To prevent getting lost, the elevator goes directly to the safety islandNewspaper man Liu YaEast A
Cicero by the sea
Author:Cicero by the sea
A war story between a small country and a large country and a small people.
Let's talk about history in combination with the news. On February 26, local time, the Hungarian parliament approved Sweden's accession to NATO with 194 votes in favor and 6 votes against, and Hungary became the last country in NATO to approve Sweden's accession. I studied history, and I think there is a bit of interesting news in this news, that is, Swedish Prime Minister Christersson said at a press conference: ".Sweden will abandon its 200-year policy of neutrality and military non-alignment. We joined NATO to better defend our essence and everything we believe in. We are standing with others to defend our freedoms, our democracy, and our values. "As we all know, Sweden, which has always pursued a policy of neutrality, decided to join NATO this time because it was strongly stimulated by the Russian-Ukrainian war, and coincidentally, more than 200 years ago, it was Russia that made Sweden a neutral country from the "lion of the north" that was conquered everywhere. In other words, Sweden's accession to the treaty is of considerable historical significance, and it means that an important political legacy left by Peter the Great to Russia has completely disappeared, and as Sweden and Finland have completely turned to the West under the stimulus of the "Ukrainian lesson", the Baltic Sea access is being closed to Russia. The Russo-Ukrainian war has caused Russia to lose the Black Sea, and the one-sided efforts of Sweden and Finland are causing Russia to lose the Baltic Sea, and we are witnessing a country that became strong more than two hundred years ago due to "going to sea" and retreating inland. But how did all this history happen?
With all due respect, I think that many Chinese people are interested in understanding the history of other countries, and they are actually quite "looking at the map and dishing the dishes". You see, except for the "great powers" that fought the Qing Dynasty in modern history, most people are only interested in having a deep understanding of the "great powers" that can be seen on the children's version of the toy globe. For those "small countries", if you ask your uncle or uncle, most of them will let out a contemptuous "Hmph, not as big as our province!" Small country! Between the words, there is a faction flying thousands of miles, I can't see the arrogance of the ants below, and I don't know that I think he is the first emperor who took the elixir and didn't die, otherwise why is the "pattern" so big? And Sweden is a typical example of such a country. 
Indeed, because Xiao Rui had been a neutral country for two hundred years before this trip, and happened to miss the era of the great powers fighting the Qing Dynasty in modern history, when we opened our eyes to the world, his family happened to be closed, and the area was so small, many Chinese directly ignored it as a "small country" when discussing the general trend of the world. Of course, fortunately, Sweden has a Nobel Prize, so we can brush up a little bit of our presence here. But in fact, if you look at European history a little, you will find that Sweden is definitely not a "small state". Almost until the late Qing Dynasty, Sweden was one of the most important powers in Europe. In the 8th century, Sweden, the homeland of the Vikings, single-handedly opened the "Viking Age" in European history, and the Vikings rowed the dragon head boat almost single-handedly robbed the whole of Europe. 
To the west: they have crossed the North Atlantic, settled in Greenland for hundreds of years, and tried to settle on the outer edge of North America; To the east: They sailed the rivers of Rus', trading furs, slaves, and amber as far as the coast of the Caspian Sea and beyond, Baghdad; To the south: They made pilgrimages and campaigns to Rome and Jerusalem, and joined the emperor's personal elite guard in distant Constantinople. 
In a sense, it was the invincibility of the Vikings that brought Europe into the "Age of Castles", where feudal lords had to build tall stone castles to protect themselves from the invasion of these brave warriors. 
In the 17th century, after a thirty-year religious war broke out in Europe, Sweden, the descendant of the Vikings, re-entered the country, and the genius King Gustav II of Sweden overhauled the way the army fought at that time, making the three elements of modern warfare, field artillery, line infantry and cavalry more rational and flexible together. The light, swift, and nimble Swedish army often outnumbered its enemies on the battlefield. From the 17th century to the 19th century, countries that were bullied by Sweden on the battlefield included but were not limited to Russia, Prussia, Austria, Poland, and Lithuania. 
