Aksel Larsen (5 August 1897 – 10 January 1972) was a Danish
politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...
who was
chairman
The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...
of the
Communist Party of Denmark
The Communist Party of Denmark ( da, Danmarks Kommunistiske Parti, DKP) is a communist party in Denmark. The DKP was founded on 9 November 1919 as the Left-Socialist Party of Denmark (, VSP), through a merger of the Socialist Youth League and ...
(DKP) and chairman and founder of the
Socialist People's Party. He is remembered today for his long service in the Communist Party of Denmark, for his time as a concentration camp inmate at
Sachsenhausen
Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners ...
, and for being the founder of the Socialist People's Party.
Larsen became
leader
Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets vi ...
of the Communist Party in 1932, and was elected to
Folketing
The Folketing ( da, Folketinget, ; ), also known as the Parliament of Denmark or the Danish Parliament in English, is the unicameral national legislature (parliament) of the Kingdom of Denmark—Denmark proper together with the Faroe Islands ...
et (the lower chamber of Danish parliament
Rigsdagen
Rigsdagen () was the name of the national legislature of Denmark from 1849 to 1953.
''Rigsdagen'' was Denmark's first parliament, and it was incorporated in the Constitution of 1849. It was a bicameral legislature, consisting of two houses, the ...
) in 1932. Together with other Danish communists, Larsen had to go into hiding in 1941 when the
Danish police
The Police of Denmark ( da, Politiet, fo, Løgreglan, kl, Politiit) is the Danish National Police force, and the interior part of the Danish security forces (the Danish military being the exterior) in the Kingdom ( The Danish Realm: Denma ...
began arresting all party members. After the liberation of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Larsen became a minister in the
liberation cabinet and subsequently led his party to its best-ever result in the
1945 election, in which it took an eighth of all the votes. The election, however, resulted in a
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
government, and Larsen's party was mostly shunned by the other party leaders.
After the
Hungarian Revolution of 1956
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...
, Larsen condemned the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
's action. This led him into conflict with the members of the party leadership who had a greater loyalty to
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
; a conflict that ended with his expulsion in November 1958. Larsen's reaction was to establish the Socialist People's Party (''Socialistisk Folkeparti'', abbreviated ''SF''), which, thanks to Larsen's personal popularity, entered parliament at the
1960 election at the expense of the Communists, who from then on played only a very peripheral role in Danish politics.
Larsen himself, who was, especially in later years highly respected among politicians, even if his party was seen as somewhat irresponsible, remained the leader of the Socialists until 1968 when he handed this over to
Sigurd Ømann. He remained an MP until his death in 1972.
In 2005, the
Danish Institute for International Studies
The Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) is a public institute for independent research and analysis of international affairs, financed primarily by the Danish state. DIIS conducts and communicates multidisciplinary research on global ...
concluded that Larsen held a secret working relationship between 1958 and 1964 with one of Denmark's allied partners in the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
, stating that "Larsen... obviously was an agent of a Western intelligence service."
Early life
Aksel Larsen was born as the fourth child of a
clog
Clogs are a type of footwear made in part or completely from wood. Used in many parts of the world, their forms can vary by culture, but often remained unchanged for centuries within a culture.
Traditional clogs remain in use as protective f ...
maker in
Brændekilde (now part of
Odense Municipality) in 1897. Since his family was poor and had six children to support it was only due to several scholarships that he got a
lower secondary school
A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school ...
exam. When he had finished school he was hired as an apprentice at the railway company
Sydfyenske Jernbaner, which also hired him as a railway worker in 1917 when he had finished his apprenticeship.
However, Larsen wanted to go to larger city so in 1918 he moved to
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
.
Early political career
Time as a Social Democrat
When he arrived in Copenhagen, he moved into an attic and got a job as a
bicycle
A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-powered assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist.
Bic ...
delivery man. He joined the
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
For ...
, the party his parents had been members of for many years, and the Delivery Men's Union where he became shop steward. Through his political and union work he learned about
syndicalism
Syndicalism is a Revolutionary politics, revolutionary current within the Left-wing politics, left-wing of the Labour movement, labor movement that seeks to unionize workers Industrial unionism, according to industry and advance their demands t ...
and the growing opposition to the Social Democratic Party in the
labour movement
The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement (British English) or labor union movement (American English) on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other.
* The trade union movement ...
.
