Karl Kilbom
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
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
.
Youth
As the son of a blacksmithBlacksmith
A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...
, Karl Kilbom grew up in a working-class family of Walloon
Walloons
Walloons are a French-speaking people who live in Belgium, principally in Wallonia. Walloons are a distinctive community within Belgium, important historical and anthropological criteria bind Walloons to the French people. More generally, the term also refers to the inhabitants of the Walloon...
origin in the small town of Österby outside Uppsala
Uppsala
- Economy :Today Uppsala is well established in medical research and recognized for its leading position in biotechnology.*Abbott Medical Optics *GE Healthcare*Pfizer *Phadia, an offshoot of Pharmacia*Fresenius*Q-Med...
, where he started working in the steel mills at an early age.
In the year 1900, a socialist agitator visited Österby to talk to the workers of the mills. Karl Kilbom, only 15 years old, was one of the 7 people who stayed after the meeting to participate in the formation of a socialist club in Österby with the goal to establish a union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
. However, company spies had been present at the meeting and soon Kilbom was told he would not only lose his job, but also that his family, who lived in a house owned by the company, would be evicted, if he didn’t quit political activism
Activism
Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
. This time, Kilbom gave in to the threats.
Becoming a Socialist
In 1903, Kilbom moved to SandvikenSandviken
Sandviken may refer to:* Sandviken, a Swedish town and the seat of Sandviken municipality* Sandviken Municipality, a Swedish municipality around the town of Sandviken* Sandviken, Norway, a neighbourhood in Bergen, Norway...
where he joined a socialist club. However, he didn’t remain active there for long when he soon found job on a ship named Thetis
Thetis
Silver-footed Thetis , disposer or "placer" , is encountered in Greek mythology mostly as a sea nymph or known as the goddess of water, one of the fifty Nereids, daughters of the ancient one of the seas with shape-shifting abilities who survives in the historical vestiges of most later Greek myths...
, embarking from Gävle
Gävle
Gävle is a city in Sweden, the seat of Gävle Municipality and the capital of Gävleborg County. It had 71,033 inhabitants in 12/31 2010. It is the oldest city in the historical Norrland , having received its charter in 1446 from Christopher of Bavaria.-History:It is believed that the name Gävle...
shipping lumber from Sweden to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and other places. The conditions for the workers on the boat were wretched and the pay was low, but Kilbom saw this as a great opportunity to explore the world, although, according to his autobiography, he had severe problems with seasickness.
In 1905 Kilbom disembarked the Thetis in Gävle. Unemployed, he joined the Social Democratic youth organization in the city, and he was schooled by the prominent socialist Fabian Månsson
Fabian Månsson
Karl Fabian Månsson was a Swedish Socialist politician. In his youth, Månsson used the pseudonym Dacke, a name he borrowed from the 16th century peasant rebel Nils Dacke....
to be an agitator. Kilbom soon moved to Krylbo
Krylbo
Krylbo is a part of the town Avesta in Avesta Municipality, Dalarna County. It was a market town until it merged with the city of Avesta in 1966....
and Avesta
Avesta Municipality
Avesta Municipality is one of 290 municipalities of Sweden. It is in Dalarna County, in central part of the country, and its seat is in the town Avesta....
to work for the party there.
In 1907, Kilbom was conscripted to do military service in the Swedish Navy
Swedish Navy
The Royal Swedish Navy is the naval branch of the Swedish Armed Forces. It is composed of surface and submarine naval units – the Fleet – as well as marine units, the so-called Amphibious Corps .In Swedish, vessels of the Swedish Navy are given the prefix "HMS," short for Hans/Hennes...
and he soon found himself on the navy base of Skeppsholmen
Skeppsholmen
Skeppsholmen is one of the islands of Stockholm. It is connected with Blasieholmen and Kastellholmen by bridges. Positioned strategically at the Baltic Sea entrance to Stockholm, it has traditionally been the location of several military buildings...
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...
, and stationed on the battleship Svea
Svea
Svea is a Swedish female name. The name was a very popular girls' name during the first half of the 20th century. It may also refer to:*Mother Svea, the Swedish national emblem.*Svea, Svalbard, a mining settlement*Svea, Florida*Svea, Minnesota...
. While in the navy, Kilbom got in trouble with the commanders for spreading, what they called, "illegal" Social Democratic papers with anti-militarist messages.
After military service, Kilbom moved to Gothenburg
Gothenburg
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...
and started working at a plant manufacturing safes, and became a leader of the union there. He also became more and more active in 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...
and started to study Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
. He was asked by the party to go on national speaking tours to spread the word of socialism to the workers in every corner of Sweden, and for many years Kilbom was without a home, always on the road.
