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Military History Or the Study of “War and Society”? the Swedish General Staff and the Last Russo-Swedish War, 1880–1936 (Ca)

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Military History Or the Study of “War and Society”? the Swedish General Staff and the Last Russo-Swedish War, 1880–1936 (Ca) KUNGL KRIGSVETENSKAPSAKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR OCH TIDSKRIFT TIDSKRIFT Military history or the study of “War and Society”? The Swedish General Staff and the last Russo-Swedish War, 1880–1936 (ca) Av Gunnar Åselius ABSTRACT Denna artikel diskuterar finska kriget i svensk officersutbildning före andra världskriget, med särskild hänsyn tagen till undervisningen vid Krigshögskolan (KHS) och den svenska generalstabens historieverk, Sveriges krig 1808–1809, som utkom i nio band mellan 1890 och 1922 och var typiskt för samtidens militärhistoria, inriktad på operativa förlopp och fältherrars beslutsfattande. Artikeln ägnar särskild uppmärksamhet åt dåvarande generalstabslöjtnanten Carl Bennedichs kritik av verket i en utredning 1915. Han efterlyste en bredare, samhällsinriktad typ av militärhistoria, delvis från moderna vetenskapliga synpunkter, men främst av inrikespolitiska, ideologiska skäl. Kort efter att generalstabsverket färdigställts framstod dock de militära lärdomarna från 1809 som föråldrade, och den internationella samtiden som viktigare än den nationella historien när det gällde att mobilisera stöd för försvaret. raditionally, military history was a in their teaching and research seldom Tsubject which was taught at mili- rose above that of individual commanders tary colleges but nowhere else. In many making decisions in the battlefield, or that countries, most of the research was also of staffs planning for mobilization and done by professional officers without campaigns. Warfare beyond those aspects academic training, serving at the history which were under direct military control, section of their general staff. Military col- where there were no practical lessons to leges are educational institutions which be drawn, were typically left out. Larger train officers for senior command. Gen­ issues which pertained to the political, eco- eral staffs are bureaucratic organisations nomic, social, technological and cultural which make plans and preparations for dimensions of war were often absent from war. Consequently, the level of analysis military history.1 1 Raschke, Martin: Der politisierender Generalstab. Die Friedrizianischen Kriege in der amtlichen deutschen Militärgeschichtsschreibung 1890-1914, Freiburg 1993. 3-2008 40 3-2008 KUNGL KRIGSVETENSKAPSAKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR OCH TIDSKRIFT TIDSKRIFT Hans Delbrück (1848–1929) – a Ger- and really not a subject worthy of serious man history professor, reserve officer and scientific study. The University of Berlin veteran of the 1870 Franco-Prussian war did not make Delbrück professor of mili- who was equally disturbed by the scientific tary history, as he had wished, but gave him amateurism of general staff historians and a chair in international history.2 the military ignorance of civilian historians Only the experience of total war in – made a heroic effort to lay a scientific the twentieth century gradually changed foundation for military history. According the attitude to military history. When the to Delbrück, it was above all through field of military activity and preparations contextual critique – Sachkritik – that the expanded far beyond the horizons of modern military historian should remove the battlefield, the subject also grew and romantic myth-making and anachronistic soon came to include most aspects of the misinterpretation from the study of wars relationship between armed conflict and in the past. This, of course, required a thor- society. This also meant that it gained some ough knowledge of military details – tac- academic respectability, especially when tics, strategy, weaponry and equipment, civilian historians began to realize the im- horses and logistics – but also thorough portance of war and military organizations knowledge of the historical context: pol- in state formation processes. After 1945, itics, economy, culture, social conditions this broader definition of military history and geographical environment. All these – as a history of “war and society” – has factors were important to understand war- won general acceptance.3 fare. However, Delbrück’s critique of the This article discusses the interpretation Grosse Generalstab’s history section only of the 1808–09 Russo-Swedish war in the earned him bitter enemies in the German Swedish military establishment before military establishment. Nor did he find World War II, with an emphasis on the much support among academic historians,, period after 1880. We will examine how who were suspicious of his theoretical the war was taught at the Swedish staff approach and his ambitions to write mi- colleges, and what principles guided the litary history as a form of “total history”. writing of the influential official general To them, warfare was a technical activity staff history, Sveriges krig 1808–1809, which was best analyzed by professionals, which appeared in nine volumes between 2 Bucholz, Arden: Hans Delbrück & the German Establishment: War Images in Conflict, Iowa City, 1985; cf Raschke, Martin: Der politisierender Generalstab. Die Friedrizianischen Kriege in der amtlichen deutschen Militärgeschichtsschreibung 1890-1914, Freiburg 1993. 