His views grew more radical and he took part in violent riots on the vegetable market in 1918. The
Easter Crisis of 1920
The Easter Crisis ( da, Påskekrisen) was a constitutional crisis in Denmark around Easter in 1920. It was a significant event in the development of constitutional monarchy in Denmark. It began with the dismissal of the elected government by the re ...
when king
Christian X
Christian X ( da, Christian Carl Frederik Albert Alexander Vilhelm; 26 September 1870 – 20 April 1947) was King of Denmark from 1912 to his death in 1947, and the only King of Iceland as Kristján X, in the form of a personal union rather ...
dismissed the cabinet of
Carl Theodor Zahle
Carl Theodor Zahle (19 January 1866 in Roskilde – 3 February 1946 in Copenhagen), was a Danish lawyer and politician who served as Prims Minister of Denmark from 1909 to 1910 and again from 1913 to 1920. In 1895, he was elected as a member of t ...
became a turning point for Larsen. During the crisis, Larsen spoke in public on
City Hall Square in Copenhagen. While parts of the Social Democratic Party supported the abolition of the
Danish monarchy
The monarchy of Denmark is a constitutional institution and a historic office of the Kingdom of Denmark. The Kingdom includes Denmark proper and the autonomous territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland. The Kingdom of Denmark was al ...
, the social democrats and the
Danish Confederation of Trade Unions
LO, The Danish Confederation of Trade Unions (Danish: ''LO, Landsorganisationen i Danmark'' or simply ''LO'') was founded in 1898 and was an umbrella organisation (the largest of the three national trade union centers in Denmark) for 18 Danish tra ...
accepted a compromise and the crisis was called off. This compromise disappointed Larsen, and the following month he left the Social Democratic Party and joined the newly formed
Left Socialist Party.
He campaigned for the Left Socialist Party as a public speaker in the
September 1920 election, but the election result of only 0.4% of the vote was a disappointment to Larsen.
The early years as a communist
As Larsen had been enthusiastic about the
revolutions in Russia in 1917 and
Germany in 1918, he supported the decision of the Left Socialist Party to join the
Comintern
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...
in November 1920 and the decision to rename the party “
The Communist Party of Denmark – Section of the Communist Internationale” (abbreviated DKP). He gained a reputation for being a good agitator and organiser and rose in party ranks. He became chairman of the inner city branch of the Copenhagen part of the party, and member of the party leadership for
Greater Copenhagen
The urban area of Copenhagen (also known as Greater Copenhagen) ( da, Storkøbenhavn or ), lying mostly in the Capital Region of Denmark but also in Region Zealand, consist of Copenhagen and Frederiksberg municipalities and the former Copenhagen ...
.
In 1922 the party split in two due to internal faction struggles. Larsen was party secretary of one of the two parties, the so-called “
Blågårdsgade party”. However, he left the party leadership when the two parties merged back together in 1923. During the
1924 election, his campaigning made him so well known that he got a secret offer to go back to the Social Democrats. He refused the offer and continued to campaign for the communists, who suffered a defeat in the election.
The International Lenin School
When the Communist Party of Denmark got an offer from the Comintern in 1925 to send a party member to
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
to attend the new Lenin courses, Larsen was chosen to go. The courses were created to educate loyal leaders to the international branches of the Comintern and was planned to last for eight months. The courses were in German, English, Russian or French so the student the party was to send to Moscow had to have good language skills. His secondary education gave Larsen a head start, and in September 1925 he left Denmark for Moscow.
In Moscow Larsen was enrolled at the West University for students from the
Baltics
The Baltic states, et, Balti riigid or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term, which currently is used to group three countries: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, ...
,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
, and
Belarus
Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
. After six months in Moscow, he was transferred to the
International Lenin School
The International Lenin School (ILS) was an official training school operated in Moscow, Soviet Union, by the Communist International from May 1926 to 1938. It was resumed after the Second World War and run by the Communist Party of the Soviet Unio ...
, where the courses had been expanded to last for two years.
During that time,
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
’s purges of
Leon Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...
and the left opposition in the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
"Hymn of the Bolshevik Party"
, headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow
, general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last)
, founded =
, banned =
, founder = Vladimir Lenin
, newspaper ...
(CPSU) were at their height. Larsen became a member of the CPSU and sided with the
opposition to Stalin. Larsen was prompted for a repudiation of his previous views after Stalin’s victory at the
1927 party congress and the subsequent banishment of Trotsky to
Alma Ata
Almaty (; kk, Алматы; ), formerly known as Alma-Ata ( kk, Алма-Ата), is the List of most populous cities in Kazakhstan, largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of about 2 million. It was the capital of Kazakhstan from 1929 to ...
, but it was only after severe pressure that he complied. However, the repudiation did not prevent Larsen from being expelled from the International Lenin School in April 1928 and banished to
Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət ), colloquially shortened to Nizhny, from the 13th to the 17th century Novgorod of the Lower Land, formerly known as Gork ...
.
However, the Communist Party of Denmark requested that Larsen be allowed to return to Denmark, and on 1 February 1929 Larsen left the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
.
