Zeth Höglund
Encyclopedia
Carl Zeth "Zäta" Konstantin Höglund (29 April 1884 – 13 August 1956) was a leading Swedish
communist politician, anti-militarist, author, journalist and mayor
(finansborgarråd) of Stockholm
(1940–1950).
Höglund can be credited as the founder of the Swedish Communist movement. Zeth Höglund went on many meetings in Bolshevik Russia and was elected to the Comintern
Executive Committee in 1922. In 1926 he returned to the Social Democratic party but still chose to define himself as a communist.
in a lower middle-class family. His father, Carl Höglund, worked as a merchant in leather and later became a shoemaker. Zeth was the youngest of ten children. He was also the only son, and hence had nine big sisters.
His parents were very religious, but they didn’t like the church hierarchy and the way preachers and governments used religion to influence people. Zeth Höglund would later become an atheist.
Early on in High School, Höglund started considering himself a socialist and instead of his school books he started reading the German socialists Karl Marx
, Ferdinand Lassalle
, Wilhelm Liebknecht
and the Swedish socialists Axel Danielsson
and Hjalmar Branting
. He also read Nietzsche and August Strindberg
.
He graduated from High School in 1902 with average grades. He soon got an internship with the liberal daily Göteborgs-Posten
and was hired by that newspaper that fall.
The same fall Höglund started studying History, Political Science and Literature at the Gothenburg University
. Here he met Fredrik Ström
, a four-year-older student, also a radical socialist. They developed a close friendship that would last their whole lives.
At the May Day
demonstration in 1903, Z. Höglund and Fredrik Ström were invited to speak, by the Social Democratic Party, on the demand for 8-hour workdays. Höglund started and was followed by Ström who suddenly started agitating for 6-hour workdays, and even promising 4-hour workdays in a socialist future.
. They were curious of the homeland of the great French Revolution
of 1789 and the city where their heroes Marat
, Danton
and Saint Just
had lived and fought.
In Paris they attended several socialist meetings, of which the grandest was when Jean Jaurès
spoke to over 4,000 people. They tried to write on their own and sent political texts home to Sweden were some of them were published in different newspapers. One day at the post office, Fredrik Ström discovered that they were under surveillance by the French police.
The two Swedes were very short on money. They had to live modestly in Paris and couldn’t spend much money on food. When winter came they froze and went hungry. They had hoped to stay much longer but decided to go back to Sweden. They didn’t have any money for the trip home but two of Höglund's sisters, Ada and Alice, sent them the money and they returned home by Christmas 1903.
in 1904 and became the leader of party’s youth movement. He wrote an article called "Let Us Make Swedish Social Democracy the Strongest in the World".
In 1905 Höglund strongly supported Norway
’s right to self-determination and independence from Sweden
. When the Swedish conservatives made clear that they were prepared to subdue Norway by force, Zeth Höglund wrote the manifesto Down With Weapons! (Ned med vapnen!) in which he indirectly declared that if the Swedish workers were forced to go to war with Norway, they would instead turn their weapons against the Swedish ruling class. The war was avoided and Norway became independent but, as a result of his anti-war agitation, Zeth Höglund was sentenced to six months in jail, which he served between the mid-summer and Christmas of 1906.
While condemned and imprisoned by the Swedish ruling class as a dangerous rebel, Höglund was saluted by others. The German
socialist Karl Liebknecht
described him as a hero in his book Militarism and Anti-Militarism. http://www.marxists.org/archive/liebknecht-k/works/1907/militarism-antimilitarism/index.htm The Russian Communist leader Lenin wrote: "The close alliance between the Norwegian and Swedish workers, their complete fraternal class solidarity, gained from the Swedish workers’ recognition of the right of the Norwegians to secede. ... The Swedish workers have proved that in spite of all the vicissitudes of bourgeois policy ... they will be able to preserve and defend the complete equality and class solidarity of the workers of both nations in the struggle against both the Swedish and the Norwegian bourgeoisie." (The Right of Nations to Self-Determination) http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1914/self-det/ch06.htm#v20pp72-425
In November 1912 Höglund, together with his Swedish friends Hjalmar Branting
and Ture Nerman
, attended the special emergency convention of the Socialist International, which had been summoned to Basel
in Switzerland
, due to the outbreak of the Balkan Wars
. At the convention, the leaders of all the European Socialist parties agreed to stand together internationally to prevent any future wars.
