Aksel Jacobsen Bogdanoff

Aksel Jacobsen Bogdanoff (November 22, 1922 – June 1, 1971) was a Norwegian who fought as Soviet-controlled partisan in eastern Finnmark in World War II    and, in 1953, he was one of two brothers who encountered and shot the last polar bear seen in Finnmark, at Lille Ekkerøy.

Part of the last generation to live on Lille Ekkerøy
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Partisan service
After training as a radio operator in the Soviet Union, Bogdanoff, in April 1944, parachuted alone onto Kvaløya island and set up a radio bearing on the Torskefjord height between large stones. In connection with the Porsa action, he was captured and tortured by a German search party on 9 June 1944. He revealed nothing but he is supposed to have made some deal which the Germans honoured, resulting in his survival.

Polar bear
In 1953, when Aksel and Ingvald Bogdanoff were out inspecting their salmon nets in the Lille Ekkeroy area, they encountered a polar bear which is believed to have come on an ice-floe from Svalbard. They shot and killed the bear. This is the last time that a polar bear was seen in Finnmark.