Preparing for a tour round Karlstad’s Brigade Museum (Brigadmuseum), marking Sweden’s journey through the Cold War, from 1945 to 1991, you’re not expecting to be confronted by a pink Soviet tank at the entrance!
More surprises await inside as you discover Sweden’s quiet determination to remain ‘unaligned’ in an unpredictable world. How military and defence spending scaled back drastically as the Soviet Perestroika offered a tantalising glimpse of a more open and even trusting world, and how Sweden turned its considerable resources and good intentions into global peacekeeping. And then everything changed…
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 jolted European geopolitics out of its slumber, leading to an unexpected outcome: Sweden and Finland swiftly applying to join the NATO security alliance. A politically charged and painstaking accession process awaited the Swedes – with the main obstacle being current member Turkey’s need to extract a pound of geopolitical flesh before signing off. While Finland enjoyed a relatively smooth transition.
It’s too soon to say how historians will write up this new chapter in European security alliances. But for the curators of the Brigade Museum it is an existential question; how to keep the exhibits up to date with minds, military moves and maps in flux.
End of a peace-toting epoque
A new reality has dawned in Sweden after decades of “flexibility and balance” aimed at “keeping a distance between … the two political blocs,” notes the Warsaw Institute, adding however that Stockholm’s actions were not always fully recognised as being “in line with ‘neutral status’.”
According to Wolfgang Michel, a volunteer guide at Brigade Museum, the issues facing Swedes today range from having to ramp up defence spending and reinforce military service to reorganising international logistics and cooperation. And of course how all this will impact daily life in Sweden is a big unknown, he adds.
Asked whether such uncertainty and imminent costs play on the population’s support for such a huge move, giving up its proudly-held ‘neutrality’, the former UN peacekeeper, policeman and miner is edifying: “I wouldn’t say [Sweden was] neutral as such; it was alliance-free!”
Regardless, he continues, “Russia’s aggression has been a wake-up call for everyone.” And that goes especially for northern countries who have a lot of history with Russia.
Here, he is referring to several Cold War events, including some blatant Russian interference in everyday matters, culminating in 1981 with the grounding of a Soviet nuclear submarine off the Swedish coast. “[That] incident started an 11-day long diplomatic tug of war between Sweden and the Soviet Union,” reported Radio Sweden at the time.
The government line on this prickly issue is quite consistent with Michel’s view: “Sweden has not been involved in a war since 1814 and has ‘pursued a policy of non-alignment in peacetime and neutrality in wartime’, basing its security on a strong national defence.”
For Swedes, wariness of Russia gives way to outright hostility if you go far enough back. Alone or as part of its once powerful military empire, including Finland and other countries, Sweden has fought numerous wars against Russian-aligned forces. The last of which, during the Napoleonic Wars, ended in what has been described in Sweden as a “traumatic loss of Finland” in 1809 – it remained annexed to Russia until gaining independence in 1917.
The Finns meanwhile need no reminding of the threat posed by Russia following the latter’s invasion in November 1939. Dubbed the Winter War, the Finns valiantly defended their territory for several months against a superior force.
Testing times
But it was during the Second World War that Sweden’s non-alignment or neutrality would be heavily tested and even questioned in some circles.
“Sweden stands out as an intriguing case in which an extensive military heritage needs to be reconciled with the prominent national narratives of peace and neutrality,” notes E-International Relations in a thought piece on Swedish Cold War heritage and resurgent interest in the nation’s military history.
Michel says it was a particularly tricky period to maintain its distance after 1942 because, as the Museum points out, Swedish industry and especially steel manufacturing played a significant role for both sides.
German troops were also frequently transiting through Karlstad towards occupied Norway some 230km further west. But the key issue, according to Michel, is that the government tried not to favour either side, especially during the critical periods of the war. But evidence in the US National Archives suggests this ‘balance’ may have depended on war-time momentum shifts.
Michel points out that many individuals (up to 20,000, according to reports) chose to fight alongside Finns trying to rebuff the Russians in 1939, and later against the Germans. Swedes also set aside their country’s neutrality by helping stranded allied soldiers and people fleeing Nazi persecution.
Chief among them was the architect and businessman Raoul Wallenberg who while serving as a diplomat in Hungary was able to issue “protective passports” and set up safe houses that saved thousands of Jews.
Michel sees Sweden’s move to join NATO as understandable and even inevitable, given the circumstances surrounding Russia’s full-blown invasion of Ukraine. He believes his country’s reinstatement of “conscription”, which was dropped in 2010, is a natural consequence of these developments, too.
BREAKING –#Sweden is now a member of Nato – 200 years of military nonalignment has ended pic.twitter.com/0R5UOHRuCV
— Nordic News (@Nordic_News) March 7, 2024
Since 2018, men and women are now considered part of “Sweden’s total defence,” which according to Krisinformation, can take the form of active military service, civilian service (e.g. emergency response or armed forces), or general compulsory national service, which only applies in the event of a “heightened state of alert”.
While peaceful sentiments can be heard in day-to-day exchanges with Swedes – perhaps an expression of their natural reserve and respect for lagom (‘not too much, not too little … the right amount’) – more piqued talk of security threats and the prospects of a Hot War in Europe can be heard in political and NATO circles.
Sweden’s accession to the alliance is considered a political message to Russia as much as anything else, that its aggression has not paid off. “Analysts and commentators have been quick to highlight Sweden’s robust arms industry and the geographic benefits of an allied Sweden,” notes Foreign Policy, citing Politico and The Washington Post.
Historic day at Nato HQ. The Swedish flag was raised as Sweden is now one of 32 allies defending freedom, democracy and our way of life. A day for celebration but also continuing the hard work to integrate Sweden into Nato. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/sfe3bxiGPi
— Pål Jonson (@PlJonson) March 11, 2024
Sweden’s military budget has doubled since 2020, and spending has increased by 34% from 2023 to 2024, reaching 2.2% of GDP (.2% above NATO’s minimum requirement). December last year, Sweden and the United States also signed an agreement establishing conditions under which US troops can operate in Sweden.
Perhaps more telling of Sweden’s rapid shift from purveyors of peace to warriors of yesteryear is captured in comments earlier this year by Civil Defence Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin that “there could be war in Sweden”.
His Defence Chief Micael Bydén said Swedes need to mentally and physically prepare for it, including bolstering defence in the Baltic region and especially around the island of Gotland, strategically located between Russia’s exclave Kaliningrad and the Swedish mainland.
For the Brigade Museum, such talk is grist to the mill as it looks for new ways to tell Sweden’s Cold War story in what is an increasingly hot geopolitical milieu, from exhibits on the history and changing role of women in war to the modern face of aid stations and triage. It’s a space well worth watching.