Together with Fredrik Ström
and Hannes Sköld
, Höglund wrote the anti-militarist manifesto Det befästa fattighuset (The fortress poorhouse) in which they described and criticized Sweden as an armed fortress and at the same time a poorhouse, where the people were miserable and the rulers spent all resources on militarism. Not one krona
, not one öre
, to militarism! was the slogan of the manifesto. It was met by despise from the bourgeoisie politicians and media.
of the Riksdag
. There he agitated for socialism, against capitalism
, war and the Swedish monarchy. Höglund’s speeches were so revolutionary that they even provoked Hjalmar Branting
, although many young socialists started seeing Höglund as their true leader.
In 1914 when World War I
broke out, Zeth Höglund together with Ture Nerman
represented the Swedish-Norwegian members of the Zimmerwald Conference
, the international socialist anti-war movement which gathered in the small Swiss
village of Zimmerwald
. There the young Swedish socialist met Lenin, Zinoviev
, Karl Radek
and Leon Trotsky
: Zeth Höglund and Ture Nerman felt very close to the Russian Bolsheviks.
Back in Bern, after the conference in Zimmerwald, Zeth Höglund had a beer
with Lenin in a local pub. Lenin asked Höglund if the Swedish Socialist Youth Organization possibly could donate some much needed money to the Bolsheviks. Höglund offered Lenin some money, and although it wasn’t much, Lenin was extremely joyful and grateful. Höglund realized afterwards that maybe it was more about political trust than money.
Even though Sweden did not participate in the war, Höglund's anti-war propaganda was enough to once again send Zeth Höglund to jail for "betrayal of the Kingdom". While Höglund was in prison at Långholmen
in Stockholm
, his wife gave birth to their second daughter.
In April 1917, Lenin and other communists passed through Stockholm
from the exile in Switzerland on their return trip to Russia after the February Revolution
. Lenin, who was greeted in Sweden by Otto Grimlund
, Ture Nerman
, Fredrik Ström
and Carl Lindhagen
, wanted to go and visit Höglund in jail. Arrangements were made but, due other meetings running over time and the Bolsheviks hurry to get back to Russia, Lenin’s visit to Långholmen had to be cancelled. However, the Bolshevik leader sent a telegram to Höglund wishing him strength and hoping to see him soon again, signed Lenin and Ström.
Zeth Höglund, prisoner number 172, was released from Långholmen
on 6 May 1917 after more than 13 months in prison. He was greeted by his friends, family and a couple of thousands workers who had gathered outside the prison. On the same day of his release, Höglund held a speech in a park in Stockholm, massing thousands of people to hear him talk about peace, socialism and revolution.
From Russia came a telegram: "On the day of your release from prison, the C.C. of the R.S.D.L.P. greets in your person a staunch fighter against the imperialist war and a wholehearted supporter of the Third International." signed by Lenin and Zinoviev. http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/apr/23h.htm
. In 1917, Zeth Höglund and the left-wing were expelled from the party but they regrouped as the Swedish Social Democratic Left Party, which supported the Bolsheviks in Russia and worked for the aim of a communist revolution in Sweden. This new party would soon become the (original) Communist Party of Sweden
(SKP).
In 1916 the left socialists launched their own newspaper, Politiken
, in which they wrote and published many texts by Lenin, Zinoviev
, Bukharin and Karl Radek
. Both Radek and Bukharin, who spent a lot of time in the neutral Sweden during the World War, had a great influence on the development of the Swedish Socialist Left.
