Vår vän och kamrat

Abstract

This study deals with the Swedish Marxist-Leninists view on time and authoritarian leaders, in particular, Josef Stalin and Mao Tse-tung 1968-1972. In order to do that this study survey three different categories; criticism of the western society, utopia and the authoritarian leaders. By examining three marxist-leninist journals, Gnistan, Clarté and Proletären, a picture emerges in which the Swedish Marxist-Leninist Movement was skeptical to the western society, saw utopia in communistic countries such as China and Albania and had a positive view on Stalin and Mao. The different elements of the survey are then discussed in the light of the historian Reinhart Kosellecks ideas of historical time and the conclusion is that elements such as experience and expectation were linked to the Swedish Marxist-Leninists submission to authoritarian leaders and that these leaders embodied different strategies in which one could place oneself in time.