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February 2022 Vol 93:01 $9.95
01 2022
Life and Legacy of Olof Palme Upbringing & Rise to Power | Stieg Larsson’s Lost Files | Fettisdagen
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
Photo: Jan Delden
Photo: TT
[Olof Palme – Life and Legacy]
Photo: Oiving/commons.wikimedia.org
Top: Olof together with his nanny Margit Andersson. Olof on his graduation from SSHL in 1944. Lisbeth and Olof Palme on their honeymoon in 1956. Bottom: The Palme family outside their house in Vällingby. Olof Palme on May Day in the early 70s.
The Making of Palme – Upbringing & Rise to Power
B
orn into aristocratic pedigree and brought up in an elite military family in the wealthy Stockholm neighborhood of Östermalm, young Olof Palme was an unlikely future leader of the Social Democrats. From his father’s side of the family, Palme had ancestry from King Johan III of Sweden, King Gustav Vasa of Sweden and King Frederick I of Denmark and Norway. His mother, Elisabeth von Knieriem, who had arrived in Sweden from Russia as a refugee in 1915, was also of noble blood. She descended from Baltic German burghers and her great-great-great grandfather Johann Melchior von Knieriem had been ennobled by the Emperor AlexSwedish Press | February 2022 | 12
ander I of Russia in 1814. Palme was only seven years old when he lost his father to illness. Within the span of a few weeks the patriarchal home environment turned into a matriarchy as Olof’s older brother was sent off to boarding school, leaving Olof behind surrounded by his grandmother, mother, older sister, a French gouvernante and other female staff. At the age of ten, Olof too was sent to Sigtunaskolan Humanistiska Läroverket (SSHL) boarding school where he graduated at the age of 17. After completing his compulsory military service at Svea Artillery Regiment in 1947, Palme received a scholarship to study Political Science at Kenyon
College, a small liberal arts school in central Ohio. Here, he was inspired by the radical debate taking place in the student community and he spent a summer hitchhiking across the U.S. with almost no money in his pocket. The experience exposed him to the realities of the poor, and the shortcomings of capitalist America, both of which provided a stark contrast to his hitherto sheltered existence. As he would later point out many times, it was in the U.S. that Palme first developed an interest in left-wing liberalism and socialism, both through his studies and through what he saw and experienced first-hand. Back in Sweden, Palme enrolled at Stockholm University to study law. He
also became an active youth member of the Swedish Social Democratic Party. After graduating with a law degree in 1951, he was elected President of the Swedish National Union of Students in 1952. In 1953, Palme was recruited by the social democratic prime minister Tage Erlander to work in his secretariat. Well-educated, well-travelled, and multilingual, Palme could have used his exceptional intelligence and abundance of opportunity to add to the family wealth. Instead, in 1956, he gave up his privilege to live modestly in a terraced house in Vällingby, the first socially engineered Stockholm suburb. He wanted to lead by example in pursuit of his vision of a classless society.
became part of Palme’s everyday routine. He was a strong advocate for state-controlled media, free from commercial interests, and television became his pulpit. When Palme became Minister of Education in 1967, he brought the responsibility for radio and television with him. By the late 1960s, there began to arise a new, radical leftism characterized by fierce criticisms of centralism, technocracy, materialism, and alienation—the ills that modern society was believed to cause. According to this new left, the Social Democratic vision of reforming and modernizing Sweden had become a negative endeavor, an escape from moral responsibility. The bureaucrats
Between 1953-1969 Olof Palme was always by Erlander's side. Photo: Sveriges Radio
By 1965, Palme had advanced to Minister of Communication, responsible for radio and television policies. Television had just started to make its way into the average Swedish home and few Swedes understood the potential of the new medium better than Olof Palme. As a student, he had worked as a journalist, and he had lived in the United States in the late 1940s when television had its breakthrough there. Televised appearances quickly
of modernity went from being heroes to villains, and the criticisms were resonating with the public. The Social Democratic patriarchy struggled with how to handle this mounting pressure from their left. After a few unsuccessful attempts at placating these forces, it became apparent the only solution was a change of leadership. By 1969, Tage Erlander had served as prime minister for 23 years (1946–69), making him one of the