In December 1917, Höglund and Karl Kilbom
traveled to Petrograd to visit the Bolsheviks and show their support of the revolution. On their day of arrival, Höglund was invited to see Lenin in the Smolny
. Lenin was in an excellent mood. The Swedish communists were one of the first international groups to visit Soviet Russia
and, by New Year's Eve, the Swedish delegation was joined by Otto Grimlund
and Carl Lindhagen
.
Höglund and Lindhagen were invited to speak to an audience of 10,000 people in Petrograd. The Bolshevik Alexandra Kollontay, who had spent a lot of time in Scandinavia and had become a close friend of the Swedish left socialists, translated the speeches of Lindhagen and Höglund from Swedish to Russian.
Höglund stayed until spring of 1918 in Soviet Russia. He traveled around the country and worked closely with the Bolshevik leaders. He was even offered to be made an honorable corporal in the Red Army
, but he declined. (The position was then offered to the Norwegian
Communist Olav Scheflo
.) Höglund wrote long texts for Politiken
and managed to keep a great influence over the communist movement in Sweden from abroad.
On his way back to Sweden, Höglund also visited the Reds in Finland
, which at the time was in the throes of the Finnish civil war
, which soon ended in White victory.
of the Communist International (Comintern) took place in Russia, with Otto Grimlund
representing the Swedish Socialist Left. Zeth Höglund worked hard to convince his friends that the Swedish Party should join the Comintern.
During the 2nd World Congress of the Comintern
, which took place in Russia the summer of 1920, Zinoviev
spooke: “Unfortunately Comrade Höglund and others who took part along with us in the founding of the Communist International are not here.” Instead Kata Dalström
was there representing the Swedish communists.
But in the summer of 1921, Zeth Höglund, together with Fredrik Ström
and Hinke Bergegren
represented Sweden in the third congress of the Comintern held in Moscow, and Höglund worked hard to make the Swedish party accept the Twenty-one Conditions
for membership in the Communist International, including changing the name from Sweden’s Social Democratic Left Party to the Swedish Communist Party. Some of the party’s members who did not agree to the 21 theses left the party while others, including Carl Lindhagen
, were expelled.
Höglund was elected to the Comintern
Executive Committee in 1922. However, in 1924, over disagreement concerning the development of Comintern
policies, thinking there was too much direct control from Moscow
, Höglund split from Swedish Communist Party and founded his own Communist Party
. In 1926 he rejoined the Swedish Social Democratic Party
, where he was part of the radical left. He still considered himself a Communist until the day he died in 1956, always defending the original ideas of Lenin.
Zeth Höglund was the Mayor of Stockholm from 1940 till 1950.
Zeth Höglund had a street named after him in Leningrad
.
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....
communist politician, anti-militarist, author, journalist and mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
(finansborgarråd) of 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...
(1940–1950).
Höglund can be credited as the founder of the Swedish Communist movement. Zeth Höglund went on many meetings in Bolshevik Russia and was elected to the 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...
Executive Committee in 1922. In 1926 he returned to the Social Democratic party but still chose to define himself as a communist.
Early years
Zeth Höglund grew up in GothenburgGothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
in a lower middle-class family. His father, Carl Höglund, worked as a merchant in leather and later became a shoemaker. Zeth was the youngest of ten children. He was also the only son, and hence had nine big sisters.
His parents were very religious, but they didn’t like the church hierarchy and the way preachers and governments used religion to influence people. Zeth Höglund would later become an atheist.
Political Awakening
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
, Ferdinand Lassalle
Ferdinand Lassalle
Ferdinand Lassalle was a German-Jewish jurist and socialist political activist.-Early life:Ferdinand Lassalle was born on 11 April 1825 in Breslau , Silesia to a prosperous Jewish family descending from Upper Silesian Loslau...
