Excerpts from Natasha Gerasimov and Aimo Tuominen,Storming the Gates of Niflheim: The World Revolutionary War in the North (Helsinki, 2017)**
Storming the Gates of Niflheim is a 2017 non-fiction history book by Natasha Gerasimov and Aimo Tuominen which details the chronology of the Second World War in Scandinavia, from the rise in prominence and power of the right in the Nordic countries, to the liberation of Norway by the Allies, and the surrender of the Social Republic of Finland to the ComIntern and of the Second Kingdom of Sweden-Norway to the combined United Nations.
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Midgard in Trouble
The political situation across the world in the aftermath of the Red May Revolution was shaken up considerably. The shock induced by the fact that the American communists had triumphed in the conflict would send the capitals in Europe into a tizzy, scurrying to defend against what they assumed to be an inevitable offensive by the ComIntern.
These fears were not aided by the subsequent rhetoric of the newborn Union of American Socialist Republics, the leadership of which swore to snuff out the beating heart of capitalism and imperialism. The United Kingdom, terrified by these developments, would make haste in forming a series of exceedingly generous deals with the countries that would go on to form the Anti-ComIntern Axis - Germany, Italy, Japan and Brazil.
As such developments occurred on the mainland, the north was by no means idle. The four Nordic nations - Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark - were busy making their own arrangements in light of the changed geopolitical situation.
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Due to the geography of Scandinavia, the four nations that are its primary constituents have had a long, interlinked history until today, in some way or the other. Sweden, Norway and Denmark, in particular, were part of the storied Kalmar Union from 1397 to 1523, after which the Swedes chose to withdraw and pursue their own ambitions, and Denmark and Norway remained in union until 1814, when Norway would be ceded to Sweden as victor’s spoils.
Losses in war to Russia would see Sweden lose considerable parts of its empire and cut down to size, key of which would be the neighbouring lands of Finland, which would effectively end any military adventures on the part of Stockholm for quite some time - at least, until the fifth decade of the 20th century.
This second union with Oslo, however, would not be as long lasting as the Kalmar Union, and would be dissolved in 1905, leading to Norwegian independence. The newly free Kingdom embarked on a spree of industrial development, political reform, academic development and exploration, as it strove to leave its mark on the world.
Meanwhile, Denmark had suffered in prestige after 1814 at the hands of the British and the Prussians and the loss of Norway, and the regaining of its island colonies did not do much to help in that regard. Still, liberalising to an extent after 1848 helped the little Kingdom to survive and flourish, even as revanchist sentiments remained smoldering due to the newly formed German Empire holding on to and claiming Schleswig-Holstein.
It was in this situation that the First World War would eventually break out in 1914, something in which none of Scandinavia would take part in an official manner, due to practical considerations, but the Norwegians did remain friendly to the British, allowing them to use their merchant marine, with all the consequences it entailed as far as the Germans were concerned, as the Kaiserliche Marine began to sink Norwegian mercantile shipping like they would sink warships of the Royal Navy or the Marine Nationale. This would help shape the attitude of Oslo, as well as Copenhagen, and to some extent, Stockholm, concerning Germany for the foreseeable future, as the war wore on, and the situation of the Central Powers became increasingly untenable.
A part of the considerable war reparations wrung out of the former Central Powers would go to Norway, helping to ease the economic blow it had suffered during the war, putting them more firmly in Britain’s orbit for the 1920s, as the newborn Union of Soviet Socialist Republics navigated an increasingly hostile world, and a Finland where their comrades had lost the Finnish Civil War, leading to an independent, but stridently anti-communist Finland, and governments everywhere started to look at the working class with more trepidation than before.
While Denmark (and Norway, to a lesser extent) were able to cool such tensions partly, such was not the case with Sweden, where the government became increasingly confrontational with regards to the proletariat, belying the honeyed words of the Social Democrats regarding the system of the Folkhemmet , who had opposed the October Revolution in 1917, resulting in the sanguinary Ådalen shootings of 1931, which, in retrospect, would make things worse for the domestic situation in Sweden.
To the east, in Finland, where the Reds had been unable to replicate the success of their Russian comrades in 1917, it was quite worse. The Whites were anti-democratic from the beginning and would have instituted a monarchy, had it not been for the defeat of the Kaiserreich , which practically forced them to establish a republic. But the young republic was destined to be strife-ridden in its years, as the Suomen Kommunistinen Puolue (Communist Party of Finland, SKP) was banned from the outset, leading to them simply going underground and acting via front organisations and outfits, like the Suomen Sosialistinen Työväenpuolue (Socialist Workers’ Party of Finland, SSTP), as they kept up the thankless struggle against the government and the White Guard, leading to a spate of incidents that kept the situation rather ebullient through the 1920s, like the Pork mutiny, the assassination of Heikki Ritavuori, the Vaasa riots, the Peasant March, the killing of Onni Happonen, the kidnapping of the first Finnish President, Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg, and the Mäntsälä rebellion.
Such was the state of affairs in northern Europe when the Red May Revolution took place in the New World, and like the rest of Europe, Scandinavia would be changed forever….
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Beyond the predictable shock that was common to all the capitals of note across the world, the reaction of northern Europe to the developments in the former United States was different in each state.
Oslo was the least perturbed of the four, due to their proximity to the United Kingdom and France, and confidence that their system of class collaborationist social democracy would allow them to defang the Norges Kommunistiske Parti (Communist Party of Norway, NKP), while hopefully scuppering any right-wing political sentiment. But it would be little more than a pipe dream, especially as the NKP (even considering the fact that they had been staunch Muscovites through the 1920s), like most communist parties across the world, were now growing increasingly hopeful of building up strength for the revolutions that would lead to the establishment of “Den sosialistiske verdensrepublikken ”. This would hardly go unanswered, as in 1933, the Nasjonal Samling (National Gathering), the fascist outfit that would go on to become the Norwegian face of the Second Kingdom of Sweden-Norway, was formed, with direct and indirect backing from the Fascist regime in Rome and the newborn Nazi regime in Berlin, setting the stage for increased political tensions and domestic strife in Norway for the rest of the 1930s.
