Hilding Hagberg Explained

Hilding Hagberg
Honorific-Suffix:K
Office:Leader of the Communist party
Term Start:1951
Term End:1964
Predecessor:Sven Linderot
Successor:C.-H. Hermansson
Office1:Member of the Riksdag's Second Chamber
for Stockholm Municipality
Term Start1:1933
Term End1:1952
Constituency1:Västerbotten County and Norrbotten County
Office2:Member of the Riksdag's Second Chamber
for Västerbotten and Norrbotten County
Term Start2:1953
Term End2:1964
Constituency2:Stockholm Municipality
Birth Date:1899 10, df=y
Birth Place:Gällivare parish, Gällivare, Norrbotten County, Sweden
Death Place:Luleå, Norrbotten County, Sweden
Party:Workers' Party – The Communists (1977-1993)
Otherparty:Communist party (1917-1977)

Karl Hilding Hagberg (28 October 1899 – 17 December 1993) was a Swedish communist politician. He was the leader of the Communist Party of Sweden from 1951 to 1964.

History

Hagberg was born in Gällivare in Norrbotten County. As a miner working in Malmberget he joined the Communist Party of Sweden in his youth. He was editor of the communist newspaper Norrskensflamman from 1930 to 1935, and political editor of the Communist Party's main newspaper Ny Dag from 1943 to 1964. He was a member of the executive board of the Communist Party of Sweden from 1930 to 1964, and a member of the lower house of the Parliament of Sweden from 1933 to 1964.

As leader of the Communist Party of Sweden, Hagberg upheld a clearly pro-Soviet line. He supported the Soviet crushing of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and he also defended the building of the Berlin Wall as "serving the cause of peace".[1]

In the municipal elections in 1962, the Communist Party hit a record low of 3.8% of the votes, and critics within the party blamed this on the party's pro-Soviet line. In 1964, Hagberg was replaced as party chairman by C.-H. Hermansson. When a pro-Soviet faction broke away from the party in 1977 to form the Workers' Party - the Communists, Hagberg joined them.

Hagberg died in his home in Luleå on 17 December 1993. His memoirs, titled Jag är och förblir kommunist ("I am and will remain a communist"), were published in 1995.

Notes and References

  1. News: Devrim . Mavi . Devrim Mavi . Flykten från historien . . 2008-02-11 . 2008-03-21 . Swedish . https://archive.today/20130418052716/http://www.arenagruppen.se/ag5/default.asp?ID=3072&type=3&cat=arena . 2013-04-18 . dead .