Back in Denmark
Aksel Larsen had become unpopular both in the Communist Party of Denmark and in Moscow due to his opposition to Stalin. In spite of that and in spite of the Comintern’s recommendations that Larsen should not be allowed to hold any office for the time being, Larsen was elected party secretary for Copenhagen because of a lack of talented people in the party.
The party was torn by internal struggles, and the
1929 election was a historic defeat for the communists. They only received 3,656 votes equal to 0.2% of the total votes. The internal disagreements were only worsened by the Comintern’s decision in the start of 1930 to send a German representative of its
Executive Committee
A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...
to Denmark to reconcile the factions of the party. The Comintern demanded that the Danish party were to follow the militant
ultra-left
The term ultra-leftism, when used among Marxist groups, is a pejorative for certain types of positions on the Far-left politics, far-left that are extreme or uncompromising. Another definition historically refers to a particular current of Marxi ...
line decided at the
sixth Comintern congress
Sixth is the ordinal form of the number six.
* The Sixth Amendment, to the U.S. Constitution
* A keg of beer, equal to 5 U.S. gallons or barrel
* The fraction
Music
* Sixth interval (music)s:
** major sixth, a musical interval
** minor si ...
and a crackdown on the “danger from the right”.
The two main combatants of the internal struggle were Aksel Larsen and
Thøger Thøgersen (
da), but Larsen gained superiority by leading and organising the rapidly growing movement of the
unemployed
Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the referen ...
. In March 1930 Larsen was elected chairman of the
National Committee of the Unemployed by more than 100,000 unemployed who had gathered in Copenhagen. He became famous for giving a speech in October that year from a
row boat
Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically atta ...
in the canals around the
seat of parliament while evading the police's attempts to arrest him.
The movement of the unemployed was the greatest mass movement in the party's history. Party membership increased as did circulation of the party newspaper. In the
1932 election, the communists got 1.1% of the vote and Aksel Larsen and
Arne Munch-Petersen
Arne may refer to:
Places
* Arne, Dorset, England, a village
** Arne RSPB reserve, a nature reserve adjacent to the village
* Arné, Hautes-Pyrénées, Midi-Pyrénées, France
* Arne (Boeotia), an ancient city in Boeotia, Greece
* Arne (Thessa ...
(
da) became the first two communist
members of parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
. Although the Comintern still mistrusted Larsen for his
Trotskyist
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...
past, the success of the movement of the unemployed and the electoral success prevented them from blocking the election of Larsen as party chairman at the 1932 party congress.
Chairman of the Communist Party
Opposition to Moscow
Larsen had an ability to translate the strange and alien paroles of the
Comintern
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...
to Danish conditions, and his
orator
An orator, or oratist, is a public speaker, especially one who is eloquent or skilled.
Etymology
Recorded in English c. 1374, with a meaning of "one who pleads or argues for a cause", from Anglo-French ''oratour'', Old French ''orateur'' (14th ...
ical skills contributed greatly to the successes in organising the unemployed and gaining seats in parliament. In parliament, he became known as a great orator. He did not keep to translating the Comintern policies but also modified them. The ultra-left line was softened, and contrary to the directions from Moscow he warned his party members of seeing the Social Democrats as the main enemy.
Larsen wanted to develop a Danish variant of communism and these sentiments grew after the
seventh Comintern congress had adopted the
popular front
A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for the defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault".
More generally, it is "a coalition ...
strategy aiming for a close cooperation with the Social Democrats. While he did not want to make the Social Democrats the main enemy, their unsympathetic views towards the communists made Larsen doubt that cooperation was possible. Instead, Larsen was in favour of developing a popular front with the
Social Liberal Party. With the exception of Arne Munch-Petersen, who had become the Danish representative of the Executive Committee of Comintern after losing his seat in parliament in 1935, the party leadership supported this course.
The Comintern grew worried about the Danish party and the
Trotskyist
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...
past of its chairman, and as more and more disagreements arose, correspondence between Larsen and Moscow grew increasingly harsh. The Comintern lost its patience with Larsen and called him to Moscow for negotiations after he had published two articles against increased
military spending
A military budget (or military expenditure), also known as a defense budget, is the amount of financial resources dedicated by a state to raising and maintaining an armed forces or other methods essential for defense purposes.
Financing milit ...
. Not only had Larsen published the articles without clearing them with Moscow; he had also expressed views in contradiction to Soviet interests. Because of its position, Denmark is the gate to the
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain.
The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...
, and a strong Danish defense would prevent
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
for using Denmark as a
bridgehead
In military strategy, a bridgehead (or bridge-head) is the strategically important area of ground around the end of a bridge or other place of possible crossing over a body of water which at time of conflict is sought to be defended or taken over ...
for an attack on the Soviet Union.
