Finnmark
Finnmark is a county in northern Norway. By land, it borders Troms county to the west, Finland's Lapland region to the south, and Russia's Murmansk Oblast to the east, and by water, the Norwegian Sea to the northwest, and the Barents Sea to the north and northeast.
The county was formerly known as Finmarkens amt or Vardøhus amt. Since 2002, it has had two official names: Finnmark and Finnmárku. It is part of the Sápmi region, which spans four countries, as well as the Barents Region, and is Norway's second-largest and least populous county.
On 1 January 2020, Finnmark merged with the neighbouring county of Troms to form Troms og Finnmark county. On 1 January 2024, the counties of Finnmark and Troms were restored after parliament decided on 15 June 2022 to separate them.
Etymology
The name Finnmark is derived from Old Norse Finnmǫrk: The first element is finn, the Norse name for the Sámi people, and the last element is mǫrk, which means "woodland" or "borderland". In Norse times the name referred to the land of the Sámi people, or any place where Sámi people lived.Coat of arms
The coat of arms is black with a gold-colored castle tower—its blazon reads, "Sable, a single-towered castle Or". The design is from 1967 and shows the old Vardøhus Fortress, historically on the eastern border with Russia.History
Sami
The Sami are the indigenous people of Finnmark, but Norwegians have lived for hundreds of years on the islands' outer parts, where they made up the majority. The Sami people still constitute the majority in Finnmark's interior parts, while the fjord areas have been ethnically mixed for a long time. This essentially holds true today.The Sami were for years victims of the Norwegianization policy, which in essence was an attempt by the government to make them "true Norwegians" and forget about their Sami way of life and religion, which was seen as inferior. As a result, the Sami living at the coast and in the fjords gradually lost much of their culture and often felt ashamed by their Sami inheritance. The Sami in the interior managed to preserve more of their culture. In the 1970s, instruction of the Sami language started in schools, and a new sense of consciousness started to grow among the Sami; today most are proud of their background and culture.
In the midst of this awakening, Norway's government decided to build a dam in Alta to produce hydropower, provoking multiple Sami and environmentalists to demonstrations and civil disobedience—Alta Conflict. In the end, the dam was built on a much smaller scale than originally intended and the Sami culture was on the government's agenda. The Sami parliament was opened in Karasjok in 1989.
Norwegian
in Nordkapp is mentioned in the Sagas as a northern harbor in the Viking Age, especially used by Vikings on the way to Bjarmaland, and probably also for gathering food in the nearby seabird colony. Coastal areas of Finnmark were colonized by Norwegians beginning in the 10th century, and there are stories describing clashes with the Karelians. Border skirmishes between the Norwegians and Novgorodians continued until 1326, when the Treaty of Novgorod settled the issue.The first known fortification in Finnmark is Vardøhus festning, first erected in 1306 by King Haakon V Magnusson. This is the world's most northern fortress. In the 17th century, 88 young women were burned as witches in Vardø, an extremely high number compared to the total population in this area at the time. The first person burned as witch in Vardø in the 17th century was a man.
Finnmark first became subject to increased colonization in the 18th and 19th century. Norway, Sweden, and Russia all claimed control over this area. Finland was part of Russia at that time and had no independent representative. Finnmark was given the status of an Amt in the 19th century. For a time, there was a vibrant trade with Russia, and a number of Norwegians settled on the Kola Peninsula.
Kven
The Finnic Kven residents of Finnmark are largely descendants of Finnish-speaking immigrants who arrived in the area in the 18th century from Meänmaa, and later in the 19th century from Finland, suffering from famine and war.Brief summary
In 1576, the King of Norway established Vardøhus len as a new administrative unit for most northern part of the kingdom. In 1660, it became Vardøhus amt, a subordinate to the large Trondhjems stiftamt, based in Trondheim. In 1787, the island of Senja and the Troms area were transferred from Nordlandenes amt to Vardøhus amt. In 1866, the island of Senja and the Troms area were separated from Vardøhus to form the new Tromsø amt. In 1919, the name was again changed to Finnmark fylke. In 2002, the Sami language name, Finnmárku, was added as a co-official name for the county.Per Fugelli has said that World War II resulted in many persons acquiring psychiatric disorders which could be from experiencing "bombing, accidents involving mines, burning down of homes, forcible evacuation, illness and starvation during the war and liberation. But it was maybe in particular the treatment of Russian prisoners that left marks on the local population."
