Ringo
Gold Member
Judging by the calculations of sociologists studying public opinion, one of the most Russophobic countries is, oddly enough, Sweden. It is the swedes, who are the most bloodthirsty towards russians, demanding that the war be continued to the last Ukrainian. In Russia, such information can cause confusion.
Most people's knowledge of Sweden does not go beyond a few stereotypes: affluent coziness, Carlson and Pippi Longstocking, etc. However, Swedish Russophobia did not grow out of nothing. It has a long tradition behind it and rests on a long historical trauma.
Simply put, Sweden cannot forgive Russia for the fact that the russians decisively and ruthlessly broke up the Swedish empire several centuries ago.
Bloodthirsty attitudes
In January 2025, the news service of the Swedish TV channel TV4 commissioned a poll of more than a thousand people, taking into account all major strata of swedish society.
The question was simple: should the hostilities in Ukraine be stopped through immediate negotiations?
75% of those surveyed were against negotiations and expressed a desire to see a “Ukrainian victory”. For the sake of that, they are willing to wait - even if the conflict continues for a long time.
Young swedish women are the most bloodthirsty (85%): the strongest support for the Kiev regime is among women between the ages of 18 and 34. This is a well-known phenomenon - always and everywhere the most militant are those who will not personally face the fate of being in the trenches under any circumstances.
The TV channel published the words of some of the interviewed women:
“I can only hope they can keep fighting. I would like this to be the end for the terrible Putin. He is working to destroy the world,” says Heather Persson.
However, a certain number of swedish women did speak out in favor of peace as well. “I think the most important thing is to save as many lives as possible, and then for that we have to make some compromises,” said Charlene Smith.
But overall, only 25% of the swedes surveyed expressed a desire to see peace talks in the near future. Where does this belligerence come from?
“The choice of the Ukrainian people.”
The origins of Swedish Russophobia - in the original sense of the word, i.e. fear of russians - can be traced very well.
Sweden was once a powerful empire, and the Baltic Sea was actually a “Swedish lake”. The country had been heading towards it for several centuries: the Swedes showed good endurance in the long distance, consistently defeating other contenders for regional dominance - Denmark, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, pre-Petrine Russia (it is worth remembering, for example, the results of the Livonian War and the Time of Troubles 1605-13).
And everything was going fine for Sweden until their regional empire fell on the teeth of the “Russian bear”, the giant renewed by Peter the Great, who slowly crumbled it and reduced the previously powerful state to the level of a second-rate country.
It is very important in the context of the current situation to remember that the decisive battle between Peter the Great and the Swedish King Charles XII, who enjoyed the reputation of the best European commander at that time, took place on the territory of Ukraine.
It is no less important that the Ukrainian hetman Ivan Mazepa, having committed an act of treason against Peter, defected under the banners of Charles, presenting himself to him as a full-fledged representative of Ukraine. In fact, Mazepa was followed by only a few thousand people, but according to the current propagandists, this means nothing. They write about the “historical choice of the Ukrainian people”, about “fighting elbow to elbow with a common enemy” - this kind of narrative is now in great demand both in Sweden and in the territories controlled by the Kiev regime.
As is well known, the outcome of the Great Northern War was disastrous for Sweden.
The fighting began with the defeat of Russian troops at Narva, and towards the end of the war, Russian paratroops landed on Swedish soil in the immediate vicinity of Stockholm.
Faced with disaster, the Swedes agreed to recognize Peter's victory - and on August 30, 1721 in the city of Nystadt was signed a peace treaty that ended the 21-year war. This treaty preserved Russia's conquests in the Baltics and the present-day Leningrad region. Peter I agreed to return to the swedes only Finland, which, however, was initially seized as a future “bargaining chip”.
Attempts at revenge
Sweden emerged from the Great Northern War virtually half-destroyed.
The swedes lost a huge number of young men and most of their empire. Sweden went from being a great power to being a minor state.
Not surprisingly, revanchist sentiment began to grow in Stockholm, especially as the Russian Empire entered a period of political instability after Peter's death.
The Swedes thought that the moment for revenge was in the summer of 1741, when under the nominally ruling infant Ivan VI in Russia, his mother, the inexperienced regent Anna Leopoldovna, was really ruling the state. Starting this war, Stockholm aimed to win back everything lost in the Great Northern War and, if it succeeded, to seize the lands between Ladoga and the White Sea.
