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This article traces the development and narrative staging in Russian media of the so-called Russian-Norwegian patriotic memory tours that took place from 2011 to 2019 to celebrate a heroic story of WWII Red Army soldiers and Norwegian partisans in Soviet intelligence service. The article concludes that the tours were initiated by Russian state and state-affiliated actors who exported military-patriotic symbols and perspectives across the border to Norway, and actively promoted several intertwined narratives; about joint Russian-Norwegian heroic war history; about historically peaceful relations in the North between Norway and Russia; and about Norway as a friendly Nato-member neighbor that rightfully honors the memory of the Soviet army and its crucial role in the victory over Nazi Germany. After Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, these narratives were supplemented by Russian claims about a contemporary fascist threat spreading from Ukraine and the Baltics. The statements emphasized the acute importance of the patriotic memory tours to resist allegedly growing neo-fascism in today's Europe. The article argues that the narrative staging of the tours must be read in the context of the Kremlin's ongoing memory wars with former Soviet republics and Eastern bloc states and Russia's military aggression in Ukraine since 2014.

Et av de tydeligste uttrykkene for krigsmotstand i det russiske samfunnet finner vi hos russiske journalistmiljø i eksil. En akutt hardere sensurpolitikk og represjoner fra myndighetene etter 24. februar 2022 har provosert fram en bølge av emigrasjon og aktivisme blant russiske journalister. Denne artikkelen drøfter konsekvensene av den fullskala invasjonen av Ukraina og intensivert russisk statlig repressiv politikk for den russiske uavhengige journalistikken, med vekt på arbeidet til russiskspråklige medieredaksjoner i eksil.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT
Some of the most pronounced war resistance in Russian society is found among the Russian journalistic community in exile. The acutely hasher state censorship policy and heavy repressions after February 24, 2022, provoked a wave of emigration and activism among Russian journalists. This article discusses the consequences of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and intensified Russian state repressive policies for Russian independent journalism, focusing on Russian-language media outlets in exile.

Gjennom en bredt anlagt og kunnskapsrik framstilling av Russlands samtidshistorie analyserer Martin Kragh Vladimir Putins illiberale prosjekt.
In this broad-based, highly instructive, and fact-packed portrayal of Russia's contemporary history, Martin Kragh analyses Vladimir Putin's illiberal project.

Abstract: Commemorating the Red Army Liberation in Kirkenes, Norway, 1954–1994This study traces the development over fifty years of the joint Norwegian–Soviet/Russian commemorations of the Red Army liberation of the eastern part of Finnmark County, Norway, in October 1944. The first commemorative events were held in October 1954 in the town of Kirkenes close to the Norwegian–Soviet border. Throughout the Cold War and into the post-Soviet period, such events have been arranged in Kirkenes every five years, with representatives of the Norwegian state authorities acting as hosts to a Soviet/Russian delegation. The focal point of these events has been a ceremony held by the Liberation Monument, unveiled in 1952 to honour the Red Army soldiers who liberated Norwegian territory by driving back the Nazi occupation forces. This article documents how the tradition of joint commemorations developed across the Iron Curtain divide as part of a predominantly diplomatic struggle over the events of October 1944, between Norway, a small state and NATO-member, and the superpower that was the Soviet Union. Our study concludes that, despite the struggle, which stemmed from Cold War tensions and competing security perceptions and interests, these joint commemorations have served as a stabilizing element in bilateral relations, producing a narrative not only about the Red Army liberation of eastern Finnmark, but also of friendship and mutual respect between the peoples of Norway and Russia, and of a long tradition of peaceful relations between the two states.

"The year 2017 saw a multitude of conferences and exhibitions devoted to the centenary of the Russian Revolutions, both in Russia and in other parts of the world. The commemoration of this event would be incomplete without an exploration of its Northern dimension; in October 2017, the University of Tromsø, The Arctic University of Norway hosted the conference 'The Russian Revolutions of 1917: The Northern Impact and Beyond.' Norway and Russia are both northern states, and the two countries have a common border in the High North. Some articles in this volume, based on the conference proceedings, investigate the impact of the Russian Revolution in Norway and Sweden, while others deal with the High North, e.g. the Revolution and Civil War in Northern Russia and the radicalization of the workers' movement of Northern Norway; some are also devoted to representations of the Russian Revolution at exhibitions and on the big screen"--