World War II
Around 120,000 German forces occupied the area from the summer of 1940 onwards. In 1945 the Germans put into force Operation Nordlicht, and used the scorched earth tactic in Finnmark and northern Troms to frustrate the Red Army as the Germans retreated southwards. As a consequence of this, few houses survived the war, and around two thirds of the population of 60,000 was forcefully evacuated further south., but some people avoided evacuation by hiding in caves and mountain huts and waited until the Germans were gone, then inspected their burned homes. There were 11,000 houses, 4,700 cow sheds, 106 schools, 27 churches, and 21 hospitals burned. There were 22,000 communications lines destroyed, roads were blown up, boats destroyed, animals killed, and 1,000 children separated from their parents.After taking the town of Kirkenes on 25 October 1944, the Red Army did not attempt further offensives in Norway. Free Norwegian forces arrived from Britain and liberated the rest of the county. When war was over, more than 70,000 people were left homeless in Finnmark. The government imposed a temporary ban on residents returning to Finnmark because of the danger of landmines. The ban lasted until the summer of 1945 when evacuees were told that they could finally return home.
Cold War
The Cold War was a period with sometimes high tension in eastern Finnmark, at the long border with the Soviet Union. To keep tensions from getting too high, Norway declared that no NATO exercises would take place in Finnmark.Geography
Finnmark is Norway's northernmost and easternmost county. By area, Finnmark is Norway's second-largest county, even larger than the neighboring country of Denmark. With a population of about 75,000, it is also the least populous Norwegian county. Finnmark has a total coastline of, including of coastline on the islands. As of 2000, nearly 12,300 people, 16.6% of the county's population, lived in the 100-meter belt along the coastline.Knivskjellodden in Nordkapp Municipality is sometimes considered Europe's northernmost point ; Kinnarodden on Nordkinn Peninsula in Lebesby Municipality is the northernmost point on the European mainland. Honningsvåg in Finnmark claims to be world's northernmost city, and Vardø is the easternmost town in Norway and farther east than Istanbul.
The coast is indented by large fjords, some of which are false fjords, as they are not carved out by glaciers. Some of Norway's largest sea bird colonies are on the northern coast; the largest are Hjelmsøystauran on the island of Hjelmsøya in Måsøy Municipality and Gjesværstappan in Nordkapp Municipality. The highest point is atop the glacier Øksfjordjøkelen, which has an area of, and is in Loppa Municipality. Both Øksfjordjøkelen and Seiland Glacier are in western Finnmark.
The Øksfjord plateau glacier calved directly into the sea until 1900, the last glacier in mainland Norway to do so. Finnmark's central and eastern parts are generally less mountainous, and have no glaciers. The land east of Nordkapp is mostly below.
The nature varies from barren coastal areas facing the Barents Sea to more sheltered fjord areas and river valleys with gullies and tree vegetation. About half the county is above the tree line, and large parts of the other half is covered with small Downy birch.
The lushest areas are the Alta area and the Tana valleys, and in the east is the lowland area in the Pasvik valley in Sør-Varanger Municipality, where the pine and Siberian spruce forest is considered part of the Russian taiga vegetation. This valley has the highest density of Brown bears in Norway, and is the only place in the country with a population of muskrats, stemming from their introduction from their native North America into Europe in the early 20th century, which included their release in 293 localities all over Finland from 1919 onward, and then of about 1,000 muskrats on the Kola Peninsula during 1931–36. The animal spread and the observations of first 'possible' muskrats in the river Alta area in Troms were made around 1960, though the first actual specimen was not recovered until 1969, when a muskrat was captured alive in in Tana Municipality. In 1970, another specimen was collected from Jarfjorden in Sør-Varanger Municipality in Finnmark. Between 1980 and 1988 there were few observations of muskrats in Norway. Since 1988 there has been a rapid population increase in Sör-Varanger, and the muskrat has spread to almost every part of the municipality. Lynx and moose are common in large parts of Finnmark, but rare on the coast.
The county's interior parts are part of the great Finnmarksvidda plateau, with an elevation of, with multiple lakes and river valleys. The plateau is famous for its tens of thousands of reindeer owned by the Sámi, and swarms of mosquitoes in midsummer. Finnmarksvidda makes up 36% of the county's area. Stabbursdalen National Park ensures protection for the world's northernmost Scots pine forest.
The Tana River, which partly defines the border with Finland, gives the largest catch of salmon of all rivers in Europe, and also has the world record for Atlantic salmon,. In the east, the Pasvikelva defines the border with Russia.