Becoming a Communist
In 1910, Karl Kilbom moved to HalmstadHalmstad
Halmstad is a port, university, industrial and recreational city at the mouth of Nissan in the province of Halland on the Swedish west coast. Halmstad is the seat of Halmstad Municipality and the capital of Halland County...
to do work for the Social Democratic party there. Within the party, Kilbom sided with the Left Opposition led by Zeth Höglund
Zeth Höglund
Carl Zeth "Zäta" Konstantin Höglund was a leading Swedish communist politician, anti-militarist, author, journalist and mayor of Stockholm ....
against the reformist party leader 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...
. In 1917 the party split in two and Kilbom joined its Left-leaning faction, which supported the Bolsheviks in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and was called the Social Democratic Left Party of Sweden. It soon evolved into the 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...
. Already in 1915, Karl Kilbom had been made one of the main Swedish contacts with the Russian Bolsheviks and worked closely with Bukharin who lived in Sweden during the war.
In the spring of 1917, Kilbom was sent to 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...
on behalf of the Swedish Left-Socialist to persuade the Finnish Social Democrats to turn left too, but he soon realized that the Finnish socialists were already further to the left than himself, and in less than a year Finland would experience its own workers revolution
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...
.
From Finland, Kilbom traveled to Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
together with his Finland-Swedish
Finland-Swedes
Swedish-speaking Finns constitute a linguistic minority in Finland. They maintain a strong identity and are alternatively seen either as a distinct subgroup of the Finnish people or as a separate ethnic group or even as a distinct nationality...
comrade Karl H. Wiik
Karl H. Wiik
Karl Harald Wiik was a Swedish-speaking Finnish Social Democratic leader. He was a Member of the Finnish Parliament from 1911 to 1918, from 1922 to 1929, from 1933 to 1941 and from 1944 to his death. An influential member of the Party's left wing, he was imprisoned for a time after the Finnish...
, and after some difficulties at the border, they arrived in Petrograd and were greeted by Alexandra Kollontay. In Petrograd Karl Kilbom was taken to see a debate between Alexander Kerensky
Alexander Kerensky
Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky was a major political leader before and during the Russian Revolutions of 1917.Kerensky served as the second Prime Minister of the Russian Provisional Government until Vladimir Lenin was elected by the All-Russian Congress of Soviets following the October Revolution...
and Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
in front of a huge crowd of workers and soldiers. Kilbom did not understand what the speakers said, but afterwards Kollontay told him Lenin had spoken about the importance of making peace with Germany, while Kerensky had been speaking of continuing the war. The same evening, Kilbom had a chance to talk to Lenin briefly. They had met once before 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...
, and the Bolshevik leader now told him that a new revolution, in which the communists would take power, was imminent, and that he hoped the Swedish comrades would be prepared for the same.
Back in Sweden, Kilbom started working for the newly launched Left Party paper Politiken
Folkets Dagblad Politiken
Politiken, later named Folkets Dagblad - Politiken was a Swedish Communist newspaper that existed from April 1916 to August 1940....
.
Revolutionary work
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
, Kilbom, together with Zeth Höglund
Zeth Höglund
Carl Zeth "Zäta" Konstantin Höglund was a leading Swedish communist politician, anti-militarist, author, journalist and mayor of Stockholm ....
, went to Soviet Russia to spend the New Years and show their support for the Bolsheviks. At 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,...
the Swedes met with their Finnish Comrades, who were very happy after Finland finally having been given independence from Russia by the Bolshevik Government.
In 1919, Kilbom was approached in Stockholm by the American diplomats William C. Bullitt and Lincoln Steffens
Lincoln Steffens
-Biography:Steffens was born April 6, 1866, in San Francisco. He grew up in a wealthy family and attended a military academy. He studied in France and Germany after graduating from the University of California....
, who asked him if he could help them get to Russia and into contact with the Bolshevik government. Kilbom took the Americans to meet Lenin in Moscow and he greeted them as they said they wanted establish diplomatic relations between the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and 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....
. However, soon, President Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
repudiated the project and Bullitt resigned from Wilson’s staff.
In 1921, Karl Kilbom was the head of the Swedish delegation at the Profintern
Profintern
The Red International of Labor Unions , commonly known as the Profintern, was an international body established by the Communist International with the aim of coordinating Communist activities within trade unions...
congress (Red International of Labor Unions) held in 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...
. Their interpreter was a 17-year old girl named Zoia and they soon became good friends. One morning, Zoia didn’t show up, and Kilbom later found out that she had been arrested by the Soviet Secret Police as one of many suspects in a counterrevolutionary conspiracy. Kilbom refused to believe these allegations were true and spoke to high ranked Soviet officials like 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 Alexandra Kollontay to have the young girl released. Zoia was freed, and when she said she didn't want to stay in the Soviet Union, Karl Kilbom decided to marry the young girl so she could come with him to Sweden, where she helped the party working as a translator of Russian.
