Ture Nerman

Ture Nerman (1886 ? 1969) was a Swedish Communist politician, and as a journalist and author, he was one of the most well-known political activists in his time. He also wrote poems and songs.

The Birth of Swedish Communism

In the beginning of 1917, the struggle between the left and the right within the Social Democratic Party resulted in a split. Zeth Höglund and Ture Nerman, now considering themselves Communists, were expelled from the Party together with other prominent radicals such as Kata Dalström, Fredrik Ström and Stockholm?s mayor Carl Lindhagen.

Related Topics:
1917 - Kata Dalström - Fredrik Ström - Carl Lindhagen

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Höglund, who was the leader of the Party?s youth organisation, managed to get the whole young socialists on his side in the foundation of the Swedish Social Democratic Left Party. The new party was formed in May 1917 and had approx. 20.000 members. It would soon change name and become the (original) Communist Party of Sweden. They launched a newspaper, Politiken, in which they wrote themselves and published texts by other international communist leaders.

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In April of 1917 when Lenin passed Stockholm on his journey from the exile in Switzerland home to Petrograd, Ture Nerman was one of those who greeted Lenin and took care of him while in Stockholm. For instance, the Swedish Communists took Lenin to a store where they bought him a brand new suit so he would look good and clean coming back home.

Related Topics:
Stockholm - Petrograd

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Upon Lenin?s return in Russia and the October Revolution that followed, Ture Nerman and the Left Social Democrats fully supported the Bolsheviks and agitated for a similar Communist Revolution in Sweden.

Related Topics:
October Revolution - Bolsheviks

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As an international representative of the Swedish Communist Party, Nerman had several communist contacts from all over the world. His friend Karl Liebknecht of course, Karl Radek, the russian Bolshevik who had lived in Stockholm for a while. The Ukrainian-Italian socialist leader Angelica Balabanoff who lived and worked in Stockholm. Yrjö Sirola and Otto Kuusinen, two prominent finish communist leaders visited Ture Nerman in Stockholm several times.

Related Topics:
Karl Radek - Angelica Balabanoff - Yrjö Sirola - Otto Kuusinen

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Nerman also kept some correspondence with the American socialist leaders Eugene V. Debs, John Reed who helped him write a book on the first World War (Folkhatet). And the American communist leader Max Eastman provided Nerman with a subscription to The Liberator.

Related Topics:
Eugene V. Debs - John Reed - Max Eastman - The Liberator

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