Barentsburg: A Russian Village in Norway

Russian flags fly in Barentsburg on Spitsbergen – a Russian company is allowed to mine coal here. The consequences of the sanctions are felt in the village, and few want to talk about the war in Ukraine.

No tree grows north of the Arctic Circle on Svalbard. Anyone leaving Barentsburg must carry a gun – because of the polar bears. And since the EU sanctions took effect, the Russians can no longer shop here with their credit cards. You can’t pay cash anywhere on Svalbard.

The payment works for many here only with the internal Barentsburger cards. Everyone who works here at Trust Artktikugol, the Russian state-owned company that operates the local coal mine and all other facilities, gets it.

But the supply is faltering. There is no road to Barentsburg – the only way is by water. Norway had held back a ship carrying Russian containers since April 29. It finally arrived in Barentsburg on the evening of July 18th.

The mine is slowly drying up

Arktikugol – in English: arctic coal – has been mining coal here since 1931, when the mine was bought from the Dutch. According to the Spitsbergen Treaty, Russia is allowed to exploit mineral resources on the Norwegian archipelago. But the mine is slowly drying up.

A quarter of the annual output of 120,000 tons goes directly through the chimneys in Barentsburg – heat for the year-round heating systems in the large prefabricated buildings. Almost 300 people currently live there. There have never been so few, says an Artikugol employee. They come from the Ukraine, from Russia, from Tajikistan or from Syria.

Ukrainians who did not agree with the war have disappeared. That’s what Timofej Rogozhin, the former tourism manager in Barentsburg, tells. He now lives in Longyarbyen, the capital of Spitsbergen. “I’ve written a lot about mistakes in tourism, mistakes in the Arctic and a lack of freedom of expression on social media,” says Rogozhin. Until 2020 no one cared about it. After that there were complaints. In 2021 he resigned.

High earnings and a safe home

Rogozhin says many of his colleagues have done the same. The Ukrainians who still live here often come from the Donbass or from the Luhansk region. They can earn more here, have a secure job and, above all, a secure home.

Many have reportedly been offered Russian passports so they can live here comfortably as either Ukrainians or Russians. They have found work in the coal mine, in the kindergarten, at school or in the tourist office.

Nobody here talks about the war, which in Russia can only be described as a “military special operation”. It is said that everyone would see who was speaking to journalists.

The feeling of injustice

Two employees at the tourism office complain harshly about foreign journalists who have done research in Barentsburg: They say they lied in their reports – but do not become specific when asked.

In addition, the other tourism providers on Svalbard would boycott them, say the tourism office employees. That is wrong, because here in the north we have to stick together. Nobody here on Spitsbergen cares about the Ukraine, it’s just about eliminating them as competitors, as one of the two says very clearly.

In fact, tourism has suffered here. Many Russians used to come here. Then came the pandemic and the Russian vaccine Sputnik was not recognized in Norway for a long time. After the Russian attack on Ukraine, the airspace was closed to Russian aircraft.

Russian tourists have simply not been able to come to Barentsburg for a long time. Tourists from other countries still find their way here. But there are few. In the only hotel, the “Barentsburg”, only ten of the 43 rooms are occupied. Some come as day trippers by boat from Longyearbyen.

“As if everything were going in circles”

Barentsburg’s residents are mostly friendly but withdrawn. But not all. Syrian doctor Abdulkader al Said proudly shows off the hospital where he works. He has only a few injuries to treat here, sometimes a drunk. He doesn’t see the problem in Barentsburg in the sanctions, but in the fact that the place is so small: “In this city it’s as if everything is going in circles. When you go out, you always see the same faces,” he says . “It’s like a castle, a circle you can’t leave.”

A lot of young people seem to feel differently. They stay for a year or two, work as waiters or take tourists on tours – and earn good money in the process. You can meet individuals at the hotel reception during the day, during the tourist tour in between, and at the cultural center in the evening. They rave about nature here, about the possibilities.

But they don’t talk about the war in distant Ukraine either. The mine director who was asked is silent, as is the Russian consul. Both have to accept that foreign journalists can come and work without accreditation, after all they are in Norway.

But anyone who works as a journalist in Barentsburg must expect to be constantly observed. Whether in the grocery store, at the husky farm or in the hospital: Everywhere someone declares that everything is fine in the microcosm of Barentsburg: a very special place on the edge of civilization where Russia has to adapt to certain rules.