As I am carried along by "Occupied" the Norwegian dystopia on Netflix, I have the same recurring thought: "How could I have been so ignorant?"
Consulting Professor Google for background I read about Finland. Finland, which shares a long border with Russia, was, during the cold war, so intimidated by the colossus on its border that no Finnish cabinet could form without Russia's approval, and dissidents who escaped Russia were promptly returned to their fate back in the motherland. This gave rise to the word "Finlandization" which meant the reduction of a supposedly free state to a puppet state by the Russians.
Apparently, while the Norwegians have looked at their own past, with respect to the individual choices made during the Nazi occupation, Finland has not.
In Norway, when I visited 30 odd years ago, few people spoke English, but if you tried to speak German, you got dirty looks. They don't forget, apparently.
The word "Quizling" actually derives from the Norwegian puppet who delivered control of Norway to the Nazis. Collaboration meant that Jews trying to escape Germany were delivered back to the maw of the Nazi holocaust machine.
Watching "Bordertown" the Finnish nordic noir, one gets the feel for the relationship between Russia and Finland, but in some ways, "Occupied" feels more revealing.
A review in Politico by James Kirchick, from early in 2016 remarks on how upset Russia has been by "Occupied" and a statement from the Russian embassy in Oslo trots out the three cardinal features of Russian mindset:
1/ Russia is the victim of character assassination in the West
2/ Russia won the big war against Hitler and without this heroic effort Western Europe would still be under the rule of the Third Reich
3/ Russia is a pussycat and no threat to its neighbors.
All this, and nobody mentions Ukraine or Crimea. Not that I really know anything about Ukraine or Crimea, but I do read there are Russian troops in both places now, and Mr. Putin claims Ukraine really isn't a country, just a part of Russia with pretensions.
For his part, the Norwegian Prime Minister, who spends most of his time looking like he was written by Ethan and Joel Coen, one of those Minnesota types who is always breaking into a sweat and unable to finish his sentences and says, "Well, but, no..." a lot, squirms from one bad position to another. He explodes at his adoring assistant for wearing high heel shoes which make too much noise, so he is unable to concentrate. When he wakes up in bed with her, after a drunken celebratory party, he asks her for aspirin and barely seems to know where he is, but he gets on Skype to talk to his wife who is in Paris.
It is Scandinavia, after all, and there's a lot of extra marital sleeping around.
Another interesting character is the owner of a restaurant, fallen on hard times until the Russians discover it and take it over, keeping her bank accounts solvent. She eventually starts sleeping with the Russian overseer, but she has second thoughts about that when the Russians, some Russians, decide to kill her husband, who is a journalist digging into a false flag explosion at a Norwegian gas plant, which provides an excuse for the Russians to extend their "assistance" at the Norwegian power stations.
This whole narrative is a little difficult to follow, of course. One of the reasons Europe is behind the Russians in their take over of Norway is that oil from the Middle East has ceased flowing owing to civil wars there. But you would think Russia would be overjoyed at that development, being a major oil producer and one of their big competitors has just been eliminated. You'd think they'd be only too happy if Norway took itself out of competition as well. Oh, well, not everything can be explained. It's television, after all.
But the best thing about "Occupied" is the wonderful character of the Russian Ambassador, a ice cold blonde, with her hair severely pulled back, who begins every scene by protesting how she is only trying to maintain peace between Russia and Norway and she is forever put in the position of having to defend Russia from the irascible and dangerous Norwegians. She seems blithely unaware that the presence of Russian troops on the Norwegian oil rigs and gas fields and the tendency of the Russian "security" forces to cordon off streets in Oslo might be found somewhat provocative by the average Norwegian.
When Russians in black body armor storm the Norwegian prime minister's office, she begins with the Russia is a pussycat trope--we have no idea who these men are; they have nothing do to with the Russian government, and then she slides to the "we can't control terrorists" and to the "we do not negotiate with terrorists" and then slides to the "you are impugning our reputation and assassinating our character." But she also finds the demands of these mysterious men in black reasonable, "They were clearly provoked because the prime minister started rounding up innocent Russians in Norway and deporting them." When the terrorists are shot dead in a surgical SWAT team operation, she is outraged because "You have shot Russian citizens!" So the men she previously disavowed are now her victimized countrymen.
What you can see from this series is how vulnerable small European, particularly Scandinavian states, feel living next door to this brute, Mother Russia.
Now I understand why NATO seems so important to its members, outside of Donald Trump.
Of course, what Trump says feeds into what people on both sides of the Atlantic have always said in private--The Europeans doubt we'd actually risk our necks to defend them against Russia and Americans say we have no business propping up these slackers who haven't spent on their own defense and expect us to continue giving the Europeans a free ride.
Well, well, well, this is all very interesting.
Who knew?
I did not even know Norway shares a border with Russia. Sweden does not, but Norway does. I have a globe and I just consulted it.
I have lots more to learn about Scandinavia. Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark.
