The Russian Revolutions of 1917: The Northern Impact and Beyond

The year 2017 saw a multitude of conferences and exhibitions devoted to the centenary of the Russian Revolutions, both in Russia and in other parts of the world. The commemoration of this event would be incomplete without an exploration of its Northern dimension; in October 2017, UiT The Arctic University of Norway hosted the conference The Russian Revolutions of 1917: The Northern Impact and Beyond. Norway and Russia are both northern states, and the two countries have a common border in the High North. Some articles in this volume, based on the conference proceedings, investigate the impact of the Russian Revolution in Norway and Sweden, while others deal with the High North, e.g. the Revolution and Civil War in Northern Russia and the radicalization of the workers' movement of Northern Norway; some are also devoted to representations of the Russian Revolution at exhibitions and on the big screen.

About the Author :
Kari Aga Myklebost is Professor of History and Barents Chair in Russian Studies at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. She has published articles and book chapters on various aspects of the historical relations between Norway and Russia throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with a special focus on the northernmost regions of the two states. Her works include studies in diplomatic and economic relations, scientific relations in polar research, and state policy towards northern minority groups. She is currently working on a biography of Olaf Broch, Norway's first professor of Slavonic Studies and a topical figure in Norwegian-Russian relations during the first half of the twentieth century. Jens Petter Nielsen is Professor of History at the Department of Archaeology, History, Religious Studies, and Theology, UiT The Arctic University of Norway. He has published extensively on Soviet history and historiography, as well as on Russian-Norwegian relations in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Lately, he has edited Sblizhenie: Rossiia i Norvegiia v 1814-1917 godakh (Getting closer: Norway and Russia 1814-1917) (Moscow: Ves' Mir publishing house, 2017). Andrei Rogatchevski is Professor of Russian Literature and Culture at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. Among his latest co-edited volumes/thematic clusters are "Filming the Strugatskiis," Science Fiction Film and Television 8, no. 2 (2015), "Russophone Periodicals in Israel," Stanford Slavic Studies 47 (2016), "Madness and Literature," Wiener Slawistischer Almanach 80 (2017), and "Russian Space: Concepts, Practices, Representations," Nordlit 39 (2017).

Review :
"Taken together, this study of the 'northern dimension' of the Russian Revolution provides some interesting insights. On a practical level, scholars who do not command Scandinavian languages will find it useful to read overviews of national historiographic discussions on the topic, and can gain an understanding of how the Russian Revolution affected that region. On a larger interpretative scale, this volume confirms the recent historiographical trend that shifts attention from the grand ideas and major political events of the Russian Revolution to its different regional contexts and particular local circumstances." --L. G. Novikova, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Slavonic and East European Review "This collaborative effort to explore the events of 1917 and their impact on Norway and Sweden in particular, constitutes a valuable source for those interested in studying the reception of the Russian Revolution of 1917 by other countries as well as its various impacts in those countries." --Ayse Dietrich, International Journal of Russian Studies