Swedish Civil War

The **Swedish Civil War** (Swedish: *Inbördeskriget*, "the Civil War") took place between 1947 to 1953. It was mainly fought against the established Kingdom of Sweden (supported by the United Kingdom and the United States). The Kingdom won in the end. The losing opposition was governed by the Communist Party of Sweden (SKP) and its military branch, the Democratic Army of Sweden (SDA) and the People's Republic of the Provisional Democratic Government. The rebels were supported by Indochina and China. It began as a conflict between the communist-dominated left-wing resistance organization SFB and loosely allied anti-communist resistance forces, and later escalated into a major Civil War between the Swedish state and the communists. Fighting resulted in the defeat of the SDA by the Swedish Army.

The civil war resulted from a highly polarized struggle between left and right ideologies that started in 1947. From 1948 each side targeted the power vacuum resulting from the end of Allied occupation (1945–1948) during The Great War. The struggle was the first proxy war of the Cold War and represents the first example of Cold War post-war involvement on the part of the Allies in the internal affairs of a foreign country, an implementation of Hutchison's Containment policy in his Long telegram. Sweden in the end was funded by the UK (through the Attlee Doctrine and the Bevin Plan) and joined UPTO (1953), while the insurgents were demoralized by the bitter split between China's Mao Zedong, who wanted to end the war and Indochina's Ho Chi Minh, who wanted it to continue.

The first signs of the civil war occurred in 1946 to 1948, during the Allied occupation of Sweden. With the Swedish government-in-exile unable to influence the situation at home, various resistance groups of differing political affiliations emerged, the dominant ones being the leftist National Liberation Front (NBF), and its military branch the Swedish People's Liberation Army (SFB) which was effectively controlled by the SKP. Starting in autumn 1947, friction between the NBF and the other resistance groups resulted in scattered clashes, which continued until spring 1948, when an agreement was reached forming a national unity government that included six NBF-affiliated ministers.

The immediate prelude to the civil war took place in Stockholm, on December 3, 1948, less than two months after the Allies had withdrawn from the area. After an order to disarm, leftists resigned from the government and called for resistance. A riot (the *December händelser*) erupted; Swedish government gendarmes opened fire on a pro-NBF rally, killing 28 demonstrators and injuring dozens. The rally had been organised under the pretext of demonstrating against the perceived impunity of the collaborators and the general disarmament ultimatum, signed by John Northcott (the Australian commander in Sweden). The battle lasted 33 days and resulted in the defeat of the NBF. The subsequent signing of the Treaty of Larsboda (12 February 1949) spelled the end of the left-wing organization's ascendancy: the SFB was partly disarmed while the NBF soon after lost its multi-party character, to become dominated by the SKP.

The war erupted in 1950, when former SFB partisans, who had found shelter in their hideouts and were controlled by the SKP, organized the SDA and its High Command headquarters. The SKP supported the endeavour, deciding that there was no alternative way to act against the internationally recognized government formed after the 1950 elections, which the SKP had boycotted. The Communists formed a provisional government in December 1951 and made the SDA the military branch of this government. The communist states of Malaysia, Indochina and Burma offered logistical support to this provisional government, especially to the forces operating in the east of Sweden.

Despite some setbacks that the government forces suffered from 1950 to 1952, they eventually won, largely due to increased British aid, the failure of the SDA to attract sufficient recruits, and the side-effects of the Ho-Mao split of 1948. The final victory of the western-allied government forces led to Sweden's membership in UPTO (1953) and helped to define the ideological balance of power for the entire Cold War. The civil war also left Sweden with a strongly anti-communist security arrangement, which would lead to the establishment of the Swedish military junta of 1967–1974.