Nils Flyg
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Nils Flyg (1891 – 1943) 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. In 1917 Flyg took part in the founding of a new leftist party, a group headed by Zeth Höglund, Ture Nerman, Kata Dalström and Karl Kilbom, which would soon become the (original) Communist Party of Sweden.
Flyg became an important leader of the Communist Party, wrote books and went on political trips to the Soviet Union. In 1929 Flyg, along with the majority of the Party's membership, was accused of insufficient loyalty to the Soviet-dominated Comintern and expelled from the party. The same year Flyg and Kilbom founded a new, parallel Communist Party, which by 1934 evolved into the Socialist Party (Socialistiska partiet). Following Kilbom's departure from the party, Nils Flyg was the party leader between 1937 and 1943.
Initially Flyg and Kilbom attempted to reconcile with the Comintern, something that soon proved fruitless. They gradually developed a hatred towards the Soviet Union. Using the Marxist framework, they described the level of social development of the Soviet Union as a (prefeudal) slavery based society.
In the late 1930s, the fortunes of Kilbom's and Flyg's party turned sour. Leaders, cadres and voters deserted it. The main Communist Party established itself as the main leftwing force in the country, and Flyg became more and more isolated. When the Comintern-affiliated communists moved from the ultraleft 'Class and Class' line to the 'Popular Front' line in the mid-1930s, the political maneuvering space between them and the Social Democrats shrank.
At the beginning of World War II, Flyg came out in opposition to fascism. Soon, however, financial constraints led him to approach the German High Commission in Stockholm. Initially, the Germans turned down his request for funding, but in the final stages of the war (when the Germans felt a more urgent need for allies in the Swedish politics) funding was granted. Gradually, Flyg and his party developed a pro-Nazi position.
Still, Nils Flyg never fully gave in to Hitlerism. He was not a fascist, he was not a racist, and he considered himself a socialist. He was against capitalism and imperialism and he still supported the basic ideas of Marx and Lenin. In one speech to a group of Swedish Nazis, he caused confusion when he declared: "Death to Communism! Long live Communism!"