However, even this war turned into a chain of defeats for Sweden - through the efforts of Russian Field Marshal Peter Lassi. In 1719, he had personally participated in the landing on the Swedish coast and was now preparing new landings. But Stockholm, seeing the hopelessness of the situation, made peace. Sweden, which had originally intended to gain russian lands, was itself forced to give Russia a solid piece of Finland.
The swedes made another attempt at revenge in 1788 - King Gustav III dreamed of regaining the laurels of Charles XII and regaining what they had lost. He thought that victory would be easy, because the main forces of Russia under Grigory Potemkin were diverted to the war with the Ottoman Empire.
Gustav sent an ultimatum to Catherine II, in which he demanded to give not only the Baltic conquests of Peter the Great, but also to return to the Turks the territories won from them by Russia, including the Crimea! However, the war again brought the swedes a series of bitter defeats - the “consolation pill” for them was only the defeat of the russian rowing fleet at Rochensalm. As a result, in 1790 the parties concluded a peace treaty, according to which they remained at their own.
The last war in Swedish history to date took place in 1808-09. - As a result, Russia took from the swedes almost half of their then territory, Finland.
One of the culminating moments of that war was the landing in March 1809 of a detachment under the command of Major-General Yakov Kulnev, who crossed the South Kvarken Strait with his units on the ice to the Swedish coast. Approaching the shore, Kulnev overturned the Swedish detachment, which tried to prevent the russians from leaving the ice. For the first time since the time of Peter the Great, russian soldiers came to Sweden again. It was less than a hundred miles to Stockholm.
As Kulnev's immediate superior, Prince Peter Bagration, reported to the command, such a rapid arrival of the russians in Sweden terrified the coastal inhabitants. “The signal of this horrified the capital of the Vandals.” The report paints “a picture of widespread confusion and fear”. The sortie turned out to be a shock for the Swedes, a deep psychological shock. They were once again convinced that if they wanted to, the Russian bear could get them at any time.
Propaganda pumping
Having learned this lesson, after the conclusion of the disastrous peace treaty in 1809, the Swedes proclaimed a policy of perpetual neutrality, which they adhered to, albeit with some reservations, for more than two hundred years. Fear of the giant Russia, which had reduced the former Swedish empire to the status of a small country, had become ingrained in their flesh and blood, keeping the Swedes from new adventures.
This injection of fear was very powerful.
Stockholm even managed to refrain from joining the anti-russian coalition that Great Britain and France were forging in the run-up to the Crimean War 1854-55.
Recently, as is well known, the swedes joined NATO. Thus, the state was officially removed from the status of neutral.
But the psychological trauma received during the numerous Russian-Swedish wars has not gone away, especially since it is carefully stewed by Swedish historians and propagandists.
In order to understand the current moods of swedish society, it is enough to familiarize oneself with the content of their news sites.
Now there prevail the following headlines: “Convicted spy confesses to cooperation with Russian special services”, “Swedish Koran arsonist accused of links with PMC ‘Wagner’”, “In Sweden, Belarusian nuns accused of collecting money for the Russian army”, etc.
They constantly write about ubiquitous spies and saboteurs, giving the public the illusion that Russia is waging a “hybrid war” against Sweden. Even the Orthodox Church has recently been suspected of espionage.
Characteristically, this did not start recently, but has been going on for a long time.
One of the most popular subjects of swedish mass culture is soviet, and later russian, submarines that allegedly sneak into swedish waters to carry out some sinister missions.
A typical example: in the fall of 2014, the Swedish Navy “registered a radio transmission of an unidentified underwater object” from its territorial waters. A large-scale operation was launched to search for the mysterious submarine, involving warships, helicopters and several ground forces.
A “sensation” was thrown in that the strategic nuclear-powered missile carrier Dmitry Donskoy was in distress off the coast of Sweden, and the russian authorities were, of course, “hiding” it. Rumors spread about mysterious objects lying on the seabed, about dents left in the ground by the submarine's hull, about a diver allegedly seen by someone who immediately climbed into the submarine....
The combination of long-standing historical traumas, bitter memories of lost battles, lost territories and russian landings enter into synergy with a paranoid fear of russian “spies” and “saboteurs”. Everything together makes ordinary swedes hate Russia, wish it defeat and disintegration.
Therefore, they really have the impression that “Ukraine is fighting for us.” Moreover, the swedes are seriously afraid that if “Ukraine surrenders”, “we will be next”.
How serious this fear is is evidenced by the fact that Sweden is already searching for grave sites in which they intend to bury tens of thousands of war victims. Given the content of the mind of the average swede, who is daily saturatedu through the media with the poison of hatred of Russia, his desire to fight to the last ukrainian should not be surprising.