København (Copenhagen) was indeed worried by the Red May Revolution, it is true, but events across the border to the south were of a higher priority to them at the time. The vitriolic revanchism of the Nazis terrified the Social Democrats who were in power, and they were concerned that it might not be too long before a demand was served upon them, to give up Schleswig-Holstein, or face military force. It did lead to a spike of sorts in the support for the Danmarks Kommunistiske Parti (Communist Party of Denmark, DKP), though.
In Stockholm, the political atmosphere had been charged due to the Ådalen shootings, and the Second American Revolution did not help matters at all, as the Sveriges Kommunistiska Parti (Communist Party of Sweden, SKP), having suffered from a bitter factional feud between the two predominant fractions - the Kilbommare , followers of Karl Kilbom, who had been expelled from the party in 1929 by the Moscow loyalists, the Sillénare , who were lesser in numbers, but had the backing of the VKP(b) - would see an American-backed effort at reconciliation and reunification that ended with the Kilbommare , who had by now shifted to a hardline DeLeonist stance, taking back control of the party, as was evinced by Nils Flyg becoming the new Chairman and the political exile of Hugo Sillén. This inevitably led to the right coalescing together, under the newly established Nationalsocialistiska Arbetarepartiet (National Socialist Workers’ Party, NSAP), under Sven Olof Lindholm, and the Svenska Nationalsocialistiska Partiet (Swedish National Socialist Party, SNSP) under Birger Furugård, who had a rivalry of sorts between them, but would now have to swallow it and work together under directions from Berlin, Rome and Tokyo, as it would turn out.
For Helsinki, this was nothing short of Ragnarok - the end of the world. They had been mentally prepared to fight the Soviets, but could never have imagined that they would get an ally as strong as America. The effects of it would be felt on the Eduskunta elections later in 1933, as the Social Democrats saw a sharp drop in the number of seats they secured from the last election in 1930 from 66 to 27. The Agrarians, who had been expected to see a drop in support even in 1932, went from 59 to 20. These losses were mirrored by gains on the right, with the ticket of the right-wing Isänmaallinen Vaaliliitto (Patriotic Electoral Alliance, IVL) composed of the Kansallinen Kokoomus (National Coalition Party), the Isänmaallinen Kansanliike (Patriotic People’s Movement, IKL) and the relatively new Suomen Kansan Järjestö (Finnish People’s Movement, SKJ), securing a combined total of 112 seats (Kokoomus : 62, IKL: 20, SKJ: 30). The Suomen Ruotsalainen Kansanpuolue (Swedish People’s Party of Finland, RKP) saw a drop across the board in its vote share, alongside a drop in seats from 20 to 10. The surprise gainers of the elections were the Kansallinen Edistyspuolue (National Progressive Party, KEP), who saw a moderate increase in their seats from 11 to 31. After a few rounds of tense negotiations, an agreement was reached between the IVL and the RKP regarding the distribution of ministries in the new coalition government, with Juho Kusti Paasikivi of Kokoomus being selected as Prime Minister.
The new government marked a sharp turn to the right for Finland, which had so far been maintaining the veneer of bourgeois democracy. Now, they were beginning to lay the foundations for something big, as was evident in the number of Finnish delegations that visited Germany, Italy and Japan, alongside Britain and France in the next few years, seeking all means of industrial and economic aid, along with pacts of military co-operation and solidarity.
The rest of Scandinavia watched in concern as their easternmost constituent diver deeper into reaction, and the red banners of revolution spread through the New World, wondering what path to take to navigate these new turbulent times safely.
The rest of the 1930s would lead to further churning in the Norse lands, as the fear induced by the revolutions of the early 1930s crystallized into a virulent hatred of the ComIntern and a desperation to crush it. But that is for a later time.
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The Harbingers of Hatred and the Winds of Discontent
The rise of the right in Norway, Sweden and Finland can be attributed to a number of causes, not the least of which was the presence of certain individuals with drive, motivation and charisma, who built up movements and harnessed the contemporary sentiments to bolster support for them. The three aforementioned countries had such men who would lead their respective nations towards what they believed to be the equivalent of Ragnarok on Midgard, and open one of the most grueling fronts of the World Revolutionary War in the process.
We will start with Vidkun Quisling, the man whom the Swedes and the rest of the Stahlpakt chose to recognise as the Fører of Swedish Norway in all but name, and directed the collaborationist authority that was set up by Stockholm to take care of the situation there, as part of measures to build up support for the Second Kingdom.
Born in 18 July 1887 to a pastor and the daughter of a local magnate and businessman, Quisling was of a gentle nature and a very good student, eventually going on to enroll at the Norwegian Military Academy with a very high score in the entrance examination. He would transfer to the Norwegian Military College and graduate with the highest score, going on to join the army General Staff. While initially disdainful of the peace movement, the high body count of the First World War tempered such views.
