Russia smears Pippi Longstocking author as Nazi in propaganda posters

[Celerity]

Russia has launched a poster campaign in Moscow featuring ostensibly pro-Nazi quotes from the Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren, the film-maker Ingmar Bergman, and the Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad. "We are against Nazism, but they are not," the poster reads.

https://www.thelocal.se/20220503/fact-check-has-russia-launched-an-anti-swedish-propaganda-campaign/




The poster was put up at this bus stop outside the Swedish embassy.

Oscar Jonsson, a researcher at the Swedish Defence University, tweeted out a picture of photograph of a Moscow bus stop carrying the propaganda poster, which has the word ‘they’ written in the colours of the Swedish flag. Latest plot twist from Moscow "We are against nazism, but they are not" with signs of Astrid Lindgren, Ingemar Bergman, Ingvar Kamprad (IKEA). Another poster accuses King Gustaf V of being a Nazi. Jonsson told The Local he was certain that the posters were genuine, but suspected that they were intended for Swedish consumption, as at least one of them had been placed outside the Swedish Embassy in Moscow. “They’re more of a provocation to Sweden than something for the Russian people,” he said.

Mikael Östlund, communication chief at Sweden’s Psychological Defence Agency, argued the opposite case, that the posters were primarily designed to justify the war in Ukraine to Russia’s own population. “Accusing western countries of Nazism is a part of the justification for their own war,” he said. “This is probably directed towards its own population. This has been one of the justifications for the war in Ukraine as well.” Others even suggested they might even be a preparation for military action . “Are there any limits to these guys? Or are they preparing a ‘denazifying’ operation against Sweden as well?” tweeted Sweden’s former prime minister Carl Bildt.

Link to tweet

The Swedish foreign ministry said it was aware of the posters, but refused to comment. “We have no intention of engaging in a public polemic with the Russian organisation ‘Our Victory’, which is reportedly behind these posters,” a spokesperson told TT. “In Russia, smears about ‘Nazism’ have been used repeatedly against countries and individuals who are critical of Russia’s actions.” At a press conference in Germany, Sweden’s prime minister called the campaign “completely unacceptable”. “But it is important to say already right now that Sweden could become the target of an influence campaign by foreign powers,” she said. “It’s important that all Swedes, and not least those of you in journalism, recognise that there is a risk that foreign powers will try to influence the Swedish debate climate.”

Link to tweet

The poster leads with a quote from the Second World War diaries of the writer Astrid Lindgren, who created the character Pippi Longstocking. This is from a passage where Lindgren, a German speaker, expresses her fears that Russia might invade Sweden, saying a Russian occupation would be worse than a German one. “And so I think I’d rather say ‘Heil Hitler’ my whole life than get the Russians on top of us. You can hardly think of anything so awful,” Lindgren writes. It’s worth pointing out that Lindgren was a committed anti-Nazi, who also wrote in her diary that Hitler was ‘a little, unknown German artisan’ who had become ‘his people’s nemesis and cultural destroyer’.

snip

[WarGamer]

1. This is Russian propaganda, pure and simple.

But Bergman was clearly a Nazi sympathizer.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/441057.stm

Legendary Swedish director Ingmar Bergman has revealed that he was a great admirer of Adolf Hitler, only losing his enthusiasm for Nazism after the horrors of the concentration camps were uncovered.

"The Nazism I had seen seemed fun and youthful," he admitted to the author. "The big threat were the Bolsheviks, who were hated."

The book also documents an attack by Bergman's brother and friends on a house owned by a Jew. The group daubed the walls with a swastika - the symbol of the Nazis.

[Celerity]

2. And Kamprad was a Nazi Youth member and never truly repented. The article discusses all that.

Sweden has a very complicated history with the Nazi's. Some of it is not the best of looks, but it has long been fully admitted and exposed here, and now it is one of the more anti-Nazi nations.

[WarGamer]

5. Of course...

I don't get the concept of running back 50-100 years and second guessing people from that era.

Russians have a history of seeing a "Nazi" under every rock and behind every corner.

[TheBlackAdder]

3. In a country of Millions, Russia finds 3 DEAD people who at some point made a few pro-Nazi comments.

.

Way to go, Russia!


Keep up the awesome fact-finding research!

.

[Turbineguy]

4. So they shut down Ikea because they, like everybody else,

are Nazis.

I thought this whole thing about giving up on communism was so they could tell the truth.