A Brief History of Finnmark

Finnmark is a vast arctic area belonging to Norway. It borders on Russia to the east, and had for many years a special status in NATO as the only place where NATO had a physical border with Russia. With NATO's eastwards expansion since the fall of the Soviet Union, this is no longer the case, and NATO is treating the area with less subtlety. Gone are the days when NATO was careful about provoking the Russians. Finnmark is no longer a demilitarized buffer zone, but a place full of heavy weaponry.

Last time this was the case, Nazi Germany occupied Norway. The Nazis were quick to enlisted Norwegian volunteers to fight the Russians. The volunteers were equipped with heavy artillery, but it ended badly. They were completely wiped out in 1944. There's a lake east of the border where the Norwegians found themselves surrounded. It's a grave yard that the Russians haven't bothered to clean up. It's a haunting reminder of what war looks like. Many tried to swim across the lake to save their lives, but not a single one managed to cross it before freezing to death.

Once the war was over, the Russians who had captured parts of Finnmark, retreated, and no-one holds any grudges against them for what they did. They didn't go after the civilians. It was the Nazis that behaved badly, laying mines everywhere and burning villages and towns to the ground as they retreated. The biggest worry among most locals in Finnmark today is not what the Russians may do unprovoked, but what the Russians may see themselves forced to do if provoked.

If pushed into a corner, Russia may well launch a strike on Finnmark. It's in many ways the ideal battleground. There's not a lot of civilians living there, and those who live there are largely neutral in their view of the Russians. They are unlikely to take up weapons against them as they know from history that Russians don't stay for long. Hence, the battle can be fought in the open with a minimum of civilian casualties and with unlimited fury, a little like they did back in 1944.

With NATO's leader, Jens Stoltenberg, being Norwegian, an attack on Norway seems all the more logical, and the Norwegian government has just green-lighted a shipment of weapons to Ukraine, making Norway a legitimate target under conventional rules related to war.

Jens Stoltenberg who was an outspoken pacifist in his youth, has engineered what may well end up as a deadly attack on Norwegian troops in Finnmark. The man has a lot of blood on his hands, having provoked wars all over the place, including bombing raids over Libya. But he has yet to have any Norwegian blood on his hands, so he's still a popular man in Norway. However, this may change. He's been playing a dangerous game with the Russians, and it may well end in disaster for Norway.

Mark Esper with Jens Stoltenberg

By U.S. Secretary of Defense - 200212-D-AP390-6107, CC BY 2.0, Link