To this day, Sweden's military strength is still not to be underestimated, the United States ** Bush Sr. once commented that Sweden is indeed "a small Nordic country, but it is a big arms country", Sweden's military industry can be described as complete, you can say that the famous conventional ** it can almost all be built, by the Swedish military industry research and development of the "Gripen" fighter and "Typhoon" and "Rafale" two fighters and called the three European heroes. 
In addition, well-known ** products include Erieye early warning aircraft, Bofors howitzers, Bofors anti-aircraft guns, Visby stealth frigates, Gustav recoilless guns ......And from this point of view, you can actually understand why Putin is still so polite to Sweden after learning that it is going to join NATO. Not to mention anything else, the "Archer self-propelled howitzer" produced by the Swedish company Bofors is considered by many military observers to be a key player in the current war situation in Ukraine. 
Because the battles in the past few months have shown that the clumsy heavy army group of the Russian army is almost transparent in front of the Ukrainian army with the help of American intelligence, Ukraine's troubles only lie in the lack of heavy **, especially artillery, resulting in "you can see it, but you can't hit it". If this self-propelled artillery system inherits the consistent accurate, precise and flexible style of the Swedish military industry, it can provide large-scale assistance to the Ukrainian army ......Then I think the Russian army may indeed no longer have to worry about whether to surrender in Ukraine. Therefore, many Chinese like to call Russia what a "fighting nation", but those who really know the goods know that in terms of national quality, Russians who are addicted to food are not ranked in Europe at all, and when it comes to war, Sweden is the teacher of the Russians - this is what Peter the Great personally admitted. 
You see, in the early stage of World War II, the "Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact - Secret Additional Clauses" signed by Hitler and Stalin talked to themselves about dividing up all the "intermediate countries" from the Arctic Circle to the Black Sea, except for Sweden. When Stalin launched the Soviet-Finnish war, he also told the Chief of the General Staff Voroshilov a thousand times:We must not allow the Soviet troops to cross the Swedish border after "penetrating" Finland, for it would be very disadvantageous to us if the Swedes were to be provoked into Germany. 
Of course, later developments proved that the loving father was obviously overly concerned. The Finnish people said: We don't want to lose face, can we let you break through? So why does Sweden, which is actually very brave, give people the illusion of a small country? Let's talk about history in the past.
When it comes to the Swedish ethnicity, I think there is one thing that must be reviewed for geography – the North Atlantic Current.
Yes, if you look at latitude alone, Sweden and its Nordic brothers are in the same latitude as Siberia, it seems that it should be cold and not suitable for human survival, but in fact it is the opposite, the lowest temperature in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, is only about minus seven or eight degrees in winter, and it can soar to 25 degrees in summer, this climate is still relatively easy for humans to survive, and it can even be said to be very pleasant.
The reason for this is that the North Atlantic Current, which originates in the Gulf of Mexico, is a giant radiator that continuously delivers warm hot water to northern Europe. The Nordic countries, which are heating together, have warmed themselves up near the Arctic Circle. But when it comes to radiators, there is a problem, which is shared by the northern friends - if the heating company that heats your community is not reliable, the heating of your home will often be cold and hot, you can't wait to run naked when it's hot, and you can't wait to hibernate when it's cold. The North Atlantic Warm Current, which is such an unreliable heating company, has shown that its "heating volume" will change slowly but persistently, and if the heating is sufficient (such as the 5th-8th century AD and the 11th-14th century), the Nordic region will enter a corresponding "warm period", when people here cultivate the land, develop production, and the population expands rapidly. However, as soon as the warm current weakens, Northern Europe will immediately stage a "winter is coming". At this time, the only choice for the ancient Norsemen was to elect their "king of the north" and go south to grab money, food, and women......