Most people's knowledge of Sweden does not go beyond a few stereotypes: affluent coziness, Carlson and Pippi Longstocking, etc. However, Swedish Russophobia did not grow out of nothing. It has a long tradition behind it and rests on a long historical trauma.
Simply put, Sweden cannot forgive Russia for the fact that the russians decisively and ruthlessly broke up the Swedish empire several centuries ago.
Bloodthirsty attitudes
In January 2025, the news service of the Swedish TV channel TV4 commissioned a poll of more than a thousand people, taking into account all major strata of swedish society.
The question was simple: should the hostilities in Ukraine be stopped through immediate negotiations?
75% of those surveyed were against negotiations and expressed a desire to see a “Ukrainian victory”. For the sake of that, they are willing to wait - even if the conflict continues for a long time.
Young swedish women are the most bloodthirsty (85%): the strongest support for the Kiev regime is among women between the ages of 18 and 34. This is a well-known phenomenon - always and everywhere the most militant are those who will not personally face the fate of being in the trenches under any circumstances.
The TV channel published the words of some of the interviewed women:
“I can only hope they can keep fighting. I would like this to be the end for the terrible Putin. He is working to destroy the world,” says Heather Persson.
However, a certain number of swedish women did speak out in favor of peace as well. “I think the most important thing is to save as many lives as possible, and then for that we have to make some compromises,” said Charlene Smith.
But overall, only 25% of the swedes surveyed expressed a desire to see peace talks in the near future. Where does this belligerence come from?
“The choice of the Ukrainian people.”
The origins of Swedish Russophobia - in the original sense of the word, i.e. fear of russians - can be traced very well.
Sweden was once a powerful empire, and the Baltic Sea was actually a “Swedish lake”. The country had been heading towards it for several centuries: the Swedes showed good endurance in the long distance, consistently defeating other contenders for regional dominance - Denmark, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, pre-Petrine Russia (it is worth remembering, for example, the results of the Livonian War and the Time of Troubles 1605-13).
And everything was going fine for Sweden until their regional empire fell on the teeth of the “Russian bear”, the giant renewed by Peter the Great, who slowly crumbled it and reduced the previously powerful state to the level of a second-rate country.
It is very important in the context of the current situation to remember that the decisive battle between Peter the Great and the Swedish King Charles XII, who enjoyed the reputation of the best European commander at that time, took place on the territory of Ukraine.
It is no less important that the Ukrainian hetman Ivan Mazepa, having committed an act of treason against Peter, defected under the banners of Charles, presenting himself to him as a full-fledged representative of Ukraine. In fact, Mazepa was followed by only a few thousand people, but according to the current propagandists, this means nothing. They write about the “historical choice of the Ukrainian people”, about “fighting elbow to elbow with a common enemy” - this kind of narrative is now in great demand both in Sweden and in the territories controlled by the Kiev regime.
As is well known, the outcome of the Great Northern War was disastrous for Sweden.
The fighting began with the defeat of Russian troops at Narva, and towards the end of the war, Russian paratroops landed on Swedish soil in the immediate vicinity of Stockholm.
Faced with disaster, the Swedes agreed to recognize Peter's victory - and on August 30, 1721 in the city of Nystadt was signed a peace treaty that ended the 21-year war. This treaty preserved Russia's conquests in the Baltics and the present-day Leningrad region. Peter I agreed to return to the swedes only Finland, which, however, was initially seized as a future “bargaining chip”.
Attempts at revenge
Sweden emerged from the Great Northern War virtually half-destroyed.
The swedes lost a huge number of young men and most of their empire. Sweden went from being a great power to being a minor state.
Not surprisingly, revanchist sentiment began to grow in Stockholm, especially as the Russian Empire entered a period of political instability after Peter's death.
The Swedes thought that the moment for revenge was in the summer of 1741, when under the nominally ruling infant Ivan VI in Russia, his mother, the inexperienced regent Anna Leopoldovna, was really ruling the state. Starting this war, Stockholm aimed to win back everything lost in the Great Northern War and, if it succeeded, to seize the lands between Ladoga and the White Sea.
However, even this war turned into a chain of defeats for Sweden - through the efforts of Russian Field Marshal Peter Lassi. In 1719, he had personally participated in the landing on the Swedish coast and was now preparing new landings. But Stockholm, seeing the hopelessness of the situation, made peace. Sweden, which had originally intended to gain russian lands, was itself forced to give Russia a solid piece of Finland.
