– We see that the Russian consul general in Kirkenes is sending government officials to these monuments to lay wreaths. And then we see that there are sympathizers in Eastern Finnmark who attend these ceremonies. This is what the mayor of Vardø, Tor-Erik Labahå (Sp), says about three monuments in the municipality. The monuments were erected between 2011 and 2019 in memory of the partisans in Finnmark. The partisans formed a resistance movement that consisted of civilian Finnmarkings during the Second World War. They fought alongside Soviet forces against the German occupying power. Mayor Labahå believes that the monuments are now being misused by Russian sympathizers, including the Federal Security Service in Russia, the FSB. It was the Barents Observer that first mentioned the case. Mayor of Vardø, Tor-Erik Labahå, wants to remove the three monuments as he believes they are being misused by the Russian authorities in their propaganda. Photo: Hanne Wilhelms / news – History lost by the mayor The Vardø mayor’s wish to remove the monuments is met with strong criticism by professor at the Institute of Private Law at UiO, Mads Andenæs. – This is directly reprehensible and without history by the mayor. People who belonged to the resistance movement during the Second World War made central and important contributions to the Norwegian resistance. These never got the recognition they deserved. Mads Andenæs is a professor at the Department of Private Law at the Faculty of Law at the University of Oslo. Photo: Bjørn Olav Nordahl / news It was not until 2019 that then Defense Minister Frank Bakke-Jensen, on behalf of the Norwegian authorities, complained about the treatment the partisans in Finnmark received after the war. – When the recognition has finally come, the efforts of the partisans must in no way be mixed with Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine today. It is important to keep your tongue straight in your mouth here, says Andenæs. He believes the mayor’s argument that the monuments are being misused by the Russian authorities is not good enough to demolish them. – As a public official, the mayor must be very careful when he steps in and reformulates history, such as removing monuments. We don’t like it when other countries do it, says Andenæs. Canceled friendship agreement Mayor Labahå denies that he is without a history. – That’s just nonsense. We emphasize the official story by having our Norwegian partisan boats. We also have the partisan museum here in the municipality. The removal of the three memorial boats is only a follow-up to a decision by the city council in Vardø earlier this year, says Labahå. There, a majority wanted to terminate the municipality’s friendship agreement with the city of Arkhangelsk in Russia on the basis of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. – When we terminated the friendship agreement, there were several elements in the case presentation. Among other things, it emerged that the city council decides what should be an overall memorial policy in connection with the Second World War and the partisans. On 22 June 2019, the last of the three monuments that the mayor wants to remove was unveiled. Photo: Ksenia Novikova / news The decision states that Vardø has two Norwegian war memorials. The three memorial stones that the mayor wants removed are not among them. There is nothing in the case report that the three memorial stones are to be removed. – Why do you want to remove the three memorial stones when there is nothing concrete about this in the decision? – Because they are not part of our comprehensive memorial policy which has now been adopted by the city council, says Mayor Labahå. Gets support from history professor Also professor of Russian history, Kari Aga Myklebost, believes the three monuments are problematic. – These monuments are initiated, produced and paid for by Russian state actors for propaganda purposes. They have nothing to do with peaceful intercourse between states or peoples. Myklebost has researched the use of monuments in Russian memory policy, and helped write two articles about, among other things, the three memorial stones. – We have documented in our research that since 2011 the FSB veterans’ association “Skjold” in Murmansk has had a leading role in the establishment of two of these monuments. Professor of Russian history, Kari Aga Myklebost, at the Arctic University of Norway, UiT. Photo: Eirik Hind Sveen / news The history professor at Norway’s Arctic University, UiT, sees no reason why the monuments should remain standing. – Such monuments are used as part of Russia’s narrative of liberation from Nazi occupation. This narrative is used in the propaganda to justify a denazification of Ukraine. She disagrees with law professor Andenæs, who believes the mayor has no history. – On the other hand, I believe that it is ahistorical to think that these monuments have a war-historical value. We have other monuments precisely in memory of the partisans. We do not need monuments initiated by the Russian state for propaganda purposes in Norway. Myklebost believes it is a good sign for local democracy that Vardø municipality is now taking action on the matter. – We cannot change our history Vardøhus museum association manages two of the three memorial boats. Chairman of the association, Arnt Bjarne Aronsen, denies that they have been set up at the initiative of the FSB and other Russian authorities. – It’s wrong. The monuments are a collaborative project where we in the museum association have laid the foundations. The veterans association “Skjold” in Murmansk has been responsible for the production of the obelisk. Chairman of the Vardøhus museum association, Arnt Bjarne Aronsen, believes it is important to take ownership of local history. Photo: CHRISTIAN KRÅKENES / news Aronsen says the monuments are in memory of a total of three named Norwegian partisans, who were killed by German soldiers. Two of them are missing a grave. – We cannot ignore the fact that civilians in Vardø have fought together with Soviet soldiers against Nazi Germany. We cannot change our history. That’s what other regimes do when they don’t like their history. He says the association respects that the monuments are not to the taste of others, but that is not a reason to remove them. – We are convinced that it is important that local forces take ownership of our own history, as we do with these memorials. If not, others will take ownership of our history, says Aronsen. Published 08/08/2024, at 15.31
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Thinks the war monument is Russian propaganda on Norwegian soil – news Troms and Finnmark
