Open minds and open borders matter
News stories about Russia tend to give the impression of an embattled, closed and isolated state. Yet when trying to understand day-to-day life for many in contemporary Russia, it’s helpful to think more of its unique position straddling continental Europe and Asia. Russia is by no means disconnected from those around it — far from it. Russia shares a border with 14 countries. While many of these are frequently in the news — because of trade, tensions or military fortification, for example — they are too little discussed as crossing points for Russians and non-Russians to travel, live and learn from the other’s country and cultures.
Borders might be personally fascinating because I’m a product of Northern Ireland — memories of border checkpoints are entrenched from childhood. That, combined with our position as an island, might be from where my immense curiosity, fascination and — if I’m honest — slight apprehension of borders comes from.
I’ve done a few exciting land border crossings to date — Kyrgyzstan into Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan into Georgia, Poland into Ukraine. Recently, however, I was able to cross a Russian land border for the first time, travelling from Russia’s polar North into the small Norwegian town of Kirkenes. Kirkenes is a town that befits its border status. Street signs are both in Norwegian and Russian. One tenth of the population is said to be Russian. Norwegians and Russians cross the border daily, benefiting from the area’s visa-free regime to travel for work, education or culture, or to stock up on things like cheap fuel and booze (which you’ll find in Russia) and better quality cosmetics (Norway).
At the beginning of March I spent a week in a Russian mining town of 8,000 people called Nickel (named after the main mineral mined there). It’s an unusually interesting town amongst many others in the industrial North. Its troublesome environmental status notwithstanding, it is able to capitalise on its unique international position close to both the Finnish and Norwegian borders — the latter is only 7km away. While there, I attended a ballet. All around me were Russians, yet to my left sat two Finns and to my right, a Norwegian — a multicultural event in the polar North.
It’s not to say that this region is without its problems — the Norwegian government has recently claimed to have proven Russian GPS interference in the region during recent NATO war games. But contemporary politics aside, as always with border regions, we also have to think about the transitory nature and history of the border line — these are, after all, somewhat arbitrary demarcations created by people like you or I. In relatively recent history, for example, Nickel was part of Finland and the main political tensions were Finnish-Norwegian.
When politics are strained, it becomes even more important that people, culture and trade flows across borders. People-to-people connections are crucial when it comes to challenging unhelpful stereotypes and helping us understand our shared history, similarities and differences.
Someone said to me recently that Russia is a state that complains about being misunderstood but where little is done to help others understand it. It’s a useful reflection for us when considering the current situation with Brexit. It emphasises how much we all have a role to play in helping others understand our cultures. I’ll end on that note: you’ll be pleased to hear that a significant number of Northern Russians are now fans of Irish coffee with Bushmills whiskey. You’re welcome, Northern Ireland!
Excerpts of this article were printed in the Ballymena and Antrim Guardian in Spring 2019.