, Wilhelm Liebknecht
Wilhelm Liebknecht
Wilhelm Martin Philipp Christian Ludwig Liebknecht was a German social democrat and a principal founder of the SPD. His political career was a pioneering project combining Marxist revolutionary theory with practical, legal political activity...
and the Swedish socialists Axel Danielsson
Axel Danielsson
Axel Danielsson was a Swedish socialist agitator, journalist and writer, born in Värmland. He was a prominent leader of the early Swedish Social Democratic Party...
and 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...
. He also read Nietzsche and August Strindberg
August Strindberg
Johan August Strindberg was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg's career spanned four decades, during which time he wrote over 60 plays and more than 30 works of fiction, autobiography,...
.
He graduated from High School in 1902 with average grades. He soon got an internship with the liberal daily Göteborgs-Posten
Göteborgs-Posten
Göteborgs-Posten is a major daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Gothenburg, with containing coverage of local, regional, national and international issues. It is chiefly distributed in western Götaland. It has the second largest national circulation, after Dagens Nyheter and before...
and was hired by that newspaper that fall.
The same fall Höglund started studying History, Political Science and Literature at the Gothenburg University
Gothenburg University
The University of Gothenburg is a university in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg.- Character :The University of Gothenburg is the third-oldest Swedish university, and with 24,900 full-time students it is also among the largest universities in the Nordic countries...
. Here he met Fredrik Ström
Fredrik Ström
Fredrik Ström was a Swedish Socialist politician and a prolific writer. He held a seat in the Riksdag from 1916 - 1921, and from 1930 - 1938....
, a four-year-older student, also a radical socialist. They developed a close friendship that would last their whole lives.
At the May Day
May Day
May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....
demonstration in 1903, Z. Höglund and Fredrik Ström were invited to speak, by the Social Democratic Party, on the demand for 8-hour workdays. Höglund started and was followed by Ström who suddenly started agitating for 6-hour workdays, and even promising 4-hour workdays in a socialist future.
In Paris
In the summer of 1903, Höglund and Fredrik Ström decided to move to ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. They were curious of the homeland of the great French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
of 1789 and the city where their heroes Marat
Jean-Paul Marat
Jean-Paul Marat , born in the Principality of Neuchâtel, was a physician, political theorist, and scientist best known for his career in France as a radical journalist and politician during the French Revolution...
, Danton
Georges Danton
Georges Jacques Danton was leading figure in the early stages of the French Revolution and the first President of the Committee of Public Safety. Danton's role in the onset of the Revolution has been disputed; many historians describe him as "the chief force in theoverthrow of the monarchy and the...
and Saint Just
Louis de Saint-Just
Louis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just , usually known as Saint-Just, was a military and political leader during the French Revolution. The youngest of the deputies elected to the National Convention in 1792, Saint-Just rose quickly in their ranks and became a major leader of the government of the French...
had lived and fought.
In Paris they attended several socialist meetings, of which the grandest was when Jean Jaurès
Jean Jaurès
Jean Léon Jaurès was a French Socialist leader. Initially an Opportunist Republican, he evolved into one of the first social democrats, becoming the leader, in 1902, of the French Socialist Party, which opposed Jules Guesde's revolutionary Socialist Party of France. Both parties merged in 1905 in...
spoke to over 4,000 people. They tried to write on their own and sent political texts home to Sweden were some of them were published in different newspapers. One day at the post office, Fredrik Ström discovered that they were under surveillance by the French police.
The two Swedes were very short on money. They had to live modestly in Paris and couldn’t spend much money on food. When winter came they froze and went hungry. They had hoped to stay much longer but decided to go back to Sweden. They didn’t have any money for the trip home but two of Höglund's sisters, Ada and Alice, sent them the money and they returned home by Christmas 1903.
Swedish Social Democratic Party
Höglund joined the Swedish Social Democratic PartySwedish 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...
in 1904 and became the leader of party’s youth movement. He wrote an article called "Let Us Make Swedish Social Democracy the Strongest in the World".
In 1905 Höglund strongly supported Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
’s right to self-determination and independence from Sweden
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....