Surviving Stalin’s purges
Although Larsen wanted more independence in developing the DKP's policies, he was not critical of the Soviet Union. At this time in his career, he was a loyal defender of
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
and the Soviet Union. Even though they affected many of his former friends from his International Lenin School stay in the 1920s, and even though he did not believe in all the accusations, he defended the
Great Purge
The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Nikolay Yezhov, Yezhov'), was General ...
and the
Moscow trials
The Moscow trials were a series of show trials held by the Soviet Union between 1936 and 1938 at the instigation of Joseph Stalin. They were nominally directed against "Trotskyists" and members of "Right Opposition" of the Communist Party of th ...
.
On 20 May 1937, Larsen arrived to a Moscow marked by fear, anti-Trotskyist propaganda and mass hysteria. Many of his old acquaintances had either disappeared or did not dare to meet him. The negotiations with the Comintern developed into a political trial against Larsen, who had still not been forgiven for his Trotskyist past. Although he defended the Danish party line he was pressured into signing a declaration that the DKP would follow the popular front strategy. He was not allowed to leave Moscow before he convinced the Comintern that he had to go home to look after his wife who was sick with
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
and to tend to his work in parliament.
His seat in parliament is likely to have saved his life. It is suggested that the
Soviet Interior Ministry had planned to arrest Larsen, but general secretary
Georgi Dimitrov
Georgi Dimitrov Mihaylov (; bg, Гео̀рги Димитро̀в Миха̀йлов), also known as Georgiy Mihaylovich Dimitrov (russian: Гео́ргий Миха́йлович Дими́тров; 18 June 1882 – 2 July 1949), was a Bulgarian ...
of the Comintern did not want to arrest a member of a foreign parliament and intervened. Arne Munch-Petersen, who had been part of the negotiations with Larsen, did not have that protection and was arrested on 26 July 1937. After three weeks of torture and interrogations, he confessed to Trotskyist activity and was imprisoned. He died of
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
in 1940 in
Butyrka prison
Butyrskaya prison ( rus, Бутырская тюрьма, r= Butýrskaya tyurmá), usually known simply as Butyrka ( rus, Бутырка, p=bʊˈtɨrkə), is a prison in the Tverskoy District of central Moscow, Russia. In Imperial Russia it ...
.
Aksel Larsen and the leadership of the Communist Party got the news about Arne Munch-Petersen's arrest in January 1938. Although they were shocked, they saw no way of helping him without seriously damaging the relationship with Moscow. Because of this, they concealed their knowledge, not only to the public but also to his wife and family.
Enacting the popular front policy
Larsen and the Communist Party complied with the orders from Moscow and began working for the popular front policy. In March 1938 following
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
’s takeover of
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
in the
Anschluss
The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938.
The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...
, Larsen held a speech in which he used a more patriotic rhetoric than before and warned that Denmark could suffer the same fate. After the speech, the communists urged the Social Democrats and the Social Liberal Party to join them in a popular front. In a letter to the Social Democratic leader and prime minister
Thorvald Stauning
Thorvald August Marinus Stauning (; 26 October 1873 in Copenhagen – 3 May 1942) was the first social democratic Prime Minister of Denmark. He served as Prime Minister from 1924 to 1926 and again from 1929 until his death in 1942.
Under Stauni ...
, Larsen promised “the most unconditional and loyal support”.
The new party line culminated on the 1938 party congress where Larsen delivered one of his most important speeches. He declared that the Communist Party was both a Danish and a democratic party and put great emphasis on his party's wishes for unity in the labour movement. The popular front policy garnered supporters outside traditional communist constituencies, and since the communists used the charismatic Larsen to personify their policies, he became increasingly popular. However, the Social Democrats refused to cooperate with the communists.
In spite of the popularity of both Larsen and the popular front, voter support for the party was small. Although the communists got 40,983 votes in the
1939 election and went from two to three seats in Folketinget, the increase was much smaller than they had hoped for, which was a great disappointment to Larsen. The communists were further disappointed by the
1939 constitutional referendum two months later, where they had campaigned in favour of the new constitution which was not passed.
World War II: Resistance movement and Sachsenhausen
The popular front policy crumbled with the signing of the
Molotov-Ribbentrop pact on 23 August 1939. Despite being confused about the pact, Larsen defended Stalin's decision. The
German invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week afte ...
on 1 September and
Stalin's invasion of Poland on 17 September and the following partition of Poland between Hitler and Stalin caused more confusion in the communist movement, as the former image of the Soviet Union as a ”bulwark against
fascism
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...
” now fell.
