Anders MacGregor-Thunell

I will use the text you provided John and during the week it will be translated. I'll come back with a short report on the contacts taken and hopefully some of the publicity we gained.

I agree with John and Juan Carlos above. Thank you very much for all your contributions. My own list of things to try out in the near future grew very long thanks to you. So once again thank you very much for your great contribution and stimulating presentations.

You can now find photo sources to the Toulouse meeting 17/2-20/2 2005... Photos from Toulouse

It would be good to send out the documents you mentioned (if Richard has the time to make them into word documents). I will translate these into Swedish. I would also appreciate the text you write John. This would as well be translated into Swedish and then I'll get in contact with several newspapers, magazines and some groups that would be interested in this project. I will also put some time into talking with some of them personally to see who would be a good future "partner" (evaluating what they say, write and shown interest...).

I'm willing to work on two countries as well - Sweden and Finland. I will later try to summarize the different aspects I will cover. This will include several different aspects hopefully in cooperation with the Gender Studies Department at University of Gothenburg.

Students in the archive with a computer... I will present an ongoing local history project which is carried out by one of my classes at Hvitfeldtska Gymnasiet (Upper Secondary School). The topic will cover several different results that we get by using ICT; individually, as a team, for the school, for the archive, for the researcher...

My first website was constructed in connection with the work we did at Virtual School. After the Toulouse meeting March 2002 I made a site about “Sweden and the Spanish Civil War”. At this site I meant to gather a lot of different sources about the official Swedish reaction and Swedes that participated in the war. I got a permit to use and translate material from a Swedish writer, Göte Nilsson who had interviewed several Swedish volunteers in the beginning of the 1970’s (Svenskar i spanska inbördeskriget. (Swedes in the Spanish Civil War). P.A. Nordstedt & Söners Förlag. Stockholm, 1972). In connection with this I also carried out my own interview with a volunteer, living in Gothenburg. At the University Library in Gothenburg I followed the war through the newspapers (five newspapers representing different political opinions) and gathered copies of specific events like the outbreak of the war, some notes about the Swedes that was going to participate in the People’s Olympic Games, the reports about Swedes in Spain, the bombing of Guernica, the May riots in Barcelona etc… I also read and listed the written material that had been published in Sweden (in Swedish) with the intention to use it in some articles at the website. Some material was put together and published, both in English and Swedish, with the help of Richard at the schools server in Toulouse. What had I then done with ICT that improved the quality of teaching/learning, which would have been impossible/difficult to achieve without ICT? My first attempt was directed towards a Virtual School project and therefore it was of limited use in my own classroom though I let my IB students read the interviews and the official Swedish reaction to the war. This website had more an all-European dimension since several people participated in the same project and they also contributed with material. This would have been very difficult to achieve without ICT. I still keep some of this material on my website today so anybody can, free of charge, get access to information about the Swedish reaction to the Spanish Civil War based on different sources (and several interviews). This would not have been possible without ICT! My following websites has been mostly connected with my teaching at Hvitfeldtska Gymnasiet, Gothenburg (a secondary school in the centre of town). The website has several functions; 1. It’s a web based “diary” for the students of the different classes where they are able to go in and see what happened during the previous lessons and a bit about what’s coming up; home work, tests, deadlines for certain papers, projects etc… Sure this can be done by handing out papers at every lesson, but the web based “diary” has several advantages. If you are sick (or just absent) you can fairly fast and easy find out what happened during the lesson you missed. You can also find out what’s expected from you to the next lesson. When you try to gather your notes at the end of the year to prepare for the “End of Year Exams” or the final Exams you can go back and see what has been covered, material used, pages read, etc… Putting this information on the website has saved a lot of time, both for me and my students. 2. It’s a “library” for the students of History where I started to publish my own papers and present links to sites which cover areas in our courses. This will make it easier for the students to see the variety of material that does exist and sometimes great connections to primary sources. The material at the pages gives enough references to carry out many smaller projects and a few role plays which would have been much harder with “just” class-room material (and one chosen textbook). Now the textbook serves as a teaser and summary but the web based material gives the opportunity to go into depth when necessary. This is possible with written material that you bring to class as well but the use of ICT makes this process much easier and less time consuming. 3. It’s a “library” for more official papers and some presentations like the Swedish Course Plans for History (published by Skolverket), the individual course plan for each class, agendas and meeting minutes from the History Department, presentation of the History Department and all the activities connected to us, a presentation and a link to each history teacher at school, etc… 4. It’s a developing project… In Gothenburg History I’ll let the students read and copy primary sources about the inhabitants of a certain part of Gothenburg called Haga. They check out who lived at a certain house/apartment building the years 1880 and 1900. The records are usually tax records so they can also find out the relation between the members of each household, their occupation (often noted exactly where they worked), ages, if the person lived on “welfare”, affiliation with different congregations, etc… Then they make some conclusions about the change between the two given years. This project exposes students to “history research”, it gives them some insight in where to find material about the Cities past and they are able to present and see their results on the web – Published!!! This last part is an important factor which encourages some of them to perform better than they normally do. 5. It’s a chance for me to publish my own small projects. In connection with VS I started a few projects (gathered material and wrote some papers). These I intend to publish on my own site as well as the official VS site. This publishing ability is very important when you want to create material. I think that many of us has loads of projects, papers, etc… in our bookcases. The website gives me an opportunity to let other people benefit from what I’m doing as well as I get to publish something without the depressing delays and financing problems the publishing of a book would bring along. In May 2004 I arranged a VS department meeting in Gothenburg and to this specific event I created a little website for the meeting. This was very convenient because it gave me the opportunity to inform, write an agenda, present different places in the city, etc… and change all of these parts when ever necessary. Much easier than just send out the basic information without the opportunity to gradually update what’s going on. This has also been a way to use ICT which would have been more difficult without it. Some of the things above have inspired some colleagues and students. I know that I’m only in the beginning of my own learning process and that my website of today is a very traditional early attempt, but it has widen my own perspective and ideas, it has contributed to my own organization and its slowly but gradually changing the way I’m teaching (this last part includes the disadvantage from being a slow learner).

