The 2026 UiT Border Seminar explores a central feature of Russia’s authoritarian turn under Putin: how memory policy functions as a key tool for consolidating the power of the Russian authorities, both domestically and in foreign policy. The seminar compares and discusses the how and why of Kremlin memory policy towards the Nordic-Baltic countries.
Programme
18.00 Welcome and introduction by Director Johanna Ikävalko, GPS, UiT
18.05 Maria Smorževskihh-Smirnova, CEO Narva Museum: Shaping Minds, Projecting Power: Russia’s Information Influence and Hybrid Strategies in Narva, Estonia’s Border City
18.40 Patrik Oksanen, Strategic Advisor at Centre for Societal Security at Swedish Defense University: The Battlefield of History: Russian Weaponization of History in Finland
19.00 Joakim Aalmen Markussen, PhD, UiT: Kremlin Monumental Policy in Northern Norway
19.15 Stian Bones, Professor of Modern History, UiT: Empowering Memories of Liberation
19.30 Panel discussion with Maria Smorževskihh-Smirnova, Patrik Oksanen, Stian Bones and Joakim Aalmen Markussen. Moderator: Kari Aga Myklebost
About the speakers:
Maria Smorževskihh-Smirnova (PhD) is the Director of the Narva Museum in Narva, Estonia’s eastern border city. As a historian and public intellectual, she has extensive experience working at the intersection of cultural heritage, identity, memory politics, and contemporary security challenges. Drawing on Narva’s unique position at the crossroads of different information spaces and historical narratives, her work explores the role of culture and public institutions in strengthening societal resilience and democratic values.
Patrik Oksanen is Strategic Advisor at Centre for Societal Security at Swedish Defense University, and is also associated with the think tank Stockholm Free World Forum. He is a former award-winning Journalist and the author of three books related to information influence and hybrid warfare. The latest is The last lie, which is about how a colonel in GRU in the mid-90´s created the start of all the conspiracy theories around the ferry disaster of M/S Estonia. Oksanen is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences and the Royal Swedish Society of Naval Sciences.
Joakim Aalmen Markussen is Head at the Department of Archaeology, History and Religious Studies, UiT The Arctic University of Norway. He holds a PhD in modern history which examines how key WWII events have been portrayed, commemorated, and incorporated into Norway’s collective memory since 1945. Markussen has published several articles and book chapters on the memory politics between Norway and Russia, including both the Cold War period and post-Soviet times.
Stian Bones is Professor of Modern History at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. His research focuses on security policy and international relations in the High North and the Arctic from the interwar period to the present day, including alliance politics and relations between great powers and small states. Bones has published extensively on topics such as the history of the Second World War in Northern Norway, Soviet/Russian subversion and influence operations, espionage, counterintelligence, and Norwegian polar policy.
The seminar is conducted in collaboration with the NORMEMO project, https://uit.no/project/normemo
Når: 10.09.26 kl 18.00–20.00
Hvor:
Barentshuset, first floor, UiT Kirkenes
Sted: Kirkenes
Målgruppe: Studenter, Gjester / eksterne, Ansatte
E-post: kari.myklebost@uit.no