Пожидаева, О. В. The image of Russia and the Kola North in some Scandinavian and Finnish writers / О. В. Пожидаева // Диалог через границы: границеведение в перспективе идей М. М. Бахтина / М-во образования и науки Рос. Федерации, Мурм. гос. гуманитар. ун-т, Ун-т Нурланда (Норвегия). - Мурманск, 2013.

contemplation of death made the character of the White Sea fisherman tough. Agriculture makes national character softer. The tradition of dialogue, leading to misunderstanding a different culture is preserved in the works of modern journalism, provided by the essay genre. For example, this tradition is reflected in the book of a Finnish writer A.-L. Lauren “They have something with the head, these Russians” (2008). The image of Russia acquires a different meaning in literature. Two main trends can be identified. 1. Russia is a large space that is not always prudently managed by the people living there. Russia is a country with a totalitarian system of government that shapes the man into a being incapable of civilized behavior. Such an image is imprinted in the novel “Girl Playing with Fire” (2006) by the famous Swedish writer Stieg Larsson. The father of the heroine Lisbeth Salander Zala (Alexander Zalachenko) is a former Russian spy who is one of the organizers of sexual slavery market in Sweden. The topic of sex slaves from Russia is presented in the novel of a Norwegian writer H. Wassmo “A glass of milk, please" (2006). In the view of one of the characters of the novel of Norwegian writer J. Gorder “Acrobat’s daughter" (2006), Russia’s image is closely associated with the image of Stalin and the Communist Party. The novel of another Norwegian writer H. Flegstad “Pyramid” (2007) tells a story of a mining village Pyramid on the island of Spitsbergen, which was a sad monument to the Soviet economy and totalitarian rule in Russia. 2. The second trend is the search for universal values, non-national, ahistorical, which unite people from Scandinavia, Finland and Russia. This trend can be seen in the novels of Vera Henriksen “Royal Mirror”, Roy Jacobsen “Angel of the Winter War” (2005), H. Wassmo “Dina’s Book» and “A glass of milk, please”, P. Pettersen “In Siberia” (1996), J. Gorder “World of Sophia” (2000), etc. Itshould be notedthat inthese worksthe indication ofaspecificgeographical area and national identity is conditional. For example, the scene of the novel of the Finnish writer Katri Lipsom “Cosmonaut” (2008) is laid in Murmansk, which the writer, by her own admission, has never visited. The protagonist of the novel of a Swedish writer Lotta Lutass “ The third cosmic speed” (2004) is Yuri Gagarin. But the author does not explore the identity of Gagarin, but the spiritual world of man facing eternity. Siberia is the conventional space of dreams of the main character in the novel of Pettersen. National and historical Images in these works are often included by the author into a system of eternal, archetypal images. Thus, the mining town Pyramid on the island of Spitsbergen is identified with the Egyptian pyramids - the symbol of the empire of the Pharaohs. The images of water and wind are combined with the writer’s thoughts on politics, economy, their destructive and creative force. The description of the fate of the young female character of H. Wassmo's novel “A glass of milk, please” is accompanied both by the iconic