Hubert Scoot points out several other things that was good with VS. It's so important to find different forums for international co-operation where we are able to learn about and from each other. One of the best meetings the History Department had was when we gathered in Toulouse 2002 and launched two new projects (Spanish Civil War and Europe + Pilgrimage project) and started the plans for a third one (oral history of "Children during WWII"). It was a department meeting with lots of content building at the same time as some of us got some education in basic ICT (necessary for the understanding on what to do with the material constructed). This meeting also revealed some of the weaknesses with VS - We at this time could not publish the result of our work directly but had to wait until the overworked programmers had time to adjust this material to the platforms of VS. Meanwhile we found temporary solutions by hosting the material made at other servers and websites. Another problem was the time factor. We started this project and some members created lots of content during the relatively short time we had together. To continue these projects more time was necessary but as Hubert Schoot points out It's hard to find time to build up content and develope/create attractive projects if you have more than a full-time job. Under these circumstances I think some members contributed more than could be expected. The advantage of other peoples websites where the ability to direct people to VS. Different members advertisement for the VS must have brought thousands of readers to VS which otherwise never would have noticed Virtual Schools existence. One obstacle which is always necessary to overcome is the language aspect How do you balance the ability to produce accurate material (content), good insight in your topic (experience and good comprehension), ICT understanding and good language skills for the non-English speakers? My experience as a non native speaker is that it's time consuming to work in English at the same time as it's absolutely necessary. Poor skills among members create many problems... Still as I wrote before - my VS experience has been a rewarding one and my hope for the future is that we will see other European projects that can avoid some of the weaknesses of the VS and benefit from several of the good experiences we made.

For me personally the Virtual School was a huge success. I was a total novice when I was invited to my first Virtual School Meeting (History Department) by a colleague of mine. He wanted me to come with ideas how and what I wanted on Virtual Schools webpages as an experienced History Teacher but with no experience of ICT. I'm sure most of the people at this meeting wondered why on earth this illiterate person had been invited... I learned a lot about not knowing anything at this meeting! I was not discouraged though - rather the opposite. When I came home I started to use websites and look for what I at the time saw as good material in history. During the coming meetings I got to learn the basics about web construction from John Simkin and Richard Jones-Nerzic. I'm not exactly a "rocket scientist" so it took me a while before I had created my first webpage. It was not very "professional" - it probably had most of the beginners mistakes but I felt an enormous satisfaction over the ability to be creative with my own material. All this happened fairly recently so I still count myself as a happy beginner with some experience. Today I run my website mostly for the students at school. It's still not very well developed and I see several flaws but it fills a function and I get a lot out of the work. I'm now also involved in the E-HELP project which comes from the contacts made within Virtual School. I see a lot of developing possibilities within this project... I also want to point out the personal contacts with several very creative people that I have gained over these years. That has sure made the efforts worth while. Probably one of the most disappointing and negative things I experienced was what John pointed out I really never understood why people with this attitude ever got involved in Virtual School. It seems like the Swedish Government should have asked for at least some proof of interest and willingness to promote the use of ICT in the classroom. But as I wrote above - Without the invitation to Holland I probably still would be ICT illiterate and I would have missed out on the personal friendship of several people who has guided me into this exciting and creative world (although quite time consuming)... so I owe a lot to Virtual School!

My name is Anders MacGregor-Thunell. I’m currently a full-time teacher of History at Hvitfeldtska Gymnasiet, an Upper Secondary School with 1800 students, in the centre of the city of Gothenburg, Sweden. Most of the time I teach IB (International Baccalaureate) History, both Standard and Higher Level, but I also teach History within the ordinary Swedish system. Since 1998 I’ve been the Head of the History Department at Hvitfeldtska Gymnasiet. I started my teaching career in the middle of the 1970’s. Just a few years ago I became a member of the Virtual School. Through VS I participate in the development of international web-pages within different history topics. During the last years I have also built up the History Department site on our school’s intranet. http://www.macgregorishistory.com/

Med tanke på att vi i slutet av denna vecka kommer ha en IB workshop för Grupp 3 lärare i Gijon, Spanien, så tänkte jag att det skulle vara bra att ha en diskussionssida där vi kan hålla kontakten och fråga varandra om olika problem som dyker upp i vår vardagliga lärargärning. Först en kortare presentation; Jag heter Anders MacGregor-Thunell och är lärare i historia vid Hvitfeldtska Gymnasiet i Göteborg. Vi startade vårat IB-program 1989-1990. Jag påbörjade min första tid som IB historielärare 1991. Efter en del undervisning i USA så är jag sedan 1998 tillbaka vid Hvitfeldtska, återigen som ansvarig för IB-kurserna i Historia samt som huvudlärare i Historia. Under de senaste åren så har jag också varit examinator för Paper 1.

