Kirkenes

The headland of Kirkenes lay in the Varanger border country, within an area long shared between Norwegian and Russian claims. Its earlier name was Piselvnes. The landscape around it formed part of the homeland of Skolt Sámi communities whose siidas organised use of land and resources across what would become the international frontier. In 1826, Norway and Russia agreed on a boundary dividing the remaining common district. The agreement had substantial consequences for the Skolt Sámi inhabitants, bringing a fixed state border into a region whose social and territorial organisation followed other relationships. The headland thus became a place on Norway's eastern frontier. During the early nineteenth century the decisive change was the partition of the surrounding borderland.