In March 1918, he was sent to Russia as an attaché at the Norwegian legation in Petrograd, to take advantage of the five years he had spent studying the country. Even though he was dismayed at the living conditions he experienced, Quisling nonetheless concluded that “the Bolsheviks have got an extraordinarily strong hold on Russian society” and marvelled at how Trotsky had managed to mobilise the Red Army forces so well. In contrast, he felt that the Provisional Government under Kerensky had been nothing but suicidal in its actions. He would go on to serve in a diplomatic capacity in Helsinki, and author a report that would be instrumental in providing aid to the devastated city of Kharkiv. After the aid mission to Ukraine ended in 1923, Quisling would head to Paris, where we would study works of political theory and get an article he had written calling for diplomatic recognition of the USSR published in the Tidens Tegn. Eventually, he returned to Norway, where he was drawn into the fledgling Norwegian communist movement, making suggestions to the NKP leadership about things like forming a people’s militia, and offering to spy on the General Staff for them, but his ideas met with no response from the Politburo.
In 1925, Quisling would tour Armenia with his friend, Fridtjof Nansen, and made some proposals to help repatriate Armenians, including the victims of the Armenian genocide. However, the Soviets stonewalled all of them, leading to the first cracks in his hitherto positive opinion of them.
The fact that Quisling would be accused of smuggling millions of rubles via diplomatic channels in the black markets, and Moscow’s rejection of an attempt by Nansen to provide aid to Ukraine after the 1928 famine, would be the straw that broke the camel’s back, and he left the Soviet Union for good in 1929, his politics by now set rightwards.
After his return, he would write a book, “Russia and Ourselves”, that called for war against communism and was full of racist screed, following it up with founding the “Nordisk folkereisning i Norge ” (Nordic popular rising in Norway), which was the progenitor of the Nasjonal Samling.
In 1931 and 1932, Quisling would serve as Defence Minister in two successive Agrarian governments, and in that position play an active role in combating conflicts like Menstad by sending in armed forces, in a sharp escalation of tensions between the Norwegian proletariat and the Norwegian bourgeoisie.
During this time, he would be attacked by a knife-wielding man who threw ground pepper in his face; an incident that would deeply divide and polarise the country. While support for him shot up amongst the right, the left (both revolutionary and reformist) were of the opinion that the attack was staged. Politicians of the ruling Labor Party did in fact bring this up in the Storting , prompting Quisling to threaten a lawsuit for slander. When he did talk about the same in Parliament, he went on an unrestrained rant against the DNA and NKP, denouncing them as “criminals and enemies of our fatherland and our people.” While this gave him an appreciable base of support, it was seen as political suicide in the Storting at the time, due to not having provided any tangible evidence, and having given an impression that he was exaggerating the communist threat to serve his own cause.
The events of 1933, however, ended up vindicating Quisling and his tirade, as he now had fresh ammunition for his speeches, which grew more and more ferocious by the day. With the Second American Revolution came fears that Europe, now under revolutionary encirclement, could be attacked by the Soviets and the Americans some time in the future - a sentiment upon which Vidkun, his brothers, and his party leaders played upon and appealed to, even as the NKP itself became ever so bolder and more willing to confront their foes. With his sights now firmly set on countering the red menace, the next elections of the Storting in 1935 would be the moment of truth for his party.
In Sweden, there were two such individuals of this sort. However, our focus will lie more on Sven Olof Lindholm, the leader of the NSAP and the Prime Minister of the Second Kingdom of Sweden-Norway.
Born on 8 February 1903, Lindholm would join the Swedish Army quite early, rising to the rank of Sergeant. While stationed in Stockholm, he was drawn to Elof Eriksson, a proto-fascist who was notable for his virulent anti-communism and anti-Semitism. Taking Eriksson’s views to heart, he along with Konrad Hallgren, a soldier who had served in the Imperial German Army during the First World War, would set up the Sveriges Fascistiska Folkparti (Fascist People’s Party of Sweden), which would be the beginning of Lindholm’s long tryst with reactionary politics.
Initially following the path shown by Benito Mussolini and the PNF, Lindholm would change course on the matters of ideology after a visit to Germany in 1929, where he found the doctrine of Nazism to be more suitable to his taste, so much so that the party was renamed to the Sveriges Nationalsocialistiska Folkparti (National Socialist People’s Party of Sweden).
Later on, after seeing through the splitting off of the Nysvenska Folkförbundet (New Swedish People’s League), it would merge with the same outfit later on in 1930, giving rise to the Svenska Nationalsocialistiska Partiet (Swedish National Socialist Party, SNSP) where Lindholm would come into contact with Birger Furugård.
While initially subordinate to Furugård, who was considered to be the tallest leader of the Swedish far right, after 1933 and the Red May Revolution, the balance of power would shift towards Lindholm, who was by now developing an affinity for Strasserism and had built up sufficient influence in the party to outmaneuver his superior.
Furugård would make attempts to regain his position amongst the Swedish far right, whose time he and Lindholm, among many others, to an extent rightly believed had come, in the face of the belligerent rhetoric of the newly formed United Republics, whose leadership had taken on a position in line with that of Trotsky concerning the international communist movement, but he would not be successful - for one, most of the party members had sided with Lindholm, whom they saw as the new Riksledare , and they were wholeheartedly endorsing his program of “Strasserism with Swedish characteristics”, as he called it. A visit to Berlin in late 1934 did nothing - the NSDAP leadership clearly saw something in his former second-in-command that was not in him, and told him in no uncertain terms that he should stop bickering and work with Lindholm to craft a direction for the NSAP in the upcoming Riksdag elections. Realising that there was no way out, Furugård decided to bury the hatchet with Lindholm and work together to prepare a roadmap for the next election.
Last but not the least, we will move on to Arvi Kalsta, the self-proclaimed Suurjohtaja (Great Leader) and Pääministeri (Prime Minister) of the Suomen Sosiaalinen Tasavalta (Social Republic of Finland), a rather remarkable aberration borne out of the idiosyncrasies and balancing acts that had to be undertaken in order to enact the deadly, dastardly agenda of Suur-Suomi (Greater Finland), about which we shall talk later. For now, we will keep our focus on the man himself, who nurtured this ambition like his own brainchild.
