Pasvikdalen () is a valley in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

and

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. The Norwegian side of the valley belongs to

Sør-Varanger Municipality Sør-Varanger (; ; ) is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Finnmark Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Kirkenes. Other settlements in the municipality include the vill ...

Finnmark Finnmark (; ; ; ; ) is a counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. By land, it borders Troms county to the west, Finland's Lapland (Finland), Lapland region to the south, and Russia's Murmansk Oblast to the east, and by water, the Norweg ...

county and the Russian side is located in the

Pechengsky District Pechengsky District (; ; ; ; ) is an administrative district (raion), one of the six in Murmansk Oblast, Russia.Law #96-01-ZMO As a municipal division, it is incorporated as Pechengsky Municipal District.Law #539-01-ZMO It is located in the north ...

Murmansk Oblast Murmansk Oblast is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (an oblast) of Russia, located in the northwestern part of the country, with a total land area of . Its only internal border is the Republic of Karelia to the south, and it is bor ...

. The valley contains large areas of pine forests, and more than ) of the valley is included inside the

Øvre Pasvik National Park Øvre Pasvik National Park (, , ) is located in the southeastern part of the Pasvikdalen valley in southern Sør-Varanger Municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. Covering an area of , the national park is dominated by Siberian-like taiga consis ...

in Norway (in the southern part of the valley). The

Øvre Pasvik Landscape Protection Area Øvre Pasvik Landscape Protection Area (), is located in the Pasvikdalen valley in Sør-Varanger Municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The landscape protection area was established in 2003, and covers an area of . At the same time the adjacent ...

is also located in the valley, outside of the park. Russia-Norway-Finland border

The valley was traditionally inhabited by

Sami people Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ...

. The river

Pasvikelva The Paatsjoki River (, , , , , , ''Paz or Patsoyoki'') is a river that flows through Finland, Norway, and Russia. Since 1826, the river has marked parts of the Norway–Russia border, except from 1920 to 1944 when it was along the Finland–N ...

runs through the valley (giving it the name) and the river defines part of the

Norway–Russia border The border between Norway and Russia consists of a land border between Sør-Varanger Municipality, Norway, and Pechengsky District, Russia, and a marine border in the Varangerfjord. It further consists of a border between the two countrie ...

. The southern part of the valley is also the location of the

Treriksrøysa Treriksrøysa () is a cairn which marks the tripoint where the borders between Norway, Finland, and Russia meet. The site is on a hill called Muotkavaara, in the Pasvikdalen valley, west of the Pasvikelva river and southwest of Nyrud just we ...

, the point where the borders of Norway, Finland, and Russia meet.

History

The middle of the 1930s on the Norwegian side of the valley, was "a time with homesteading and colonization of the valley, as part of a political desire to mark Norwegian sovereignty in the area. To make the valley attractive as a tourist destination, an observation tower was erected at the highest point of the area, 96 meters above sea level. At the top of the tower n "hill 96"">hill_96.html" ;"title="n "hill 96">n "hill 96" there was a restaurant run by ["Sør-Varanger tourist association"] ''Sør-Varanger turistforening''".

1968 border incident

In the early hours of 7 June 1968, the three soldiers who were at the (Norwegian) border observation tower at ["hill 96"] ''96-høyden'' outside Svanvik (Norway) ( no), observed that 14 Soviet tanks simultaneously were pointing their barrels at Norwegian border observation posts when some of the tanks opened fire—apparently with blanks; the staging of tanks near the border was against Soviet—Norwegian treaties, because no advance notification has occurred; along the Soviet-Norwegian border the Soviets mobilized one infantry division supported by paratroopers and warplanes, including 70

T-54 The T-54 and T-55 tanks are a series of Soviet medium tanks introduced in the years following the Second World War. The first T-54 prototype was completed at Nizhny Tagil by the end of 1945.Steven Zaloga, T-54 and T-55 Main Battle Tanks 1944–2 ...

tanks and 400 other vehicles with sights pointed at Norwegian targets.

References

{{reflist Valleys of Finnmark Sør-Varanger Pechengsky District Landforms of Murmansk Oblast Valleys of Russia Norway–Russia border