Memorial Policy, War Memorial | What does Russia want with war monuments in the north?

With Norwegian local politicians as invited guests, and surrounded by military-patriotic symbols, the Russian Consulate General in Kirkenes has used Norway as an income to support the Kremlin’s perspectives on history, and the aggressive foreign policy it is used to legitimize.

After 2014, the Russian state’s official representative in Northern Norway has gradually used more and more war memorials in the country to convey a military-patriotic narrative about the Red Army’s victory over and liberation from Nazi occupation. The same narrative that the Kremlin uses to legitimize its armed aggression in Ukraine.

The Consulate General has thus made it possible for Russia to present Norway as supportive, not only of the Kremlin’s narrative in itself, but also of Russia’s fight against the imagined falsification of history and against what the Kremlin refers to as neo-Nazis in Ukraine. Most thought-provoking, however, is that Norway has in this way been taken as a source of income to support Russia’s goal of combating such counterfeiting with an aggressive foreign policy.

8 May in Norway as the Kremlin’s Victory Day

This development has taken place quietly and gradually. In this research paper it is documented how the Consulate General in Kirkenes has proceeded in the period 2014-2023. The first step was taken in 2014 when the Consulate General established Norwegian Liberation and Veterans Day on 8 May as a Norwegian tribute to the victory and liberation of the Red Army, which in Russia is celebrated during what is called Victory Day and which takes place on 9 May. Although the two anniversaries look similar on the surface, there are huge differences in their political significance.

In Norway, the day is used to remember those who fell in the fight for freedom and independence, while Russia uses the day to show off military equipment and patriotism during large parades. The same thing happened again during a commemoration at the Liberation Monument in Kirkenes in 2015, but this time military-patriotic symbols such as St. George’s loops were introduced to the Norwegian side of the border. In a press release, the commemoration was presented as commemorating the soldiers of the Red Army.

The Consulate General thus strengthened an understanding of a common Norwegian-Russian war history in the borderland. It played on strings that resonated well in Northern Norway, where many believed that the region’s war history was poorly known to the Norwegian public, but who also considered historical cooperation with Russia to be crucial for good people-to-people relations. Increasingly, this collaboration implied commemorating it Soviet the war effort, while Norwegian perspectives became less important during commemorations.

Markings throughout northern Norway

Over the coming years, more and more memorials were enlisted and used to convey the same narrative that the Kremlin used in parallel to argue for its aggressive foreign policy in Ukraine. Where the Consulate General had taken advantage of invitations to participate in Norwegian commemorations in 2014 and 2015, by 2018 it was the consul general who now invited Norwegian local politicians as guests Russian memorial markings at war memorials in Eastern Finnmark. This led to more extensive use of military-patriotic symbols, but also meant that Norwegian perspectives were given less space.

The expansion of the consulate general’s commemorative policy area continued to be based on an existing local enthusiasm for war history: in the Kirkenes area it was about playing on the Red Army’s liberation, while in Vardø and Kiberg it was about Norwegian partisans. In May 2020, the Consulate General carried out what can best be described as a wreath-laying tour from Mo i Rana in the south to Vardø in the north. Virtually all Soviet and Russian war memorials throughout Northern Norway were honored with a marker, and the flowers were on several occasions tied with St. George’s bows.

Few Norwegian reactions

Inviting official Norwegian representatives to Russian commemorations across the country was the consulate general’s next step. The wreath-laying tours have been carried out in May every year since 2020, and the Consul General was joined by Norwegian local politicians in ceremonies in a number of places, including in Bodø, Alstahaug, Mo i Rana, Narvik, Alta, Vardø, Lebesby and Sør-Varanger. Norwegian participation was central to Russia being able to portray Norway as supporting the military-patriotic narrative, and the policy that allegedly had to be pursued to defend it against falsification.

It remains to be investigated whether the absence of reactions to Russia’s memorial policy meant that the Consulate General’s activity was met with support and enthusiasm everywhere on the Norwegian side until February 2022, but there are few good examples of Norwegian dissent. An important exception is Defense Minister Frank Bakke-Jensen who, in his speech during the unveiling of a monument on Sørøya in 2021, emphasized the allied aspect of the world war.

Increasing confrontation

Until February 2022, the Consulate General conducted an alliance-building memory policy towards Northern Norway. As several war memorials in Northern Norway were used to show solidarity with Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion, especially at the Liberation Monument in Kirkenes, there are many indications that the Consulate General is now in the process of shifting to a commemoration policy more similar to the situation in Central and Eastern Europe.

There, war memorials are used to create confrontations.

The wreath war that arose in connection with the marking of Liberation Day in Kirkenes in October 2023 is an illustrative example that Russia has changed tactics, and probably a warning of a more confrontational Russian use of the country’s war memorials in the future.

What should Norway do in the face of a more offensive and confrontational Russian memory policy? A first step is to take greater ownership of the war memorials in Northern Norway – and the history they are connected to. Stronger anchoring of Norwegian perspectives will help to detach them from the narrative that the Consulate General has instilled in them during the last decade.