The situation was difficult but Larsen did his best to defend the Soviet Union. This put him under a great deal of stress and in September he asked the party secretariat and later the Comintern for permission to resign as chairman. These requests were denied, as it was feared that a change in leadership would increase strain on the party. Larsen raised the issue again when the Soviet Union laid pressure on
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
to evacuate
Karelia
Karelia ( Karelian and fi, Karjala, ; rus, Каре́лия, links=y, r=Karélija, p=kɐˈrʲelʲɪjə, historically ''Korjela''; sv, Karelen), the land of the Karelian people, is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for ...
but was turned down once more. The Soviet attack on Finland on 30 November 1939 and the
Winter War
The Winter War,, sv, Vinterkriget, rus, Зи́мняя война́, r=Zimnyaya voyna. The names Soviet–Finnish War 1939–1940 (russian: link=no, Сове́тско-финская война́ 1939–1940) and Soviet–Finland War 1 ...
created great public sympathy for Finland in the Danish public. Contrary, the communists were despised for their support of the Soviet Union, and Aksel Larsen became the target of public disdain. Shortly after the beginning of the war, the entire Folketing walked out in protest when Larsen mounted the podium.
The
peace between Finland and the Soviet Union removed some of the stress on the party, but on 9 April 1940
Denmark was occupied by Germany. Larsen was in Moscow at the time but on 22 April he managed to get back to Copenhagen with instructions for how to deal with the situation. At that time, the Communist Party of Denmark was still legal, but the Comintern, as well as Danish party leadership, was expecting that the party would soon be banned. The communists were to try to remain a legal party for as long as possible and use the time to prepare to go underground. In spite of these expectations, the Danish police took the communists by surprise when leading communists were arrested on 22 June 1941. The party as well as the communist ideology was banned two months later on 22 August when parliament passed the
Communist Law.
Larsen managed to avoid capture and went into hiding. He and the party continued its political work as part of the
resistance movement
A resistance movement is an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to withstand the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability. It may seek to achieve its objective ...
, with an illegal publication against the ban on communism and an open letter to prime minister Thorvald Stauning on 20 August 1941. In January 1942, Larsen was a co-founder of the resistance organisation “
Frit Danmark” (
da) (lit. “A Free Denmark”) which circulated an illegal publication of the same name.
The next month, Larsen chaired a party leadership meeting where it was decided that the communists were to take part in sabotage against the German occupiers. Larsen never got the possibility to be a part of the
sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identitie ...
work as he was arrested by Danish police on 5 November 1942, and incarcerated at
Vestre Fængsel
Vestre Prison ( da, Vestre Fængsel) is the main jail of the Danish capital, Copenhagen. Erected in 1895, it is Denmark's largest prison with a total capacity of 530 inmates. It primarily houses pretrial detainees, not convicted felons.
History
...
. There he was given over to the Germans who transferred him to the
Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners ...
on 28 August 1943. There he was confined to a
solitary cell
Single-celling is the practice of assigning only one inmate to each cell in a prison. John Howard has been credited as establishing the practice of single-celling in the United Kingdom and, by extension, in the United States
The United Sta ...
isolated from the rest of the camp by a high wall with electrified
barbed wire
A close-up view of a barbed wire
Roll of modern agricultural barbed wire
Barbed wire, also known as barb wire, is a type of steel fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strands. Its primary use is t ...
.
After the war
Aksel Larsen survived the
concentration camp
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...
and was saved by Sweden in April 1945 by count
Folke Bernadotte
Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg (2 January 1895 – 17 September 1948) was a Swedish nobleman and diplomat. In World War II he negotiated the release of about 31,000 prisoners from German concentration camps, including 450 Danish Jews fr ...
's
White Buses
White Buses was a Swedish humanitarian operation with the objective of freeing Scandinavians in German concentration camps in Nazi Germany during the final stages of World War II. Although the White Buses operation was envisioned to rescue Scan ...
. On 5 May he returned to Denmark and was hailed as a hero of the resistance. The war had turned the public image of the communist movement upside down, with the Soviet Union being credited for
its efforts in the war, and the Communist Party of Denmark being credited for its involvement in the resistance movement.
In the months after the liberation, Aksel Larsen was marked by his stay in the concentration camp and did not play a great role in politics. The DKP was given seats in the
liberation cabinet, where Larsen became
minister without portfolio
A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister who does not head a particular ministry. The sinecure is particularly common in countries ruled by coalition governments and a cabinet w ...
. While he recovered from his stay in Sachsenhausen, he let
Alfred Jensen
Alfred Julio Jensen (11 December 1903 – 4 April 1981) was an abstract painter. His paintings are often characterized by grids of brightly colored triangles, circles or squares, painted in thick impasto. Conveying a complex web of ideas, often ...
lead the party. The
1945 election on 15 September was the best ever for the communists. They got 12.5% of the vote and 18 seats in parliament. With 27,497 votes Larsen himself was the candidate who received the most personal votes.
