Karl Kilbom - Revolutionary Work

Revolutionary Work

In December 1917, a month after the October Revolution, Kilbom, together with Zeth Höglund, went to Soviet Russia to spend the New Years and show their support for the Bolsheviks. At the Smolny the Swedes met with their Finnish Comrades, who were very happy after Finland finally having been given independence from Russia by the Bolshevik Government.

In 1919, Kilbom was approached in Stockholm by the American diplomats William C. Bullitt and Lincoln Steffens, who asked him if he could help them get to Russia and into contact with the Bolshevik government. Kilbom took the Americans to meet Lenin in Moscow and he greeted them as they said they wanted establish diplomatic relations between the United States and Soviet Russia. However, soon, President Woodrow Wilson repudiated the project and Bullitt resigned from Wilson’s staff.

In 1921, Karl Kilbom was the head of the Swedish delegation at the Profintern congress (Red International of Labor Unions) held in Moscow. Their interpreter was a 17-year old girl named Zoia and they soon became good friends. One morning, Zoia didn’t show up, and Kilbom later found out that she had been arrested by the Soviet Secret Police as one of many suspects in a counterrevolutionary conspiracy. Kilbom refused to believe these allegations were true and spoke to high ranked Soviet officials like Karl Radek and Alexandra Kollontay to have the young girl released. Zoia was freed, and when she said she didn't want to stay in the Soviet Union, Karl Kilbom decided to marry the young girl so she could come with him to Sweden, where she helped the party working as a translator of Russian.

In 1921, Sweden held its first democratic election where workers and women could vote, and Karl Kilbom was elected to the Lower House of the Riksdag.