(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
[espionage] In the border regions between Norway, Finland and the Soviet Union, the Cold War espionage game claimed several lives at the beginning of the 1950 century. This is documented by Morten Jentoft in his new book, Death on Kola. He has excavated in Norwegian intelligence archives, in the KGB archives, in Finnish archives and tells how Norwegian intelligence put young lives at risk in search of information about what was happening on the Soviet side of the border.
Norway on NATO's side
Let's briefly recapitulate the historical background for this to happen.
The people of Finnmark and Nord-Troms have historically had a good relationship with their Russian neighbors. The good relationship was strengthened by the release of Soviet troops in September 1944, over six months before the rest of Norway was released.
However, the peace settlement was not even one year old when Winston Churchill 6. March 1946, introduced the term "Iron Curtain".
A new, hot and bloody war seemed just around the corner. In 1948, communists seized power in Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet Union imposed a blockade of West Berlin. At the same time, the Soviet Union was pushing for the establishment of military bases in Finland, which would pose a direct threat to Norway. Norwegian communist sympathizers were labeled as potential traitors. In February 1948 Einar Gerhardsen gave the "Kråkerøy speech" where he warned against the Norwegian communists. Although he emphasized that they should be fought "with democratic means and spiritual weapons", the speech was the starting point for a comprehensive monitoring of Norwegian communist sympathizers.
In 1949, the Soviet Union detonated its first nuclear bomb, which, among other things, the later human rights defender Andrei Sakharov had helped develop. In the same year NATO was also formed. Norway was involved from the start.
This defined the country's place in the great powers' game, and a period of political persecution, concealment and lies was initiated for the population at Norway's border with the Soviet Union, where the Communists for historical reasons were particularly strong. In People at a Border (2005), Morten Jentoft depicts the fate of the families of those who had fled east during the war. The whole of East Finnmark was put under surveillance that is unparalleled in the country's history. What it meant for individual destinies, no one had rolled up before Jentoft did it – fifty years later.
Historical explosives
In Finland, conditions were almost diametrically opposite in Norway. The country had lost the winter war against the Soviet Union and had to relinquish large parts of Karelia. Hundreds of thousands of fins fled to the Finnish core area. Many of them dreamed of being able to recapture the lost homeland and were prepared for much to achieve this. However, the Finnish authorities wanted reconciliation with the Soviet Union.
In this year's book, Jentoft documents how Norwegian, British and US intelligence used Finnish agents to spy on the Soviet Union. They also built resistance cells in Finland, which should be activated in case the Soviet Union passed through Finland on its way to Norway. All the activity was contrary to the wishes of the Finnish authorities. It also took place without informing neither the Norwegian government nor the Norwegian police. On the Norwegian side, the actions were controlled and directed by a small group of intelligence people, with Vilhelm Evang at the forefront.
Ny Tid was the first newspaper in July 1977 to publish parts of the story, then with the former opponent and officer Svein Blindheim as source. For that, Blindheim received six months probation. SV politician Ivar Johansen and newspaper journalist Ingolf Håkon Teigene were put on trial and convicted in the same case.
Accordingly, it is historical and journalistic explosive Morten Jentoft presents. Admittedly, it has been somewhat weakened by the fact that the Cold War is finally and thankfully ending. Nevertheless, his stories are at times appalling reading.
Norway was a nuclear weapon target
Jentoft has chosen a personal approach to the fabric and opens by depicting a visit to the Finnish Muisto Aadolf Lassila, honored with the cover name "Kalle" by Norwegian intelligence. The service sent him and another find, "Pelle," secretly across the border to the Soviet Union in the fall of 1952 to obtain information on the construction of the Murmansk-Nikel railroad and to investigate the truthfulness of the rumor: The Soviet authorities built several airports in the area. The mission ended in disaster, a Russian border guard was shot. However, both agents recovered completely in Norway.
The last reconnaissance trip Jentoft tells about took place in September 1954, with something as absurd as a hot air balloon. It was the CIA that found the means of access excellent. Nor did this bring the desired information. Between the two trips, a number of agents were sent into enemy territory. Some got the job done, others were caught – like the two Soviet defectors who were sent from a training camp in Germany to Finmark to get all the way to Ukraine and Belarus, respectively. They had not crossed the border before they started celebrating one's 20th birthday with the help of a field bottle of vodka. The result was that one would surrender, and was shot by the comrade. Both were arrested by Soviet border guards.
There are plenty of such details in Death on Kola, which sometimes shadows the overall picture. But in addition to depicting the activities of specific agents, Jentoft also comes with truly astounding information, such as that NATO, in the event of war, had designated targets for the use of nuclear bombs in both Finland and Norway. The book also gives a clear and not very sympathetic picture of a Norwegian press that servile failed to check the propaganda they were served by Norwegian intelligence during the times it went so wrong that it was clear that some muff's were going on. Likewise, according to the documentation Jentoft serves here, there can be no doubt that Norway was exactly what Soviet propaganda claimed: a piece in the game of greater power.
As hinted at the outset, it is historically understandable, but well worth noting, literally.