Economically it did! After coming into power a planned economy was one of the main aims. The state aimed at controlling industry and trade rather than implementing outright nationalization. Caution – the industry was allowed to continue functioning – more or less along the old lines provided management was under soviet supervision. Why? The Bolsheviks disagreed among themselves about which form the new soviet economy was to take and some workers had their own ideas – many of those did not follow the formal Bolshevik ideas… (several workers were not Bolsheviks!) Through the Land Decree (November 8th 1917) the Bolsheviks acknowledged what had already happened in many areas – the peasants got to take position of the land. Since the Bolsheviks had promised to redistribute the land to the peasants they now faced a new problem. The peasants had just taken position of the land and they now counted on it being their possession! Because of the huge population those plots became tiny and therefore inefficient. The struggle to construct a productive and prosperous agriculture in Soviet without offending the peasants became a continuing and insoluble problem. In December 1917 it was obvious for Lenin and the Bolsheviks that they needed to progress faster. Lenin formed the ”Supreme Economic Council” (Vesenkha). The Council was established to supervise the economy and to operate nationalized enterprises. This was a first step towards a state controlled economy. During the period April-June the banks, mineral resources, industrial resources were nationalized. The banks, the war industries and full state control over grain trade belonged to these first areas of nationalization. Lenin also annulled all state loans by the earlier regimes – the annullation of all the foreign loans caused some strained foreign relations in the future. The Civil War (1918-1921) is characterized by extensive nationalization, the temporary abolition of money as a measure of value, equalization of earnings and the direction of labor. This was a period of war, economic chaos, hunger + starvation and enormous hardship. War Communism is reckoned to have begun at mid-1918 with the ”Decree of Nationalization”, making all large-scale enterprises liable to nationalization without compensation. In the following three years there was wholesale nationalization, grain requisitioning, extreme inflation and the virtual disappearance of a money economy, a chaotic decline of industry, rationing, hunger, and disease, a decline of urban population, a gradual subordination of the unions to the government, and a Civil War which demanded the dispatch of all available human and material assets to the fronts. To be able to feed the towns during the civil war a large-scale requisitioning of grain on the countryside was necessary. In June different local administrations - the ”Committees of Poor Peasants” were formed. They were going to fulfill the needs of the urban population and the army. To make sure that the food supply was enough a decree of 1919 ordered the peasants to hand over to the State any grain surplus to what was needed for subsistence. In response the peasants simply reduced their production so there was no surplus. By 1921 only about half as much stock was kept and half as much land cultivated as there had been in 1913. Little food arrived in the cities, and the only prospect of a livelihood lay in the countryside. City workers in their thousands simply left and went into the country, to join the thousands of soldiers returning from the wars. The Government continued the confiscation of supplies, sometimes by military (CHEKA) force. In March 1921, shortly before the Tenth Bolshevik Party Congress opened in Petrograd, the sailors of the Kronstadt naval base outside Petrograd, joined by some of the Red Army, refused to obey their officers and called for a new revolution that gave genuine freedoms - of speech, of assembly, of private trade. Trotsky decided firm action was needed - it took ten days before the rebels gave up. This outburst, together with the peasants active refusal to take part in the grain requisitioning, convinced Lenin of the need for change. During a few years (1921-1928) a New Economic Policy was introduced which primarily aimed at the peasants in an effort to regain their support and give them an incentive to produce more. Therefore 1. The requisitioning of surplus grain was ended and instead an agricultural tax introduced, to be paid in kind until 1923 and thereafter in cash. The amount to be paid was a fixed proportion of the surplus, hence the more that was produced, the greater the peasants share of his own surplus. In addition, this surplus could be privately traded and the peasant could by machinery, hire labor… The ”New Economic Policy” (NEP) was not restricted to agriculture. 