. When the Swedish conservatives made clear that they were prepared to subdue Norway by force, Zeth Höglund wrote the manifesto Down With Weapons! (Ned med vapnen!) in which he indirectly declared that if the Swedish workers were forced to go to war with Norway, they would instead turn their weapons against the Swedish ruling class. The war was avoided and Norway became independent but, as a result of his anti-war agitation, Zeth Höglund was sentenced to six months in jail, which he served between the mid-summer and Christmas of 1906.
While condemned and imprisoned by the Swedish ruling class as a dangerous rebel, Höglund was saluted by others. The German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
socialist Karl Liebknecht
Karl Liebknecht
was a German socialist and a co-founder with Rosa Luxemburg of the Spartacist League and the Communist Party of Germany. He is best known for his opposition to World War I in the Reichstag and his role in the Spartacist uprising of 1919...
described him as a hero in his book Militarism and Anti-Militarism. http://www.marxists.org/archive/liebknecht-k/works/1907/militarism-antimilitarism/index.htm The Russian Communist leader Lenin wrote: "The close alliance between the Norwegian and Swedish workers, their complete fraternal class solidarity, gained from the Swedish workers’ recognition of the right of the Norwegians to secede. ... The Swedish workers have proved that in spite of all the vicissitudes of bourgeois policy ... they will be able to preserve and defend the complete equality and class solidarity of the workers of both nations in the struggle against both the Swedish and the Norwegian bourgeoisie." (The Right of Nations to Self-Determination) http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1914/self-det/ch06.htm#v20pp72-425
In November 1912 Höglund, together with his Swedish friends 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 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...
, attended the special emergency convention of the Socialist International, which had been summoned to Basel
Basel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...
in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, due to the outbreak of the Balkan Wars
Balkan Wars
The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913.By the early 20th century, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, the countries of the Balkan League, had achieved their independence from the Ottoman Empire, but large parts of their ethnic...
. At the convention, the leaders of all the European Socialist parties agreed to stand together internationally to prevent any future wars.
Together with Fredrik Ström
Fredrik Ström
Fredrik Ström was a Swedish Socialist politician and a prolific writer. He held a seat in the Riksdag from 1916 - 1921, and from 1930 - 1938....
and Hannes Sköld
Hannes Sköld
Johannes Sköld was a Swedish socialist and anti-militarist. Sköld was also a linguist, a writer and a poet. He also wrote songs....
, Höglund wrote the anti-militarist manifesto Det befästa fattighuset (The fortress poorhouse) in which they described and criticized Sweden as an armed fortress and at the same time a poorhouse, where the people were miserable and the rulers spent all resources on militarism. Not one krona
Swedish krona
The krona has been the currency of Sweden since 1873. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it, but especially in the past, it sometimes preceded the value...
, not one öre
Öre
Öre is the discontinued centesimal subdivision of the Swedish krona. The plural and singular are the same in the indefinite forms, whereas the singular definite form is öret and the plural definite is örena. The name derives from the Latin aureus , the name of a coin worth 25 denarii...
, to militarism! was the slogan of the manifesto. It was met by despise from the bourgeoisie politicians and media.
World War I and Zimmerwald
In 1914 Höglund got a seat in the lower houseLower house
A lower house is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house.Despite its official position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide the lower house has come to wield more power...
of 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...
. There he agitated for socialism, against capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
, war and the Swedish monarchy. Höglund’s speeches were so revolutionary that they even provoked 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...
, although many young socialists started seeing Höglund as their true leader.
In 1914 when World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
broke out, Zeth Höglund 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...
represented the Swedish-Norwegian members of the Zimmerwald Conference
Zimmerwald Conference
The Zimmerwald Conference was held in Zimmerwald, Switzerland, from September 5 through September 8, 1915. It was an international socialist conference, which saw the beginning of the end of the coalition between revolutionary socialists and reformist socialists in the Second International.-...
