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Danish Communism: Recent Books of Note
The literature on one or another aspect of the history of Danish Communism continues to grow and has of late taken increasing sustenance from archival sources in the former Soviet Union. One of the first serious scholars to utilise the Moscow archives was Kurt Jacobsen who wrote two books on the early history of the Danish Communist Party — DKP — (charting its journey from syndicalist origins to 'bolshevisation'). Jakobsen is mainly concerned with untangling the complicated web of relationships between the founding leaders of the Party, the up-and-coming 'bolshevised' generation of Danish Communists and of course the Comintern's role in the unfolding events. Mellom København og Moskva (Forlaget Tiden, 1989) deals with the period from 1919-1929 and Moskva som medspiller (Forlaget Tiden, 1987) is focused on the developments leading to the DKPs electoral breakthrough (ie the attainment of its first parliamentary representation — a meagre two MPs in 1932) and Aksel Larsen's rise to power in the Party. At the time Jacobson was a member of the Danish Communist Party and his two volumes, published by the DKP's publishing house, caused something of a stir as he broke with what had been the official Party practice of 'painting Aksel Larsen in a negative light'. In fact, Jacobsen clearly spelled out Aksel Larsen's crucial role in the Danish Communist Party's progress in the early 1930s when it achieved not only parliamentary representation but a significant presence in the organisation of the unemployed and a little later in the trade unions. More recently and naturally flowing on from this work Jakobsen has written an enormous, and much acclaimed biography of Aksel Larsen — a man who was the DKP's General Secretary from 1932-56 and continued to dominate left-wing politics after he parted ways with the Communist Party as a result of the absolutely central role he played in the formation of the Socialist People's Party — SF — in 1958/59 (he remained SF's leader until his death in 1972). Again, Jakobsen has written a fairly conventional political history, in this case political biography, and concentrates on describing Larsen's position within the fractional disputes within the DKP's leadership and his relationship with the Comintern/Moscow. However, given Aksel Larsen's dominant role in the DKP's history and the really very extensive use which has been made of the various archives in Moscow, Jacobsen's biography Aksel Larsen — en politisk biografi (Vindrose, 1993) is an essential work for those studying Danish Communism.
Apart from Jakobsen the other historian who has contributed most to the study of Danish Communism is Morten Thing. Thing has written and edited numerous books and articles on individual Danish Communists and on aspects of DKP history (if one was to give a single name to the historian of Danish Communism it would be Morten Thing). His massive two volume work (1088 pages) on intellectuals in the Danish Party, Kommunismens Kaltur — DKP og de intellektuelle 1918-1960 (Tiderne Skifter, 1993) is, in contrast to the titles referred to above, not concerned with the twists and turns of the 'Party line', fractional struggles among Party leaders and the impact of the Comintern. It is a cultural history of Danish Communism — of those communists outside of the industrial arena who were involved in what can be loosely termed intellectual activities. A wealth of detailed information is given of Party members involved in theatre, architecture, literature, music, painting, infant pedagogy, sexual education etc — their contribution to their own professional fields, the way they interpreted their Communism (and Socialist Realism) and their attitude towards Society practices. Throughout its pages it is superbly illustrated with photographs and examples of propaganda and art work produced by Communist intellectuals in the years in question. These brief words can hardly do justice to such a thought-provoking work. Some have criticised Thing's magnum opus on the grounds that it gives a distorted picture by leaving out of consideration non-Communist intellectuals and leaves the impression "that Communism (though not the DKP) was the dominating force in the Danish Cultural life and debate of the period". Although there may be some truth in this there can be no doubting after reading the two volumes that the influence and impact of Communism and the DKP on Danish authors, artists and others was very considerable (proportionally greater than in Britain). Morten Thing's most recent book, in the form of a collection of biographical essays of 10 Communists, complements his Kommunismens Kultur by going into more depth some of the best known cultural figures associated with the DKP (it followed in the wake of a series of radio broadcasts he gave on individual Communists). The title is Portrætter af 10 kommunister (Tiderne Skifter, 1996) and is a collection of previously written magazine and journal articles which have been re-worked for publication. Included as a final essay is a piece on the role of biography for historians and a defence of biographical writing which includes the psychological dimension. Thing is keen to argue that historians should not attempt in a superior way to discard the private from the public persona.
Outside of academia, Ole Sohn, the former-General Secretary of the DKP, who finally solved the mystery of the leading Danish Communist Arne Munch-Petersen's disappearance, in his book Fra Folketinget til celle 290 (Vindrose, 1992) — gives an account, on the basis of archive sources in Moscow, of how Munch-Petersen fell victim to the purges in the Soviet Union in 1937 and has continued to utilise his access/links with archives/archivists in Russia in his writing. In Der var bud efter dem Fire skæbnefortællinger fra 30 ernes revolutionære miljø (Vindrose, 1994) Ole Sohn has concentrated on recounting the stories of five Communists, active in the 1930s — one of whom acted as a Comintern courier, another one who became involved in the ISH and Wollweber-organisation etc (the accounts vary, some contain new and interesting snippets of information, others are a bit more pedestrian). His newest book, Den højeste straf (Vindrose, 1996) is now in the process of being published and as with the Munch-Petersen book is a detailed account of a Dane of Christian Communist persuasion who was liquidated in the Stalinist purges — this time, however, he was not a leading DKP official or involved in Comintern activities, but an industrial worker caught up by the romance of helping to 'build socialism' as opposed to just being a wage slave in the West. Again, Ole Sohn seems to have been able to achieve access to NKVD/KGB archival sources (is this unique?)
Finally, it should be mentioned that there is a vast sub-genre of literature which is often of great relevance in the study of Danish Communism and that is to do with Denmark in the period of Occupation during the Second World War and the growth of the resistance movement. Due to limitations of space it is impossible for me to deal with this area of study, apart from drawing attention to the extremely informative and honest autobiography of one of the key Communists during the Occupation who was active in organising an illegal press and establishing an overall governing resistance council (Danmarks Frihedsiad): Kommunist under besættelsen by Borge Hommann (Vindrose, 1990).
