Fabian Månsson
Encyclopedia
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
Socialist politician. In his youth, Månsson used the pseudonym Dacke, a name he borrowed from the 16th century peasant rebel Nils Dacke
Nils Dacke
Nils Dacke was the leader of a 16th century peasant revolt in Småland, southern Sweden called the Dacke War , fought against the Swedish king Gustav I. It was the most widespread and serious civil war in Swedish history and almost toppled the king.-Background:Gustav Vasa had come to power at the...
.
Fabian Månsson was born in a poor family in Hasslö
Hasslö
Hasslö is an island and a locality situated in Karlskrona Municipality, Blekinge County, Sweden with 1,643 inhabitants in 2005.For many years, the Swedish navy's activities on Hasslö meant that foreigners' access to the island was restricted, but that is no longer true. Hasslö is famous for its...
, an island in the archipelago
Archipelago
An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...
of Blekinge
Blekinge
' is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden , situated in the south of the country. It borders Småland, Scania and the Baltic Sea.The name "Blekinge" comes from the adjective bleke, which corresponds to the nautical term for "dead calm"....
. His father was a fisherman.
Fabian Månsson worked as a navvy and became active as a radical in the Social Democratic Party, for which he also worked as an agitator, a journalist and a poet. In 1912 he was elected to the lower house
Lower 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...
to where he was reelected until his death.
When the Social Democratic Party was split in 1917, Månsson who always opposed centralistic rule joined the radical, revolutionary group which formed the Social Democratic Left Party. However, Månsson opposed communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
and left the new party when its leader, Zeth Höglund
Zeth Höglund
Carl Zeth "Zäta" Konstantin Höglund was a leading Swedish communist politician, anti-militarist, author, journalist and mayor of Stockholm ....
, moved the party into joining the Communist International. Fabian Månsson decided to rejoin the Social Democratic Party, but continued to scrutinize it from a radical angle.
Månsson wrote several historical works, including a three-volume work on Nils Dacke. He was made honorary Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Uppsala in 1932.
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....
wrote a biography about him, simply called Fabian (1948).
Today there is a statue of Fabian Månsson erected at his birth place of Hasslö
Hasslö
Hasslö is an island and a locality situated in Karlskrona Municipality, Blekinge County, Sweden with 1,643 inhabitants in 2005.For many years, the Swedish navy's activities on Hasslö meant that foreigners' access to the island was restricted, but that is no longer true. Hasslö is famous for its...
, and a bust outside Stockholm City Library.