Speaking of which, what comes to mind? Is this existential dilemma in Northern Europe very similar to the northern steppe peoples that we are familiar with in history? Yes, Northern Europe is to southeastern Europe, much like the Mongolian Plateau is a replica of the core region of China, and there have been brave and warlike peoples who have historically moved south, invaded and integrated into the latter. Somewhat similar to the steppe peoples of the Mongolian plateau, in order to ensure that they could exert maximum combat power in the event of invasion, the political system of Northern Europe was a very peculiar "military democracy" in the early Middle Ages. There is a peculiar system of althing in Norse folklore, similar to the Mongolian "Kuriltai Assembly". People will set up a stone monument on a certain transportation point, and every year during the grain harvest season, they will come here to trade, sing and dance together, and hold a sacrifice, and then all the people who can carry the shield (sometimes even men and women) will gather together for a meeting to discuss the year to take the autumn wind, as the king or duke who takes the lead has the right of first choice, but the final decision is made by the minority and obeys the majority.
To add another word, this althing is the origin of the English word "thing", so althing is actually the "council", that is, the parliament. Therefore, as early as ancient times, the "kings" of the kingdoms of Sweden and Denmark were not the supreme existence of the divine power of kings in the eyes of his people, but only the "leading big brothers" who led them out to "grab money, food, and women" during the war. Authority is actually very weak, there is such a story in Norse legend: it is said that once the king of Sweden had a little trouble with the king of Denmark (maybe his wife ran away with someone else), so he forcibly proposed in the Alcourt, saying that otherwise we should fight Denmark this year. This proposal was unanimously opposed by the Swedes present at the meeting, and in the end, someone pointed directly to a well next to the king and said, "You dare to raise a bar with your people, right?" Seeing that there is no well next to it, there are already three tyrants who dare to oppress his people who have been thrown into it, and if you dare to fight again, you are the fourth. Then the king immediately coaxed. Yes, in the days when the Vikings robbed the world, it was strange that their king had always been weak. In the 11th century, there was a Cnut the Great in Northern Europe, who was roughly equivalent to the Norse version of Qin Shi Huang, who ruled the territories of present-day Denmark and Norway, and parts of Sweden and England. It is said that the merit is great. But the most famous joke about Cnut the Great is the story of him and the waves - according to legend, Cnut once walked to the beach and saw the tide **, so he issued an order to the tide: "I am Cnut the Great, I order you, the sea, don't **, wet my robe." The result, of course, is "a mixture."
Even Canute could not give orders to the sea. "I think there is a political attitude of the Nordic people behind this proverbThey naturally believe that royal power must be limited, and that no matter how great an emperor is, there are things that he cannot do, and there are things that he cannot restrict. So in Europe, the French said that their French Revolution inspired the enlightenment of Europe, and the British laughed, and the British felt that the limitation of royal power certainly began with our Magna Carta". But if the British say that their Magna Carta is the ancestor of modern politics, the Nordics laugh, because in them, the king is naturally limited. When you study middle school history, you must have heard that France has a ** parliament, but at the same time in Northern Europe is very peculiar, its parliament is four-level, compared to the French ** parliament "nobles, clergy, everything", Sweden and other countries have an additional class of "four-level parliament", that is, the citizens (or "free people") sandwiched between the clergy and "everything", these free people are actually those who were active in the Baltic Sea in the Middle Ages to maintain commerce and trade. The kings of Northern Europe realized that they had to deal with these "free people", otherwise they would be, and they would have a "no place to stay here, but a place to stay", and vote with their feet to defect to other countries, and in the end it would be their own countries that would be deflated, not the merchants. Therefore, their property rights must be respected and given corresponding political rights.
Therefore, the "four-tier parliament" system in Northern Europe is very long-lived, taking Sweden as an example, from the first meeting in 1435 to the replacement of the formal modern parliament in 1866, it lasted for four centuries, without interruption in between, and the royal power was under the supervision of this parliament, a little bit of restraint was limited. This explains a seemingly strange phenomenon - according to Marx's theory, the bourgeois revolution is a necessary condition for removing the obstacles to the development of capitalism and freeing the bourgeoisie from the feudal yoke. Therefore, there was a Glorious Revolution in England and a Great Revolution in France, and whether the monarchy was retained or not, it was only after the king's head was cut off. But in Northern Europe, we hardly hear of any very violent and bloody revolutionary movements, no kings with their heads on the ground, no burghers building barricades, no fierce clashes between the two sides, no radical revolutionary slogans. But a country like Sweden has safely transitioned to modern times and developed modern industry and commerce. The modernization of people was so easily accomplished. Why? The reason is actually simple, in a country like Sweden, the king does not need to be deliberately caged, they have been in the cage from the beginning.
