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Abstract
The Russian Revolution of 1917 presented Swedish Social Democrats with a dilemma: how could they use the transnational revolutionary momentum to further universal suffrage, without supporting actions possibly leading to violence? In striking this balance, the use of communications was central. This article uses the concept of the media system to analyse the communicative practices and strategies developed by the Party in the early 20th century, and how these were employed between 1915 and 1917, in relation to the hunger marches and revolutionary pressures. The study shows that the Party had established conscious agitation strategies and an elaborate national communication structure, which enabled coordinated opinion activities. As early as 1915, the Party began using these tools to initiate a national opinion movement concerning the food situation. In 1917, faced with the combination of events in Russia and erupting hunger marches, the Party leadership chose to emphasize security and stability, focusing on events the Party could control, such as the 1 May demonstrations. The resulting development of revolutionary opinion in Sweden during the spring of 1917 and the ensuing political changes reflected conscious media management strategies by the Left, who used the media system to navigate and shape a transnational revolutionary moment.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. A line of research touching on similar questions but from different perspectives concern the history of election campaigning, of which the Social Democrats were an important part. Esaiasson, Svenska valkampanjer 1866-1988.
2. Nyström, Hungerupproret 1917, 11.
3. Andræ, Revolt eller reform.
4. Sejersted, Socialdemokratins tidsålder.
5. Åkerberg at Meeting of the Social Democratic party board, 22 May 1917, 22.
6. Elvander, Skandinavisk arbetarrörelse, 42.
7. Alapuro, State and Revolution in Finland.
8. The invitation was reported by Social-Demokraten on 11 January 1917.
9. Ross, Media and the Making of Modern Germany.
10. Pethybridge, The Significance of Communications in 1917.
11. Hirdman, Vi bygger landet.
12. Blomqvist, Potatisrevolutionen; Andræ, Revolt eller reform; Nyström, Hungerupproret 1917.
13. Josephson, Arbetarna tar ordet; Johannesson, Agitatorn som hot och ideal.
14. Jönsson and Snickars, Medier & politik.
15. Wolf, Tigande diktare?
16. Hall, Scandal, Sensation and Social Democracy; Hadenius, Seveborg, and Weibull, Partipress.
17. On qualitative methods in historical research, see Saucier Lundy, ‘Historical Research’, 395–9.
18. Harvard and Lundell, 1800-talets mediesystem.
19. Ytreberg. ‘The 1911 South Pole conquest’; Dayan and Katz, Media Events.
20. Hallin and Mancini, Comparing Media Systems.
21. Simonson, När posten höll tempot.
22. Scholars from the project EMHIS have recently, with inspiration from the histoire croisée tradition, argued that transnational and transmedial case studies could be fruitfully interpreted as entangled. See Cronqvist and Hilgert, ‘Entangled Media Histories’.
23. Hyman, ‘Agitation, Organisation, byråkrati, diplomati’; Josephson, Arbetarna tar ordet.
24. Andra socialdemokratiska partikongressen Norrköping 17–20 maj 1891, 8–9.
25. Sveriges socialdemokratiska arbetarepartis konstituerande kongress i Stockholm den 19-22 april 1889, (1890), 26–7.
26. Simonson, Socialdemokratin och maktövertagandet, 10–14.
27. Andra socialdemokratiska partikongressen Norrköping 17-20 maj 1891, 15–16.
28. Gidlund, ‘Folkrörelsepartiet och den politiska styrelsen’.
29. Agitation 1913–1917, med resplan över ombudsmännens agitationsturné 1914–1915.
30. Jönsson and Snickars, Medier & politik.
31. Östberg, Byråkrati och reformism, 26.
32. Svenska socialdemokratiens tredje partikongress i Göteborg den 23, 24, 25, 26 mars 1894, 10–11, 23.
33. Ibid, 7; Gidlund, ‘Folkrörelsepartiet och den politiska styrelsen’; Simonson, Socialdemokratin och maktövertagandet, 24.
34. Sveriges Socialdemokratiska arbetarepartis sjätte kongress i Stockholm: 17–25 Februari 1905, 66–8, 93.
35. Hadenius, Seveborg, and Weibull, Partipress.
36. Ibid, 204.
37. Ibid, 39.
38. Socialdemokratiska partistyrelsens berättelse för år 1914, 4–6.
39. Ibid, 41.
40. Ibid, 46.
41. Ibid, 47.
42. Ibid, 55–6.
43. Socialdemokratiska partistyrelsens berättelse för år 1915, 9.
44. Minutes of the party board, 1 February 1916, §2. In Germany, a party press bureau was started in 1908, catering to social semocratic newspapers. Ross, Media and the Making of Modern Germany.
