The purpose of this paper is to understand how different fractions of Sweden’s left wing (the Social democrats, the Communists, the Syndicalists and the Socialist party) framed the end of the Spanish Civil War and the defeat of the republicans. To answer the purpose four newspapers Arbetaren (syndicalist), Folkets Dagblad (Socialist party), Ny Dag (communist) and Socialdemokraten (social democratic) have been analyzed qualitatively. The thesis has focused on how the different ideologies have framed the war, how they framed the other labour organizations and themselves plus how they relate to information about the war during the period of February 1st1939 till April 5th1939. The analysis shows that the Social democrats and the Communists framed the war as a conflict between fascism and socialism, whereas the Syndicalists and the Socialist party framed the war as a socialistic revolution. Because each side had their own view, their opinions on what threatened a republican victory differed. The Social democrats were most concerned that a non-democratic movement would win the war and the Communists feared that fragmentation within the republicans would threaten their chances to win. In contrast, the Syndicalists argued that the nonintervention policy would make the revolution impossible and the Socialist party framed the threat as the Communists, because of their non-revolutionary agenda.

This essay examines a movement practicing civic confirmation in Stockholm in the 1930s. Organizing the civic confirmations was The Committee for Civic Youth Education, led by civil- and human rights advocate Anna Lindhagen (1870–1941). The practice of civic confirmation is examined within the context of the early 20th century Swedish labour movement and the criticism of church and religion often expressed therein. Based on Janken Myrdal’s method of multiple sources, the essay utilizes several different kinds of sources, consisting of unpublished archival material as well as press and periodical journals, in order to examine the background, purpose and practice of civic confirmation. The origins of the civic confirmations are found within the critique of what was perceived as a too dogmatic and compulsory school education in the Christian faith, leading to a desire to politically reform the religious education of the public-school system. When this failed, Anna Lindhagen and her peers took matters into their own hands, organizing a course of lectures on religious and philosophic thinkers throughout history as well as on contemporary matters deemed important for adolescents. The purpose was to give youths a proper religious education, thus enabling them to become morally and spiritually sound members of society, and to eventually replace the practice of church confirmation. Courses were held throughout the 1930s, but the movement’s fate thereafter is unknown. The civic confirmations in Stockholm were similar to practices in southern Sweden as well as in Denmark and Norway. They were also in many ways typical of how the labour movement had organized its opposition to church practices in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This particular instance of civic confirmation in Stockholm may have had limited effect on society, but within a broader context of secularization in northern Europe, the early and mid-20th century civic confirmations could be understood as forerunners to similar movements organizing civic or humanist youth confirmations in the 21st century.