The borders of states and their violation at all times have been the cause of wars. Since the times of Kievan Rus, its good-neighborly relations with other countries and principalities were often not respected by both the Rusichs themselves and other peoples.
It is not often possible to meet long and strong relations between countries, but these are the ones that connected Russia and Norway. The neighborhood of these two states rarely went beyond a friendly compromise. This is confirmed by the border between Norway and Russia, the 190th anniversary of which was celebrated in May 2016.
The history of relations between Norway and Russia
The Vikings were called in Kievan Rus Norwegians, Danes and Swedes. Starting from the 10th century, they were frequent “guests” of the young state, since dynastic marriages were often concluded between royal dynasties. For example, Yaroslav the Wise gave his daughter Elizabeth for the Norwegian king Harald, popularly referred to as “terrible”. He himself was married to the daughter of the Swedish king Olaf.
Varangian squads served the princes of Kiev and fought with them against the Pechenegs and even went to Byzantium. Many of them remained forever in Novgorod, Kiev, Chernigov and other lands, and assimilated with the local population. So historically developed centuries-old friendship between Norway and Russia.
Changes in the Norwegian border of the times of Kievan Rus
In those days, state borders often changed their borders, either in connection with successful or not very military campaigns, they were “moved” as a wedding gift. For example, until the middle of the 11th century, the border between Russia and Norway ran along the Lyungenfjord, 50 km further east of the modern city of Tromso. The same Yaroslav the Wise, as a dowry to his daughter, gave them and all the surrounding lands to the Altai Fjord (now Finnmark Province).
Similar wedding offerings were accepted at all European royal dynasties, so the increase in the territory of a neighboring state at the expense of their own lands was not a fad of the Grand Duke.
This border between Norway and Russia remains until the middle of the 13th century, until Alexander Nevsky, who at some time reigned in Novgorod, Kiev, or Vladimir, “pushed aside” some of the territories in favor of the northern neighbor. He expanded the existing line to Tanafjord.
Since in 1397 Norway became part of the Kalmar Union, which is under the personal rule of the Danish kings, the border was as if formed between Russia and the union. That was until 1523, when this union broke up due to Swedish discontent.
Russian-Norwegian border from the 17th to the 19th century
In 1603, changes were to occur on the border between the two countries, since an agreement was reached between Boris Godunov and Christian 4, the king of Denmark and Norway (1577-1648). A new frontier was supposed to pass along the Kola Bay and Tanafjord along the Varanger Fjord (a bay in the Barents Sea that separates the Rybachy Peninsula and the Norwegian Varanger Peninsula).
But since the times in Russia were troubled and the king was soon killed, an agreement was never signed. They returned to it only in 1684, but the conditions for the division of the border in it were replaced by new ones. According to it, both Russia and Norway had equal rights to the Kola Peninsula and other disputed lands.
Thus, the two countries owned these territories and collected taxes there, but none of them wanted to seriously develop them. This went on for 130 years, until Norway left the Danish rule and fell under Swedish rule.
From 1814 to 1826, uncertainty continued in these lands, since the border of Norway and Russia was not officially established.
Treaty of 1826
This agreement was the result of a lot of work done by representatives of the two countries. On it, those lands that had been in common use for a long time, went to Norway. First of all, the difficulty was ethical standards, since Lopari, Skolt, and Sami originally lived in these territories.
It was required that the land border of Russia with Norway take into account the interests of each nation:
- from time immemorial, the Lapps have been fishers;
- the Sami who lived in the mountains were engaged in reindeer husbandry;
- the Skolts did not want to leave their Orthodox churches built by their ancestors 300 years ago.
It took almost a year to take all interests into account, and on May 14, 1826, a document entitled “The Convention on the State Border between Russia and Norway in Lapland Graveyards” was signed in St. Petersburg by Count Nesselrode from Russia and Nils Palmshern, the Swedish-Norwegian ambassador.
In preparing the document, the Finnish border became another difficulty.
Border from Finland
The main work on dividing the Norwegian-Russian border was carried out by Valerian Galyamin, a lieutenant colonel of the Russian army, a participant in the Turkish war, an artist and director of the Imperial Porcelain Factory.
He was required not only his talent as a painter to draw a new border on the map between the two countries, but also diplomatic abilities, since demarcation comprised the interests of the three states.
The border of Russia, Norway, Finland, which was part of the empire, was drawn in several places. From the Russian side, it ran from the mouth of the Vorjem River to its source and further west to the church of Boris and Gleb, and then south along the Pasvik River to Rajakoski.
In Finland (the southern part of the border), these are inaccessible places from the Pasvik channel through several hills, rivers and lakes to the Kolmizoyve-Madakiedsa mountain and further to the confluence of the Skaareiok tributary with the Tana River.
The extreme point of the border was the area where, as early as 1751, a line was established between Norway and the Duchy of Finland. Behind it were previously undivided Lapland lands. In this form, the border lasted until the 20th century.
Changes in the 20th century
In the 20th century, the border between Norway and Russia changed its shape several times, and this was due to military and political events, with which this period was oversaturated. You can note the change in the border in such time periods:
- From 1920 to 1944, the Norwegian-Finnish border was formed in connection with the withdrawal of Finland from Russia in 1918 and its annexation of Petsamo County.
- In 1947 and 1949 a new treaty was signed and the Soviet-Norwegian border was drawn.
- Since 1991, Norway has had a land border with Russia, whose sovereignty it recognized after the collapse of the USSR.
- The agreement on the delimitation of the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean between the two countries was signed in 1993 and 2011.
If everything is simple on land with the Russian-Norwegian border, the division of these states into the sea for almost 80 years has been controversial.
Maritime border
The controversial maritime border of Russia - Norway appeared in 1926, when the USSR declared part of the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean unilaterally. Nobody recognized this border, but they also did not want to fight for it.
175,000 km 2 of the Norwegian waters were captured, and this made relations between the two countries tense. In 1976, Norway decided to keep up and also unilaterally declared these territories its own.
The only thing that could alleviate the tense situation was an agreement on the joint use of the disputed territory in fishing. Any geological or oil production in these places was prohibited.
In 2010, an agreement was signed between Russia and Norway, according to which the latter received back its water area in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean.
Border today
Nowadays, the Norwegian-Russian border is 195.8 on land and rivers and 23.3 km by sea. The barriers between the two countries removed in the 90s of the 20th century are again being restored since 2016 by Norway.
The fence should be an obstacle to the entry into the Schengen zone of refugees.