45. Simonson, “Socialdemokratin och maktövertagandet”, 102–13.
46. Sejersted, Socialdemokratins tidsålder, 148–50.
47. Snickars, ‘Storstrejken 1909 – en mediehistoria’.
48. Langkjaer, Övervakning för rikets säkerhet, 70. This was a counter development to that of, for example, Germany, where anti-socialist laws were abolished in 1890. To curb the development of socialism in Germany, conservative and Right-wing interests instead started the Imperial League against Social Democracy, which supported newspapers and produced pamphlets. Ross, Media and the Making of Modern Germany.
49. Langkjaer, Övervakning för rikets säkerhet, 70.
50. Ullsten, Umeå-pressen 1917–1922, 22.
51. Hilton, Consumerism in Twentieth-Century Britain, 53–65.
52. Frieburger, ‘War Prosperity and Hunger’.
53. Colonist, 24 April 1917, ‘Food Shortage in Sweden’.
54. Larsson, ‘Krig, kriser och tillväxt’.
55. Blomberg, ‘Revolutionary Outsiders in Sweden’.
56. Socialdemokratiska partistyrelsens berättelse för år 1915, 9.
57. Ibid.
58. Ibid., 47, 49.
59. Ibid., 14–15.
60. Ibid., 9–49.
61. Meeting of the party board in 1916, 1 February. Letter from Malmö workers’ commune. Arbetarrörelsens arkiv.
62. Bilagor till partistyrelsens protokoll 1916. Letter from Gothenburg workers’ commune, 4 October 1916.
63. Ibid. Letter from citizens of Malmberget to the party board, 1 October 1916.
64. Thorberg, Dyrtidskongressen 1916; Social-Demokraten, ‘Den stora dyrtidskongressen’, 30 December 1916.
65. Dagens Nyheter, 28 December 1916.
66. Social-Demokraten, 16 April 1917.
67. Västervik was not without activity from the Social Democratic Party. The annual report for 1915 had listed, among other things, a study circle, led by G. Jansson, with 12 members, and the party magazine Tiden listed 15 subscribers in Västervik the same year. Socialdemokratiska partistyrelsens berättelse för år 1915, 115, 128.
68. Andræ, Revolt eller reform, 23–7.
69. Andræ, Revolt eller reform.
70. Dagens Nyheter, 22 April 1917.
71. Ibid.
72. Rohdin, ‘När kriget kom till Sverige’.
73. Journal film ‘Demonstration for bread and suffrage in Södertälje’, 29 April 1917, https://www.oppetarkiv.se/video/4096617/journalfilm, accessed 6 March 2017. Journal film ‘Demonstration against the expensive times outside parliament’ (1917), http://www.filmarkivet.se/movies/dyrtidsdemonstration-vid-riksdagshuset/, accessed 6 March 2017.
74. Cinemas included the topics of the journal films in their adverts. ‘The demonstration outside Parliament’ is specifically mentioned by the cinema Imperial, and the advertisement for the cinema Sibyllan references ‘Saturdays demonstration in Stockholm’. Dagens Nyheter, 28 April 1917.
75. Arbetet, 26 April 1917; Social-Demokraten, 21 April 1917.
76. Stockholms-Tidningen, 22 April 1917; Stockholms Dagblad, 17 April 1917.
77. Andræ, Revolt eller reform.
78. Reprinted in Dagens Nyheter, 26 April 1917.
79. Höglund, Minnen i fackelsken, 47.
80. Harvard, En helig allmännelig opinion, 323.
81. Meeting of the executive committee of the Social Democratic party, 29 April 1917, §74.
82. Ibid., §73.
83. Social-Demokraten, 1 May 1917.
84. Ibid., 2 May 1917.
85. Stockholms-Tidningen, 2 May 1917.
86. Stockholms Dagblad, 22 April 1917.
87. Ibid., 2 May 1917.
88. Björklund, Första maj och förstamajdemonstrationerna, 181–6.
89. Socialdemokratiska ungdomsförbundet, Berättelse 1917, 17.
90. Riksdagens protokoll, Andra kammaren, 1917:72, 1–9.
91. Ibid., 50.
92. Harvard, En helig allmännelig opinion, 259–62.
93. Meeting of the Social Democratic party board, 22 May 1917, 19.
94. Ibid, 23.
95. Svensson, Socialdemokratin och livsmedelspolitiken.
96. Sejersted, Socialdemokratins tidsålder, 66–7. Ihalainen, Springs of Democracy, 298–314.
97. Ihalainen, Springs of Democracy, 509.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Jonas Harvard
Jonas Harvard is Adjunct Professor in the History of Political Discourse and Communication at the University of Jyväskylä and a Researcher in Communication History at the Department of Media and Communication, Mid Sweden University. His previous works include books and articles about historical changes in political language, Nordic dimensions of media history, and British parliamentary history.
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