2. Industry and trade were restored in part to private enterprise, although the types of works and businesses in private hands tended to be small and local. The State retained control of what Lenin called ”the commanding heights” - heavy industry, the transport system, foreign trade and banking. The third thing that needed to be restored was the 3. Currency. Lenin reconstituted the rouble and backed it up with gold, silver and foreign currency. By returning to a private trade system the immediate problems were solved but at some time a fundamental reorganization would be needed. Soviet saw a considerable recovery in living standards and production levels. By 1926 in most production areas the economy had regained the 1913 output level. The NEP environment with its combination of market and planning had worked quite well, the peasants and the entrepreneurs had gained from it, but most other sectors of the economy were under fairly strict state control, so that the town worker could still be ordered where to go, and how much he could be paid and so forth, while the entrepreneurs and his country colleagues were free to produce as they liked. This paradox was unsatisfactory, not only on economic but also ideological grounds. It was Stalin that in 1928 took a big step back towards the original idea of a planned economy; In December 1927, the 15th party Congress ordered ”Gosplan” (the State Planning Commission - founded in 1921 to set up a single economic plan for the whole country) to draw up a five-year plan for development of the whole economy. All sectors within the Soviet economy were approaching a drastic change. The NEP economy was over. Stalin approved; 1. The Collectivization of Agriculture. The Congress ordered this transformation of agriculture and the destruction of the wealthy peasant class, the ”kulaks”. However, 1928 proved that a mild approach was inadequate. The quantities of grain reaching the towns was lower than ever (partly because of the low prices, fixed by the government). By the summer of 1929 Stalin had decided on a policy of compulsion, both in the destruction of the kulaks and in the creation of the collectives. ”We have passed”, he said in December, ”from a policy of confining the exploiting tendencies of the kulaks to a policy of liquidation of the kulaks as a class.” The winter of 1929-1930 was the worst period of forced collectivization. By March 1930 over half the peasant farms had been brought into collectives, from a mere 4% in October 1929. 25 000 Party officials, sometimes aided by police and army, did most of the work themselves, simply ordering the kulaks to comply. When they refused, the poorer farmers were ”encouraged” to seize the land, animals and equipment. To avoid this, the kulaks frequently burnt their own homes and crops and killed their animals. It has been estimated that about half the animal population of the Russian countryside died in this way between 1929 and 1933. The loss of human life was also enormous. Figures of this were not published, but it has been estimated that about 7 million people were either killed or deported to labor camps or new factories. 2. Industrialization and the five-year Plans. The rapid industrialization of Russia was always regarded as a major priority. Only when it had machines and materials could Russia be strong enough to defend itself against the continuing threat from the rest of the world, and act as the springboard for world revolution. ”Gosplan’s” officials produced extensive and detailed plans for every industry and area. Overall, the aim was to triple production in the heavy industry sector - coal, iron, steel, oil - and double it in other sectors. To help all areas of industry electrical output was to be increased six-fold. Plans for agriculture and social development such as the expansion of hospitals and education were also included in Gosplan’s strategy. The scheme was launched in October 1928. The campaign for industrialization was conducted as a war upon backwardness. ”Gosplan”, the high command, sent out its orders for levels of production to specific areas and they in turn translated them into detailed requirements for each plant. Plan requirements and achievements were published in the factories for all to see, and, as in wartime, constant propaganda urged the workers to ever higher efforts. There were medals, literally, for the highest producers and penalties for those who failed to achieve. Such constant supervision and threat put pressure on many managers to falsify figures and take short-cuts in production. Nevertheless, the battle had to be won and, especially in comparison with the achievements of Western Europe at the same time, it apparently was. So economically Stalin did follow the ideas of Leninism!

