Old Swede Day

It was on April 22, 2021 that our Swedish residency cards arrived. Since then, we have proclaimed it New Swede Day. Not that we do anything special, apart from feel a warm and happy glow. Though Mirinda did suggest inventing a special bun.

But, today, rather than New Swedes, I’d like to highlight an old Swede. A man by the name of Knut Ragnar Cederborg. I walk past his memorial stone in the Trosa churchyard every Wednesday. While he was born in Stockholm on October 1, 1910, he lived in Trosa. He was single. I haven’t been able to find out what he did or when he moved here.

I do know that he was a member of the Swedish Volunteer Corps who, for a month, fought alongside Finland against the Soviet Union in the Winter War.

Of course, Sweden, as a nation, stopped going to war in August 1814, after the fortnight war with Norway. This happened after Swedish Crown Prince Karl Johan “entered into an agreement with Tsar Alexander I that Russia would support a Swedish attack on Norway in order to force Denmark-Norway to cede its northern part to Sweden. (Wikipedia)” That was in 1812-13.

As it turned out, the Sweden–Norway clash was postponed because Napoleon was being a bit annoying as far as the Tsar was concerned. Karl Johan said he’d go and help and re-occupied Pomerania instead. (Denmark and Norway, by the way, were on Boney’s side during the Napoleonic Wars. I actually knew this from reading Sharpe’s Prey.)

The war was very much a one-sided affair, with Sweden’s superior numbers of battle hardened soldiers and a bigger and better equipped navy, which explains why it only took a couple of weeks. At the end of it, though, Sweden decided to be neutral when it came to wars.

However, there were always Swedish volunteers, willing to go and fight for one side or the other in other major conflicts. And the Winter War was no exception.

The Winter War began with the Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939. Apparently, Stalin was worried that Finland was going to invade Leningrad, only 32km across the border. He sent his troops into Finland before this could happen.

While Stalin could be described as a bit paranoid, in this case, his concern may have been justified given that Finland had already tried to invade Soviet territory. He was also a bit mad because the Communist Party in Finland had been disbanded and sent packing. This followed a civil war in Finland which the Soviets helped lose.

Anyway, in a mark of support for Scandinavian unity, a lot of Swedes (and Norwegians) volunteered to go to Finland and help win the war. Of course, Sweden had once before tasted Russian attacks with the horror of the Great Pillage when, back in 1719, ships set fire to most towns down the east coast, including Trosa.

Over 12,000 volunteers put their names down to help Finland in 1939, including Knut. They all headed north. Around 8,000 were accepted by the Finnish military, and they arrived at the front line in February 1940 and relieved the Finnish troops in a place called Märkäjärvi.

Through thick snow and walking across frozen lakes with temperatures falling to −43°C, the Volunteers found and fought the Soviets, leading up to the Moscow Peace Treaty, calling for the end of hostilities on March 13, 1940. The Swedish Volunteer Corps was subsequently disbanded on March 16.

In the end, 33 or 38 Swedes (depending on the source) died in the conflict and Knut was one of the last. He died as the ceasefire of March 13 happened.

And while there’s a lot of Knut’s early life that’s shrouded in mystery, his sacrifice will be remembered as long as the memorial stands.