A FLUID IRON CURTAIN

Abstract

The Pasvik River shapes the greater part of the border between Russia and Norway. This body of water was a site of Norwegian–Soviet energy cooperation from the 1950s until the late 1970s. Norwegian firms constructed four hydropower stations in a strategically sensitive area. Drawing on Soviet and Norwegian archival materials, this study analysed the heterogeneous interests and negotiation processes that resulted in long-term hydropower cooperation. The powerhouses were designed to produce both electrical and political energies for transfer across the border. These infrastructural projects fit into the contemporary narrative of peaceful coexistence and prompted a firm cooperation between the two countries. Norwegian workers built power plants on Soviet soil, thereby legitimizing the Norwegian social democrats’ policy of rapprochement. The Soviet government and media portrayed the construction as physical proof of good neighbourly relations. Not only state actors but also members of the Norwegian–Soviet Friendship Society aimed to appropriate the powerhouses for their specific goals. They worked to soften the border regime between the two countries, thus initiating a locally limited visa-free entry zone. However, this project was short-lived because Norwegian–Soviet cooperation at the border was restricted to the realm of energy production.