A great scientific tour in the North of Russia

Acta Borealia, 2015

The idea and initiation of the collaboration for this book grew out of several circumstances: the fact that Norway and Russia share a 200 km border in the far north, the fact that there is a history of some 200 years of trade and communication between people connected to this border zone before the revolution in 1917 brought about a discontinuation, the fact that after Mikhail Gorbatsjov came to power in 1985 the melting away of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the western countries brought historians as well as people from other sections of official and professional life on each side of the border to meet. In 1986 a small Norwegian vessel, Pauline, was allowed to visit Arkhangelsk, which until then had been closed to foreigners. The vessel was enthusiastically welcomed. On board were some historians from northern Norway. From then on Russian and Norwegian historians reached out for each other (as did people from the county administrations on each side of the border). In 1991 an agreement of collaboration was signed by the Pomor University in Arkhangelsk and the University of Tromsø. The first Norwegian-Russian history "symposium" took place at the University of Tromsø in November 1992, an outcome of substantial collaboration across the border. The report from this event was published by the Pomor University in Arkhangelsk in 1994, with the fine and appropriate title Den menneskelige dimensjon i Nordområdene (The Human Dimension in the Regions of the North), edited by Jens Petter Nielsen and Gunnar Opeide. The aim of the joint invitation to the symposium, by the departments of history and Russian language, was to lay the foundation for further collaboration. As many as 18 people presented their research works, 12 of them were Russians. The considerable input in this symposium is also demonstrated by the fact that all contributions were in both Norwegian and Russian and that each contribution received prepared comments from a fellow participant. Two years later, in 1996, the Pomor University published another work from this early collaboration: Frykt og forventning: Russland og Norge i det 20. århundre (Fear and Anticipation-Russia and Norway in the 20th Century), edited by Vladislav Goldin and Jens Petter Nielsen. The articles in this book, also stemming from collaborative symposiums, were written by nine Russians and five Norwegians. Half a year before the first of the above-mentioned symposiums took place in Tromsø, the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Thorvald Stoltenberg, launched plans for a collaborating region in the North, consisting of the northernmost counties of Finland, Norway, Russia and Sweden, which was baptized the Barents Region and formally established by the Kirkenes Declaration on 11 January 1993. The Declaration leaned on the rich fabric of communications in the past, elaborated on by many Norwegian historians, which obviously demanded further documentation and knowledge of the kind that historians could provide. Finally, and most importantly, the opportunity for an application for such considerable research collaboration as demonstrated by the present volume came with the planning of the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Norwegian Constitution of 1814. The project idea was to go beyond the national borders to see Norway in comparison to, and through the prism of, its vast neighbour, the largest country in the world. The

The Canadian Field-Naturalist, 2009

2018

2018

2017

This article is based on the author’s presentation at the international conference“Historical Background and Future Prospects in Russian-Nordic Relations” that was held in Moscow on June 23, 2016. Certain issues of cooperation between historians from Russia and the Scandinavian-Baltic region are covered in the article. The author gives specific examples of this cooperation and analyzes the main tendencies of Russian historical Scandinavistica’s development in recent decades.

Polar Geography, 2011

Acta Borealia, 2004

Arctic Review of Law and Politics, 2018

The standoff between Russia and the West over Ukraine has already obstructed cooperation across a range of issues. Could it also affect state interaction between Norway and Russia in the Arctic-an area and a relationship long characterized by a culture of compromise and/or coop-eration? Here we start from the theoretical premise that states are not pre-constituted political entities, but are constantly in the making. How Russia views its own role and how it views other actors in the Arctic changes over time, calling for differing approaches. That holds true for Nor-way as well. To clarify the premises for interaction between Russia and Norway in the Arctic, we scrutinize changes in official discourse on Self and Other in the Arctic on both sides in the period 2012 to 2016, to establish what kind of policy mode-"realist," "institutionalist," or "diplomatic management"-has underlain the two countries' official discourse in that period. Has Norway continued to pursue "balancing" policies undertaken in the realist mode with those in the diplomatic management mode? Which modes have characterized Russia's approach toward Norway? Finding that realist-mode policies increasingly dominate on both sides, in the conclusion we discuss how the changing mode of the one state affects that of the other, and why a New Cold War is now spreading to the Arctic.

In my talk today, I will summon up the Danish experiences with two Danish-Russian Archive Projects since the end of the Cold War. I will tell you about the contexts and the archival and research results of the projects and hopefully thereby contribute with extra perspectives to the new results of the Norwegian-Russian archive cooperation.