The amount of information on Kalsta that is at our disposal is not quantitatively comparable to that on Quisling and Lindholm, mainly due to many documents and records being burned by his party when their fortunes in the World Revolutionary War turned against them. Still, from what we have been able to salvage, and from old intelligence records, as well as relevant documents in the Norwegian and Swedish archives, we can piece together a rather clear and complete picture.
Born on 14 October 1890 as Arvid Daniel Grönberg, not much is known of Kalsta’s childhood and adolescent years, other than the fact that his academic achievements were disrupted. He had studied in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Helsinki University of Technology from 1912 to 1915, but did not get a degree. Later on, he would study at the Faculty of Law at the University of Helsinki in 1931-1932, but again not graduate.
What is known with more certainty, however, is Kalsta’s service record in the First World War. He enrolled in the Lockstedter Jäger training camp in northern Germany on 25 February 1915. From 9 November, he was placed in the 27th Jäger Battalion, and would go on to serve in the Eastern Front, on the Misse river and the Gulf of Riga, after which he would be sent for special missions to northern Sweden and Finland from 4 December 1916 to 14 October 1917. He would be promoted to Captain in the course of the war, and eventually return to Finland in the throes of civil war. He joined the Whites as the commander of the second company of the 1st Jäger Battalion of the 1st Jäger Regiment. This unit would take part in the battles for Tampere, Kämärä and Vyborg, and Kalsta would develop a reputation for brutality in the field of combat, something that made him the target of quite a few assassination attempts by the Finnish Reds and earned him an appointment as the commander of the White Guard’s Jäger Battalion. At this point, it seemed that a promising military career lay in front of him, but due to an incident where he shot a Polish POW who had received special permission to carry a weapon by the White General, Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, it would be jeopardized. Even though Mannerheim let him off lightly, only sentencing him to a month of imprisonment, he still chose to resign from military service some months later.
Kalsta first cut his teeth in right-wing politics with the Suomen Lalli-liitto (Lalli Alliance of Finland), an outfit which aimed to carry out a coup d’etat, and establish a dictatorship. While it did not succeed, it did provide a model of action for its successor, the infamous Lapuanliike (Lapua Movement), whose legacy was nothing more than stirring up the hornet’s nest in a country whose domestic situation was never particularly placid. Abductions, beatings, murders - nothing was left untouched by the Lapuans, and with each incident, they grew increasingly bold and reckless, until they gave an ultimatum to the government after the Vaasa Riots. It would lead to a protracted battle of nerves between one of Kalsta’s colleagues, Vihtori Kosola, and the first Prime Minister of Finland, Pehr Evind Svinhufvud - one that Kosola would end up losing, no matter what he did.
The Mäntsälä Rebellion, better known as the Mäntsälä Fiasco, would see the end of the Lapua Movement, as poor coordination between the various elements of the LL, coupled with the loyalty of the White Guard to the government, broke any chance of success the mutiny might have had. Svinhufvud, then President of Finland, managed to convince the rebels to surrender, leading to a trial where General Kurt Martti Wallenius and 50 others were imprisoned, and the Lapua Movement banned under the provisions of the Protection of the Republic Act on 21 November 1932 - a cruel, sadistic irony, considering that they had fought so hard to get this act passed in the Eduskunta.
By then, having already taken a trip to Germany, where he had observed the inner workings and activities of the NSDAP in full detail, Kalsta had shifted gears and formed a party, the SKJ, based on his observations, keeping the conditions of Finland in mind. It would be the lynchpin for further right-wing radicalization of Finnish society during the 1930s, as the events of 1933 prompted a soul-searching in all quarters of the world.
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The first signs that a fundamental shift had occurred in Scandinavia was the rise of newly formed right-wing parties in the parliamentary elections of the early 1930s.
Much like Finland, 1933 had led to gears turning in Norwegian politics, the evidence of which was best borne by the Storting elections later that year. Until the beginning of 1933, the DNA had been seeing a steady rise in support, something that had been undercut by the successful revolutions in the New World later on. The Høyre (Conservatives) and Venstre (Liberals), Norway’s oldest political parties, were seeing a soft decline in support at the same time. The seeds for both left-wing and right-wing politics were there, but they were not germinating. In this situation, it wasn’t really a surprise that the Second American Revolution became the central theme of everyone’s campaign, and in the charged atmosphere brought about by the Second Red Scare, the more mainstream political parties were left searching for answers that could only be provided by the ends and fringes of the political spectrum. The DNA would manage a modest increase in its numbers, from 47 to 58, with cuts to their victory margins, making them the largest party, but well short of the mark of 76, needed for a majority. The Høyre and the Venstre saw moderate drops in their numbers, from 39 to 25 for the former and from 33 to 18 for the latter. What was truly shocking, however, happened to be the sharp drop in support for the Bondepartiet (Farmers’ Party), as a moderate part of their rural and agrarian support base was usurped by the newly formed Nasjonal Samling , dropping from 25 to 15. As for the NS themselves, this was the best electoral debut they could have hoped for, securing 24 seats. This would place them in a good position to take on the NKP, who had a decent showing of their own, winning 10 seats. This result prompted the DNA to enter into talks with the leadership of the Conservatives, the Liberals and the Farmer’s Party to form a broad coalition to “protect the Norwegian system of social welfare and democracy from threats on both the left and the right.” Thus, Norway got its first “Storkoalisjon” (Grand Coalition) government, which would have been unthinkable before, but was now a possibility in the face of an increasingly uncertain and tense world. It would not be the last, as the government would be re-elected in the 1940 Storting elections, albeit with reductions in its numbers, as the NS and the NKP saw increases in their respective support bases, with a corresponding increase in political violence, something that the governing parties would differ on how to combat effectively, yet barely succeed in reducing the worst of.
