Abstract
The article portrays and discusses various reorientation practices used by Russian women who have migrated to the Finnmark region in Northern Norway. It draws on participant observation, individual interviews and focus group interviews. The fieldwork revealed that mushroom related activites – picking, talking about, preparing and eating – constitute an important part of a shared Russian heritage accumulated through a communist-era childhood. The article makes particular use of Floya Anthias’ concept of translocal positioning. Anthias conceptualizes social positioning as a practice that occurrs within and across both concrete locations and cultural contexts, and is shaped by specific processes of minoritizing and majoritizing. Through the perspective of translocation, and inspired by Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of the body (1994), this article aims to show how my informants position themselves as Russian women in Finnmark. Based on an analysis of the experiences and practices related to mushrooms, the article argues that migrants’ reorientations may fruitfully be viewed as practices that are constituted through the body across time and space.
 Citation: Tatiana Wara (2016) «Russiske kvinner i Nord-Norge: fortellinger om soppturer og sovjettid». Nordisk Østforum 30 [3] 177–192. http://dx.doi.org/10.17585/nof.v30.430
 (Published: Oktober 2016)
Highlights
Russian Women in Northern Norway: Stories about Mushroom Picking and the Soviet Past The article portrays and discusses various reorientation practices used by Russian women who have migrated to the Finnmark region in Northern Norway
En sopptur startet gjerne med at mamma fylte termosene med kakao og lagde nistemat
Med tilknytning i denne artikkelen menes ikke russiske kvinner gjennom eksistensialistiske forestillinger om gruppetilhørighet, men heller hvordan den russiske «væren-i-verden» reflekteres og transformeres og derigjennom skaper forbindelser til bade en russisk og en norsk kontekst
Summary
Jeg husker enda de tomme butikkhyllene [fra barndommen], det var vanskelig, men vi visste ikke bedre, sadet var en normal tilstand, og det var likt for alle. Vi kunne ikke overleve uten sopp og bær, men det viktigste av alt var selve prosessen! 7. Alina: Men den viktigste næringen [nar vi er pasopptur] er vel emosjonell næring og innlevelse! 8. Valentina: Enig, jeg kan gatimevis og beundre hver eneste sopp. Valentina: Enig, jeg kan gatimevis og beundre hver eneste sopp Her i Norge er det fasom plukker sopp, sadu kan velge de fineste av de fineste. Og hver sopp har sin egen form og personlighet. 9. Alina: Det er nettopp det som er typisk russisk. Den russiske sjela som er dyrket paa ̊ndelige verdier
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