longest ruling heads of government of any democratic state. He was eager to hand over to his protégé, the charismatic Olof Palme, who had rapidly ascended the Social Democrat ranks. Palme was often described as a “revolutionary reformist”. He was a convinced anti-communist and had never been attracted to Marxism, but he was more radical than Erlander and the older generation of Social Democratic party leaders. He was also gifted in rhetoric and a fierce debater. He was just what was needed to appease the radical left. Thus, in 1969, with the support of his friend and mentor, Palme was elected leader of the Social Democratic Party. Key Dates: 1927 – Born in Stockholm, Sweden 1945-47 – Military Service at Svea Artillery Regiment 1947-48 – BA of Political Science at Kenyon College 1951 – Graduates with Law degree from Stockholm University and becomes a member of the Swedish Social Democratic Party 1952 – Elected President of the Swedish National Union of Students 1953 – Recruited by Prime Minister Tage Erlander 1956 – Marries Lisbeth (nee BeckFriis) and moves to Vällingby 1957 – Elected as a Member of Parliament 1965 – Appointed Minister of Transport and Communication 1967 – Appointed Minister of Education 1969-76 – Serves as Prime Minister of Sweden 1982-86 – Serves as Prime Minister of Sweden 1986 – Assassinated on February 28 in Stockholm Swedish Press | February 2022 | 13
The End of Innocence – Murder of Palme
I
t’s 11:21 p.m. on a Friday evening, 28 February 1986. Two shots are fired at the corner of Sveavägen and Tunnelgatan in downtown Stockholm. A woman is bent down over a man’s lifeless body. Several witnesses call 911. The police officers arriving on the scene ask to see the woman’s identification. “Can’t you see who it is? I’m Lisbeth Palme. This is my husband Olof.” A witness waves down an ambulance in the street. The driver, Peter Nordström, and his colleague are informed that a man has been shot. They perform CPR, but the man is badly injured, so they decide to transport him to the hospital. As they are about to load him into the ambulance, the paramedic turns to the driver and says: “Can’t you see who it is?” “No,” Peter replies. “Who is it?” “It’s Olof Palme.” At 6 minutes past midnight, Prime Minister Palme is declared dead at Sabbatsberg hospital. Jan Eliasson, director general for political affairs at the Foreign Ministry, is about to go to bed when he receives a phone call from a colleague at the UN in New York City: “There’s breaking news in the media here that your prime minister, Olof Palme, has been assassinated.” “No, I don’t think so,” Eliasson replies calmly. “If that were the case I ought to know about it.” “The prime minister of Sweden, Olof Palme, a long-time campaigner for world peace, has been assassinated,” reports CNN. In the United States and the United Kingdom, the murder of Olof
The corner of Sveavägen and Tunnelgatan where Olof Palme was shot. Photo: Pressens bild
Palme is top news. Meanwhile, Swedish media is silent. The radio plays pop. And when the last Friday night movie has ended on state television, the broadcast is over for the day and a test screen takes its place. When Deputy Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson is informed in the middle of night, he takes a taxi to Rosenbad, the seat of the Swedish government, to attend an emergency meeting. Knowing that the assassin is still on the loose, he hunkers down in the backseat. As he arrives at Rosenbad, Carlsson peeks out through the cab window but sees neither police officers nor roadblocks. The total lack of reaction by the security forces leads him to believe that perhaps it’s all a misunderstanding; perhaps Palme isn’t dead after all. Ewonne Winblad, reporter at Swedish Television (SVT), is asleep when her daughter Ylva calls. Ylva, who works at a restaurant in London,
informs her mother that customers at the restaurant are talking about the murder of Olof Palme. The following morning, at 4 a.m., Winblad informs the Swedish public in SVT’s first broadcast of the day. The entire country awakens to a fog of despondency and shattered security so deep that it manifests itself as stunned disbelief. “It can’t be. Not in Sweden,” is the common reaction among members of the public. “I didn’t believe it,” says Minister Thage G. Peterson. In the taxi heading to Rosenbad, he’s convinced there has been some mistake. “We all lived with the belief that Sweden was a calm and peaceful country where there were no bandits or terrorists,” he says. “We thought it was impossible that a Swedish prime minister could be murdered in the street.” Swedish Press | February 2022 | 17
[Olof Palme – Life and Legacy] Olof Palme and his wife Lisbeth had been walking home from the cinema on Friday night, unescorted as usual, when an unknown assailant stepped out from the shadows and shot the Prime Minister in the back. Hans Holmér showing the type of weapon that killed Olof Palme. Photo: Håkan Rodén/TT
Lisbeth and Olof Palme at the Nobel Prize ceremony in 1984.
