Editing Klaipėda (section)

=== 1945–present ===
[[File:Jūros šventė 2017.jpg|thumb|Participants' ships of the 2017 Sea Festival in Klaipėda]]
During World War II, from the end of 1944 into 1945, the [[Battle of Memel]] took place. The nearly-empty city was captured by the Soviet [[Red Army]] on 28 January 1945 with only about 50 remaining people.<ref name="KlaipedosIstorija"/> After the war the Klaipėda Region was incorporated into the [[Lithuanian SSR]], and the post-1937 German occupation of various regions of Europe, including Klaipėda, was considered illegal.<ref name=isto>{{cite web |url=http://memelcity.lt/istorija |title=Istorija – Memelio miestas |website=memelcity.lt |access-date=11 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131212195718/http://memelcity.lt/istorija |archive-date=12 December 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The Soviets turned Klaipėda, the foremost [[ice-free port]] in the Eastern Baltic, into the largest piscatorial-marine base in the European part of the USSR.<ref name="KlaipedosIstorija"/><ref name="KlaipedosUostasVle"/> [[Shipyards]], [[dockyards]] and a [[fishing industry|fishing]] port were constructed.<ref name="KlaipedosIstorija"/><ref name="KlaipedosUostasVle"/> Subsequently, by the end of 1959, the population of the city had doubled its pre-war population, and by 1989, there were 202,900 inhabitants.<ref name="KlaipedosIstorija"/> Initially, Russian-speakers dominated the city's local government, but after the death of [[Joseph Stalin]], more people came to the city from the rest of Lithuania than from other Soviet republics and oblasts, and Lithuanians became its major ethnic group.<ref>{{cite web |title=Lietuvos sovietinimas, rusinimas ir kolonizavimas |url=https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/lietuvos-sovietinimas-rusinimas-ir-kolonizavimas/ |website=Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija |access-date=8 April 2023 |quote=Manoma, į per Antrąjį pasaulinį karą ištuštėjusį Vilnių, Klaipėdą, Kauną ir kitur iš Rusijos, Baltarusijos ir kitų SSRS vietų 1945–50 atvyko apie 130 000 žmonių. Vėliau į Lietuvą iš kitų SSRS vietų kasmet atvykdavo 7000–8000 asmenų. |language=lt |archive-date=17 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221217045249/https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/lietuvos-sovietinimas-rusinimas-ir-kolonizavimas/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="KlaipedosIstorija"/> Among Lithuanian cities with a population greater than 100,000, however, Klaipėda has the highest percentage of people whose native language is Russian.<ref>{{cite web |title=Lietuvos gyventojai |url=https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/lietuvos-gyventojai/ |website=Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija |access-date=8 April 2023 |language=lt |archive-date=22 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220822144558/https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/lietuvos-gyventojai/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Costa Pacifica in Klaipėda's Cruise Ship Terminal.jpg|thumb|left|[[Costa Pacifica]] in Klaipėda]]
Until the 1970s, Klaipėda was important to the USSR only for its economy, and cultural and religious activity was minimal and restricted. The developers of a [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] church (Maria, Queen of Peace, constructed 1957–1962) were arrested. The city began to develop cultural activities in the 1970s and the 1980s, such as the introduction of the [[Klaipėda Sea Festival|Sea Festival]] cultural tradition, where thousands of people come to celebrate from all over the country. Based on the Pedagogical University of [[Šiauliai]] and the National Conservatory of Lithuania in Klaipėda, the University of Klaipėda was established in 1991. Klaipėda is now the home of a bilingual German-Lithuanian institution, the ''[[Hermann Sudermann|Hermann-Sudermann]]-Schule'', as well as an English-language university, LCC International University.

In 2014, Klaipėda was visited 64 times by [[cruise ships]] and surpassed the Latvian capital, [[Riga]], for the first time.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.delfi.lt/verslas/transportas/lietuvoje-pirmasis-milzinas-is-64-iu.d?id=64734975 |title=Lietuvoje – pirmasis milžinas iš 64-ių |first=Mindaugas |last=Milinis |website=Delfi.lt |access-date=2 August 2019 |archive-date=2 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190802121815/https://www.delfi.lt/verslas/transportas/lietuvoje-pirmasis-milzinas-is-64-iu.d?id=64734975 |url-status=live}}</ref>