In Denmark, where the political atmosphere had been more shaken by the rise of the NSDAP and the formation of the Third Reich, the Socialdemokratiet (Social Democrats), who under Thorvald Stauning had maintained a continuous presence in the Danish political scene from 1924, were actually able to boost their numbers appreciably in the 1935 Folketing election, from 62 to 92, while the Danish Conservatives suffered a serious drop in support, going down from 27 to 13, mirrored by similar developments for the Danish Liberals, who dropped from 38 to 16. However, the real surprise of the election was the surge of support for the DKP, who saw their numbers shoot up to 17, primarily at the expense of the Danish Social Liberals and the newly formed Danish Farmers’ Party. This left the Social Democrats without any meaningful opposition in the Folketing , and it posed a question for them - what to do about the Communists? Some proposed keeping them at arms’ length, while others, who were more left-leaning, proposed that they form the political equivalent of a non-aggression pact with them. After a moderately heated debate, it would be the latter line of thinking that would prevail, over the objections of the more conservative members of the party, who were worried as to the message this sent to Berlin. They would be met with the counter argument that having gotten Schleswig-Holstein from the Kaiserreich after the First World War, there was virtually no ghost of a chance of any sort of reconciliation with the Nazis, given the sort of rhetoric that their leadership was spewing on a daily basis. The cold reception they had gotten from London and Paris when they had posed the possibility of Germany launching a military action to take back Schleswig-Holstein, as well as the fate of their German and Finnish counterparts also weighed on their mind, as they made the decision to send emissaries to the DKP.
For their part, the DKP was wracked with indecision on the matter, wondering if it was a ploy on the part of the Social Democrats, whom they had been regularly pillorying since Aksel Larsen had taken charge of the party. While the “Popular Front” strategy of combating right-wing political forces was by then the norm of the ComIntern, the argument was made, both by the Muscovites and the DeLeonists, that it wouldn’t work out here, primarily due to the simple fact that the Social Democrats enjoyed a clear majority in the Folketing , and thus, would not see the necessity of such a front. The decision was taken to at least hear them out.
The following conversation revealed, much to the DKP’s surprise, that the Social Democrats were really concerned regarding the developments in Germany, Norway, Sweden and Finland, and genuinely wished to work something out. This meeting laid the foundations for the Stauning-Larsen Pact - a confidence and supply agreement between the Social Democrats and the DKP, that would come into immediate effect, and be maintained in all Folketing elections in the near future.
In Sweden, there had been a steady rise in anti-communist sentiment after 1933, something that pretty much every party on the political scene there tried to take advantage of, even as the SKP got its house in order under a new leadership, preparing for the 1936 Riksdag elections. The Socialdemokraterna , who were not particularly far from the majority in the last election, would see a moderate drop in numbers, from 104 to 89, with considerable reductions in their victory margins. As it turned out, with the exception of the SKP - who made moderate gains, from 11 to 33 - all the other parties would see drops in support (The Bondeförbundet (Farmers’ League): 36 to 19, the Allmänna Valmansförbundet (General Electoral League): 58 to 25, the Folkpartiet (People’s Party): 24 to 14), making way for the Svenska Nationalsocialistiska Förbundet (National Socialist Union of Sweden, SNSF), a unification of all the right-wing parties and outfits in Sweden under a single banner, which announced its arrival on the electoral stage with a bang, securing 50 seats and the position of the main opposition to the Social Democrats, who they denounced as the “dogs of the Judeo-Communist scum in Moscow and D.C.” The end result was an uncomfortable coalition government between the Social Democrats, the Farmers’ League, and the People’s Party with a very slim majority, and a vociferous opposition to the same, albeit divided into two sharply opposed camps, and the AVF standing in the middle of it all, kept at arms’ length by both the government (who felt they would be too difficult to negotiate with) and the SNSF (who felt they were too weak for the job). The new Riksdag would be very confrontational in nature, as Per Albin Hansson would have to negotiate the demands of his coalition partners, while trying to fight off constant charges of “pandering to the Communists” from the charismatic Sven Olof Lindholm, now the parliamentary leader of the SNSF. The fact that Lindholm had a friendly relationship with King Gustaf V did not help matters, and the King’s own history of having dismissed the Liberal government of Karl Staaff made them even more wary, causing them to look with unease at the Stockholm Palace for the rest of their term.
In Finland, which had seen its first proper right-wing government since its formation, there had been an undercurrent of political tension ever since then. The old guard of Kokoomus , led by the strong-willed Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, were suspicious of their coalition partners, for different reasons. The IKL, being formed almost entirely of former Lapua Movement members, was very obviously under the scanner. The RKP had been seen as spokespersons for an ethnic minority so far, but with the rightward political drift in the North, there was no telling in which direction they would turn. But it was the SKJ who had Svinhufvud the most worried, for he had no affinity for Nazism or fascism, and thus, struggled to comprehend the rhetoric used by Kalsta and his party.
There was tension from other quarters as well. Kosola and the IKL may have accepted the SKJ as political allies, but beneath the surface, most of them saw them as rivals, interlopers and German puppets (the last being the opinion of the fringe). For their part, the SKJ, whose members had at one point or the other witnessed or taken part in at least one operation of the IKL, saw them as little more than incompetent street thugs, with more brawn than brain. The results of the elections in 1933 had exacerbated matters, with the IKL feeling like they had gotten the short end of the stick, and the SKJ feeling a bit more emboldened. Still, the alliance held on, due to a particularly strong common factor - their poor opinion of Kokoomus , due to hatred on part of the IKL, and derisive contempt on part of the SKJ.