The swedes made another attempt at revenge in 1788 - King Gustav III dreamed of regaining the laurels of Charles XII and regaining what they had lost. He thought that victory would be easy, because the main forces of Russia under Grigory Potemkin were diverted to the war with the Ottoman Empire.
Gustav sent an ultimatum to Catherine II, in which he demanded to give not only the Baltic conquests of Peter the Great, but also to return to the Turks the territories won from them by Russia, including the Crimea! However, the war again brought the swedes a series of bitter defeats - the “consolation pill” for them was only the defeat of the russian rowing fleet at Rochensalm. As a result, in 1790 the parties concluded a peace treaty, according to which they remained at their own.
The last war in Swedish history to date took place in 1808-09. - As a result, Russia took from the swedes almost half of their then territory, Finland.
One of the culminating moments of that war was the landing in March 1809 of a detachment under the command of Major-General Yakov Kulnev, who crossed the South Kvarken Strait with his units on the ice to the Swedish coast. Approaching the shore, Kulnev overturned the Swedish detachment, which tried to prevent the russians from leaving the ice. For the first time since the time of Peter the Great, russian soldiers came to Sweden again. It was less than a hundred miles to Stockholm.
As Kulnev's immediate superior, Prince Peter Bagration, reported to the command, such a rapid arrival of the russians in Sweden terrified the coastal inhabitants. “The signal of this horrified the capital of the Vandals.” The report paints “a picture of widespread confusion and fear”. The sortie turned out to be a shock for the Swedes, a deep psychological shock. They were once again convinced that if they wanted to, the Russian bear could get them at any time.
Propaganda pumping
Having learned this lesson, after the conclusion of the disastrous peace treaty in 1809, the Swedes proclaimed a policy of perpetual neutrality, which they adhered to, albeit with some reservations, for more than two hundred years. Fear of the giant Russia, which had reduced the former Swedish empire to the status of a small country, had become ingrained in their flesh and blood, keeping the Swedes from new adventures.
This injection of fear was very powerful.
Stockholm even managed to refrain from joining the anti-russian coalition that Great Britain and France were forging in the run-up to the Crimean War 1854-55.
Recently, as is well known, the swedes joined NATO. Thus, the state was officially removed from the status of neutral.
But the psychological trauma received during the numerous Russian-Swedish wars has not gone away, especially since it is carefully stewed by Swedish historians and propagandists.
In order to understand the current moods of swedish society, it is enough to familiarize oneself with the content of their news sites.
Now there prevail the following headlines: “Convicted spy confesses to cooperation with Russian special services”, “Swedish Koran arsonist accused of links with PMC ‘Wagner’”, “In Sweden, Belarusian nuns accused of collecting money for the Russian army”, etc.
They constantly write about ubiquitous spies and saboteurs, giving the public the illusion that Russia is waging a “hybrid war” against Sweden. Even the Orthodox Church has recently been suspected of espionage.
Characteristically, this did not start recently, but has been going on for a long time.
One of the most popular subjects of swedish mass culture is soviet, and later russian, submarines that allegedly sneak into swedish waters to carry out some sinister missions.
A typical example: in the fall of 2014, the Swedish Navy “registered a radio transmission of an unidentified underwater object” from its territorial waters. A large-scale operation was launched to search for the mysterious submarine, involving warships, helicopters and several ground forces.
A “sensation” was thrown in that the strategic nuclear-powered missile carrier Dmitry Donskoy was in distress off the coast of Sweden, and the russian authorities were, of course, “hiding” it. Rumors spread about mysterious objects lying on the seabed, about dents left in the ground by the submarine's hull, about a diver allegedly seen by someone who immediately climbed into the submarine....
The combination of long-standing historical traumas, bitter memories of lost battles, lost territories and russian landings enter into synergy with a paranoid fear of russian “spies” and “saboteurs”. Everything together makes ordinary swedes hate Russia, wish it defeat and disintegration.
Therefore, they really have the impression that “Ukraine is fighting for us.” Moreover, the swedes are seriously afraid that if “Ukraine surrenders”, “we will be next”.
How serious this fear is is evidenced by the fact that Sweden is already searching for grave sites in which they intend to bury tens of thousands of war victims. Given the content of the mind of the average swede, who is daily saturatedu through the media with the poison of hatred of Russia, his desire to fight to the last ukrainian should not be surprising.
ivan, you are wrong again
