Pomor Roots of the Barents cooperation

Ivan Moseev, the journalist from Arkhangelsk, is one of the leaders of the non-governmental society “The Pomor Renaissance”. This is a public movement gaining more and more strength in Arkhangelsk oblast. Its participants believe that Pomors are indigenous people of the Russian North and strive for their including into the federal list of indigenous and small peoples of Russia. This is one of the ways to provide their special rights for use of natural resources and thus to guarantee survival of small villages of the White Sea coast. The movement tries to revive old traditions of Pomor culture which was flourishing for centuries on the Russian North due to intensive trade and economic relations with the Northern Norway.

In the middle of February Moseev took part in the Barents Press International seminar in Tromso. -It was a surprise to know, says Moseev, that Pomors are still popular and distinguished brand in the Northern Norway. In Tromso Museum we saw the old Norwegian boats looking absolutely like ancient pomor “shnjaks” which were used by our forefathers in their trips to the Norwegian fjords centuries ago. This fact demonstrates that our peoples have common historic and cultural heritage which we should carefully preserve and develop. -Russian Pomors used to call Northern Norway the “Norwegian Pomor Land”. The Norwegians have already established the Pomor Museum while we in Arkhangelsk only now started thinking on how to give the pomor dimension to our famous museum Malye Korely. Only recently we got an idea to build so called “Pomor House” in the centre of Arkhangelsk. It should become a source of information about great epoch of Pomor Trade and a resource centre for renaissance of pomor identity.

-Obviously the Barents cooperation is based on historic memory of Russian and Norwegian Pomors, says Ivan. And to move further we need to revive old traditions which are our common property. -In Tromso we talked to the Governor Mr. Ronald Rindestu. He stressed that cooperation between the Arkhangelsk oblast and the Troms county is developing rather successfully. He mentioned in particular the famous project “Complex Development of Solovki” which is a part of cooperation agreement between our regions. Solovki is not only the most distinguished symbol of the Russian North but probably the most attractive destination place in the whole Barents Region. Rindestu reminded that Skjervoy municipality few years ago established sister relations with Solovki and this is also very important resource for this archipelago development. Norwegians believe that in the nearest future they will be able to realize one more logistic project which could be a real breakthrough in the tourism development on Solovki. The Governor said that in summer this year one of the Hurtigruten vessels can reach the Big Solovki Island.

-We may make this route even more interesting for Norwegian tourists, says Moseev. The tourists from Hurtigruten can visit famous historic Margaritinskaya Fair in Arkhangelsk …quot; the capital of the Pomor Land. This Fair first established in XIV century was for many years one of the symbols of the Pomor Trade, a sort of highlight of the whole Pomor economic year. Naturally the Pomor people celebrated their own New Year just after the Margaritinskaya Fair in the middle of September. Anatoly Bednov, one of the Arkhangelsk researchers, think that even the word combination “Margaritinskaya Fair” is the russificated historic name «Mar-garden jarmarket” which in “moja-po-tvoja” could mean “the trade place near the maritime town”. Traditionally the Fair is followed by a great festival, fireworks and torchlight processions.

-We invited Mr. Rindestu to come to Margaritinskaya Fair and he seemed to be positive towards it. To tell the truth, the Governor mentioned that this event is not yet well-know in Norway. He is more acquainted with the annual Pomor Festival in Umba where the Norwegians are regular participants. But Margaritinskaya is an event of absolutely different level. Up to the beginning of the 18th century it was the biggest trade event in Russia giving 2/3 of the whole national income. It is worth to mention that fish caught by pomors near the coasts of Kola and Norway was traditionally the main commodity here. Today when Russia again became the market #1 for Norwegian fish this could have a very new and specific dimension. Of course, continues Moseev, the visits of official foreign delegations are not our level of competence. This job should be done by the profile departments of the regional administrations. But we may help our politicians and executive officers cooperating with “Norwegian Pomors” on people-to-people level.

Photo: Jelena Larionova (BPI)