The Suomen Sosialidemokraattinen Puolue (Social Democratic Party of Finland, SDP) was in the crosshairs of the new government from the first day, with the SKJ not bothering to conceal their hatred for them, denouncing them as “the pet serpents of the tyrannical, godless Bolsheviks in Russia and America”. The Maalaisliitto (Agrarian League) managed to dip under the radar by cutting off all ties with the SDP, but it didn’t really matter as they were now sliding into political irrelevance. The National Progressives found themselves regarded with belittling contempt - a line that was all too similar to what the Nazis had done, and the SKJ sought to emulate the same.
It began with the proposition of amendments to the notorious “Communist Laws”, which would extend the restrictions imposed on the SKP to the SDP - in essence, banning them in a de facto sense.
While the Communist Laws had relatively broad-based support from the Finnish society, the new amendments were something of a gamble on the SKJ’s part. The IKL were all for stopping the activities of the SKP, but this was something they hadn’t really considered themselves. Half of the party, under Kosola, felt that this was a needless distraction from the true goal, whereas another half - under Vilho Annala, who had become increasingly sympathetic and attuned to the SKJ’s rhetoric - was of the opinion that this was but a natural conclusion of their anti-communist crusade, and were in full support of it. As for Kokoomus , they were deeply concerned by the developments, and felt that this was going a bit too far, even if they did not care much for the SDP themselves. If it had been in the hands of Svinhufvud, he would have made arrangements for the bills to be defeated by voting in the Eduskunta , but he was outmaneuvered by the radicals in his party, led by Veijo Makkonen*, who had been advocating for a Finland free of “Communist subversives and their Social Democratic helpers, whether legally or extralegally”. The National Progressives were outright opposed to it, as were the Agrarians, who rightly feared that they would be next on the chopping block.
What followed was a chaotic shouting match in the Eduskunta , where the SDP, the Agrarians, and the National Progressives were united and up in arms against the “tyrannical amendments that would serve no purpose other than to weaken the democratic institutions of the Republic.” It is speculated that the moderates in Kokoomus would have broken off from the party line, and were prevented from doing so by a mix of persuasion, convincing arguments and threats about a myriad of bad fates to befall either then or their families and friends. Thus, the amendments passed in the face of strong, but impotent objections, pushing Finland one step closer to becoming an authoritarian, fascist regime.
It was only the enhanced communist threat and the resultant Second Red Scare that had kept Svinhufvud silent, but he was starting to brainstorm for ideas as to how to deal with the SKJ and the IKL, none of which, he realised, were possible without the support of the White Guard. As much as he disliked the idea, he convinced himself that it was for the best, that Finland could not fall to deranged right-wing hooligans.
Whether it would have succeeded, and what it could have led to is something we will never know, as Svinhufvud would be betrayed by his secretary, who had developed an affinity for Nazism after listening to a speech by Kalsta. It would lead to a purge of the moderates in Kokoomus by the radicals, with a few notable exceptions, such as Paasikivi. As for the incumbent President, he would be impeached, taken into custody and tried for treason in November 1934, where he would be sentenced to life imprisonment - itself rather contentious, as he had been a hero of sorts of the Civil War, and still held a measure of respect among the populace. Kalsta actually had to visit Mannerheim and talk him into not opposing whatever sentence it was that would be given, and for the moment, the White General would be pacified, although he was worried as to the direction in which Finland was heading.
His fears were not unfounded, as the 1936 Eduskunta elections would show. Having broken the back of the SDP with the newly amended Communist Laws, and a spate of targeted political violence, along with a barrage of anti-communist, pro-Nazi propaganda, the IVL was in a comfortable zone regarding the electoral procedures. So while it was not surprising that they gained a supermajority, the real surprise lay in the numbers obtained by each constituent of the coalition.
The SKJ, who had been benefiting massively from funding and training by the Germans and the Italians, had been working hard to build and expand their base of support since 1933, which saw them snatch the remaining 10 seats with a strong Swedish presence away from the RKP, effectively condemning it to political irrelevance and oblivion, alongside taking quite a few seats at the expense of the IKL. The rise in their numbers - from 30 to 120 - was nothing short of a spectacle. The IKL did see a boost in their numbers, but it would be subdued due to the SKJ’s encroachment. Still, a rise from 20 to 45 was nothing to scoff at. And as for Kokoomus , where once they had been the largest member of the coalition, now they were the smallest - reduced to 25 from 62, due in part to their inability to properly shift gears towards full-fledged fascism, and a lack of proper understanding of the ideology. The SDP, effectively crippled by the triple prongs of law, propaganda and assault, were nearly wiped out at the hustings, securing a measly 3 seats, with the Agrarians and the National Progressives being in a similar situation (4 and 3 seats respectively).
Buoyed by the results, on 16 July, 1936, Kalsta, along with Annala and Makkonen, would give a long speech to the Finnish people, hailing the electoral victory as a “sign of national rejuvenation, of an awakening of the Finnish people as a whole, as we are confronted with a threat that is not unfamiliar to us, but has been reinforced considerably in the past few years. It falls upon us to decide if Finland is to survive these dark, turbulent times, and come out triumphant in the great struggle against the Judeo-Bolshevik menace, or be crushed underfoot by our failure to do so.”
The speech wasn’t simply an attempt at political grandstanding and triumphalism, as some might be misled into thinking. It was also the declaration of the formation of a new order, as the triumvirate that would come to dominate Finland from then on declared the formation of the Social Republic of Finland, with the new flag of the new nation being unfurled that very day, to initially confused and surprised, but eventually enthusiastic and jubilant cheers from the north to the south.