The friendly relations between Social Democrats and communists that had existed right after the liberation soon disappeared and the old fronts from before the war started to re-emerge. The Danish communists became the target of public disdain once more with the onset of the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
and the
Czechoslovak communist coup in 1948 combined with new purges and trials in the Soviet Union and its new
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...
an satellite states. Larsen once more showed himself to be a defender of the Soviet Union.
Although the Comintern had been disbanded in 1943, he frequently sought the advice of the
Soviet embassy in Copenhagen and the CPSU. His loyalty to Moscow was strong, and he gained a reputation for being “one of
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...
’s most reliable and trusted
Stalinists
Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory ...
” after he helped to purge Norwegian communist leader
Peder Furubotn
Peder Furubotn (29 August 1890 – 28 November 1975) was a Norwegian cabinetmaker, politician for the Communist Party and resistance member during World War II.
Early and personal life
Furubotn was born in Brekke, Sogn og Fjordane, the son o ...
.
Although he had abandoned his idea of a Danish variant of communism, Larsen still managed to translate the Soviet party line to Danish realities. His skills as an orator and public debater helped slow down the decline in voter support but was not able to stop it. As the Cold War worsened the Communist Party of Denmark became increasingly isolated.
Controversy arose in March 1949 when
Gestapo
The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...
protocols from the interrogations of him during the war was printed by the conservative newspaper ''
Nationaltidende
''Nationaltidende'' was a Danish daily newspaper published from 18 March 1876 to 3 September 1961 by De Ferslewske Blade in Copenhagen, Denmark.
History and profile
''Nationaltidende'' was established by Jean Christian Ferslew in March 1876. It ...
''. He was accused of having given the Germans too much information and for having betrayed his comrades in the resistance. He was defended by his party and by veterans of the resistance, but the interrogation protocols were used against him by his political opponents for many years after.
During a 1951 stay in Moscow, Larsen learned that Arne Munch-Pedersen had died in 1940. Although the case continued to emerge in the media and in parliament, Larsen kept silent and denied any knowledge of Munch-Pedersen's fate.
Although the Cold War was a stressful period to Larsen, he mostly kept to his communist creed. The first traces of doubt came shortly after
Stalin's death
Joseph Stalin, second leader of the Soviet Union, died on 5 March 1953 at his Kuntsevo Dacha at the age of 74, after suffering a stroke. He was given a state funeral in Moscow on 9 March, with four days of national mourning declared. The day ...
when all defendants of the
Doctors’ Plot trials were
rehabilitated because their confessions had been made under torture. Larsen's doubt was however short-lived, and he was only strengthened in his views by
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...
’s
thaw both inside the Soviet Union and internationally. A strike at a
Philips
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...
plant and an increase in party membership, combined with a stronger communist presence in the trade unions, convinced Larsen that the party had a bright future.
The last years as a communist
Although he attended the
20th congress of the CPSU
The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was held during the period 14–25 February 1956. It is known especially for First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev's "Secret Speech", which denounced the personality cult and dictatorship ...
in 1956, Larsen did not hear Khrushchev’s “
Secret Speech
"On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" (russian: «О культе личности и его последствиях», «''O kul'te lichnosti i yego posledstviyakh''»), popularly known as the "Secret Speech" (russian: секре ...
”. He first learned about it when it was reported by ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' on 16 March. Larsen read the speech at the Soviet embassy and proposed a party line more independent of Moscow.
The
collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for workers. The i ...
negotiations of 1956 and a
general strike
A general strike refers to a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large co ...
had strengthened the party, and Larsen got his party’s support to pursue a more independent line. However his plans reached farther and he persuaded
Mogens Fog
Mogens Ludolf Fog (9 June 1904 – 16 July 1990) was a Danish physician, politician ( Danish Communist Party) and resistance fighter. In the 1930s, he headed the ''Socialistiske Læger'' (Social Physicians) who opposed Fascism.
During the Sec ...
to re-join the party to help transform it to a “broad, national, socialistic party”.
The positive situation for the Danish communists changed dramatically with the
Soviet invasion of Hungary
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...
in October 1956. Once again the communists were disdained in public opinion and isolated politically. Internally, Larsen had to balance between the inner circle of the party, who were in favour of the invasion, and the party members and intellectuals, who were against. Internal tension grew and resulted in an extraordinary party congress in January 1957 where Aksel Larsen for the first time since 1932 delivered his annual report in his own name and not in the name of the central committee. The congress elected a new central committee and executive committee with a strong majority against Larsen's line.
