Between Denmark and Moscovia: the Kola Sámi in the border conflict of the second half of the sixteenth – first quarter of the seventeenth century

Abstract

ABSTRACT We examine the problem of the double taxation of the Sámi of the Kola Peninsula, who were in the dual tax jurisdiction of Denmark and the Russian state in the sixteenth – early seventeenth centuries. The origin of double taxation is associated with the unestablished borders in the Far North of Europe: each country considered Finnmark and the Kola Peninsula as part of its sphere of influence. We conclude that the double taxation of the Sámi of the Kola Peninsula was started in the second half of the sixteenth century as a consequence of the escalation of the conflict between the two states. Denmark and Russia used taxation as a means of fighting for disputed territories. In the 1590s, Denmark drove out Russian tax collectors from Finnmark. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Russian state took similar measures, prohibiting Danish tax collectors from entering the territory of the Kola district. Nevertheless, the double taxation of the Sámi of the Kola Peninsula with Danish and Russian tax persisted even after the introduction of a ban on entry into the disputed lands. This measure was a compromise, hindering the development of a possible military conflict with the Danish kingdom.