-tank concrete blocks were added to the bridge by the Lithuanian side. What a fine place to live with such friendly neighbours...

In the extreme East part of Lithuania there is another "divided" town - Adutiškis. This was once quite a large town of 3 thousand inhabitants in the early 20th c. While some towns of Lithuania like Alytus has grown from 3 thousand to 55 thousand since, Adutiškis now has only 600 inhabitants as the border was drawn nearly. In 1991-1994, there was a serious conflict between Lithuania and Byelorussia as it claimed Adutiškis railway station. Finally, the station was divided, giving two railway tracks to Byelorussia and leaving the rest to Lithuania. Also a few houses of this town were left on Byellorussian side. The town is dying out and the border fense was built inside it as it marks the EU border, where Byellorussian dictator as a hybrid warfare, sents thousands of refugges from The Middle East.

Those are captain salaries, the first officers get 4-5k euro per month :)

It is a great thing, then such cross-border cities are united, but there are a lot of not so nice examples. There is this town of Sovetsk in Russia, Kaliningrad region, former Tilsit (Tilžė in Lithuanian) and its part across the river was added to Lithuania in 1923. This part of Tilsit was named Panemunė. Before the WWI, even electric tramway would ride to the other side of the river, there was the final stop of the route. Now it has only 300 inhabitants and functions as a small Lithuanian town. Sovetsk has 40 thousand inhabitants and after 2022 they put all their museum tanks in the centre, all aimed at Lithuania - "a message" to Lithuanians. They also painted large militarist letters Z on some buildings, facing the river. These are painted in the colours of the Ribbon of Saint George, a symbol of Russian militarism and aggression, what is letter Z too, so that Lithuanians on the other side of the river see these signs every day. Recently barbed wire, fences and anti-tank concrete blocks were added to the bridge by the Lithuanian side. What a fine place to live with such friendly neighbours. 😊