Russia-Norway. A new stage of long-standing friendship

The Deputy Chairman of the Murmansk Regional Branch of the Russian Geographical Society Sergei Goncharov was awarded the Vardoe Silver Great Medal in the Norwegian city Vardoe.

Vardoe is a bright symbol of Russian-Norwegian relations. It was one of the centers of pomor trade and had close contacts with such Russian cities as Arkhangelsk and Veliky Novgorod in the XVI–XVII centuries. Many residents of Vardoe and the nearest Cyberga became partisans and together with the Soviet people fought against fascism during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

The award was given by the head of the city administration Robert Jensen as a token of appreciation on the part of Norway for a concerted effort, professionalism and creativity shown by the Murmansk regional branch of the Russian Geographical Society and by Sergey Goncharov personally in the preservation of the general historical memory of Russia and Norway about the Second World War. The Norwegian party expressed its gratitude to Sergey for the huge contribution to the strengthening of Russian-Norwegian friendship and development of good-neighborliness.

Sergey Goncharov was very much interested in the subject of the Russian-Norwegian cooperation, when he found out that few know about the feat of Norwegian guerrillas and Soviet soldiers, he decided to fix it: «After Norway was occupied by the German fascist troops, many residents of the north of the country became partisans, and together with the Red Army fought against fascism. Most of the Norwegian patriots came from the cities of Vardoe and Kiberg. Their preparation took place in the village of Lavna near Murmansk. Many of them died, and those who survived and came back home, were destined for a difficult fate - in the realities of the Cold War, their exploit was not recognized, and the participants in the partisan struggle and their families were persecuted. In the year of 1992 the King of Norway Harald V, while in Kiberg, publicly apologized, but there were practically no surviving Norwegian guerrillas by then».

 

The new stage of cooperation started in January, 2016, when a specially created Russian-Norwegian expert group on the history of partisan struggle against fascism in the North in 1941-1944. With joint efforts of representatives of authorities and public of both countries there were conducted studies, organized expeditions, the main objective of which there was perpetuating the names of Soviet soldiers and Norwegian patriots, killed in the fight against fascism. 

The result of this work was the film festival «Northern Character: History Lessons», which took place in February, 2017 in Norway. This cultural event let both Russian and Norwegians remember and feel the glorious and tragic pages of the history of the joint struggle of our peoples with the German-fascist invaders in the harsh natural conditions of the Far North.

«We are very satisfied with the results of our cooperation. Moreover, there have already been reached, agreements on installation in Norway in the vicinity of Vardoe the monument to a Soviet soldier of Norwegian origin and two Norwegian partisans at the place of their death from the hands of the fascists. Work on the creation of the memorial will be conducted with the active participation of representatives of the Murmansk regional branch of the Russian Geographical Society. The opening of the monument is scheduled to coincide with the celebration of the 73rd anniversary of the liberation of Finnmark (editor`s note: the northernmost administrative territorial unit of Norway)»,  - Sergey Goncharov said.

The Big Silver Medal of Vardoe was made of high-grade silver at the Royal Mint of Norway in Kongsberg. The obverse contains the coat of arms of Vardoe with an inscription "Cedant Tenebræ soli" (Lat: "Darkness will retreat before the sun"). The reverse has a relief image of the famous Vardehus fortress, founded in 1789.