Asbjørn Edvin Sunde (12 December 1909 – 23 April 1985) was a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

politician for the Communist Party of Norway, communist partisan during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

saboteur 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 identiti ...

against the

Nazi occupation of Norway The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi Germany controlled Norway until th ...

during the

Second World War 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 opposi ...

, and a convicted Soviet spy. During the Second World War, from 1941 to 1944, Sunde's group, the ''

Osvald Group The Osvald Group was a Norwegian organisation that was the most active World War II resistance group in Norway from 1941 to the summer of 1944. Numbering more than 200 members, it committed at least 110 acts of sabotage against Nazi occupying fo ...

'', carried out approximately 39 acts of sabotage and assassination against the German occupation forces and Norwegian collaborators. In 1954 he was convicted by

Eidsivating Court of Appeal The Eidsivating Court of Appeal ( no, Eidsivating lagmannsrett) is one of six courts of appeal in the Kingdom of Norway. The Court is located in the city of Hamar. The court has jurisdiction over the counties of Innlandet and eastern Viken. These ...

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

and

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 tangib ...

in favour of 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 ...

, and sentenced to eight years in prison. He was released from prison in 1959 after serving two thirds of his sentence. He was expelled from the Communist Party of Norway in 1970.

Early life

Sunde had served a 30-month stint in the

Royal Norwegian Navy The Royal Norwegian Navy ( no, Sjøforsvaret, , Sea defence) is the branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces responsible for naval operations of Norway. , the Royal Norwegian Navy consists of approximately 3,700 personnel (9,450 in mobilized state, ...

, rising to non-commissioned officer rank in 1930. He was trained as both a first mate, a navigator and a gunner. He was married, and the father of one son. For several years he sailed in the Norwegian merchant marine. In the years preceding the Second World War, Sunde joined the Communist Party of Norway, wrote for the communist daily ''

Arbeideren ''Arbeideren'' ("The Worker") was a daily newspaper published in Oslo, Norway. It was started on 2 November 1929 as the official party newspaper from the Communist Party of Norway, Communist Party. It lent its name from a Hamar-based Arbeideren ( ...

'' and was involved with work to aid and support the labourers and unemployed in his home town Horten.Moen and Sæther 2009, pp. 81–82Moen and Sæther 2009, pp. 83–84

Spanish Civil War

Following the outbreak of the

in 1936, Sunde played a central role in the early efforts of the Communist Party of Norway in support of the

Spanish Republic The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of King Alfonso XIII, and was dissolved on 1 A ...

. In January 1937 Sunde led a group of four volunteers he had personally recruited from Oslo to the headquarters of the International Brigades in

Albacete Albacete (, also , ; ar, ﭐَلبَسِيط, Al-Basīṭ) is a city and municipality in the Spanish autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha, and capital of the province of Albacete. Lying in the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula, the ...

, Spain. Sunde, who spoke Spanish, first served as a front line ambulance driver in Spain, before requesting transfer to a Republican special operations unit as a

and partisan, operating behind

Nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...

lines. Among the tasks Sunde carried out in the unit was railway sabotage. While in Spain he also wrote letters, describing his experiences and the situation in Spain, that were published in ''Arbeideren''. Sunde left Spain in the summer of 1938, returning to Norway.Moen and Sæther 2009, pp. 283–285

Wollweber League

From 1938 he was the leader of the Norwegian branch of

Ernst Wollweber Ernst Friedrich Wollweber (29 October 1898 – 3 May 1967) was a German politician who was State Secretary of State Security from 1953 to 1955 and Minister of State Security of East Germany from 1955 to 1957. Biography Born in Hann. Mün ...

's secret sabotage organization, whose actions were directed against Fascist-controlled shipping. The Wollweber League had been established as an initiative of the Soviet

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

Second World War

Following the

German attack on the Soviet Union Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...

in June 1941, Sunde's group initiated sabotage activities in Norway. The group, consisting predominately of sailors, dockworkers and industrial labourers, was responsible for some 39 known actions between July 1941 and July 1944, dominating sabotage activity in Norway during this period. One of Sunde's

cover name A front organization is any entity set up by and controlled by another organization, such as intelligence agencies, organized crime groups, terrorist organizations, secret societies, banned organizations, religious or political groups, advocacy gro ...

s was ''Osvald'', and his group became known as the

(''Osvald-gruppen''). The group's main area of operations was

Buskerud Buskerud () is a former county and a current electoral district in Norway, bordering Akershus, Oslo, Oppland, Sogn og Fjordane, Hordaland, Telemark and Vestfold. The region extends from the Oslofjord and Drammensfjorden in the southeast to Ha ...

. According to historian

Lars Borgersrud Lars Borgersrud (born 11 March 1949) is a Norwegian military historian and government scholar. His work has largely centered on World War II in Norway. Borgersrud formed close relations with leading figures of the Norwegian Maoist movement beginni ...

