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Abstract: Monumental Memory Politics: Russia's Utilization of Soviet and Russian War Memorials in Northern Norway 2014–2023This article explores how changes and developments of Kremlin's WWII memory politics has impacted the use of Soviet and Russian war memorials by Russian diplomats in Northern Norway between 2014 and 2023. It examines the growing interest of Russia's consulate general in Kirkenes in organizing joint commemorative events with local Norwegian politicians, notably on Russia's Victory Day on May 9th. Since 2014, memory policy has increasingly become a constituent of security policy in Russia, and challenges to the official narrative of World War II are viewed as threats to national identity and integrity. How has Russia's utilization of Soviet and Russian WWII memorials in Northern Norway changed between 2014–2023? This article demonstrates how the Consulate General has promoted the official Russian narrative of the Soviet Victory to memorials in Northern Norway and incorporated the use Russian military-patriotic symbols like St. George ribbons during its commemorations. Through its progressively assertive memory policy, the Consulate General has worked to inscribe Norway as an ally in Russia's ongoing memory wars in Europe.

Abstract: Security Policy and Memory Politics: Establishing the Soviet Liberation Monument in Kirkenes, 1945–1952A few kilometers from the border with Russia, in the town of Kirkenes in the easternmost corner of Northern Norway, there stands a bronze statue of a Soviet soldier looking out over the borderland. The Soviet Liberation Monument, as the statue is called, was unveiled in 1952 by the Norwegian authorities, in gratitude for the Soviet liberation of the East Finnmark area in 1944. The statue has served as a meeting place for regular commemorative ceremonies involving the Norwegian and Soviet authorities, throughout the Cold War and up until the present. This article explores the interplay between security policy and memory politics at the onset of the Cold War by examining the seven-year long process of establishing this monument. As the Iron Curtain descended over Europe, the monument and the memories attached to it became important tools with which Norway developed a critical dialogue with its great-power neighbor. The article shows how the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs learned how to use the collective memories of the Soviet liberation to ensure Norway's security-policy goal of low tension in its relations with the USSR.