Olof Palme

Sven Olof Joachim Palme (Swedish: Olof Palme; pronounced [ˈʊlɔf palˈmɛ]; 30 January 1927 – 28 February 1986) was a Swedish Social Democratic politician, statesman and prime minister. A longtime protégé of Prime Minister Tage Erlander, Palme led the Swedish Social Democratic Party (SAP) from 1969 until his assassination in 1986, and was a two-term Prime Minister of Sweden, heading a Privy Council Government from 1969 to 1976 and a cabinet government from 1982 until his death. Electoral defeats in 1976 and 1979 marked the end of Social Democratic hegemony in Swedish politics, which had seen 40 years of unbroken rule by the party. While leader of the opposition, he parted domestic and international interests and served as special mediator of the United Nations in the Iran–Iraq War, but returned to power as Prime Minister after electoral victories in 1982 and 1985.

A pivotal, renowned, and polarizing figure domestically as well as in international politics since the 1960s, Palme was steadfast in his non-alignment policy towards the superpowers, accompanied by support for numerous third world liberation movements following decolonization including, most controversially, economic and vocal support for a number of Third World governments which were guilty of gross violations of human rights. Most famously, he was the first Western Head of Government to visit Cuba after its revolution, giving a speech in Santiago praising contemporary Cuban and Cambodian revolutionaries.

Olof Palme (historian)

Olof Palme, born 21 September 1884 in Porvoo, died 3 April 1918 in Tampere, was a Finnish-born Swedish historian and the organizer of the Swedish voluntary brigade in the 1918 Finnish Civil War. He was the uncle of Olof Palme, the prime minister of Sweden, who was murdered in 1986.

Life

Palme was born in Porvoo, Finland as the son of the Swedish politician and artillery officer Sven Palme and Finnish Hanna von Born. He went to school in Stockholm and later studied history at the University of Uppsala. Palme took part of the archaeological excavations in the Medieval Sigtuna and was the founder of the 1916 established Sigtuna museum.

Palme was known as a keen anti-socialist who was radicalized after the 1906 Hakaniemi riot in Helsinki. He was openly racist and has been described as a proto-fascist. In January 1918 Palme organized the voluntary Swedish Brigade to join the Finnish Civil War, fighting aside with the Finnish White Guards. He was killed by the Reds on the first day of the Battle of Tampere in April 1918. Palme was buried in Sigtuna.