The party was sitting on a
powder keg
A powder keg is a barrel of gunpowder. The powder keg was the primary method for storing and transporting large quantities of black powder until the 1870s and the adoption of the modern cased cartridge. The barrels had to be handled with care, si ...
of internal disagreement which could go off at any moment. The situation was triggered when the
League of Communists of Yugoslavia
The League of Communists of Yugoslavia, mk, Сојуз на комунистите на Југославија, Sojuz na komunistite na Jugoslavija known until 1952 as the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, sl, Komunistična partija Jugoslavije mk ...
invited a delegation from the Communist Party of Denmark to go to its 1958 congress. The CPSU and other communist parties had also accepted the invitation, but suddenly the CPSU decided to
boycott
A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organization, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict som ...
the congress and pressured other communist parties not to send delegations either. Although Larsen's decision to go anyway was supported by the Danish executive committee, it was decided that
Knud Jespersen and
Børge Houmann were to go to
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
instead of Larsen.
Internal disagreements continued after the Yugoslav party congress, and on 8 July 1958 Larsen revived his ideas from the 1930s about a distinct Danish form of communism and urged the party leadership to change to a more independent course. Larsen now also thought that the Danish party should not necessarily support and defend the acts of the Soviet Union and the CPSU.
Fierce faction struggle arose and Larsen lost the party congress in October 1958. On 16 November 1958, it was announced in the communist newspaper “
Land og Folk
Land, also known as dry land, ground, or earth, is the solid terrestrial surface of the planet Earth that is not submerged by the ocean or other bodies of water. It makes up 29% of Earth's surface and includes the continents and various islan ...
” that he had been expelled from the party.
As CIA agent
The
Danish Institute for International Studies
The Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) is a public institute for independent research and analysis of international affairs, financed primarily by the Danish state. DIIS conducts and communicates multidisciplinary research on global ...
(DIIS) concluded in 2005, that Larsen held a secret working relationship between 1958 and 1971 with one of Denmark's allied partners in the Cold War, stating that "Larsen... obviously was an agent of a Western intelligence service."
In the 2005 book ''Firmaets største bedrift'' historian
Peer Henrik Hansen argues that Aksel Larsen was recruited by the U.S.
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
(CIA). According to Hansen, Larsen had his first meetings with American agents in November 1958 in his own home. According to the newspaper ''
Information
Information is an abstract concept that refers to that which has the power to inform. At the most fundamental level information pertains to the interpretation of that which may be sensed. Any natural process that is not completely random ...
'', Larsen was offered information on sentiments among the party hard-liners if he would cause a split in the party. For years the CIA had a
bugging device
A covert listening device, more commonly known as a bug or a wire, is usually a combination of a miniature radio transmitter with a microphone. The use of bugs, called bugging, or wiretapping is a common technique in surveillance, espionage and ...
in the apartment of Alfred Jensen, the vice-chairman of the Communist Party of Denmark. From there they knew about the tensions in the party leadership.
According to Hansen, Aksel Larsen feared retaliation from the
KGB
The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
and, suspecting the American agent of being a KGB assassin, brought a friend with a gun to the first meeting to act as
bodyguard
A bodyguard (or close protection officer/operative) is a type of security guard, government law enforcement officer, or servicemember who protects a person or a group of people — usually witnesses, high-ranking public officials or officers, w ...
.
Poul Dam, a party colleague of Larsen, has reported that he had made preparations to go into hiding in the case of a Soviet invasion. Hansen speculates that Aksel Larsen's cooperation with the CIA was part of a trade-off, where the CIA got information on communists and Larsen in return would be protected from the KGB.
Over eight years, Larsen conducted several meetings with the CIA where he gave information on the relationship between the Soviet Union and communist parties in other countries. He was asked if the Communist Party of Denmark was doing espionage work for the Soviets or if the party was preparing an illegal party apparatus. He denied direct knowledge about this, but told the agent that the party had turned down Soviet and
East German
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
requests for aid with
espionage
Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangibl ...
. According to some of Hansen's sources, Larsen was rewarded with vacations, dinners and money for his co-operation.
Larsen met with a CIA agent with connections to
Radio Liberty
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
. He told the Americans much about international communism, but were less keen to tell about Danish communists, especially how Moscow funded them. He stated several times that he would like to destroy his former party and others who did the Soviet Union's bidding.
According to Hansen, the Soviets knew about Larsen's cooperation with the CIA, as did Danish intelligence agencies who learned about the connections between Larsen and the CIA as soon as 1958. Although the CIA operation was illegal under
Danish law
Law in Denmark follows a civil law system.
Private law
* The governs labour law concerning salaried employees. The governs vacation time for employees.
* The governs consumer law.
* The governs landlord–tenant law.
* Privacy law in Denmark ...
, the Danish intelligence agencies promised not to intervene in return for transcripts of the debriefings.
The SF years
Founding a new party
Although no longer a
communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
, Larsen was still a
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
. Ideas for a new political party was made public on 20 November 1958, and a preparatory committee with Larsen as its leader was created the day after. The
Socialist People's Party (abbreviated SF) was registered with parliament on 24 November, and the party held its founding congress on 15 February 1959 in Copenhagen. Like the Communist Party it was “founded on the idea of
Marxism
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
”, but contrary to the DKP the new party declared its loyalty to Danish
parliamentary democracy
A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...
and called for a
peaceful path to socialism.
