Re: Black Market Amber Trade Flourishes on Baltic Coast

[Martin Adamson <MARTIN@srv0.ems.edinburgh.ac.uk>]

> During World War II, there was a race between Hitler's troops and the Red Army
> for possession of the Amber Room kept at Konigsberg, then capital of East
> Prussia, and now renamed Kaliningrad. The Baltic coast port was not only home 
> to
> the coveted Amber Room but remains the repository of 93 percent of the world's
> known reserves of amber.

This part of the story is a little garbled.  The Amber Room was originally 
built in the Tsar's Summer Palace at Tsarskoye Selo, about 15 miles from 
St Petersburg.  It was a room whose walls were entirely coverd in amber!  
The palace fell into German hands during World War II, and they stripped 
the room when they retreated.  The amber was lost at the end of World War 
II and nobody knows what became of it.  

When I visited the Summer Palace about 12 years ago I was told that the 
then Soviet Government were trying to rebuild the Amber Room with fresh 
amber.  I don't know if they managed to complete it, or if the work is 
still ongoing under the new regime.

Martin