200 Years of Guarding the Neighborship. The Russian-Norwegian Border: From Frontier to National Boundary

<jats:p>This work, based on archival materials from Russia, Norway and Sweden, as well as a historiographical analysis, reconstructs the evolution of the Russian-Norwegian border from the medieval “common districts” with their dual taxation and frontier status, through the border delimitation negotiations of 1825–1826, when Lieutenant-Colonel Galyamin and Colonel Spørck established a boundary that survived the collapse of empires, the territorial changes introduced by the 1920 Treaty of Tartu, and its restoration in 1947 on the basis of the same legal documents of 1826 and 1896. Particular attention is paid to the asymmetry of perception: the border, which was advantageous to Sweden and Norway, fostered fear amongst the Norwegian elite of a Russian revision, while in Russia, particularly in the Arkhangelsk Governorate, it was perceived as a territorial loss, giving rise to a persistent myth about Galyamin’s betrayal. It is demonstrated that the stability of the border was determined not so much by geography or military strength as by the ability of the parties — even during periods of ideological confrontation — to restrain the conflict within institutional frameworks and resist the temptation of territorial revisionism. This study offers a renewed perspective on the history of bilateral relations, identifies the domestic and foreign policy interests underlying particular perceptions of Russia and Norway, and highlights insights for the contemporary geopolitical situation, in which two centuries of neighborly experience may serve not as a source of dispute, but as a resource for mutual understanding.</jats:p>