The border of Norway and Russia: history and modernity

The borders of states and their violation at all times were the cause of wars. Since the times of Kievan Rus, its good-neighborly relations with other countries and principalities have often not been respected by the Rusys themselves and other nations.

It is not often possible to meet long and strong relations between countries, but it is precisely these that were associated with Russia and Norway. The neighborhood of these two states rarely went beyond a friendly compromise. Confirmation of this is the border of Norway and Russia, the 190th anniversary of which was celebrated in May 2016.

The history of the relationship between Norway and Russia

Varangians called in the Kievan Rus Norwegians, Danes and Swedes. Since the 10th century, they have been frequent "guests" of the young state, as dynastic marriages often took place between royal dynasties. For example, Yaroslav the Wise gave his daughter Elizabeth for the Norwegian King Harald, called the people "formidable." He himself was married to the daughter of the Swedish King Olaf.

Varangian squads served the princes of Kiev and fought against them against the Pechenegs and even went to Byzantium. Many of them remained forever in the Novgorod, Kiev, Chernigov and other lands, and assimilated with the local population. Historically, the centuries-old friendship between Norway and Russia was developing.

Changes in the Norwegian border of the times of Kievan Rus

In those days, state borders often changed their borders, then due to successful or not very military campaigns, they were "moved" in the form of a wedding present. For example, until the middle of the 11th century, the border between Russia and Norway passed along the Lyngen Fjord, 50 km further east of the modern city of Tromsø. The same Yaroslav the Wise as a dowry to his daughter gave them and all the surrounding land to the Alta Fjord (now the province of Finnmark).

Similar wedding offerings were accepted from all European royal dynasties, so that the increase in the territory of a neighboring state at the expense of their own lands was not a quirk of the Grand Duke.

Such a border between Norway and Russia remains until the middle of the 13th century, while Alexander Nevsky, who at various times reigned in Novgorod, then Kiev, then in Vladimir, did not "remove" part of the territories in favor of his northern neighbor. He had already extended 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 formed between Rus and Unia. It was until 1523, until this union broke up because of Sweden's discontent.

The Russian-Norwegian border from the 17th to the 19th century

In 1603, there were to be changes on the border between the two countries, since an agreement was reached between Boris Godunov and Christian 4, King of Denmark and Norway (1577-1648). On it a new line was to pass the Kola Bay and Tanafjord through the Varanger Fjord (the Gulf in the Barents Sea, which separates the Rybachiy peninsula and the Norwegian peninsula Varanger).

But since the times in Russia were vague and the tsar was soon killed, the agreement was never signed. Returned to him only in 1684, but the conditions for dividing the border in it were replaced by new ones. According to this, 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 lasted for as long as 130 years, until Norway withdrew from Denmark's rule and fell under Swedish rule.

From 1814 to 1826 there was still uncertainty in these lands, since officially the border of Norway and Russia was not established.

Treaty of 1826

This agreement was the result of the great work done by the representatives of the two countries. On it, those lands that have long been in common use have moved to Norway. Difficulty was, first of all, ethical norms, as Lapps, Skits and Saami originally lived in these territories.

It was required that the land border of Russia with Norway would take into account the interests of each nationality:

• Lapps have been fishermen from time immemorial;
• The Sami who lived in the mountains, engaged in reindeer herding;
• Slit did not want to leave their Orthodox churches built by their ancestors 300 years ago.

Almost a year left to take into account all interests, and on May 14, 1826 a document titled "The Convention on the State Border between Russia and Norway in the Lapland Pogosts" was signed in St. Petersburg by Count Nesselrode from Russia and Nils Palmsharna, the Swedish-Norwegian ambassador.

When preparing the document, the border of Finland was another difficulty.

The border from Finland

Valerian Galyamin, a lieutenant colonel of the Russian army, a participant in the Turkish war, an artist and director of the Imperial Porcelain Factory, held the main work on the division of the Norwegian-Russian border .

It required not only his talent as a painter to draw a new boundary between two countries, but also diplomatic abilities, since the demarcation included the interests of the three states.

The border of Russia, Norway, Finland, which was part of the empire, was held in several places. From the Russian side, it passed from the mouth of the Voryama River to its source and further west to the church of Boris and Gleb, and then to the south along the Paz River to Raiakoski.

In the territory of Finland (the southern part of the border) it is difficult to access places from the Paz channel through several hills, rivers and lakes to Mount Kolmizoyev-Madakijeds and further to the confluence of the tributary of Scariejok with the Tana River.

The extreme point of the border was the area where, in 1751, the boundary between Norway and the Duchy of Finland was established. Behind him 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 of Norway and Russia changed its outlines several times, and this was due to military and political events, which this period was oversaturated. We can note the change of 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 the annexation of the district of Petsamo.
• In 1947 and 1949, a new treaty was signed and a Soviet-Norwegian border was established.
• Since 1991, Norway has a land border with Russia, whose sovereignty it recognized after the collapse of the USSR.
• The treaty on the delimitation of the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean between the two countries was signed in 1993 and 2011.

If on land with the Russian-Norwegian border everything is simple, then the division of these states into the sea for almost 80 years has been controversial.

Sea border

The disputed sea border of Russia - Norway appeared in 1926, when the USSR declared part of the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean unilaterally. No one recognized this border, but they did not want to fight for it either.

175,000 km ^{2 of the} Norwegian water area was seized, and this made relations between the two countries tense. In 1976, Norway decided not to lag behind and also unilaterally declared these territories its own.

The only thing that could alleviate the tense situation is the agreement on the joint use of the disputed territory in fishing. Any geological or oil-producing work 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.

Boundary today

Nowadays the length of the Norwegian-Russian border is 195.8 on land and rivers and 23.3 km by sea. Removed in the 90 years of the 20th century, the barriers between the two countries are being restored from the year 2016 by Norway.

The barrier must be an obstacle to penetration into the Schengen zone of refugees.