The Sons Supported the Soviet Union
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The Sons supported the Soviet Union Hjalmar Branting's son Georg also became Social Democratic politician and for a period of time also member of the party board. His popularity fell within the party when he didn´t follow the decision not to intervene in the spanish civil war, and to a lowpoint during the cold war when he had open talks with the soviet embassy people and he was considered a fellow-traveller. Konni Zilliacus son was also looked upon as a fellow-traveller when he was a very active politician in Britain in Labour's Soviet-friendly left-wing, so controversial that he was ruled out twice but pardoned both times. Hjalmar and Georg with the manuscipt of Jaures The political history of the sons goes back to World War I and the formation of the Soviet Union. It is open to interpretation how much inspiration or opposition lust they received through their respective fathers. Hjalmar and Georg Branting together translated texts of french socialist Jean Jauré's,, who was murdered in 1914. George had an education as a lawyer and cooperated with the "red banker" Olof Aschberg. From 1912, the party and trade unions had a collaboration with Olof Aschberg in the "New Bank", which served labour organizations. There was not much money in it and Aschberg involved himself in a variety of other business. There was a lot of criticism of how some leading social democrats became involved in the bank's business at the 1920 party congress. But Hjalmar Branting defended Aschberg, he was about to help open up trade with the Soviet Union after the civil war and the trade blockade from the Entente. There was an uncertain situation, but a new government in London under Lloyd George had declared that the trade blockade was over. Branting and Social Democrats took office in 1921, and Aschberg help him with negotiations for a trade deal with the Soviet Union and a recogntion "de jure", but not diplomatically until 1924. Several Swedish Companies had investments in Russia or were interested in export business during the recession that followed the First World War. Exports to the Soviet Union were made in exchange for pure gold or platinum or other valuable raw materials. An icebreaker for trade was the major order of 1000 locomotives (it became 500) from NOHAB with several other companies . Sweden was one of the first countries to break the trade blockade against the Bolsheviks. Several Swedish companies had previously invested in Russia, ASEA, Alfa Laval, Nobel, etc. They hoped to regain their factories or remuneration during the NEP period (New Economic Policy). Nobel waited for as long as 1964 to completely discontinue its company in Russia. Georg was trained as defense attorney and participated in some negotiations on trade agreements. But it was after he left the bank sphere and committed himself to international legal cases as he got many enemies. Georg Branting encountered similar problems as his father when he visited Turku in October 1930. He was unwanted and had to leave Finland with the next boat to Sweden when the Lappo movement did not want him to act as defense attorney for some Communist parliamentarians. An Information act in the finnish police archive says 1922 :"Branting, Georg, the Excellency, is employed as the Legal Representative of the Tjeka and Head of Political Department. Salary: 12,000 kr. (Tjekan = Soviet Union Political Police, Representative of the KGB.) Georg Branting was involved in many international missions as the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti in United States, he participated in an international trial of the Reichstag house fire in Berlin in 1933, and he was the only one in the Swedish National Board of the Social democrates who supported the republican side in the Spanish Civil War when the Western powers followed a non-intervention policy. After World War II, Georg Branting was almost frozen out of the party. He had his own policy and had talks with representatives from the Soviet embassy. During the Cold War, it was considered very serious even though the conversations were open and reported. He was appointed as an informer under the code "senator" and became an enemy even with the Swedish security police. Wilhelm Agrell takes up Georg Branting's role as a possible great spy, most recently in a book from 2014 "Mrs. Petrova's shoes". But there is nothing more substantial than 1000 sw. crowns he recieved from the Soviet embassy without any receipt. There are no more proofs. Konni Zilliacus junior Konni Zilliacus's mother moved to England in 1909 and then the United States with two sons after the divorce from Konni senior. Konni Junior was a British citizen, born on a British ship in a Japanese port. Konni Junior participated as a volunteer on WWI behind the West Front, then he was recruited for British intelligence and ended up in Vladivostok, Siberia during the Russian Civil War. He closely watched the Westerners intervention on the white side and the failed war effort. Vladivostok January 1918: Zilliacus had been sent by a three-man delegation to Vladivostok to determine how the situation was there. Zilliacus was the encryption officer with the opportunity to penetrate the reports that were sent. The delegation's chief, Wedgwood, found that the Bolsheviks had won the victory and Kerensky was no longer in favor and that the Japanese were not interested in any intervention. Wedgwood left his report in March: It did not make sense to bribe local bandits and cossack leaders to continue the fight. But at home in Britain, many leading politicians were not happy with the report. The aim was, initially, to induce Russia to continue the war with Germany in cooperation with the Entente, but it was increasingly transformed into an intervention in Russia to support the white and topple the Bolshevik government. It was primarily Winston Churchill who pushed for increased military support to the white side. Konni Zilliacus junior Zilliacus was not allowed to leave Vladivostok until late 1919. In his position, it was possible to feed critical parliamentarians with information from Siberia to counter Churchill and the British support to the war general Koltjak, Czech troops, and more. In the end, Konni junior managed to get back to Europe and joined other missions. He had a long career within the League of Nations (the forerunner to the UN) and was able to see how the cooperation gradually broke down. After World War II, he belonged to an opposition group of Labor Politicians who criticized the formation of NATO and the USsupremacy. There were naive ideas about cooperation with the Soviet Union to build a new Europe. It became apparent after the 1948 Prague Cup that the Soviet Union would not allow any opposition within its territory. Zilliacus met Tito in Yugoslavia at the brake of contacts with Moscow, and became persona non grata in Czechoslovakia when he criticized the trial and execution of Slansky in the early 50's. Georg Branting and Konni Zilliacus end up in the 1950s at the same conferences in different places in Europe concerning peace issues or other things that unleash stuck positions during the Cold War. In the 60's, the left faction was criticized by Labour's management when they went to North Vietnam to talk about peace. In the case of Russia, Georg Branting and Konni Zilliacus became representatives of an option that didn´t exist..