The Socialist Party ( sv, Socialistiska partiet), was a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

active from 1929 to 1948. Led by

Karl Kilbom Karl Kilbom (8 May 1885 – 24 December 1961) was a Swedish politician and one of the founders of the Communist Party of Sweden. Youth As the son of a blacksmith, Karl Kilbom grew up in a working class family of Walloon origin in the small to ...

and

Nils Flyg Nils Svante Flyg (9 June 1891 – 9 January 1943) was a Swedish Communist politician who turned pro- Nazi during World War II. Nils Flyg was born and raised in Södermalm, a working-class area of Stockholm at the time. Early on he joined ...

, the party was founded in 1929 as a splinter group of the

Communist Party of Sweden The name Communist Party of Sweden ( sv, Sveriges Kommunistiska Parti, link=no, abbreviated SKP) has been used by several political parties in Sweden: * Left Party (Sweden), known as the Communist Party of Sweden from 1921 to 1967 ** Communist Part ...

. Until 1934, the splinter group used the same name Communist Party of Sweden ( sv, Sveriges kommunistiska parti, links=no), so in order to keep the two factions apart, this faction was generally known as ''Kilbommare'' ("Kilbomiars") while those who stayed in the old party were known as ''Sillénare'' ("Sillénians", after their leader

Hugo Sillén Klas Hugo Sillén (18 December 1892, Stockholm – 4 December 1971) was a Swedish Communist politician. In the 1929 split of the Communist Party of Sweden, Sillén led the pro-Comintern fraction that expelled Karl Kilbom and the majority of th ...

). In the split, the entire communist parliamentary group, the party's official newspaper, ''

Folkets Dagblad Politiken ''Politiken'', later named ''Folkets Dagblad - Politiken'' was a Sweden, Swedish Communist newspaper that existed from April 1916 to August 1940. History and profile ''Politiken'' was launched in 1916, first issue published on 27 April that yea ...

'', and most of the more militant members joined the Kilbom-Flyg faction.

History

The Kilbom-led SKP held its congress prior to the Sillén-led party. At the congress there was a debate regarding the character of the party, whether to continue the system of party cells (the structure of the pre-split SKP) or whether to become a more open mass party. In the end the statues adopted by the congress differed little from those of the pre-split SKP. Party cells remained the basic organization of the party, and in places where no cell existed a party member would be organized in the '' arbetarkommun'' directly. However the criteria for membership were relaxed, the sole remaining criterion was activism in the base level organization. In 1930 Flyg, as an MP, put forward a motion on

separation of church and state The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular s ...

. The motion was voted down in the Lower House. The Kilbom party merged in 1934 with a break-away group of the

Social Democrats Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote so ...

based in

Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

, led by

Albin Ström Albin Ström (1892 in Ånimskog – 1962) was a Swedish socialist politician from Gothenburg. As a young Social Democrat, Ström joined Zeth Höglund in 1917 when the party was split in two, as Höglund's radical left-wing was expelled. The lef ...

. At the time of the merger, the party changed its name to the Socialist Party (''Socialistiska partiet''). The transformation into SP also marked a break with the previous line of the party towards the

Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by ...

and 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 nationa ...

. Initially the party had tried to persuade the Comintern to be allowed to return to the International. Gradually, however the party became more and more antagonistic toward the Comintern and the Soviet Union. The party gradually disintegrated, and many of the most prominent leaders such as Kilbom, left the party in 1937. During

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, their staunch anti-

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

line led the party to actually embrace some pro-German views (partially since the huge financial problems of the party led it to seek financial aid from

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

). As a result of this, in 1940, a group of members that included Albin Ström and Evald Höglund broke away and formed the Left Socialist Party. In the

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

the same year, the party lost its parliamentary representation. When Flyg died in 1943 he was succeeded as party leader by

Agaton Blom Agathon ( Anc. Gr. ) is a given name. Russian name In Russian, in 1924–1930, the name "" (''Agaton'') was included into various Soviet calendars,Superanskaya, pp. 22 and 34 which included the new and often artificially created names promoti ...

. During the final years of the war, the party continued to lose members and support, and changed its name to the Swedish Socialist Party (''Svenska socialistiska partiet''), which was outspokenly supportive of

Nazi ideology Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

. The party was finally dissolved in 1948. The local units of the party were known as "Socialist Labour Communes" (''Socialistiska Arbetarkommuner''). In terms of international contacts, the party was initially associated with the International Communist Opposition and later with the

International Revolutionary Marxist Centre The International Revolutionary Marxist Centre was an international association of left-socialist parties. The member-parties rejected both mainstream social democracy and the Third International. Organizational history The International was fo ...

(also known as the "London Bureau"). The youth league of the party was called the Socialist Youth League (''Socialistiska ungdomsförbundet''), affiliated to the

International Bureau of Revolutionary Youth Organizations International Bureau of Revolutionary Youth Organizations (in German: ''Internationales Büro Revolutionärer Jugendorganisationen'', in French: ''Bureau International des Organisations Révolutionnaires des Jeunes'') was an international organiza ...

Electoral results

Electoral results of the party (in elections to the

Riksdag The Riksdag (, ; also sv, riksdagen or ''Sveriges riksdag'' ) is the legislature and the supreme decision-making body of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral legislature with 349 members (), elected proportionally and se ...

Notes

References

Per-Anders Lundh: Socialistiska Partiet 1929-1945
Swedish only. Retrieved 2012-04-13
Bernt Kennerström (1974): Mellan två internationaler – Socialistiska Partiet 1929-37
Swedish only. Retrieved 2012-04-13 * Blomqvist, Håkan: ''Gåtan Nils Flyg och nazismen'' * Hübinette, Tobias (2002). ''Den svenska nationalsocialismen - medlemmar och sympatisörer 1931-45''.

External links

1932 election manifesto of the party
{{Authority control 1929 establishments in Sweden 1948 disestablishments in Sweden Defunct communist parties in Sweden International Revolutionary Marxist Centre Political parties disestablished in 1948 Political parties established in 1929 Right Opposition

History

Electoral results

See also

Notes

References

External links