Fredrik Ström
Encyclopedia
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
Socialist politician and a prolific writer. He held a seat in the Riksdag
Parliament of Sweden
The Riksdag is the national legislative assembly of Sweden. The riksdag is a unicameral assembly with 349 members , who are elected on a proportional basis to serve fixed terms of four years...
from 1916 - 1921, and from 1930 - 1938.
He joined the Swedish Social Democratic Party
Swedish Social Democratic Party
The Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party, , contesting elections as 'the Workers' Party – the Social Democrats' , or sometimes referred to just as 'the Social Democrats' and most commonly as Sossarna ; is the oldest and largest political party in Sweden. The party was founded in 1889...
and in 1916 was elected to the Riksdag
Parliament of Sweden
The Riksdag is the national legislative assembly of Sweden. The riksdag is a unicameral assembly with 349 members , who are elected on a proportional basis to serve fixed terms of four years...
. But in 1917 Ström broke with Hjalmar Branting
Hjalmar Branting
was a Swedish politician. He was the leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party , and Prime Minister during three separate periods . When Branting came to power in 1920, he was the first Social Democratic Prime Minister of Sweden...
and sided with the far left wing of the party headed by the communists Zeth Höglund
Zeth Höglund
Carl Zeth "Zäta" Konstantin Höglund was a leading Swedish communist politician, anti-militarist, author, journalist and mayor of Stockholm ....
and Ture Nerman
Ture Nerman
Ture Nerman was a Swedish socialist. As a journalist and author, he was a well-known political activist in his time. He also wrote poems and songs.Nerman was a vegetarian and a strict teetotaler...
. This group supported the Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n Bolsheviks and would soon become the (original) Swedish Communist Party
Left Party (Sweden)
The Left Party is a socialist and feminist political party in Sweden, from 1967 to 1990 known as the Left Party – The Communists .On welfare issues, the party opposes privatizations...
.
Fredrik Ström was, together with Ture Nerman
Ture Nerman
Ture Nerman was a Swedish socialist. As a journalist and author, he was a well-known political activist in his time. He also wrote poems and songs.Nerman was a vegetarian and a strict teetotaler...
and Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
's mayor Carl Lindhagen
Carl Lindhagen
Carl Albert Lindhagen was a Swedish lawyer, socialist politician, and pacifist.Carl Lindhagen was the Chief Magistrate of Stockholm 1903 – 1930...
, part of a small delegation of Swedish Communists who greeted Lenin during his short visit in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
in April 1917. The Swedish Communists took Lenin to the PUB
PUB (Stockholm)
PUB is one of the major department stores in Stockholm, Sweden, located in two buildings at Hötorget, Stockholm city center. PUB was opened in 1882 and rapidly expanded...
department store where they bought him a brand new suit so he would look good returning home to revolutionary Petrograd.
Ström was head of the Stockholm Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
liaison with Western Europe from 1919 – 1920, and he frequently visited the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
for meetings including the third congress of the Communist International, held in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
in 1921.
Ström supported Lenin, Trotsky and the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
, but he disagreed with Stalinism
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
and in 1926 he found his way back to the Swedish Social Democratic Party, although he still considered himself a Communist.
Works
- Fredrik Ström wrote a five-volume history of the Russian Revolution, published in 1924, but it was soon condemned by the new Stalinist leadership in Russia.
- Ström wrote a biography of Kata DalströmKata DalströmKatarina "Kata" Dalström , born Anna Maria Katarina Carlberg in a wealthy upper-class family, became one of Sweden’s leading socialist agitators and leftist writers of her time...
in 1930. - His two-volume autobiography is called Min ungdoms strider (The battles of my youth) and I stormig tid (In stormy times). More volumes were planned, but Ström died before he could write on his life past 1917.
- Fredrik Ström's last book was a biography on Fabian MånssonFabian MånssonKarl Fabian Månsson was a Swedish Socialist politician. In his youth, Månsson used the pseudonym Dacke, a name he borrowed from the 16th century peasant rebel Nils Dacke....
.