This is a question that does not only cover Great Britain but all of the European countries. Thanks to the non-intervention policy no government was willing to send help to the legally elected Republican government of Spain. Already July 19th 1936 a request of help came from the government in Spain to France. The new Spanish Prime Minister, José Giral, sent a telegram directly to the French Prime Minister Léon Blum. When Blum agreed to let Spain buy airplanes, weapons and ammunition the British government contacted the French ambassador in London and expressed their worries about the French reaction on the development in Spain. The British Conservative government under Baldwin suggested a meeting between the French, Belgian and British foreign ministers in London, the 23rd-24th of July. They wanted to discuss the possibility of an agreement between these countries and Italy and Germany concerning collective security. The British Foreign Minister Anthony Eden also advised Blum and France to be careful. Eden’s warning and French domestic critique made France reconsider the earlier agreement. On July 25 the French government proclaimed they would refuse the Spanish government’s request to buy weapons. There was no hinder though against a certain amount of private trade as long as there were no weapons involved. After this France took the initiative to get the rest of the world to agree on a non-intervening policy towards Spain. Meanwhile the Spanish nationalists negotiated with both Italy and Germany and received positive answers to their request of substantial support. Several countries were now involved in the Spanish Civil War (besides Germany and Italy, Soviet and Portugal also committed themselves to support different groups in Spain. The Soviet Union supported the Government (Republicans) while Portugal supported the Nationalists). In the beginning of August, France asked Britain and Italy about the possibility to create a non-intervention pact. The British welcomed the idea and suggested a meeting in England. In the beginning of August, France and Britain decided to keep their countries out of the civil war and that no more equipment should be sent to Spain. The meeting in London would give suggestion for future policy... The non-intervention Committee met the first time in London, September 9th 1936. The European nations, represented by their ambassadors, participated in this meeting. The second meeting was held September 14th. At that point Sweden got involved in a committee that was supposed to deal with the ”every day” aspect of non-intervention. During the next coming months Italy, Germany and Portugal continued to support the Nationalists and some help reached the Republican government from the Soviet Union. By the end of January 1937, Germany suddenly agreed on some border control of Spain to hinder war material reaching the country. The plan for border control was established March 8th 1937. Britain would control the Portuguese-Spanish border. 130 observers under the Danish Colonel Lunn would be stationed at the French border and 550 observers would be stationed in the Spanish harbors to control all incoming cargo. At sea, Britain would control the northern border into Portuguese territory, France would control the rest of the Portuguese territory and the south coast between Spain and Morocco plus Ibiza and Mallorca. The rest of the southern and eastern coast was controlled by Germany and Italy. In Sweden we even got some laws against any participation in the Spanish Civil War; On February 22nd 1937, a new law proposal was presented in Sweden, proposition 125 1937 - ”law about actions to prevent volunteer participation in the Spanish Civil War etc...”. It included nine paragraphs: §1. If one tries through gifts, payment or promises of reimbursement or any similar way, or through threat or abuse of higher rank to make anyone enlist for wa rservice in Spain, sentencing, where it will not be sentenced according to common law, to prison up to 6 months or a fine. §2. If a Swedish Citizen enrolls for war service in Spain, punishment with prison up to 6 months or a fine. §3. Tickets whose purpose is to travel to or through Spain can only be sold to the one who has received special permit to travel to Spain through his Majesty or through an Office which has been authorized by his Majesty, or to foreign citizens, who belong to his Majesty’s stated country, who has been authorized by an authorization Office in this country to travel to Spain. If anyone breaks what has been decided, punishment with prison up to 6 months or a fine. §4. About Swedish ships destined to Spain: it is the Commander’s duty to: see to it that the ship does not take any passenger destined to Spain who does not have the permit mentioned in §3 or without hinderance under §51, second section in the Seaman’s law and §10 in the law of Seamen’s working hours; prohibit the crew from disembarking in Spain, unless service demands; and to see to it that any other person travelling along does not embark in Spain, unless he has the permit mentioned in §3. If the Commander neglects this paragraph, punishment will be by fine. §5. About Swedish ships destined to Spain his Majesty has the authority to demand that the ship should embark from a certain port to let a special authorized Controlling Officer embark or board, and that above-mentioned Controlling Officer should be allowed to go along with the ship and, as regulated in detail, control the cargo and the passengers, and the Commander is obliged to allow war ships belonging to a country stated by his Majesty to be investigated, if the Controlling Officer is on board. If the Commander neglects this paragraph, punishment will be by fine. §6. What in this law regards Spain also relates to the Spanish possessions and the Spanish zone of Morocco §7. If violation of §2 has been committed outside Sweden independent of what is stated in Chapter 1, §1 in the penal code, the violation may be prosecuted here in Sweden. The prosecution should in a case like this be carried out at the municipal court in Stockholm. Legal court cases of violation of §4 and §5 as stated in the Seaman’s law §89 should have the same applicability. Other violations of this law than the one now mentioned should be prosecuted in the common court. The prosecution is executed by the common prosecutor. §8. The fines imposed according to this law should fall to the Crown. If means to pay the fines are missing, they should be converted according to common law. §9. His Majesty should inform necessary stipulations about the application of this law. Both Swedish houses (First and Second Chamber) approved the new law a few days later (March 5th 1937). In the First Chamber it was approved by all votes against one. In the Second Chamber it was approved with 182 to 6. Several cases against the new law came up during the next year. During Spring 1938 three Swedish volunteers contacted the Swedish Consulate in Paris. They needed money for the trip home to Sweden. The Swedish Foreign Minister Rickard Sandler then contacted a fellow Social Democrat involved in the aid to Republican Spain. He asked, unofficially, if any of the help organizations could pay for the men at the Consulate. If the Consulate paid there would automatically be a formal investigation of when these men went to Spain and if there were any violations of the law against Swedish volunteers in Spain... This is one of several cases where the Swedish government managed to get past their own law. In September 1938 Spain declared at a meeting of the League of Nations that all foreign volunteers should be evacuated. Suddenly more than 150 Swedes would be sent home. The Swedish government adjusted to the new situation by suspending the law. According to a circular from the government all men who had enlisted before October 21st 1938 would be free from prosecution when returning to Sweden. When the International Brigades were dissolved, the law against Swedish volunteers was no longer necessary. The Spanish Support Foundation wrote a formal request to the Swedish government where they asked them to pay for the transport home of the Swedish volunteers. The Swedish government’s response was positive and they also gave foreign refugees entry permits if they had been in Sweden before they enlisted in Spain. Finally they agreed to try to get those Swedish prisoners held by the Nationalists exchanged. In other words - no one had to pay any fines or serve any time in prison for participating in the Spanish Civil War even though Sweden had created a law against it.