In Northern Europe, the king was only the leader of a group of free men, and he never received the authority to command everything.
Of course, if we have to pick a moment in Swedish history, the royal power was greatly weakened and the people were liberated. So it's interesting,This liberation was actually due to the defeat of this empire in a "war of national fortunes".
In 1700 AD, thanks to the prosperity of economy and trade, the courage of the army and the whole army of successive Swedish kings, Sweden's national power reached its peak, and its territory spread throughout the Baltic Sea coast, occupying today's Finland, Estonia, Latvia and parts of Germany, becoming a great empire dominating the north.
But the strong will be jealous, and Sweden was soon besieged by the surrounding countries, and the "Great Northern War" besieging Sweden began, and it was the rising Tsarist Empire at that time, whose ruler was somewhat famous - Peter the Great.
Today's Russians like to say how heroic and warlike their Peter the Great was. But in the Great Northern War, Peter the Great was actually beaten all over the ground by the young hero Carl XII, the king of Sweden who was a decade younger than him. 40,000 Swedish troops chased more than 100,000 Tsarist Russian troops and played cat and mouse every day on the Eastern European Plain. Later, Peter the Great somehow figured it out after fighting, and felt that since he couldn't beat it, then I would simply stick to the wall and clear the wilderness, and drag you to death! As a result, the Russians officially clicked on the old Yin B skill tree called "General Winter". And the young and vigorous Karl XII became the first military genius to be deflated under this beckoning. In the end, the victorious Swedish army was dragged to the ground in the Russian wilderness. Karl XII had to flee to Turkey in southern Russia for refuge and could not return for several years.
Therefore, the Great Northern War was actually a battle of national shame to extinguish Sweden's road to the "rise of a great power". After the war, Sweden ceded hegemony in northeastern Europe to the emerging Russia. And gradually ceding the Baltic coast and all of Finland to the latter. Sweden's position in Europe has suddenly been reduced from a first-class power competing with Britain, France, Russia, and Austria to a second-rate country. But what is particularly strange is that the misfortune of the country did not bring about the misfortune of the Swedes themselves, but rather became an opportunity for their further emancipation. In 1723, taking advantage of the extreme weakness of the royal power due to the defeat in foreign wars, the Swedish parliament passed a decree to strengthen the power of the four levels of parliament at the same time, becoming the first country in modern history to reduce the royal power in the form of parliamentary struggle.
Yes, Sweden's place in world civilization has really risen since then. After the defeat of the war, Sweden began the famous "Age of Freedom" in Swedish history. It has established a modern social system with a very high level of political stability and social harmony. So in modern Sweden, you will find that its development model is very strange - unlike other European powers, it does not have any colonies, and it does not have any sphere of influence, but Sweden's industry and commerce and people's living standards have always been in the forefront in silence. To this day, Sweden's per capita output and income now surpasses even that of the United Kingdom and the United States, and is still among the best in the world. With no colonies and no plundering through foreign wars, how did this small country develop so well? This seems to be another counterintuitive revelation from Sweden, a "small country" - in modern times, Chinese will tend to think that only when the country is strong can the people be strong, the national university can make the people rich, and even the country can hegemon its people stand up and speak. But let's look at Sweden, a country that lost its status as a great power 300 years ago. Isn't its economy booming? Aren't its people rich? Is it not at the level of culture, art and technology? Is there any country in the world that dares to disrespect the citizens of Sweden because it is a "small country"?
The "decline" of the country does not seem to make them unfortunate, why is that?
On the other hand, what kind of life did the people of Tsarist Russia, which won the "great power ticket" from Sweden in the Great Northern War, live in the next 300 years, and what is the perception of Europe and even the world?
The "strength" of the country does not seem to make them happier, and why is that? Do today's Swedes miss the days when they plundered the "fighting nations", and are they proud of the imperial glory of the "Nordic lions" when they dominated Europe? Or do they prefer the happy, comfortable life they have today? I believe that as long as a person is still in his or her right mind, the answer is obvious. The rise and fall of Sweden, this is one"Small country, big people".story.
