37 Facts About Ture Nerman

Ture Nerman was a Swedish socialist journalist, author, and political activist.

Alcoholism was a major social problem in Sweden in the early 20th century, and Nerman considered alcohol to be a drug that made the working class passive instead of fighting for better conditions.

Ture Nerman had younger twin brothers, the artist Einar Nerman and the archeologist Birger Nerman.

Ture Nerman grew up in a middle-class family in the working-class, industrial city of Norrkoping.

Ture Nerman's father owned a bookstore in the city and had married an employee who was many years younger: she became the mother of Ture and his two younger brothers.

Ture Nerman graduated from Norrkoping gymnasium in 1903 at the age of 17.

Ture Nerman had already developed an anti-militarist standpoint and in 1908 he was caught by the secret police handing out illegal anti-militarist leaflets.

Ture Nerman was first convicted to jail, but the penalty was altered to a 300 kronor fine.

Ture Nerman's father sent him the money, but the rebellious son used it to finance a trip to Paris, where he stayed a couple of weeks.

In 1909, Ture Nerman moved to the northern city of Sundsvall where he started working as a writer for a Social Democratic newspaper called Nya Samhallet,.

At this point Ture Nerman had already gotten a couple of his poetry books published.

Ture Nerman joined the Swedish Social Democratic Party and soon became part of the left wing together with Zeth Hoglund.

Ture Nerman had met Liebknecht briefly a couple of years earlier on a socialist gathering in Stockholm, but this time they got to know each other well.

In November 1912, Ture Nerman attended the special emergency convention of the Socialist International, which had been summoned to Basel in Switzerland, due to the outbreak of the Balkan Wars.

Together with his friend Zeth Hoglund, Ture Nerman represented the Swedish-Norwegian members of the Zimmerwald Conference.

Ture Nerman took the express train across the continent to San Francisco where he visited the World's Fair on opening day.

Ture Nerman then started a tour speaking to American workers, mostly of Scandinavian origin, in Minneapolis and Chicago.

Ture Nerman took some time to visit some relatives in Astoria, Oregon.

When Ture Nerman returned in the mid summer to Sweden, Zeth Hoglund complained, asking if it really had been necessary of him to go to America when he was so much needed at home in the intensifying class battle and the struggle within the Swedish Social Democratic Party between the left wing and the right wing.

In Petrograd, Ture Nerman was invited two visit the home of Zinoviev, who was the leader of the Petrograd Soviet.

The next day Ture Nerman attended a rally outside the Winter Palace, in which Zinoviev and Balabanoff spoke to the red soldiers heading out to fight in the civil war.

Ture Nerman was welcomed to live with the Kamenev family at the Kremlin.

Ture Nerman mentioned that the Swedish press, and even the Social Democratic newspapers, wrote almost every day that the Soviet government was about to fall, but still it remained.

The day after, Nerman got to sit down with Bukharin for a long interview, in which Bukharin expressed his optimism in the world revolution and socialist future.

Ture Nerman made his second trip to Russia with Otto Grimlund in the spring of 1920, where he got to meet with Lenin, this time as the guest, after having been the host in Stockholm April 1917.

Ture Nerman's family had tried to delay the funeral, but still he had missed it.

Ture Nerman would make one more trip to Russia, in 1927.

Ture Nerman condemned the rise of Stalinism in Russia, but when Zeth Hoglund broke with the Communist Party in 1924, Ture Nerman remained, although less involved in the leadership.

Flyg wanted Ture Nerman to stay but he didn't like the development of the party and left voluntarily.

In 1939, choosing the date of First of May, Ture Nerman re-joined the Swedish Social Democratic Party.

On 20 April 1933, a couple of months after Hitler had taken power in Germany, Ture Nerman stood up in the Swedish parliament and demanded that Sweden should grant asylum for all German Jews who would like to come.

When World War II broke out in 1939 Sweden declared itself neutral, but Ture Nerman was not neutral.

Ture Nerman was even sentenced to jail for three months in the winter of 1939.

Ture Nerman was a parliamentarian at the time of his conviction.

Ture Nerman retired after that, at 67 years of age.

Ture Nerman even became an advocate of Swedish membership in NATO.

Ture Nerman has a small street named after him in Kungsholmen, Stockholm, as well as in Bergen and Namsos, Norway.