Each has a story to tell and they are living right next door to Mr. Putin and his pugnacious country, which saved us all from Hitler, is not a threat to anyone and which suffers the slings and arrows from the West, which is always trying to belittle, demean and insult Mother Russia for no good reason other than innate perversity.
Consulting Professor Google for background I read about Finland. Finland, which shares a long border with Russia, was, during the cold war, so intimidated by the colossus on its border that no Finnish cabinet could form without Russia's approval, and dissidents who escaped Russia were promptly returned to their fate back in the motherland. This gave rise to the word "Finlandization" which meant the reduction of a supposedly free state to a puppet state by the Russians.
Apparently, while the Norwegians have looked at their own past, with respect to the individual choices made during the Nazi occupation, Finland has not.
In Norway, when I visited 30 odd years ago, few people spoke English, but if you tried to speak German, you got dirty looks. They don't forget, apparently.
The word "Quizling" actually derives from the Norwegian puppet who delivered control of Norway to the Nazis. Collaboration meant that Jews trying to escape Germany were delivered back to the maw of the Nazi holocaust machine.
 |
| Quisling |
Watching "Bordertown" the Finnish nordic noir, one gets the feel for the relationship between Russia and Finland, but in some ways, "Occupied" feels more revealing.
A review in Politico by James Kirchick, from early in 2016 remarks on how upset Russia has been by "Occupied" and a statement from the Russian embassy in Oslo trots out the three cardinal features of Russian mindset:
1/ Russia is the victim of character assassination in the West
2/ Russia won the big war against Hitler and without this heroic effort Western Europe would still be under the rule of the Third Reich
3/ Russia is a pussycat and no threat to its neighbors.
All this, and nobody mentions Ukraine or Crimea. Not that I really know anything about Ukraine or Crimea, but I do read there are Russian troops in both places now, and Mr. Putin claims Ukraine really isn't a country, just a part of Russia with pretensions.
For his part, the Norwegian Prime Minister, who spends most of his time looking like he was written by Ethan and Joel Coen, one of those Minnesota types who is always breaking into a sweat and unable to finish his sentences and says, "Well, but, no..." a lot, squirms from one bad position to another. He explodes at his adoring assistant for wearing high heel shoes which make too much noise, so he is unable to concentrate. When he wakes up in bed with her, after a drunken celebratory party, he asks her for aspirin and barely seems to know where he is, but he gets on Skype to talk to his wife who is in Paris.
It is Scandinavia, after all, and there's a lot of extra marital sleeping around.
Another interesting character is the owner of a restaurant, fallen on hard times until the Russians discover it and take it over, keeping her bank accounts solvent. She eventually starts sleeping with the Russian overseer, but she has second thoughts about that when the Russians, some Russians, decide to kill her husband, who is a journalist digging into a false flag explosion at a Norwegian gas plant, which provides an excuse for the Russians to extend their "assistance" at the Norwegian power stations.
This whole narrative is a little difficult to follow, of course. One of the reasons Europe is behind the Russians in their take over of Norway is that oil from the Middle East has ceased flowing owing to civil wars there. But you would think Russia would be overjoyed at that development, being a major oil producer and one of their big competitors has just been eliminated. You'd think they'd be only too happy if Norway took itself out of competition as well. Oh, well, not everything can be explained. It's television, after all.
 |
| The Beast You Can't Ignore |
When Russians in black body armor storm the Norwegian prime minister's office, she begins with the Russia is a pussycat trope--we have no idea who these men are; they have nothing do to with the Russian government, and then she slides to the "we can't control terrorists" and to the "we do not negotiate with terrorists" and then slides to the "you are impugning our reputation and assassinating our character." But she also finds the demands of these mysterious men in black reasonable, "They were clearly provoked because the prime minister started rounding up innocent Russians in Norway and deporting them." When the terrorists are shot dead in a surgical SWAT team operation, she is outraged because "You have shot Russian citizens!" So the men she previously disavowed are now her victimized countrymen.
What you can see from this series is how vulnerable small European, particularly Scandinavian states, feel living next door to this brute, Mother Russia.
Now I understand why NATO seems so important to its members, outside of Donald Trump.
Of course, what Trump says feeds into what people on both sides of the Atlantic have always said in private--The Europeans doubt we'd actually risk our necks to defend them against Russia and Americans say we have no business propping up these slackers who haven't spent on their own defense and expect us to continue giving the Europeans a free ride.
Well, well, well, this is all very interesting.
Who knew?
I did not even know Norway shares a border with Russia. Sweden does not, but Norway does. I have a globe and I just consulted it.
I have lots more to learn about Scandinavia. Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark.
Each has a story to tell and they are living right next door to Mr. Putin and his pugnacious country, which saved us all from Hitler, is not a threat to anyone and which suffers the slings and arrows from the West, which is always trying to belittle, demean and insult Mother Russia for no good reason other than innate perversity.
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