At the end of the story, as usual, we will tell another paragraph, a story about Sweden.
At the time of the Napoleonic Wars, the Swedish king was dead and old, so the task of choosing who would be the crown prince fell to the Swedish parliament. It is said that according to the tradition of Europe at that time, this "Royal Highness the Prince" should choose a person with a noble status to be the position, and no matter how bad it is, you have to choose someone who has something to do with Sweden. However, this election of the Swedes was particularly "showy". They think, the king, anyway, now that the power is almost constrained by us, it is enough to choose a young man who is capable, knows how to fight, understands diplomacy, and has a positive outlook. It's best that he can still talk to the French emperor Napoleon, who is in trouble right now, and no one dares to provoke, lest this guy be unhappy and beat us one day. So they finally chose the French general Bernadotte to be their crown prince.
Bernadotte, before the French Revolution, was just the son of an ordinary lawyer, a 24k pure civilian background, and he had no blood relationship with the Swedes. So when he learned that he was going to be asked to be the future king of Sweden, he himself was shocked. But at that time, all of Europe already knew about the Swedish parliament, and the matter of studying and deciding was a matter of words. Therefore, Bernadotte did not say anything, "Please be smart, you said that I am a French general and go to Sweden to be king......Something like that. No, he just faintly turned around and asked his beloved wife: "If I become the king of Sweden, how will it compare to that emperor of Bonaparte (Napoleon)?" "There's a gossip here, as the Swedish parliament demands, that Bernadotte is indeed close to NapoleonTo be precise, he was the rival in love who abducted Napoleon's ex-girlfriend. Bernadotte's wife, Eugénie Desirée, was originally Napoleon's first love, and the two were once in love. But in the end, Napoleon became a scumbag for his own future, abandoned Eugenie, and married Josephine, a noblewoman who was "well-connected" in Paris. lived up to this girl who fell in love with him at the age of fifteen and used her own private money to fund his career.
Bernadotte, who was still a colleague of Napoleon at the time, saw this, and it was righteous (da) indignant (xi) to fill (guo) 膺 (wang) - you don't want such a good girl, then I have it! So he decisively chased Eugenie into his hands.
So the relationship between Napoleon and Bernadotte has always been quite delicate. On the one hand, Napoleon, who felt guilty about Eugénie, had been making some kind of compensation by treating Bernadotte well. But on the other hand, the relationship between the current husband and the ex-boyfriend, ** The two have actually been secretly competing, especially Bernadotte, who is afraid that he will be compared to the radiant Napoleon. So when she saw her husband asking, the clever Eugenie saw through her husband's mind at once. She kissed Bennadotte tenderly, then smiled and encouraged himHow can Napoleon compare with you? His crown was nothing more than a self-picked up piece of mud. And this crown of yours is offered to you by the people! Hearing his lover's praise, Bernadotte accepted Sweden's invitation without refusing. Yes, the Swedish royal family today is still the "Bernadotte dynasty", and Bernadotte took his beloved Eugenie to that distant northern country and led the people there to escape the wars and strife of Europe for two hundred years. Their children and grandchildren are still in that transition, chatting, laughing and dancing with the big names who have contributed their talents to all mankind at every Nobel Prize ceremony.
Yes, the Swedish king Carl XVI, who presented Mo Yan with the award that year, is a direct descendant of Bernadotte. I always felt that this story was not a dreamy reality, but a Nordic fairy tale. The bitter cold of the winter and the bloody wind of thousands of years have made this real "fighting nation" understand that the secret of prosperity and happiness is not in the killing and conquest and the rise of great powers, but from the freedom of the people, the protection of rights and interests, and the mutual compromise and respect between the royal power and the people's rights. And such a country is now picking up the sword that has been silent for 200 years, stepping on the war horse, and reloading.
Two hundred years ago, she laid down this sword and achieved the dignity and prosperity of her people. Two hundred years later, she regained the sword to defend the dignity and prosperity of her people.