Hjalmar Branting

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Template:Audio (November 23, 1860 – February 24, 1925) was a Swedish statesman and the country's first Social Democratic Prime Minister.

His education was in mathematical astronomy, and he was an assistant at the Stockholm Observatory; but he gave up scientific work to become a journalist in 1884. He began editing the newspaper Social-Demokraten in 1886, was together with August Palm one of the main organizers of the Swedish Social Democratic Party in 1889, and was its first Member of Parliament from 1896, and for six years the only one.

He led the Social Democrats in opposing a war to keep Norway united with Sweden. When the crisis came in 1905, he coined the slogan "Hands off Norway, King!" The Social Democrats organized resistance to a call-up of reserves and a general strike against a war, and are credited with a substantial share in preventing one. Image:Hjalmar Brantings porträtt av Richard Bergh.jpg Hjalmar Branting accepted Eduard Bernstein's revision of Marxism and became a reformist socialist, advocating a peaceful transition from capitalism towards socialism. He believed that if workers were given the vote, this could be achieved by parliamentary ways.

He was Prime Minister of Sweden, serving for three separate periods in 1920, 1922-1923, and 1924-1925. He was the first Swedish Social Democrat to be head of government.

As Prime Minister he brought Sweden into the League of Nations and was personally active as a delegate within it. Laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1921.

Branting supported the February Revolution in Russia in 1917. He was pro-Menshevik and defended the government of Kerensky, who he even personally visited in Petrograd. When the October Revolution broke out the same year, Branting condemned the Bolshevik seizure of power.

1917 also saw a split in the Swedish Social Democratic Party, those who supported the Mensheviks remained with Hjalmar Branting and the mother party, while those who supported the Bolsheviks broke away to form the Left Social Democratic Party, headed by Zeth Höglund and Ture Nerman. This group soon became the (original) Swedish Communist Party.

Zeth Höglund later wrote a two-volume biography about Hjalmar Branting. Image:Branting zeth h.jpg Image:Hjalmar339.jpg

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