When we were going through the Spanish Civil War and the volunteers on the Republican side a student asked - Since the youth of Europe obviously was politically engaged wasn't their any of them that volunteered at the Nationalistic side?" I had talked about the Italian and German "volunteers", but sadly enough I couldn't answer if there were any volunteers among the nationalists (I have heard about a few Swedes but I can't find any data about this) so I pass this question on to the panel.

This question is very interesting since it involves a real ”historical soap opera” – the coming of the French Field marshal Bernadotte to the Swedish Crown. A short answer would be – Sweden let go of the ideas of recapturing Finland after the war started to go bad for France in Russia 1812. A longer answer would involve more; After the agreement between Russia and France in Tilsit pressure was put on Sweden, Denmark (which included Norway at the time) and Portugal to join the continental blockade of Great Britain. After the bombardment of Copenhagen in August-September 1807 Denmark became an ally of France. The Swedish King Gustavus IV Adolphus remained pro-British. In February 1808 Russia attacked Finland and three weeks later Denmark and France declared war against Sweden. This was first of all to force Sweden to accept the continental blockade. The war against Russia was a Swedish failure but the war against France and Denmark caused less problems. France did not put very much effort into it and the Danes were hindered to leave the Danish ports by a combined Swedish-British Fleet. In March 1809 the Swedish King Gustavus IV Adolphus was replaced by his uncle Carolus XIII through a coup d`état. Carolus XIII was childless and had to accept an agreement where the Swedish Parliament elected the new successor. After the coup Sweden tried to regain peace with Russia without any success. After some regular Russian troops had landed in proper Sweden (outside the city of Umeå) a truce was accepted and negotiations started. In the Peace Treaty of Hamina (Fredrikshamn) September 17th 1809 Sweden ceded Finland to Russia. The loss of Finland was a chock for Sweden. The recapturing of Finland was at first the main future foreign aim but very soon an old plan of gaining Norway instead took shape. We can clearly see the formation of two groups; 1. The idea of the annexation of Norway was supported by the man behind the coup in March, General Georg Adlersparre + his followers. He also recommended a more neutral foreign policy with good relations to Great Britain. 2. The other group was supported by some younger officers and government officials that wanted to seek French support for the recapturing of Finland. Actual events led to a mixture of the aims of these two groups. Sweden would come closer to France but choose a more neutral foreign policy where they annexed Norway… Due to the work of the pro-Norway group (General Adlersparre and his followers) Prince Christian August of Augustenburg (who was the Danish Commander of the Norwegian troops) was suggested as the successor of Carolus XIII. Prince Christian August was willing to accept the choice – after Sweden and Denmark had made a Peace Treaty. In December 1809 the Treaty of Jönköping was signed between Denmark and Sweden without any land losses (or gains). In January 1810 Sweden signed a Peace Treaty with France. Sweden was forced to join the continental blockade against Great Britain but the country didn’t loose any land. Instead Sweden regained Swedish Pomerania (lost 1807). Prince Christian August was elected (and formally adopted by Carolus XIII) the Crown Prince of Sweden. A few months later he had a stroke during a military exercise in Scania and dropped dead. The Swedish government under General Adlersparre now focused on Prince Christian Augusts brother – Duke Fredrik Christian of Augustenborg. Before he could be suggested the majority of the government wanted Napoleons opinion. An appointed courier was sent to the Swedish Embassy in Paris. At the same time a young Swedish officer, lieutenant Carl Otto Mörner, received a copy of the same documents and was encouraged to also ride to Paris as a courier. Mörner travelled faster than the official courier. He left the documents at the Swedish Embassy and then he went on a private mission; to contact a few French Field marshals and get one of them to accept the offer of the Swedish Crown. One of the top names was Field Marshal Jean Baptiste Bernadotte – Prince of Ponte-Corvo. Bernadotte was married to Désirée, sister to Joseph Bonaparte’s wife, and Napoleons old fiancée. Bernadotte was cautious and diplomatic in his answers to this proposal, but at the same time he showed interest. At the preparation for the yearly meeting of the Swedish Estates in Örebro in August 1810 suddenly two candidates to the Swedish Crown existed. A majority of the preparation Committee was clearly ready to suggest Duke Fredrik Christian of Augustenborg when a French Merchant J.A. Fournier (ex-consul in Gothenburg) showed up and gave several promises in the name of Bernadotte. These promises included a big Swedish loan from France, good business deals as well as some land compensation. Fournier could not show any official documents that showed a connection to Bernadotte, still several very influential persons in the Swedish government choose to believe him. Field marshal Jean Baptiste Bernadotte was elected Swedish Crown Prince (and formally adopted by Carolus XIII) August 21st 1810. None of the earlier promises were fulfilled… After an evaluation of the sources around this event we can trace the following main reasons for the election of Bernadotte; - It was explained as the wish of Napoleon - It fulfilled the demands of a powerful and military skilled successor - The economical agreements were very appealing… - but most of all Sweden would get closer to France which would be a step towards the recapture of Finland! Bernadotte was the pro-Finnish