Baltic Riviera

When President Putin wanted to meet the French and German premiers on Russian soil in July 2005, he chose the Baltic town of Svetlogorsk (above) for the encounter. Svetlogorsk is the most attractive of the coastal towns along the so-called Amber Coast of Russia’s Kaliningrad Oblast. Like everywhere in the Kaliningrad region, it is a place which comes with a hefty dose of history.

Until 1945, the town was known as Rauschen. Its popular appeal developed following the arrival of the railway from Königsberg in 1901. Rauschen was a place that cut a dash on the German spa circuit, being a favored summer watering-hole  for the German aristocracy and literati in the opening years of the 20th century. Thomas Mann spent the summer here in 1929, using the time to pen Mario and the Magician, a novella with a powerful critique of fascism.

The town’s erstwhile German name, Rauschen, admits of no easy translation, but it evokes images of rustling leaves or of waves breaking gently on the beach – both very apt for this resort community. Spared any great damage in the Second World War, Rauschen assumed a new Soviet mantle with ease, and as Svetlogorsk (literally, the city of light) it is now a preferred haunt for New Russians. Yet it has not lost its traditional charm. It is a spot where old Prussia blends imperceptibly into modern Russia. Extravagant art nouveau buildings, an old Lutheran church and monuments to Thomas Mann and other august Germans are ever present reminders of the town’s history.

The broad sweep of the promenade defines a gentle arc backed by a soft bluff. Along the promenade, there are stalls selling amber, the fossil resin that is so iconically associated with Kaliningrad and its hinterland. Low season visitors brave fearsomely cold water temperatures – if only to boast to the folks back home of their Baltic bathing adventures.

Today Svetlogorsk has the knack of appealing to all tastes. On spring and summer weekends, many Kaliningrad families pile onto the elektrichka for the one hour ride to the seaside, there to paddle in the sea, drink kvas or Königsberg beer and enjoy the local ice cream. Yet these popular imports have not ousted Svetlogorsk’s artistic and musical community – the latter now gather for concerts in the old German church. Cut up onto the back roads leading out of town along the coast, and every point with a good sea view comes with a monstrous villa that tells a tale of quite another Russia – one becoming a shade too full of barricaded compounds with fierce railings and men in dark glasses who act as deterrents to anyone tempted to inquire too closely into the wealth and lifestyles of the new elite.