‘The alternative history of Iceland’ podcast: ‘What if the Russian Revolution had come to Iceland?’
In the autumn of 1921, Ólafur Friðriksson came back home from Moscow where he had attended the 9th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. With him he had a boy whom he intended to adopt. When the 15- year-old was diagnosed with glaucoma, an eye disease which was feared could be contagious the authorities decided to deport him. This was seen as a political act by Ólafur and other socialists who barricaded themselves in Ólafur’s home at Suðurgata. When the police attempted to apply force, they were beaten back. For the next few days it seemed like anything could happen. Both sides began to arm themselves and the stage was set for a bloody showdown. What happened next would determine the fate of Iceland in the 20th Century.
What if Icelanders had settled in North America during the Viking Age? What if Iceland was wiped out by a volcano and the survivors moved to Denmark? What if Iceland had been occupied by the Nazis instead of the Allies? What if the Nordic Countries had united? And what if the economic collapse had been averted? Listen to historians Valur Gunnarsson and Jón Trausti Sigurðarson talk about Icelandic history as it happened and what could have been. Produced by Sindri Freyr Steinsson.
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