group candidate. A few weeks after the election of Bernadotte France demanded that Sweden would cut all relations to Great Britain, that Sweden would fully apply the continental blockade (Sweden had kept some trade up and lots of goods was smuggled into Sweden) and officially declare war against Britain. Sweden did some of this, but the war against Great Britain 1810-1812 never became more than a paper declaration. Bernadotte initiated a new direction in the Swedish foreign policy. He first of all worked for a better relationship with Russia. He assured Czar Alexander I that Sweden had no intention of an immediate or future recapture of Finland. At the same time he criticized Denmark and expressed the opinion that the people of Norway were unhappy and wished to be united with Sweden. Bernadotte’s policy of a union with Norway was quite persistent. He negotiated officially with both Russia and France to win their support in forcing Denmark to hand over Norway to Sweden. He also started secret negotiations with Great Britain during the Autumn of 1811 (when the two countries were officially in war against each other). Meanwhile the alliance between France and Russia kept getting weaker… The real point of change in the Swedish foreign policy came after the French attack without any formal declaration of war against Swedish Pomerania in January 1812. French troops occupied the area, the Swedish administration was replaced by a French one, the Swedish estates were confiscated and Swedish officers and soldiers were taken as prisoners of war. All this was done due to the unwillingness of Sweden to act firmly against Great Britain. Bernadotte now made an alliance with Russia (April 5th 1812). This alliance was once again confirmed after the French attack on Russia in June 1812. In July 1812 Sweden and Great Britain signs a Peace treaty (Treaty of Örebro). During 1812 Bernadotte has the opportunity to put pressure on Russia about Finland (during the French march towards Moscow) but he instead offers Swedish assistance to Russia against France (although he suggests Finland as a temporary award for this service… this is the closest we get to a Bernadotte plan to recapture Finland). Czar Alexander I turns the Swedish offer down. This concludes the question about a Swedish reconquest of Finland. During Spring 1813 Sweden makes an agreement with Great Britain. This agreement involves Swedish engagement in the war against Napoleon. Bernadotte has a very low profile in this war against his former countrymen. The main theories around his obvious cautious behaviour are high hopes and ambitions about the French succession after Napoleon, but if this failed he needed a plan B – as the Swedish Crown Prince and future King. After the battle of Leipzig in October 1813 a big part of the Northern Army under the command of Bernadotte moves towards Denmark. This campaign is over after just a few weeks. At the Peace Treaty of Kiel January 14th 1814 Norway is ceded to Sweden. As some compensation Denmark receives Swedish Pomerania. These news were not well received in Norway. Some representatives gets together in Eidsvoll where they proclaimed the Independence of Norway; elected the Danish Prince Christian Fredrik to be King of Norway and established a genuine Norwegian constitution. This was concluded on the 17th of May 1814 (after this Norway’s “National Day”). In July 1814 Swedish forces under Bernadotte attacked Norway. After some early and fairly easy victories Bernadotte starts to negotiate with the representatives of Norway. In Moss a revised version of the Eidsvoll documents were accepted. Norway will have to accept a union with Sweden where the Swedish King also is the King of Norway and the Swedish foreign policy is common for both countries, but Norway will have its own parliament and take care of all domestic politic. This document was signed in August 1814. These agreements were later confirmed at the Congress of Vienna 1814-1815. What’s important to not forget is that the Swedish loss of Finland 1809 to Russia was followed by a lenient treatment of Finland as a relatively independent part of the Russian Empire. It would have been hard to convince Finland of any advantages belonging to Sweden. The attitude of a large part of the educated class and amongst many garrison officers in Finland was against Sweden and had been so for several years (since the start of the Independence movement in the 1770’s). “Our destiny is, in any event, to fall under Russia, but our position will be much worse if we do not voluntarily submit”. Finland had watched how the Russian Empire steadily grew stronger in comparison with Sweden. They had also heard for many years Russia declare its intention to conquer all of Finland and when that happened grant a certain extent of independence to be conferred upon Finland. These ideas were appealing to these men that had watched how Finland always was of minor concern to the Swedish government in Stockholm. The Finnish population was discontent with the policy of nearly always see Swedish natives appointed to the more important political positions. The Swedish war plans also revealed an ignorance of Finland as part of the Swedish Kingdom; If attacked by Russia the troops in Finland should retreat to Helsinki and Ostrobothnia. The Army should first of all defend the mother country and then try to build up strength for a campaign to regain the lost territory. These plans meant that the territory in the southeast just should been handed over. This was a district where numerous noblemen in the officer corps had their homes and landed property. Finland was once again just reduced to a battlefield and there wouldn’t be any change as long as Finland was joined to Sweden. This is exactly what happened when the war broke out in 1808. This is also why Sweden couldn’t automatically count on Finland’s support in a Swedish campaign to recapture the lost part of the old Swedish Kingdom… This was the longer answer…

