Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Map
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Part One
- Part Two
- 7 Security, Subversion, Spies and Sabotage
- 8 The Battle for Sweden's Mind – Propaganda and Censorship
- 9 Race, Rejection, Reception, Rescure and Redemption – Swedish Humanitarian Endeavours
- 10 Military Matters
- 11 The Front at Home – Beredskapstiden
- 12 Looking Back in Anger? The Assault on ‘Small-State Realism’
- Abbreviations and Glossary
- Reference Sources and Bibliography
- Index
12 - Looking Back in Anger? The Assault on ‘Small-State Realism’
from Part Two
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Map
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Part One
- Part Two
- 7 Security, Subversion, Spies and Sabotage
- 8 The Battle for Sweden's Mind – Propaganda and Censorship
- 9 Race, Rejection, Reception, Rescure and Redemption – Swedish Humanitarian Endeavours
- 10 Military Matters
- 11 The Front at Home – Beredskapstiden
- 12 Looking Back in Anger? The Assault on ‘Small-State Realism’
- Abbreviations and Glossary
- Reference Sources and Bibliography
- Index
Summary
It is sometimes said that if you want to discover how a country's establishment wishes its history portrayed, then the place to go is a college text-book. Just over twenty years after VE-Day, the author of ‘Swedish History’ (Svensk historia), a text book whose aim was to ‘ensure that events in our country are correctly understood’, entitled the chapter on 1939—45 ‘The Second World War threatens our freedom and supplies.’ The text continued:
Several times, Sweden came into the danger-zone when its peace and freedom were exposed to great risks … Under pressure from Germany's threatening power-situation, the Swedish Government was forced to concede the demand [for transit] but on conditions that were thought to prevent these transits leading to risks for our country's security or to harm the Norwegian people … in this case a deviation from strict neutrality … The great dangers that threatened compelled the Swedish people to national unity … In the western powers' interests, Swedish exports to Germany were cut back and discontinued completely in autumn 1944.
This excerpt contains most of the elements of what came to be known as the ‘small-state realism’ interpretation. This rested on the following propositions: national independence, the welfare and survival of the Swedish people were at stake; German military hegemony over Sweden was unchallengeable; concessions were limited and only given where they were essential: neutrality was bent but not broken; national unity was paramount; and the neutral right to trade with Germany was legitimate.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Sweden, the Swastika and StalinThe Swedish Experience in the Second World War, pp. 270 - 290Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2011