Kola Norwegians

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The Kola Norwegians were Norwegian settlers along the coastline of the Russian Kola Peninsula.

In 1860 the Russian Tsar Alexander II granted his permission for Norwegian settlements on the Kola. Around 1870, scores of Norwegian families from Finnmark in the northernmost part of Norway had departed for the Kola coast. They were attracted by the prospects of fishing and trade. The Russian authorities granted them trade privileges to enable their trade with Norway.

Most of them had settled in Tsyp-Navolok (Цыпнаволок) on the easternmost tip of the Rybachiy Peninsula (Norwegian: Fiskerhalvøya, both the Russian and Norwegian names literally mean: Peninsula of the Fishermen). Others settled in Vaydaguba (Вайдагуба) at the northwestern tip (мыс Немецкий, Cape Nemetskiy, "Cape German") of the same peninsula. A vibrant Norwegian society developed, with close contact with the home country, especially with the town of Vardø. Even if some settlers returned to Norway shortly after the Russian Revolution of 1917, most of them remained at Tsyp-Navolok. It is estimated about 1000 Noregians lived on the Kola peninsula in 1917.

In 1930, the Norwegian fishermen were forced into the labour collective "Poljarnaja Zvezda" (Norw.: Polarstjernen, Eng.: Polaris). The persecutions of Joseph Stalin in and after 1936 hit the small Norwegian community hard. At least 15 were shot after summary trials or starved to death in Soviet Gulag camps. Some were denounced, sentenced and executed for having talked in Norwegian.

On 23 June 1940 Lavrenty Beria of the NKVD ordered the Murmansk Oblast, encompassing the Kola Peninsula, to be cleaned of "foreign nationals": The entire Norwegian population was deported from the Kola Peninsula for resettlement in the Karelo-Finnish SSR. However, they did not remain there for long; they had to move on due to the pressures caused by the Finnish offensive into the Soviet Union in 1941. In the course of the Spring of 1942, a large proportion of the Kola Norwegians died of starvation and malnutrition.

In spite of having fought hard as soldiers in the Soviet Army, they were not allowed to return to their homes on the Kola after the end of the Second World War. Thus they were also deprived of any realistic chance of nurturing their cultural roots, and their Norwegian language was gradually forgotten.

It was only after 1990 that many of the Kola Norwegians again dared to emphasise their background. Only a few had been able to maintain a rusty knowledge of antiquated Norwegian of the Vardø dialect. Some of them have migrated back to Norway. There are special provisions in the Norwegian rules of immigration and citizenship which eases this process for many Kola Norwegians. These provisions are in general stricter then in other countries giving "Right of return". In order to obtain a permit to immigrate and work in Norway a Kola Norwegian will have to prove an adequate connection to Norway such as having at least two grandparents from Norway.^[1] Citizenship will be awarded according to regular rules.^[2] As of 2004 approximately 200 Kola Norwegians had moved back to Norway.^[3]