Svensk opinionsbildning 1918 : En studie av tre socialistiska tidningar och riksdagens opinionsuttryck i anslutning till finska inbördeskriget

Sammanfattning: The civil war in Finland became a great political battle between the Swedish Social Demo- cratic Party (SAP) and the Swedish Social Democratic Left-Wing Party (SSV) during spring 1918. Few studies about Swedish media report have been published that has a connection to the Finnish civil war. This composition has compared three socialist newspapers – Folkets Dagblad Politiken (FDP), Norrskensflamman and Social-Demokraten – formation of opinion. In the Swedish parliament’s lower chamber a significant interpellation debate took place, which this composition compares with the newspapers, in order to identify if the debate affected the newspapers reports.This composition administers a qualitative method by the use of text analytical elements. This allows findings of differences in the media reports during February 1918. The newspapers media opinion and the lower chamber members’ statements’ has been studied throughout three aspects: which causalities they gave to the civil war, how they related to the Swedish government commitment to Finland and how they related to the national political “Finnish debate”. In general, the Left-Wing Party supported the Finnish social democrats rising, whereas the Swedish Social Democrats couldn’t authorize the rising. Instead they emphasized that they acted on the will of the Swedish population, by keeping Sweden out of the war.The differences between the Left-Wing Party and the Social Democrats were vast during the debate. One could understand this polemic by applying Gunnar Sjöbloms theoretical concept of how parties construct their political ambitions in a multiparty system. The Left-Wing was more idealistic in the debate, compared to the Social Democrats who were more practical. The Social Democrats was for the first time in Swedish history in a ministry cabinet, together with the Liberal Party. Thus the ambition for the SAP was to show their voters that the party was “governmental capable”. SAP couldn’t legitimize nor admit the Finnish rising, thus they accentuated the democratic inviolableness. SSVs’ more idealistic standpoint became clear when they supported the Finnish Social Democratic rising. Therefore, SAPs’ focus was to maximize their parliamentary influence, while SSVs’ focus was to realize their political, ideological program. Thus the parties’ had different political ambition, which became clear during the “Finland debate”.Keywords: Finnish civil war, SAP, SSV, Folkets Dagblad Politiken, Norrskensflamman, Social-Demokraten, formation of opinion.