, Sunde's renown as an aggressive and daring saboteur, led other resistance organisations to approach him to carry out particularly delicate missions, in particular assassinations. After attacking the

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

and Aker offices of the State Police 21 August 1942, a reward of 50,000

NOK Nok is a village in Jaba Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria. The village is an archeological site. Archaeology The discovery of terracotta figurines at this location caused its name to be used for the Nok culture, of which these ...

was offered for information that would lead to his capture.

Breakout from surrounded building

On 30 May 1944 he and 8 other members of "Osvald" are surrounded by German forces, at a former hotel ("

Sollia Sollia is a village in Stor-Elvdal Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The village is located just up the hill from the Setninga river, about northwest of the town of Koppang and about north of the village of Ringebu. Sollia Church is l ...

") at

Søndre Land Søndre Land is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Land. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Hov. Other villages in the municipality include Fluberg and Odnes. ...

Oppland Oppland is a former county in Norway which existed from 1781 until its dissolution on 1 January 2020. The old Oppland county bordered the counties of Trøndelag, Møre og Romsdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Akershus, Oslo and Hedmark. The c ...

.* Signe Raassumpaywall:

Post-war activities

After the war Sunde wrote the book ''Menn i mørket'' (1947) (Men in the Darkness), describing his wartime activities.Den sorte hånd slår til - 20. april 1943 – Av Steinar Åge Brenden
– ''Friheten'' (Retrieved on 17 September 2008)
– ''Dagbladet (18.02.1998)'' (Retrieved on 17 September 2008) Menn i mørket. The story of a sabotage group in Norway under the German occupation
– ''amazon.co.uk'' (Retrieved on 17 September 2008) Sunde received an award Odd Bergfald: ''KGB «OPERASJON NORGE».'' HJEMMENES FORLAG, Oslo, 1975, side 96 og 103. ('' deltagermedaljen'' in bronze)—by

certified mail Registered mail is a mail service offered by postal services in many countries which allows the sender proof of mailing via a mailing receipt and, upon request, electronic verification that an article was delivered or that a delivery attempt was ...

—from the Norwegian government. In 2013, then minister of defence honored 8 members—of the 17 who are still alive. Sunde and his organization received award and recognition the Soviet Union for their contributions during the war. The more famous and acknowledged partisan

Gunnar Sønsteby Gunnar Fridtjof Thurmann Sønsteby DSO ( 1918 – 10 May 2012) was a member of the Norwegian resistance movement during the German occupation of Norway in World War II. Known by the nickname "Kjakan" ("The Chin") and as "Agent No. 24", ...

unsuccessfully spoke in favour of giving Sunde a war pension, which was given to both the merchant sailors and the military branch of the resistance. Sunde played a central role in the internal conflicts of the Communist Party of Norway in the late 1940s.Moen and Sæther 2009, p. 317 The struggle culminated with the expulsion of former chairman

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 ...

and a number of other so-called "

Titoist Titoism is a political philosophy most closely associated with Josip Broz Tito during the Cold War. It is characterized by a broad Yugoslav identity, workers' self-management, a political separation from the Soviet Union, and leadership in the ...

s" in 1949/1950.

Conviction for treason and espionage

From 1949 the Norwegian Police Surveillance Agency began a surveillance operation against Sunde, leading to his arrest five years later on suspicion of espionage. In 1954 Sunde was convicted for treason and espionage for the Soviet Union, and sentenced to 8 years imprisonment. After serving two thirds of his sentence, he was paroled from prison in 1959. After his parole, he lived a quiet life. Terje Ranes who portrayed Sunde in a 2015 film, said that Sunde "was a Stalinist hardliner, but there are many questions surrounding the trial against him ".

Film

A film, '' Offer eller spion?'' ("victim or spy?") was scheduled to be shown on Thursday 9 February 2015at Ringen Kino in Oslo, Norway.

Biographies

* Egil Ulateig: ''Raud krigar, raud spion'', 1989. (''Red Warrior, Red Spy''; biography) *Asbjørn Sunde: ''Menn i mørket'', 1947. (''Men in the Darkness''; autobiography) . Reissued in 2009, with foreword by Lars Borgersrud

References

Bibliography

External links

Offer eller Spion - Trailer #1Offer eller Spion - Trailer #2
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sunde, Asbjorn 1909 births 1985 deaths Royal Norwegian Navy personnel Communist Party of Norway politicians Norwegian people of the Spanish Civil War International Brigades personnel Norwegian anti-fascists Norwegian resistance members Norwegian sailors Norwegian World War II memoirists Osvald Group People convicted of treason against Norway Norwegian people convicted of spying for the Soviet Union Prisoners and detainees of Norway Norwegian prisoners and detainees 1954 in politics 20th-century Norwegian writers People from Horten People from Vikna