, the international socialist anti-war movement which gathered in the small Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
village of Zimmerwald
Zimmerwald
Zimmerwald was until 31 December 2003 an independent municipality in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland. It is located on a hill in the proximity of the city of Bern in the Bernese Mittelland...
. There the young Swedish socialist met Lenin, Zinoviev
Grigory Zinoviev
Grigory Yevseevich Zinoviev , born Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky Apfelbaum , was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet Communist politician...
, Karl Radek
Karl Radek
Karl Bernhardovic Radek was a socialist active in the Polish and German movements before World War I and an international Communist leader after the Russian Revolution....
and Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
: Zeth Höglund and Ture Nerman felt very close to the Russian Bolsheviks.
Back in Bern, after the conference in Zimmerwald, Zeth Höglund had a beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
with Lenin in a local pub. Lenin asked Höglund if the Swedish Socialist Youth Organization possibly could donate some much needed money to the Bolsheviks. Höglund offered Lenin some money, and although it wasn’t much, Lenin was extremely joyful and grateful. Höglund realized afterwards that maybe it was more about political trust than money.
Even though Sweden did not participate in the war, Höglund's anti-war propaganda was enough to once again send Zeth Höglund to jail for "betrayal of the Kingdom". While Höglund was in prison at Långholmen
Långholmen prison
Långholmen Prison, officially Långholmen Central Prison , was historically one of the biggest prison facilities in Sweden with more than 500 cells, located on the island of Långholmen in Stockholm. It was built 1874-1880 as the central prison of Sweden, and was in use until 1975...
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...
, his wife gave birth to their second daughter.
In April 1917, Lenin and other communists passed through 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...
from the exile in Switzerland on their return trip to Russia after the February Revolution
February Revolution
The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...
. Lenin, who was greeted in Sweden by Otto Grimlund
Otto Grimlund
Otto Bernhard Grimlund was a Swedish Communist politician.Originally a member of the Swedish Social Democratic Party he joined the revolutionary left-wing in the party split of 1917 and represented the Swedish Social Democratic Left Party at the founding of the Communist International in Moscow in...
, 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...
, Fredrik Ström
Fredrik Ström
Fredrik Ström was a Swedish Socialist politician and a prolific writer. He held a seat in the Riksdag from 1916 - 1921, and from 1930 - 1938....
and 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...
, wanted to go and visit Höglund in jail. Arrangements were made but, due other meetings running over time and the Bolsheviks hurry to get back to Russia, Lenin’s visit to Långholmen had to be cancelled. However, the Bolshevik leader sent a telegram to Höglund wishing him strength and hoping to see him soon again, signed Lenin and Ström.
Zeth Höglund, prisoner number 172, was released from Långholmen
Långholmen prison
Långholmen Prison, officially Långholmen Central Prison , was historically one of the biggest prison facilities in Sweden with more than 500 cells, located on the island of Långholmen in Stockholm. It was built 1874-1880 as the central prison of Sweden, and was in use until 1975...
on 6 May 1917 after more than 13 months in prison. He was greeted by his friends, family and a couple of thousands workers who had gathered outside the prison. On the same day of his release, Höglund held a speech in a park in Stockholm, massing thousands of people to hear him talk about peace, socialism and revolution.
From Russia came a telegram: "On the day of your release from prison, the C.C. of the R.S.D.L.P. greets in your person a staunch fighter against the imperialist war and a wholehearted supporter of the Third International." signed by Lenin and Zinoviev. http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/apr/23h.htm
The Birth of the Swedish Communist Movement
Höglund was a radical, revolutionary socialist and was the main leader of the Left Opposition in the Social Democratic Party, against the reformist politics of the party leader Hjalmar BrantingHjalmar 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...
. In 1917, Zeth Höglund and the left-wing were expelled from the party but they regrouped as the Swedish Social Democratic Left Party, which supported the Bolsheviks in Russia and worked for the aim of a communist revolution in Sweden. This new party would soon become the (original) Communist Party of Sweden
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...
(SKP).