3 The role of military history in the training of officers is discussed in Böhme, Klaus R & Åselius, Gunnar (eds), Why Military History? Stockholm 2000. 3-2008 41 KUNGL KRIGSVETENSKAPSAKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR OCH TIDSKRIFT 1890 and 1922. Although this was a period (topografiska kåren), which succeeded when the traditional, battlefield­narrative the Reconnaissance and Surveying Corps from the commander’s perspective was in 1831. Throughout the early half of the still in sway, we will see how a more nineteenth century, however, the military modern definition of military history was production of historical works remained nonetheless considered necessary, at least meagre. A proposal from the commander when the experience of 1808-09 was under of the Topographical Corps in 1851 to consideration. What may seem surprising organize a special military history section is the fact that the representative of this within the corps was rejected by the go- broader scientific approach within the ge- vernment. The following year, a group of neral staff was an officer, who otherwise young officers, who enjoyed royal protec- held arch-conservative, not to say reac- tion, began collecting documents relevant tionary, views on most political issues. It to Sweden’s wars with the aim of publish- will become clear why this was the case, ing them. In 1854, the first volume in a and why the 1808–1809 war suddenly series of three appeared in print.5 disappeared from the war college syllabus Until then, some 45 years after the Peace in the 1930s, in spite of the fact that Fin- in Fredrikshamn, Swedish literature on land played a far greater role in Swedish the 1808–09 war had been dominated by military planning in the inter-war period works written by war veterans, like Carl than before.4 Johan Holm and Gustav Montgomery.6 A systematic study of past wars had The first Swedish author to approach the been initiated in the Swedish army already conflict from a historian’s perspective in 1805, when the Reconnaissance and was Julius Mankell (1828–1897), an army Surveying Corps (fältmätningskåren) was captain and a member of the working organized. This new unit had been united group mentioned above. In 1855, Mank- with the military archives and entrusted the ell anonymously published a study on the task of collecting the sources and writing Swedish archipelago­fleet, how it had been the history of Sweden’s wars. The same employed historically and how it should task was given to the Topographical Corps best be used in the future. Here, he also 4 Cf Turtola, Martti: Från Torne älv till Systerbäck: Hemligt försvarssamarbete mellan Finland och Sverige, 1923 –1940, Stockholm 1987. 5 Arkiv till upplysning om svenska krigen och krigsinrättningarnas historia, Stockholm 1854; cf Broomé, Bertil: ”Krigshistoriska avdelningens förhistoria och verksamhet t o m 1917”, Aktuellt & Historiskt 1973, pp 173-176. 6 For research-overviews of the 1808-1809 war, see Hakala, Pertti: “Kriget 1808-1809 – forskningsläget ur finländsk synvinkel”, and Hårdstedt, Martin: ”Kriget 1808­09 och svensk militärhistorisk forskning”, Hårdstedt, Martin och Backman, Göran (eds): Krig kring kvarken. Kriget 1808-1809 och slaget vid Oravais i ny belysning, Oravais, Finland 1999. 3-2008 42 3-2008 KUNGL KRIGSVETENSKAPSAKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR OCH TIDSKRIFT analyzed the defence of Finland in 1808- teaching the Napoleonic Wars.9 09. Ten years later, Mankell under his own There was still no official history of the name published a volume on the strength 1808–09 War. In 1867, the staff college and composition of Sweden’s armed forces students were allowed to use Mankell’s from the late sixteenth century onwards, writings on the war as textbook-literature, accompanied with an account of Sweden’s although with certain restrictions.10 Only wars, including the 1808-09 conflict. with the creation of the Swedish general Finally, in 1870, he dedicated the second staff in 1873 and its military history sec- volume of his “notes on the history of the tion, the army established an organization Finnish army and the wars of Finland” to specialized in historical research. In 1882, the 1808-09 campaign. However, with ex- this section was invigorated under the ener- ception of some data on the Swedish order getic leadership of Major – later Major-Ge- of battle which Mankell had collected from neral – Gustaf Björlin. In a memorandum the military archives, his sources consisted
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