Karl Hilding Hagberg (28 October 1899 – 17 December 1993) was a Swedish

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

politician. He was the leader of the Communist Party of Sweden from 1951 to 1964.

History

Hagberg was born in

Gällivare Gällivare (; ; or ; or ; ) is a locality and the seat of Gällivare Municipality in Norrbotten County, province of Lapland, Sweden with 8,449 inhabitants in 2010. The town was founded in the 17th century. Together with nearby towns Malmberget ...

Norrbotten County Norrbotten County (, Meänkieli/, ) is the northernmost county or '' län'' of Sweden. It is also the largest county by land area, almost a quarter of Sweden's total area. It shares borders with Västerbotten County to the southwest, the Gulf ...

. As a

miner A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face (mining), face; cutt ...

working in

Malmberget Malmberget ("The Ore Mountain", Finnish language, Finnish and Meänkieli dialects, Meänkieli: ''Malmivaara'') is a urban areas of Sweden, locality and mining town situated in Gällivare Municipality, Norrbotten County, Sweden. It had 5,590 inhabit ...

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 A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...

of the

Parliament of Sweden The Riksdag ( , ; also or , ) is the parliament and the supreme decision-making body of the Kingdom of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral parliament with 349 members (), elected proportionally and serving, since 1994, f ...

from 1933 to 1964. As leader of the Communist Party of Sweden, Hagberg upheld a clearly pro-

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

line. He supported the Soviet crushing of the

Hungarian Revolution of 1956 The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 4 November 1956; ), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was an attempted countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the policies caused by ...

and he also defended the building of the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...

as "serving the cause of peace". 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 Luleå ( , , locally ; ; ) is a Cities in Sweden, city on the coast of northern Sweden, and the County Administrative Boards of Sweden, capital of Norrbotten County, the northernmost county in Sweden. Luleå has 48,728 inhabitants in its urban ...

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

References

1899 births 1993 deaths People from Gällivare Members of the Riksdag from the Left Party (Sweden) Swedish communists Leaders of political parties in Sweden Members of the Andra kammaren Swedish miners Swedish newspaper editors {{Sweden-politician-stub