A great scientific tour in the north of Russia

The coverage of various issues related to the Russian-Norwegian relations has always been important for the residents of both countries. Opportunities to present new documents and materials, to discuss the importance of centuries-old good neighborly relations between Russia and Norway, especially in the North, are not provided often. At the end of April 2018, large-scale scholarly events, devoted specifically to this topic, took place in Nikel and Murmansk. So, a scientific-practical seminar “Russia, Norway and the North. Historical relations” was held in Nikel on April 25 and on the next day in Murmansk the international conference “Neighbors in the Far North: historical ties between Russia and Norway” took place. One of the reasons for these measures was the presentation of the collective monograph “Getting closer: Russia and Norway 1814-1917”. The book was written jointly by Norwegian and Russian historians within the framework of a long-lasting historical megaproject (2008-2015) (led by J.P. Nielsen, AHR, UIT-The Arctic University of Norway). In November 2017 the book was published in Russian in Moscow by the Ves’ Mir publishing house after three years of preparation. It is the translation of a monograph, richly illustrated, about the history of Russian-Norwegian relations in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, originally published in Norwegian by the Pax Forlag AS, Oslo under the title “Russland kommer nærmere» in 2014.