Suchergebnisse

The article explores how the Russo–Norwegian espionage debacle involving former border inspector Frode Berg was collectively and fragmentarily narrated by Russian online commenters. Through a digital ethnographic case study of user-driven segments on the Russian-language Internet (RuNet) – notably Live Journal and RT comment sections – this article shows how online narratives about the case involved participatory production by heterogeneous, polyphonous constellations of users. Analysing Russian online comments as network narratives, the article examines how Norway (as well as NATO and the West more broadly) has been construed on RuNet, where propaganda is ubiquitous, and where trolls, bots, vatniki and 'everyone else' continuously clash. Commenters' discussions of the Berg case reflect Kremlin-controlled narratives of Norway as an ambiguous actor associated with a high degree of ambivalence, but network narratives also reveal tensions, inconsistencies and contestation of the Russian antagonist discourse on Norway. More broadly, the study highlights how interactive digital narrative can serve to expand our understanding not only of Russia's relationship with Norway, but also of Russian informational activities as such.

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.