All except one. The White General, Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim had hitherto been quiet, and had been convinced by Kalsta that the imprisonment of Svinhufvud was in the best interests of the country, but the July Declaration was a step too far for the aristocratic and monarchistic general of Swedish origin, and he was quite close to breaking his self-imposed abstinence from politics, and harness his influence among the populace, calling upon them to resist this coup d’etat, before he was talked out of it by his staff, who told him that the public mood was strongly in favor of the SKJ and their allies, and notwithstanding his status as a hero of the Civil War, his appeal was not likely to be received well. Shortly after, the triumvirate came to visit him, and in a respectful manner, told him that this was now how things would proceed on, and that there was no other way forward. They wished to build a new Finland, preferably one with him in it - for none of them wished to incarcerate him like Svinhufvud - but if he chose to oppose them, then they would have no choice but to arrange for his resignation and departure to Sweden in an all-expenses paid, one way trip. After some deliberation, Mannerheim chose to stay back, with the rider that he would stay out of politics as before.
……
In comparison to 1933, the shockwave caused by 1936 was not as intense, but it was not without effect, as the chatter in the capitals of Europe, and to some extent, the Americas, would show.
The Germans and the Italians extended their warmest wishes to the fledgling Social Republic, hailing them as “brothers in the struggle against Judaic Communism”. The Japanese sent a message in a similar vein, praising them for “being a steadfast bastion against subversive internationalism”. Missives following the same line came in from Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, and the White American exile regime in Cuba. Beyond these congratulatory telegrams, though, were promises of economic and industrial cooperation, alongside promises of support in case the Soviets made any military action against them, leaving open the possibility of an expansive alliance to oppose the ComIntern.
The response in London was of mild concern, as the new regime had come to power on rhetoric not only against the communist powers, but also the liberal ones as well. Still, there was hope that they would be able to work out something in the way of proper relations, considering Finland’s geopolitical situation. It would be slightly tricky, as the pitch was queered by the Finnish political exiles who came in, seeking asylum and support. They received the former, but not the latter, thanks to geopolitical considerations on the part of Downing Street and Westminster, who did not wish to disrupt a potential co-belligerent, if not an ally, in the inevitable war against the Vladivostok Compact.
In Paris, the mood of the Popular Front government was one of serious concern, as they found the new regime all too reminiscent of their neighbours to the east - something that made them contemplate the idea of diplomatic non-recognition, only to face vociferous protests from the PPF and the PFNC over the issue. The succeeding Radical government, which survived due to the external support of the PPNCF, not only maintained the status quo, but also entertained some Finnish military and ministerial delegations that came visiting from 1937 onwards.
In Oslo, the ruling Storkoalisjon was quite appreciably concerned by the developments in Finland, and debated furiously as to what this could mean for them, as Kalsta and his allies had at the same time, attacked the ruling parties of the Norwegian government, while at the same time calling for a Scandinavia united against the “scourge of Bolshevism”, injecting fresh energy into the NS and the Quisling brothers, who now began to step up their opposition to the government, alongside taking the fight against the NKP in the streets to a new level.
In Stockholm, the Hansson government was paralyzed by fear and indecision, even as the SNSF and its leadership smelt blood in the air, seeking to put more pressure on the beleaguered cabinet by raising demands for a set of laws that would put stringent restrictions on the activities of the SKP - in effect, all but banning them. Failure to do so, Lindholm warned, would see the SNSF carry out protest marches across the breadth of Sweden, and an escalation in violence.
The Social Democrats were not in much a position to refuse, as their coalition government was built on a foundation of sand, and with the public sentiment going increasingly rightward, they were well aware that if their government was dismissed (which the King was well within his powers to do, and had already done in the past), they were very unlikely to be re-elected. So they assented to the demand, tabling the bills in the Riksdag , where they were passed and made into law, over the loud and outraged objections of the SKP lawmakers, who tried their best to stop their passage, but to no avail.
In København, the Social Democrat government of Thorvald Stauning had already been worried enough about the Third Reich, and the birth of the Finnish Social Republic had not helped matters, along with the rise of the NS in Norway and the SNSF in Sweden, left them sweating nervously, fearful that they were next on the block. These developments played a role in making the Social Democrats, who earlier had been opposed to the DKP, amenable to talks with them at this stage, which would see the formation of the aforementioned pact between them, where the DKP promised that they would support the government externally, and not run candidates in Social Democratic strongholds, with the Social Democrats making a similar promise to leave DKP strongholds untouched during the elections.
As for the USSR, to say that they were concerned is severely underestimating it. The GRU had been more focused on the Red May Revolution in 1933, leaving them a little blindsided by the elections in Finland. In spite of this, they tracked every development in their hostile neighbour, basically waiting for the proverbial shoe to drop, which did so three years later. Their first reaction to this clearly Nazi-inspired rogue state was of annoyance and resignation, for it seemed all too likely that this regime would form an alliance with Germany and Italy in the near future. Any sort of attack on Finland had become more complicated now, with Britain and France likely to threaten intervention as well.
The UASR, by contrast, was far less worried by the developments in Finland, being more focused (to a fault) on the British Empire, and the inevitable war that they believed would come from that quarter. While a commendable line of thinking for the longer term, the problem was that this left them with a blind spot regarding the fascist powers of the to-be-formed Anti-ComIntern Axis. Thus, in spite of the files compiled by the efforts of MDSS Section 1 and the MRD, with the assistance of the GUGB, Finland would be of peripheral interest to the American Cenexecom at best.
……
The first order of business for the newly formed Finnish Social Republic was to identify whatever elements of opposition that remained in the country after the July Declaration, and move against them in quick order and succession.
