Bridging Divides

The Sámi are a Northern indigenous people whose land, Sápmi, spreads over the territories of four states: Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Russia. For the Sámi of the Nordic countries, the last decades of the 20th century were a renaissance of sorts: their indigenous rights were partially recognized, they experienced a cultural and linguistic revival and Sámi parliaments were established. The Soviet Sámi, on the other hand, had little opportunity to develop independent ethno-political organizations and were isolated from their ethnic kin across the closed border. This book tells the story of what happened in the two decades that followed: the Russian Sámi attempted a linguistic revival, sought to mend the Cold War scars across Sápmi, and established their own independent ethno-political organizations.