Just as Kennedy’s assassination served as life-long marker for every living American—and many others in the Western world—every Swede old enough to remember knows exactly where they were when they learned Palme had been killed. Many residents of Stockholm made their way to the scene of the murder, which still hadn’t been properly cordoned off, and put down red roses. In other parts of the country, families congregated around the TV. Business ceased to function. Like the early loss of a parent to an unforeseen tragedy, the recovery was very long and very painful. As though to emphasize the inconceivability of the event, the subsequent murder investigation became a textbook study in police incompetence. It took 5 hours to put up roadblocks. The married chief of police could not be reached as he was off in the countryside having an affair with a subordinate colleague. The tragedy was so utterly unexpected that nobody seemed to know what to do. The last political assassination in Sweden had taken place in 1792, when King Gustav III was killed at a masquerade ball. Events like these simply did not occur in Sweden. There were leads pointing both inside and outside of Sweden. Hans Swedish Press | February 2022 | 18
Holmér, former head of the Swedish National Security Service, SÄPO, became the self-designated chief of the investigation. He was convinced that the Kurdish liberation movement the PKK, which Palme had labelled a terrorist organization, was behind the attack. Until he was forced to resign in 1987, Holmér almost exclusively pursued this lead, at the expense of all others. In 1989, Christer Pettersson, an alcoholic and drug addict with a history of violence, was tried for the murder and sentenced to life in jail. However, in spite of being identified by Lisbeth Palme, who stood 1.5 meters from the perpetrator at the time of the shooting, his conviction was later overturned. Pettersson was released and paid significant compensation for wrongful arrest.
Christer Pettersson (number 7). Photo: Polisen
The gross mismanagement of the investigation by the police has inspired countless private investigators to conduct their own inquiries, fuelled by various conspiracy theories. Some
thought the CIA was involved. Others pointed to Swedish police or the Swedish military. South Africa’s apartheid regime was also suspected. Palme was an outspoken critic of apartheid and the Swedish government did what it could to support the ANC financially, as well as morally. Sources within MI6 pointed to South Africa, as would the subsequent testimony of Eugene de Kock, former commanding officer of C10, an infamous counterinsurgency unit of the South African police that “liquidated” numerous anti-apartheid activists in the 1980s and 1990s.
Stig Engström. Photo: Håkan Rodén/TT
In 2010, the twenty-five-year statute of limitations for murder was removed in Sweden. The move signalled persistence, but ten years later, in 2020, the prosecution closed the case after claiming there was “reasonable evidence” that the man who shot Palme was Stig Engström, a graphic designer who committed suicide in 2000. Despite the official closure of the investigation, many Swedes remain sceptical as the murder weapon remains missing and there is no new forensic evidence incriminating Engström. Prosecutor Krister Petersson explained, “We’ve come as far as we are able to come when it comes to a suspect,” effectively robbing many Swedes of any last hope there will ever be resolution.
[Lifestyle] Book The Man Who Played with Fire: Stieg Larsson's Lost Files and the Hunt for an Assassin Reviewed by Kajsa Norman
O
n February 28, 1986, Palme was walking home from the cinema with his wife when an unknown assailant stepped out from the shadows and shot him. As though to emphasize the inconceivability of the event, the murder investigation became a textbook study of police incompetence. Frustrated by the lack of progress, countless ordinary citizens began to conduct their own inquiries. One of the people who caught the “Palme bug” was late crime writer Stieg Larsson. Immediately after Palme’s assassination, Larsson, then a graphic designer at the TT News Agency, went in search of the killer among the segments of society that he knew and detested most – the extreme right. By the time he passed away in 2004, Larsson had amassed some 15 boxes of research materials into the murder. In The Man Who Played With Fire – Stieg Larsson’s Lost Files and the Hunt for an Assassin, journalist Jan Stocklassa reopens Larsson’s lines of inquiry and, leveraging a storeroom full of the author’s notes and letters, attempts to build on his evidence and solve the case once and for all. While it was the Millennium trilogy that brought Stieg Larsson fame, it was exposing the far right
