Russia Disinvited from Commemorating the Liberation of Northern Norway by the Red Army
In a farcical turn of events, 'Westerners™' are more and more erasing their own history, which only facilitates the continued emergence of the Globalist New World Order
Another day, more insanity for everyone. Today, I’ll take you to northern Norway, which, 80 years ago today, was ‘liberated from German occupation’—by the Soviet Red Army.
So far, this event had always been commemorated by officials from both Norway and Russia—but this year is different = ‘special™’: turns out that Norway—whose ostensibly ‘centre-left™’ gov’t is increasing ‘defence’ spending by 18% next year (you read this right)—doesn’t want ‘ze Rooskies’ to be present at the commemoration.
Here’s how Norwegian state broadcaster NRK ‘reported™’ on this event.
As always, translation and emphases [as well as snark] mine.
Marking the Liberation Separately
By Vanja Ulfsnes, Hilde Olaussen, Gunnar Sætra, and Hanne Wilhelms, NRK, 25 Oct. 2024 [source]
Friday marks the 80th anniversary of the Red Army’s liberation of Sør-Varanger from German occupation. Russia is no longer invited to the commemorations.
Today marks the liberation of Sør-Varanger. 80 years ago, Soviet forces liberated the municipality from German occupation.
There have been two commemorations at the Liberation Monument in Kirkenes, first a Norwegian and then a Russian one.
At twelve o’clock, Russian Consul-General Nikolay Konygin gave a speech.
The Consul-General spoke in both Russian and Norwegian.
In his speech, he focused on the brave Soviet soldiers:
Thousands of Soviet citizens lost their lives. This is our shared history. It is our moral duty to preserve and leave history for future generations.
Afterwards, large quantities of roses were laid down.
Olga Smirnova was one of those who took part in the Russian commemoration. She is a Russian citizen and lives in Sør-Varanger.
Olga and several others have raised money for the event. They used the money to buy roses:
Last year we placed 1,000 roses, this year we had 2,000 roses. Maybe next year we’ll manage 3,000 roses.
[NRK, ‘doing™’ prime ‘journalism’, asked] Why do you do this?
[Smirnova] Because we remember history and we show respect with flowers. We always put flowers on monuments in Russia.
Earlier Today, the Norwegian Commemoration Was Held
Mayor Magnus Mæland (Høyre [i.e., the centre-right]) and County Mayor Hans-Jacob Bønå (Høyre) laid wreaths, together with representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
County [Fylke] Governor Hans-Jakob Bønå expressed his gratitude to those who fell during the war and those who fought for peace:
No one felt the horror of war more than the people here. [I suspect that ‘some’ other victims—you know, the ones in the German concentration camps, for instance—might object to that characterisation]
Bønå also talked about respecting national borders and that attacks are not the language of those who want freedom, peace, and progress for their neighbours [is it too early to mention Norway’s contribution to the US-led wars of aggression vs. Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, etc.?].
Democracy and respect for national borders is what builds a better world.
Magnus Mæland expressed gratitude to our allies during the Second World War:
We honour those who fought for our freedom and sacrificed everything. We must never forget the atrocities of war [as long as ‘those’ doesn’t involve ze Rooskies, it seems].
Magnus Mæland also draws parallels to the current situation [of course he did that] with war and unrest in the world:
We must never forget what authoritarian leaders can do, which is why this day is so important.
[NRK] When you mention authoritarian leaders, do you draw parallels to the situation today?
Yes, I do, authoritarian leaders with hate speech sow discord and create enemies, just as we saw during the Second World War [remember, this doesn’t apply to calling one’s domestic opponents names].
State Secretary Eivind Vad Petersson (Ap [Labour]) from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it’s impossible to have a joint celebration with Russia now that they are at war with another neighbouring country [we should probably also exclude Russia from the commemorations of the extermination camps in what is today Poland, eh?].
Mayor Magnus Mæland places the wreath to commemorate those who gave their lives for our freedom [note that this apparently doesn’t apply to the Soviets who did the dying].
‘But at the same time, it's important to show our gratitude to the Red Army and the sacrifices made during the liberation,’ said Petersson.
Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine is the reason why there will be no joint commemoration this year either, as there was during the 75th anniversary celebrations [I won’t hold my breath until we stop celebrating whatever American unless they—and the German, British, and French governments, too—apologise for the war of aggression vs. Yugoslavia in 1999].
The Great Disaster
At 2.15 a.m. on 25 October 1944, four soldiers from the Red Army stood by the mines in Kirkenes, where thousands of people had probably sought refuge, and told the people of Finnmark that they were free.
Evelyn Olsen Lid, who was 10 years old at the time, was among those who could walk out into freedom. What met Olsen Lid on the outside frightened her so much that she wanted to go back into the mine tunnel. The reason was that all of Kirkenes was in ruins. The town was one of the places that experienced the most bombing throughout the Second World War.
At the same time as Sør-Varanger was liberated, this was the start of the brutal forced evacuation and burning of Finnmark and North Troms.
Since autumn of 1944, the liberation has been marked, often with both Norwegian and Russian representatives.
King Harald, then Prime Minister Erna Solberg (Høyre) and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov were all present at the ceremony in Kirkenes five years ago.
But this is no longer the case.
Since Russia went to full-scale war against Ukraine in February 2022, there have been no joint celebrations in Sør-Varanger [this is so patently absurd it boggles the mind that none of the four (!) journos™ bothered to compare, say, Russia’s invasion force of approx. 200,000 soldiers with the size of Ukraine—it’s a lot of things, but not ‘full-scale war’].
During the commemoration in 2022, the liberation monument in Kirkenes was dominated by Norwegians, Ukrainians, and Russians with Ukrainian flags.
Last year, Russian government officials were urged not to appear at the memorials. The Russian Consul-General in Kirkenes, Nikolai Konygin, chose not to listen. When he laid a Russian wreath over the municipality’s own wreath, there was a full-scale riot at the Liberation Monument [another ‘full-scale’ event: what actually happened—as per that link, if you read Norwegian—is that the mayor ‘lost it’ upon seeing that Mr. Konygin placed a wreath at the monument].
‘You should be able to lay flowers at a monument, but not over the municipality’s official wreath’, said a furious Mayor Magnus Mæland (H) at the time.
In connection with last year’s commemoration, Mæland was criticised because he chose to split the commemoration. In addition to laying a wreath at the Liberation Monument, he laid a wreath and gave a speech at the War Mothers Monument. The liberation has never before been commemorated there.
Invited Zelenskyj
Last year, Hans-Jacob Bønå (Høyre), County Governor of Finnmark, invited the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyj, to the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Eastern Finnmark:
We want to show our gratitude to the Ukrainian soldiers who sacrificed blood in the liberation of Eastern Finnmark, their descendants and their homeland [but apparently not all the other Soviet citizens who died].
Bønå believes that Russia wrote itself out of the co-operation on the commemoration when it attacked in 2022:
Now they are deep inside Ukrainian territory. This makes it completely impossible for us to co-operate on a peace commemoration and liberation, as we have done in the past.
He said this during the opening of the county council in Finnmark last week, where the 80th anniversary was marked. President Zelenskyj was absent.
Bottom Lines
Oh, what kind of hypocrisy and double-standards; this is quite a sight to behold.
I do share the sentiment of the good people living up there—but since the Norwegians simply joined, no questions asked, the US-led wars of aggressions of the past generation, there’s of course nothing but contempt that I can express here.
I wrote about German history and memory recently, and if ‘History™’ offers any lessons at-all, it’s probably that there’s neither gratitude nor friendship to be expected, least of all of the descendants of those who were mere pawns in ostensibly ‘bigger’ schemes. Trust me on this one, as an Austrian citizen and historian, I’m in as good a position to judge this.
I do think it’s immoral and exquisitely dishonourable; it’s the way of jackals and scoundrels, which is what ‘our™’ political elites have become. And to soothe their innate emotions—perhaps of indecency and shame—they need ‘the people™’ to be on their side, albeit for their own pathetic reasons.
To summarise, I’ll teach you an apt German word: fremdschämen.
It means being embarrassed on behalf of someone else.
You’re welcome.
Also: what a shit-show.