In 1921, Sweden held its first democratic election where workers and women could vote, and Karl Kilbom was elected to the Lower House 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...
.
Leader of the Swedish Communist Party
In August 1924, Zeth HöglundZeth Höglund
Carl Zeth "Zäta" Konstantin Höglund was a leading Swedish communist politician, anti-militarist, author, journalist and mayor of Stockholm ....
was expelled from the Swedish Communist Party, after having begun criticizing the development of the Comintern. Kilbom now took over as leader of the party.
In 1925, Karl Kilbom headed a delegation of 300 Swedish workers on a several weeks long visit to the Soviet Union. The tour ended with a parade on the Red Square
Red Square
Red Square is a city square in Moscow, Russia. The square separates the Kremlin, the former royal citadel and currently the official residence of the President of Russia, from a historic merchant quarter known as Kitai-gorod...
in Moscow, where Kilbom, together with Bukharin and Rykov, held a speech from atop the Lenin Mausoleum.
The same year, Kilbom was asked by Bukharin to go to Germany as a representative of the Communist International to overlook the development of the Communist Party of Germany. Kilbom had been to Germany on political missions several times and the German police had started to recognize him. Because of this, Kilbom was now denied visa
Visa (document)
A visa is a document showing that a person is authorized to enter the territory for which it was issued, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry. The authorization may be a document, but more commonly it is a stamp endorsed in the applicant's passport...
by the German Embassy in Stockholm. He decided to take the train to Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
, where he made a new attempted at the German Embassy in Denmark. Kilbom was denied visa once again, but instead he managed to get help from some sailors and was smuggled onboard a boat that took him to Germany. There he was greeted by Willi Münzenberg
Willi Münzenberg
Willi Münzenberg was a communist political activist. Münzenberg was the first head of the Young Communist International in 1919-20 and established the famine-relief and propaganda organization Workers International Relief in 1921...
who bought him a new suit and provided Kilbom with a fake passport with the name Karl Derry. He spent over three months in Germany and Austria, working to eliminate the ultra-leftist
Ultra leftism
The term ultra-leftism has two overlapping uses. It is used as a generally pejorative term for certain types of positions on the left that are seen as extreme or intransigent in particular ways...
fractions within the Communist parties.
Back in Moscow in 1926, Kilbom reported to Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
about his work in Germany and expressed his concern about Ernst Thälmann
Ernst Thälmann
Ernst Thälmann was the leader of the Communist Party of Germany during much of the Weimar Republic. He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1933 and held in solitary confinement for eleven years, before being shot in Buchenwald on Adolf Hitler's orders in 1944...
not being a capable leader for the Communist Party of Germany
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
(KPD). Stalin met the allegations against Thälmann with silence, and Kilbom would soon find out that Thälmann would be one of Stalin’s closest allies in the unfolding internal struggle of the world communist movement.
Grigory Zinoviev
Grigory Zinoviev
Grigory Yevseevich Zinoviev , born Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky Apfelbaum , was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet Communist politician...
wanted to send Kilbom on new missions for the Comintern to China and France, but Stalin objected. In 1927, Zinoviev together with 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....
were expelled from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
(CPSU).
In 1927, Karl Kilbom tried to work within the Comintern on how to develop strategies to combat fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
and to defend the Soviet Union against attacks from the Capitalist world. Kilbom advocated the creation of a popular front
Popular front
A popular front is a broad coalition of different political groupings, often made up of leftists and centrists. Being very broad, they can sometimes include centrist and liberal forces as well as socialist and communist groups...
suggested that communists should try to collaborate with radical social democrats. The Italian communist leader Palmiro Togliatti
Palmiro Togliatti
Palmiro Togliatti was an Italian politician and leader of the Italian Communist Party from 1927 until his death.-Early life:...
agreed with Kilbom that the only way to defeat the fascist leader Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
in Italy would be for the communists to unite with the social democrats. Stalin opposed Kilbom’s suggestions and together with Ernst Thälmann, who now saw Karl Kilbom as a personal enemy, Stalin started to develop the idea of Social fascism
Social fascism
Social fascism was a theory supported by the Communist International during the early 1930s, which believed that social democracy was a variant of fascism because, in addition to a shared corporatist economic model, it stood in the way of a complete and final transition to communism...
, i.e., that social democrats were just as bad as fascists.
Expelled from the Communist Party
In the fall of 1929, a Stalinist coup took place within the Swedish Communist Party, and Karl Kilbom together with the majority of the party’s members were expelled by a group led by Hugo SillénHugo Sillén
Hugo Sillén was a Swedish Communist politician. In the 1929 split of the Communist Party of Sweden, Sillén led the pro-Comintern fraction that expelled Karl Kilbom and the majority of the party members with support of the Comintern that feared Kilbom would support Bukharin's right opposition...
and Sven Linderot
Sven Linderot
Sven Harald Linderot was a Swedish Communist leader. He was born Sven Harald Larsson but changed his surname to Linderot in 1918...