In 1916 the left socialists launched their own newspaper, Politiken
Folkets Dagblad Politiken
Politiken, later named Folkets Dagblad - Politiken was a Swedish Communist newspaper that existed from April 1916 to August 1940....
, in which they wrote and published many texts by Lenin, Zinoviev
Grigory Zinoviev
Grigory Yevseevich Zinoviev , born Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky Apfelbaum , was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet Communist politician...
, Bukharin and Karl Radek
Karl Radek
Karl Bernhardovic Radek was a socialist active in the Polish and German movements before World War I and an international Communist leader after the Russian Revolution....
. Both Radek and Bukharin, who spent a lot of time in the neutral Sweden during the World War, had a great influence on the development of the Swedish Socialist Left.
In December 1917, Höglund and Karl Kilbom
Karl Kilbom
Karl Kilbom was a Swedish Socialist politician.-Youth:As the son of a blacksmith, Karl Kilbom grew up in a working-class family of Walloon origin in the small town of Österby outside Uppsala, where he started working in the steel mills at an early age.In the year 1900, a socialist agitator visited...
traveled to Petrograd to visit the Bolsheviks and show their support of the revolution. On their day of arrival, Höglund was invited to see Lenin in the Smolny
Smolny
The Smolny Institute is a Palladian edifice in St Petersburg that has played a major part in the history of Russia.The building was commissioned from Giacomo Quarenghi by the Society for Education of Noble Maidens and constructed in 1806-08 to house the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens,...
. Lenin was in an excellent mood. The Swedish communists were one of the first international groups to visit Soviet Russia
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....
and, by New Year's Eve, the Swedish delegation was joined by Otto Grimlund
Otto Grimlund
Otto Bernhard Grimlund was a Swedish Communist politician.Originally a member of the Swedish Social Democratic Party he joined the revolutionary left-wing in the party split of 1917 and represented the Swedish Social Democratic Left Party at the founding of the Communist International in Moscow in...
and 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...
.
Höglund and Lindhagen were invited to speak to an audience of 10,000 people in Petrograd. The Bolshevik Alexandra Kollontay, who had spent a lot of time in Scandinavia and had become a close friend of the Swedish left socialists, translated the speeches of Lindhagen and Höglund from Swedish to Russian.
Höglund stayed until spring of 1918 in Soviet Russia. He traveled around the country and worked closely with the Bolshevik leaders. He was even offered to be made an honorable corporal in the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
, but he declined. (The position was then offered to the Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
Communist Olav Scheflo
Olav Scheflo
Olav Scheflo was a Norwegian Communist politician and journalist.Olav Scheflo was a member of the Norwegian Labour Party from 1905...
.) Höglund wrote long texts for Politiken
Folkets Dagblad Politiken
Politiken, later named Folkets Dagblad - Politiken was a Swedish Communist newspaper that existed from April 1916 to August 1940....
and managed to keep a great influence over the communist movement in Sweden from abroad.
On his way back to Sweden, Höglund also visited the Reds in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, which at the time was in the throes of the Finnish civil war
Finnish Civil War
The Finnish Civil War was a part of the national, political and social turmoil caused by World War I in Europe. The Civil War concerned control and leadership of The Grand Duchy of Finland as it achieved independence from Russia after the October Revolution in Petrograd...
, which soon ended in White victory.
Comintern
In March 1919, the founding congressFounding Congress of the Comintern
The Founding Congress of the Comintern was an international gathering of communist, revolutionary socialist, and syndicalist delegates held in Moscow which established the Communist International...
of the Communist International (Comintern) took place in Russia, with Otto Grimlund
Otto Grimlund
Otto Bernhard Grimlund was a Swedish Communist politician.Originally a member of the Swedish Social Democratic Party he joined the revolutionary left-wing in the party split of 1917 and represented the Swedish Social Democratic Left Party at the founding of the Communist International in Moscow in...
representing the Swedish Socialist Left. Zeth Höglund worked hard to convince his friends that the Swedish Party should join the Comintern.
