The ‘Russian’ stereotype or the self-perception of the ‘Kaliningrad European’ in the Polish-Russian border region? The empirical level of collective memory using the example of the Polish-Russian borderland paradigm in former East Prussia in the cont

This article analyses the possibilities of shaping Polish-Russian relations through the prism of the coexistence of neighbouring regions that are historically burdened by the Polish and Russian raison d'état. The considerations presented in the article are not an analysis of the current state of affairs. In particular, the study analyses mutual relations under the influence of historical, geopolitical and geo-economic conditions. The emergence of conditions for the development of Polish-Russian regional relations is linked to the hypothesis of geographical and historical proximity, which results directly from the definition of cross-border space and regional policy first laid down in the Maastricht Treaty and then in the Treaty of Amsterdamv illustrating the processes of European integration. The present study is concerned with the role of state borders in demarcation and separation of regions.