The first on the list were the Social Democrats, of whom there were not too many left - more than a few had fled Finland for Britain and France via a circuitous route, zigzagging through the rest of Scandinavia ever since the amended Communist Laws came into effect. The government had contemptuously allowed them to flee, secure in the belief that they were powerless and without allies of any sort. Of those who had chosen to stay back, some would be subject to political persecution and eventual execution, after finding them guilty of whatever charges they decided to cook up in their kangaroo courts. A few others would get the hint and go underground, trying to organise a silent resistance against the fascists and ultranationalists in Helsinki. In this they would find unlikely bedfellows in the SKP, who greeted them with a mixture of concealed amusement and open derision, but did not turn them away, hoping to convince them to turn them from social democracy and see the truths of socialism. It was quite similar with the Agrarians and the National Progressives, some of whom would be persecuted and executed, some would flee to Western Europe, and some would go underground and try to resist the regime from within. Thus, the two organisations that would be the nucleus of the underground Finnish resistance would be formed - the liberal leaning Suomen Demokraattienliitto (League of Finnish Democrats, SDL) and the leftist Suomen Vapautusken Kansanrintama (Popular Front for the Liberation of Finland, SVK), the latter of which, owing to it being mostly comprised of SKP cadres, earned it support from the Executive Committee of the ComIntern. The SDL would struggle to gain support from Britain and France, as neither were interested in causing an upheaval in Finland, no matter how distasteful the SKJ, the IKL and the newly renamed Kansanllinen Nuorennuspuolue¹ (National Rejuvenation Party, Nuorennus) were.
……
The Social Republic of Finland was a strange creature of compromise and ideology, mixed to produce something that has left political analysts baffled in trying to understand it.
While it was indeed a state that followed the dark ideology of Nazism in many aspects, with some changes in order to accommodate it to the conditions of Finland, it had its oddities as well.
For starters, it retained the electoral system - something that was not a thing in Germany, and existed in a convoluted fashion in Italy, if it could even be said to exist at all. The elections were, of course, restricted to the three main parties - the SKJ, the IKL and Nuorennus , which had absorbed the right wing of the National Progressives, among whom was Risto Ryti - the future President of the Social Republic.
In a way, it could be called a dark mirror of the United Republics - a perverted parody of the shining example and torchbearer of true proletarian democracy in the New World.
Another point of interest was the Social Republic’s flag - a very curious example of right-wing vexillography. The new flag of Finland was an interesting reflection of the ruling triumvirate, with a black Nordic cross against a dark blue background, with a modified version of the symbol of the Lapuanliike (the rider on the bear carried a rifle and the two L’s were removed) in the upper left quadrant, along with a hakaristi (Hooked cross) in white in the centre of the Nordic cross. The color scheme and the altered Lapua Movement icon spoke of the influence of the IKL, while the retention of the old Nordic cross, in a way, pointed at the Nuorennus , who were reminders of the old Republic and the old order. The hakaristi in the centre was an indicator of the ideals and ideology that were the nation’s driving force, and representative of the SKJ in particular.
The economy practised by the Social Republic was a mix of autarkism and foreign investment, as Finland strove for industrial self-sufficiency, building factories and developing mines, alongside prospecting to find new deposits, to that end, while at the same time pitching for joint ventures between their domestic companies and those of countries they deemed friendly. This led to the Finnish economy receiving a healthy boost, as German, Italian, Japanese and Swedish investments flowed in.
These developments coincided with an overhauling of the military, as the General Staff was ordered to prepare contingency plans in case of a full-scale invasion by the USSR, with the aid of the UASR. The resultant plans and exercises confirmed what had been known earlier - the Soviets alone would be troublesome enough to hold off, even taking into consideration the terrain, and with American support, there was no way they could hold the proposed Mannerheim Line, at least not without external support. Said support was mainly Sweden, along with Norway (if they saw sense regarding the global geopolitical situation), along with Germany and Italy, which would be mostly material in the event of such a war, as most of their forces would be occupied in invading Russia proper.
Thus, the decision was taken by the triumvirate and Mannerheim to modernize the four branches of the military - the Suojeluskunta (White Guard), the Maavoimat (Finnish Army), the Merivoimat (Finnish Navy) and the Ilmavoimat (Finnish Air Force) all would be subject to a rigorous process of crash modernization as military delegations were sent to friendly nations to stay abreast of the latest advancements in military technology and doctrines. The Germans, along with the Swedes, would be consulted for advice on tanks and other armored fighting vehicles that would work well in the sub-arctic conditions of the north, alongside anti-tank weaponry like AT rifles, recoilless launchers and the like, and improved firearms. The Italians and the Japanese would see their advice sought on matters of aircraft and aerial weaponry and munitions, along with questions on naval design. An emphasis was laid on utilising the local terrain to the utmost, alongside preparing a defense in depth, in case the Mannerheim Line was broken - a significant irony, considering that this was the very strategy that VOSCOM would stress on and enact in the beginning of Operation Teutonic. And indeed, it did serve the Finns quite well, as the war in the north would be quite the grinder in its initial stages, which is covered in detail later on.
1. After the purge of the moderates, Kokoomus underwent a makeover of sorts to adjust to the new order, which included their renaming to Nuorennus , which signified their belief for a Finland invigorated by the forces of nationalistic rejuvenation that were sweeping Scandinavia in general, and Finland itself in particular at the time.
A/N: So here we are, with some detailed lore for Scandinavia.
Part 2 will focus on how push comes to shove, and the entire region gets involved in the WRW, along with their involvement in the same up to an extent. There will be bits and pieces of militaria mixed in.
(*: No counterpart IOTL.) *[WPA]: Works Progress Administration *[NBI]: National Bureau of Investigation
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