During the 2nd World Congress of the Comintern
2nd World Congress of the Comintern
The 2nd World Congress of the Comintern was a gathering of approximately 220 voting and non-voting representatives of Communist and revolutionary socialist political parties from around the world, held in Petrograd and Moscow from July 19 to August 7, 1920...
, which took place in Russia the summer of 1920, Zinoviev
Grigory Zinoviev
Grigory Yevseevich Zinoviev , born Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky Apfelbaum , was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet Communist politician...
spooke: “Unfortunately Comrade Höglund and others who took part along with us in the founding of the Communist International are not here.” Instead Kata Dalström
Kata Dalström
Katarina "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...
was there representing the Swedish communists.
But in the summer of 1921, Zeth Höglund, together with Fredrik Ström
Fredrik Ström
Fredrik Ström was a Swedish Socialist politician and a prolific writer. He held a seat in the Riksdag from 1916 - 1921, and from 1930 - 1938....
and Hinke Bergegren
Hinke Bergegren
Henrik "Hinke" Bergegren was a Swedish Social Democratic politician.Bergegren was an early member of the newly founded Swedish Social Democratic Party and he represented a revolutionary tendency, best described as Anarcho-syndicalism and wrote articles for Brand...
represented Sweden in the third congress of the Comintern held in Moscow, and Höglund worked hard to make the Swedish party accept the Twenty-one Conditions
Twenty-one Conditions
The Twenty-one Conditions, officially the Conditions of Admission to the Communist International, refer to the conditions given by Vladimir Lenin to the adhesion of the socialists to the Third International created in 1919 after the 1917 October Revolution. The conditions were formally adopted by...
for membership in the Communist International, including changing the name from Sweden’s Social Democratic Left Party to the Swedish Communist Party. Some of the party’s members who did not agree to the 21 theses left the party while others, including 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...
, were expelled.
Höglund was elected to the 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...
Executive Committee in 1922. However, in 1924, over disagreement concerning the development of 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...
policies, thinking there was too much direct control from 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...
, Höglund split from Swedish Communist Party and founded his own Communist Party
Communist Party of Sweden (1924)
Communist Party of Sweden was a political party in Sweden led by Zeth Höglund. Höglund broke away from the main SKP in 1924, following disagreements concerning ComIntern policies and functioning. He then set up his own SKP...
. In 1926 he rejoined 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...
, where he was part of the radical left. He still considered himself a Communist until the day he died in 1956, always defending the original ideas of Lenin.
Zeth Höglund was the Mayor of Stockholm from 1940 till 1950.
Zeth Höglund had a street named after him in Leningrad
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
.
Works
- Zeth Höglund is the author of a two volume biography about Hjalmar BrantingHjalmar Brantingwas 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...
.
- His own autobiography is called Minnen i fackelsken (Memories in Torch Light) and is in three volumes: Part I: Glory Days, 1900-1911, Part II: From Branting to Lenin, 1912 - 1916, and Part III, The Revolutionary Years, 1917–1921.
- Zeth’s daughter, Gunhild Höglund completed a fourth volume in the Memories in Torch Light series, called Moscow, There and Back Again, published in 1960.
Further reading
- Kan, Aleksander. Hemmabolsjevikerna. Falun: Carlssons bokförlag, 2005.
- Höglund, Zeth. Glory Days, 1900-1911. (autobiography vol. 1.) Stockholm: Tidens förlag, 1951.
- Höglund, Zeth. From Branting to Lenin, 1912 - 1916. (autobiography vol. 2.) Stockholm: Tidens förlag, 1953.
- Höglund, Zeth. The Revolutionary Years, 1917–1921. (autobiography vol. 3.) Stockholm: Tidens förlag, 1956.
- Lenin's Struggle for a Revolutionary International - Documents, 1907–1916: The Preparatory Years, New York: Pathfinder Press, 1986.
- Founding the Communist International - Proceedings and Documents of the First Congress, March 1919, New York: Pathfinder Press, 1987.