The Barentsburg Pomor Museum is a small museum located in

Barentsburg Barentsburg (russian: Баренцбург) is the second-largest settlement in Svalbard, Norway, with about 455 inhabitants (). A coal mining town, the settlement is almost entirely made up of ethnic Russians and Ukrainians. History Rijpsburg ...

, a town in

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group range ...

, a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

archipelago in the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

. Created during the 1920s by the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

, the coal mining settlement was sold to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

in 1932, and so it was the USSR which founded the museum in 1963. Today owned entirely by the

Government of Russia The Government of Russia exercises executive power in the Russian Federation. The members of the government are the prime minister, the deputy prime ministers, and the federal ministers. It has its legal basis in the Constitution of the Russia ...

through

Arktikugol Arktikugol (russian: Арктикуголь, lit=Arctic Coal) is a Russian coal mining unitary enterprise which operates on the island of Spitsbergen in Svalbard, Norway. Owned by the government of Russia, Arktikugol currently performs limited mi ...

, Barentsburg is a shadow of its former self, with only a few hundred inhabitants compared to over a thousand during its heyday. The museum remains intact however, receiving most of its visitors in the form of

tourists Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mo ...

. It shares the same building as the town's Sports and Culture Centre. When formed in 1963, one of the museum's co-founders was Vadim F. Starkov, a Soviet archaeologist from the

USSR Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991, uniting the country's leading scientists, subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (until 1946 ...

and a prominent figure in the

archaeology of Svalbard The archaeology of Svalbard is the study of human activity in the northerly Arctic Ocean archipelago's past. The geography, environment and climate of Svalbard have resulted in exceptional preservation conditions. (But rapid climate change – wit ...

. The primary subject of the museum is, as the name indicates, the

Pomors Pomors or Pomory ( rus, помо́ры, p=pɐˈmorɨ, ''seasiders'') are an ethnographic group descended from Russian settlers, primarily from Veliky Novgorod, living on the White Sea coasts and the territory whose southern border lies on a wa ...

, inhabitants of the

White Sea The White Sea (russian: Белое море, ''Béloye móre''; Karelian and fi, Vienanmeri, lit. Dvina Sea; yrk, Сэрако ямʼ, ''Serako yam'') is a southern inlet of the Barents Sea located on the northwest coast of Russia. It is su ...

who feature heavily in the archipelago's

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

. Starkov held that these hunters were the first discoverers of Svalbard, not

Willem Barentsz Willem Barentsz (; – 20 June 1597), anglicized as William Barents or Barentz, was a Dutch Republic, Dutch navigator, cartographer, and Arctic explorer. Barentsz went on three expeditions to the far north in search for a Northern Sea Route, N ...

, a point of view which the museum pursues as well. Despite the Russian stance on Willem Barentsz, archaeological finds from his expeditions are featured in the museum's exhibits, as are artefacts recovered from the settlements of the Pomors and other early explorers from the 16th century and onwards. Other things shown in the museum include a large geological collection featuring minerals and fossils, taxidermal polar wildlife, Svalbard-related artwork, and exhibits on Barentsburg's coal mining history, the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and the Soviet era. In recent years it has been a minor source of conflict between the Norwegian and Russian governments, in the overall context of

territorial claims in the Arctic The Arctic consists of land, internal waters, territorial seas, exclusive economic zones (EEZs) and international waters above the Arctic Circle (66 degrees 33 minutes North latitude). All land, internal waters, territorial seas and EEZs in the A ...

. The Barentsburg Pomor Museum was closed to the public during the summer of 2008, and conditions were said to be poor. In order to protect them from degradation, Norway's

Governor of Svalbard The governor of Svalbard ( no, Sysselmesteren på Svalbard) represents the Norwegian government in exercising its sovereignty over the Svalbard archipelago (Spitsbergen). The position reports to the Norwegian Ministry of Justice, but it maint ...

demanded that Pomor historical objects kept in the museum be handed over for preservation in

Longyearbyen Longyearbyen (, locally �lɔ̀ŋjɑrˌbyːən "The Longyear Town") is the world's northernmost settlement with a population greater than 1,000 and the largest inhabited area of Svalbard, Norway. It stretches along the foot of the left bank ...

. This was done citing the

Svalbard Environmental Protection Act Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group range ...

, because the

Svalbard Treaty The Svalbard Treaty (originally the Spitsbergen Treaty) recognises the sovereignty of Norway over the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, at the time called Spitsbergen. The exercise of sovereignty is, however, subject to certain stipulations, and n ...

of 1920 – while granting full economic access to signatory states – does not provide suzerainty in questions of cultural heritage. The Russia-owned Arktikugol refused, due to both a reluctance to accept Norwegian sovereignty over its Arctic holdings and the fact that the artefacts provide historical legitimacy to Russian involvement on Svalbard. Norway eventually let go of the demand.

References

{{authority control 1963 establishments in Norway Barentsburg Ethnic museums History museums in Norway Industry museums in Norway Local museums in Norway Museums established in 1963 Museums in Svalbard Natural history museums in Norway Pomors Russian diaspora in Norway

See also

References