I think it's a very good idea to have an associate member from Russia (as well as contact the German government). It's important to get an idea on how our suggested topics are treated in different countries. Our plan from the very beginning was to focus on the 20th century - even if it's interesting to work with other centuries I think we should stay with this plan. I also agree with Juan Carlos about "European integration" - we need to focus on these parts as well as the conflicts.

This is an interesting and important topic. I don't mind keeping all the suggested topics for a while and see what we can come up with...

Andy and Graham - thank you for the explanation. I think I have a better clue now (but I'm still not really sure...). I don't remember the scandal at Karolinska David, but I now that there has been some copyright issues on software in Sweden. I'm not planning to give up on my pages, but I will go your way Graham and we shall see how long it will take...

I am very interested in what ever can come up since I just now sense a lot of work (not necessarily limitations - but quite some work) to develope the ideas I had about a part of Modern History after 1945... (that includes photographs, audiomaterial, videomaterial etc...). Since I'm obviously not a native speaker (Swedish is my native tongue) I don't understand Can you explain this expression?

In that respect I'm very happy that I could stand out as an ignorant teacher with the need to find out more about copyright on the net. I must say though (which probably will make you all happy) - my "weblife" got a bit more complicated... I sincerely hope that this discussion will continue when it's necessary. I learned a lot from your postings Graham (and others) and I wish to thank you for that.

Inspiring and a very interesting debate (and an excellent start/speech). I agree with several of the people in the danger of making rigid formal courses that does not leave any room for our students own creativity and initiative. Though there is another problem... Since I teach history in Sweden my experience of National Curriculum’s is a bit different then that from my British colleagues. We basically don't have a National Curriculum (or I should say we have several very general points that make it possible to make individual interpretations and since we don't have any National Exams the teacher in the class-room decides what and how to study the topic). In several other places I have argued how hard it is when you don't have an "enforced" National Curriculum. I do realize all the opportunities this gives the individual history teacher, but I have also seen a lot of problems which follows along this lack of indications of what should be taught (and hopefully learned). We have examples of teachers that never brought up the basics of European History during the last Centuries but resorted to fully develop their own interests in other fields; Swedish History in the 17th Century, Ancient History of Greece and Rome etc... Their students hardly know anything about the French Revolution, the industrial and political development during the 19th Century, Imperialism, the coming of the two World Wars, the Cold War, etc... all these parts that we count as being basic historical knowledge. I’m also an IB teacher and there I run into the problems so well described by others in this debate – a very rigid formal system that is totally oriented towards exams and it gives very little room to the creativity and students own initiative… As you might understand – teaching in these contradictory systems must make a very ambivalent teacher… I think this is a very typical picture for IB History as well. Great students usually with good learning capacity totally focused on the final exams. The choice of topics within the system is limited and as also been pointed out, it gives the student a strange concept of history which they will forget in a short time anyway. IB also focus on the kind of uninspiring and formal source criticism described before which does not inspire them to go further and see the necessity to apply critical thinking in every day life... So what could be done... Well in one smaller course that I teach - "Gothenburg History" I have been able to form the course and apply source criticism a different way. Here comes a little idea about how we worked with local sources... Our school is located in the center of Gothenburg. Our closest neigbour is the Regional Archive of Gothenburg; From the webbpage of the Regional Archive of GothenburgAs part of this course I teach the students about how to use the archive to find information about individuals in Gothenburg at certain time periods. They will then pick out a certain part of a block (could be a house or two) in two specific areas in Gothenburg (also close to our school) and note all the people that lived there at two/three different years (like 1860 / 1880 / 1900). The task later is to try to evaluate the background of the people that lived at the addresses and see if there was any great changes over time in a wider historical context (the history of the city, the region, the country and on an international level...). They use a few other archives in Gothenburg as well (one with photos of "Old Gothenburg") and later they should evaluate the sources used. The results of this exercise vary but what is more important - the students have evaluated this exercise as being inspirational and the better part of the course pointing out that they got to approach historical material in a different way from what they had done before. I wrote this part to show of one alternative in approaching source material compared with bringing certain material to the class-room and then just force the students to use what is served. I'm sure that you all have a lot of other samples of this kind of source practice...

I really appreciate this extensive answer Graham. I have basic knowledge on how to deal with written material - books, articles, webpages... but as I said in the beginning I'm a bit less sure what rules apply to video/films/audio material. From what you written and through some of the suggested links I start to get an idea. From what I understand it's difficult (if not impossible) to get the material that I desire to use and it's obvious to me that most websites break some of the rules that apply to this kind of material...

I don't know if I dare to write it but it seems like everything works fine. John, I had great problems with several other programs after I installed some updates from ZoneAlarm (this is a few months ago). The problems were so severe that I changed firewall and anti-virus program (to Symantec).

Films always played an important part of my life. When I was a kid I went to the cinema and discovered this media together with Chico, Harpo and Groucho Marx (Zeppo and Gummo were in a few films, but it was these three characters that got my full attention...). Since I'm a simple minded person I still love watching some of these movies. The intelligent nonsense fits my kind of humor so therefore they played an important role... (and now you can get several of their movies in a DVD Collection ).

I was 15/16 when I read "The Unknown Soldier" (In Swedish - "Okänd Soldat") by the Finnish Author Väinö Linna. It did not only encourage my interest of history (which was there much earlier) but it also helped me understand a period of my own peoples history (Finland during the Second World War) and the autrocities of war. Väinö Linna (in English) A few years later I came across a book that also stayed in my mind - a book that I have picked up a few times and read again still amused about the intrigue and that's "The Thief" (In Swedish "Tjuven" - and in it's originial language, French "Le voleur") by George Darien.