Leading up to the
1960 election, the
Gallup polls
Gallup, Inc. is an American analytics and advisory company based in Washington, D.C. Founded by George Gallup in 1935, the company became known for its public opinion polls conducted worldwide. Starting in the 1980s, Gallup transitioned its bu ...
were not favourable to the Socialist People's Party, but Larsen showed his command of the then-new medium of
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
, when he spoke to the viewers from a hospital bed after breaking his leg in a
traffic collision. The new party gained 6.4% of the vote and 11 seats in parliament, while the communists lost all their six seats. As many of the members of SF were former communists, some members of the other parties believed the Socialist People's Party to be communists in disguise. Those suspicions cooled with time and the party gradually became accepted.
The Red Cabinet and last years in politics
In the
1966 election, the Socialist People's Party and the Social Democrats got a majority and there were talks about forming a
coalition cabinet
A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...
. However, the Socialist People's Party could not accept the demands made by the Social Democrats. Instead
Jens Otto Krag
Jens Otto Krag (; 15 September 1914 – 22 June 1978) was a Danish politician who served as prime minister of Denmark from 1962 to 1968 and from 1971 to 1972, and as leader of the Social Democrats from 1962 to 1972. He was president of the Nordi ...
of the Social Democrats formed a cabinet supported by the socialists and a joint contact committee between the two parties was formed. This committee was soon dubbed “The Red Cabinet” (
da).
The Red Cabinet lasted until December 1967, when six of the 20 Socialist People's Party members voted against the
Krag government's proposal to freeze a threshold payment. An extraordinary party congress was held, and although Larsen gained a majority for his political line, he had to resign from his posts as party leader and leader of the parliamentary group. However a split could not be avoided, and on 17 December the minority founded the new party called the
Left Socialists
Left Socialists ( da, Venstresocialisterne) was a political party in Denmark. The party worked on what it called an "undogmatic revolutionary and Marxist basis". It was formed in 1967 as a split from the Socialist People's Party (SF).
In 1989 ...
. He was succeeded as chairman of the Socialist People's Party by
Sigurd Ømann, and remained as member of parliament until his death.
Personal life and death
Larsen married three times.
He died on 10 January 1972 and is interred at
Fredens Kirkegård in
Odense
Odense ( , , ) is the third largest city in Denmark (behind Copenhagen and Aarhus) and the largest city on the island of Funen. As of 1 January 2022, the city proper had a population of 180,863 while Odense Municipality had a population of 20 ...
.
Legacy
To his death Larsen stayed a controversial figure. Although he had gained acceptance with his new party, and although his supporters revered him and spoke about a special kind of “Larsenism”, he was also accused of having betrayed his principles. He was criticised for having been one of the fiercest supporters of the Soviet Union, and for his concealment of Arne Munch-Petersen’s fate. However, he was also a respected parliamentarian and one of Denmark’s most popular politicians.
Larsen's attempts to develop a “
Third Way
The Third Way is a centrist political position that attempts to reconcile right-wing and left-wing politics by advocating a varying synthesis of centre-right economic policies with centre-left social policies. The Third Way was born from a ...
” form of communism independent of the Soviet Union is viewed by some as one of the forerunners of
eurocommunism
Eurocommunism, also referred to as democratic communism or neocommunism, was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties which said they had developed a theory and practice of social transformation more rele ...
.
He is one of the parliamentarians who has been commemorated by having his bust placed in the hallways of the
Folketing
The Folketing ( da, Folketinget, ; ), also known as the Parliament of Denmark or the Danish Parliament in English, is the unicameral national legislature (parliament) of the Kingdom of Denmark—Denmark proper together with the Faroe Islands ...
.
See also
*
Popular socialism
Popular socialism or people's socialism is a distinct form of socialism in various countries.
Nordic countries
Popular socialism or people's socialism ( Danish: ''Folkesocialisme'') is a distinct socialist current in the Nordic countries.
In t ...
References
Bibliography
Further reading
*
Article on Aksel Larsenin Leksikon for det 21. århundrede by Kurt Jakobsen
of SF's first public meeting in KB Hallen on 16 February 1959
of SF's fifth Party Congress on 16 to 18 June 1967.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Larsen, Aksel
1897 births
1972 deaths
People from Odense Municipality
Cold War espionage
Government ministers of Denmark
Members of the Folketing
Sachsenhausen concentration camp survivors
Communist Party of Denmark politicians
Socialist People's Party (Denmark) politicians
International Lenin School alumni
Leaders of the Socialist People's Party (Denmark)
Leaders of political parties in Denmark