A Soviet Grab for the High North? USSR, Svalbard, and Northern Norway 1920 - 1953

Abstract

Little has been known about deliberations within the Soviet foreign policy and defence establishments on Soviet policy towards Norway and the High North. The present study for the first time tells the story of Soviet plans for Svalbard in the period 1920–1953, including Molotov's efforts from November 1944 onwards to revise Svalbard's status, on the basis of documents from the Archives of the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Molotov's initiative was part of a plan, vigorously pursued within the foreign policy bureaucracy, to establish a system of military bases stretching from Soviet territory, through Northern Norway to the distant Svalbard archipelago.