The Evolution of Swedish Fascism: Self-identity and Ideology in Interwar Sweden

Abstract

Historians and social scientists generally understand nationalism to be the defining feature of fascism. This study challenges that assumption with the examination of Swedish fascist movements through the concept of self-identity. Based on interwar fascist periodicals, the development of Swedish fascists‘ self-identity in relation to race, nation, and the signifiers of 'fascism' and 'National Socialism', is traced from the early 1920s when an overt attachment to Mussolini‘s model was displayed, through a National Socialist phase showing a cautious commitment to Nazi Germany, ending with a final phase of 'anonymisation'. In the face of criticism that their ideology was alien to Sweden, fascists adapted their self-representation to accommodate nationalist commitments, developing a transnational racialist ideology believed to be more in tune with Swedish political culture. When public opinion turned decisively against 'international fascism' in the mid-1930s, they were forced to discard the name and image of 'fascism' altogether, in a final phase of anonymisation, which however did not entail any significant ideological metamorphosis.