.
That same year, Kilbom launched a new Communist Party of Sweden
Socialist Party (Sweden, 1929)
The Socialist Party , initially known as the Communist Party of Sweden , was a political party in Sweden active from 1929 to 1948. The party was founded in 1929 by the major faction of the Communist Party of Sweden, led by Karl Kilbom and Nils Flyg, as the party split into two parties with the same...
, one that would be independent from Moscow, and became more critical of Stalin and the Soviet Union. In 1934 his party took the name Socialist Party
Socialist Party (Sweden, 1929)
The Socialist Party , initially known as the Communist Party of Sweden , was a political party in Sweden active from 1929 to 1948. The party was founded in 1929 by the major faction of the Communist Party of Sweden, led by Karl Kilbom and Nils Flyg, as the party split into two parties with the same...
(Socialistiska partiet). The party’s supporters were generally called Kilbommare after Kilbom while 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...
affiliated Communist Party members were called Sillénare after their party leader Hugo Sillén
Hugo Sillén
Hugo Sillén was a Swedish Communist politician. In the 1929 split of the Communist Party of Sweden, Sillén led the pro-Comintern fraction that expelled Karl Kilbom and the majority of the party members with support of the Comintern that feared Kilbom would support Bukharin's right opposition...
. The first couple of years, the Kilbom-Party was much bigger than the official Communist Party. Kilbom also managed to keep control over the communist daily Folkets Dagblad Politiken
Folkets Dagblad Politiken
Politiken, later named Folkets Dagblad - Politiken was a Swedish Communist newspaper that existed from April 1916 to August 1940....
.
1931 was the year of the Ådalen Massacre
Ådalen shootings
The Ådalen shootings , was a series of events in and around the sawmill district of Ådalen, Kramfors Municipality, Ångermanland, Sweden, in May 1931...
, when the Swedish military opened fire on a demonstration of strikers
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
, killing five workers. Kilbom wrote in Folkets Dagblad Politiken, calling the Swedish conservative government of Carl Gustaf Ekman
Carl Gustaf Ekman
Carl Gustaf Ekman was a Swedish politician, Member of Parliament 1911-1932 , leader of the Freeminded People's Party 1924-1932 and Prime Minister from 1926 to 1928 and again from 1930 to 1932....
a murder regime. For this “slander”, Kilbom was sentenced to two months in prison to be served 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...
, but he was eventually pardoned due to lung disease.
Back to social democracy
In 1937 Karl Kilbom was expelled from the Socialist PartySocialist Party (Sweden, 1929)
The Socialist Party , initially known as the Communist Party of Sweden , was a political party in Sweden active from 1929 to 1948. The party was founded in 1929 by the major faction of the Communist Party of Sweden, led by Karl Kilbom and Nils Flyg, as the party split into two parties with the same...
, as the leadership was taken over by Nils Flyg
Nils Flyg
Nils Svante Flyg was a Swedish Communist politician who turned pro-Nazi during World War II.Nils Flyg was born and raised in Södermalm, a working-class area of Stockholm. Early on he joined the Swedish Social Democratic Party's youth organization, the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League...
. Later, during World War II, Nils Flyg turned the remnants of the party into a pro-Nazi organization as he sided with Hitler in the war against Stalin. But by then, most members of the party had already left together with Kilbom.
In 1938 Karl Kilbom rejoined the Swedish Social Democratic Party. Kilbom became very active as a leader within the Folkets hus movement.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Kilbom fully supported the Swedish coalition government under the leadership of Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson
Per Albin Hansson
Per Albin Hansson , was a Swedish politician, chairman of the Social Democrats from 1925 and two-time Prime Minister in four governments between 1932 and 1946, governing all that period save for a short-lived crisis in the summer of 1936, which he ended by forming a coalition government with his...
.
Works
- Karl Kilbom wrote many political pamphlets and a huge amount of articles in different papers.
- Kilbom’s three volume autobiography, published 1953–1955, is called:
- Ur mitt livs äventyr (My Life’s Adventure)
- I hemligt uppdrag (On Secrete Mission)
- Cirkeln slutes (The Circle is Completed)
- Kilbom has also written many books on the history of the Walloon PeopleWalloonsWalloons are a French-speaking people who live in Belgium, principally in Wallonia. Walloons are a distinctive community within Belgium, important historical and anthropological criteria bind Walloons to the French people. More generally, the term also refers to the inhabitants of the Walloon...
's immigration to Sweden and their typical trades.