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that he considered his life’s mission. Raised by his grandparents in the rural north, Larsson was heavily influenced by his grandfather Severin, a devoted Communist. As a result, Larsson’s far-left convictions grew so strong that even socialist Sweden was too right-wing for him. In Stocklassa’s book we learn that when the social democrat newspaper Arbetet (The Labour) offered Larsson a research assignment, he replied: “You know that I’m not a Social Democrat right? I’m a Trotskyist and I write for the International. As you know, we’re not exactly thrilled with how you’re governing the country.” Whether he supported the government or not, the murder of Palme appalled Larsson and he eventually agreed to help the paper map out anti-Palme sentiment among the right, provided that he was granted anonymity. His research was used in the article series “Mission: Olof Palme”, which
won the Swedish Grand Prize for Journalism in 1987. Larsson also continued to investigate the murder on his own, developing a theory that implicated South African security services in collusion with members of the Swedish far right. Palme had been an outspoken critic of apartheid and Sweden was the single largest source of financial aid to the ANC. Sources within MI6 pointed to South Africa, as would the subsequent testimony of Eugene de Kock, former commanding officer of C10, an infamous counterinsurgency unit of the South African police responsible for murdering numerous anti-apartheid activists in the 1980s and 1990s. Convinced that Swedish police neglected to properly investigate Larsson’s theory, Stocklassa picked up the dormant leads a decade after the famous writer’s death. While the extensive listing of potential perpetrators and their affiliations bog down the story at times, for the most part Stocklassa’s tome reads like a pop thriller in the vein of his muse. This is especially true in chapters where Stocklassa travels to exotic locations to track down Larsson’s unquestioned suspects; such as his efforts to confront former secret service agent Bertil Wedin in Turkish Cyprus, or his entertainingly naïve attempts to enlist a Czech beauty (codenamed Lída) to extract a honey trap confession out of a half-crazed middleman. Over the years, Swedes have been inundated with more or less convincing theories about who killed Palme and why. It has been
estimated it would take a person with legal training nine years to read through the material pertaining to the police investigation, not including the many books, reports and documentaries created by private enthusiasts. More than ten thousand people have been questioned and at least 130 people have claimed responsibility for the assassination. So does the evidence presented in The Man Who Played With Fire represent a long awaited breakthrough? Stocklassa’s own factchecker Gunnar Wall, who has written several non-fiction books about the murder of Olof Palme, doesn’t think so. On his blog, Wall reveals the book’s omitted facts, questions its conclusions, and suggests that in his eagerness to solve the case, Stocklassa may have been deceived by forces within the Israeli secret service. In 2020, Swedish police finally closed the case after prosecutor Krister Petersson claimed there was “reasonable evidence” incriminating Stig Engström, a graphic designer who killed himself in 2000, at the age of 66. “Because the person is dead, I cannot bring charges against him and have decided to close the investigation,” Petersson told a news conference. Stig Engström was known to have been present at the scene of the murder. He was questioned by police several times but was dismissed as a suspect and used as a witness, even testifying in defense of another suspect.
Stieg Larsson, the author of the Millennium trilogy Photo: Per Jarl/Norstedts Förlag
Engström was first suggested as the culprit in 2018 by freelance journalist Thomas Pettersson whose investigation was published in the magazine Filter and turned over to the prosecution. When police looked into Engström’s background they found that he was accustomed to using weapons and had been a member of a shooting club. Stig Engström became known as the Skandia Man as he worked for the Skandia insurance company with an office close to the crime scene. Upon reexamination of his statements police found his version of events did not add up. Despite the official closure of the Palme case, many Swedes are dubious of its findings: the prosecution presented no new forensic evidence, no murder weapon, and not even a motive. Prosecutor Krister Petersson explained simply, “We’ve come as far as we are able to come when it comes to a suspect.”
(Those interested in learning more about this theory can watch the new, fictional mini-series called The Unlikely Murderer on Netflix). Whatever the truth, fans of the Millennium books will certainly enjoy Stocklassa’s re-creation of Larsson’s attempts to solve a reallife murder. While the author fails to provide a conclusive answer to who killed Palme, he succeeds in entertaining and infecting us with the “Palme bug”. It is impossible to read and not yearn for a convincing resolution. Perhaps it was this unrequited desire for ultimate truth that drove Larsson to the world of fiction. The Man Who Played with Fire: Stieg Larsson's Lost Files and the Hunt for an Assassin by Jan Stocklassa, translated from the Swedish original Stieg Larssons arkiv: nyckeln till Palmemordet by Tara F. Chace. Published by Amazon Crossing (2019). 510 pages. ISBN 978-1542092937.
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