Norway and Latvia, from distance to close friendship and cooperation

On Thursday, November 21, 2024, our Museum welcomed Norwegian author, jurist and lecturer Hege Boman Grundekjøn, who presented a lecture on the history of Norwegian-Latvian relations.

As a student in the late 1970s, Ms. Grundekjøn took an interest in the Soviet Union's harsh grip on Poland, the Baltics and other countries. In the 1980s, she came to know Latvians in exile in Oslo. Their stories about the escape to the West during the Second World War and the fate of their homeland made a strong impression. Since the restoration of Latvian independence in 1991, she has published books and articles, facilitated interpersonal, diplomatic, commercial and cultural relations between Norway and Latvia. In 1992, her husband Arvid Grundekjøn was appointed as honorary consul general for Latvia to Norway.

The lecture reviewed Norwegian-Baltic relations from 1905 to the present, including observations on Norwegian attitudes towards these countries' struggles for independence. In July of this year, her 2017 book on Norwegian-Baltic relations was translated into Latvian and published by Latvijas Mediji with the title Norvēģija un Baltija kultūras un vēstures dialogā.