1946
Left bloc · SPer Albin Hansson dies; Sweden joins the United Nations.
1946 infographic: Hansson dies, Erlander takes office, UN membership, and Baltic extradition
AI-generated infographic using the page's 1946 anchors.
Highlights
- Death of Per Albin Hansson: On 6 October 1946, Sweden's long-serving Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson died of a heart attack at a Stockholm tram stop, aged 60. The architect of Folkhemmet and Social Democratic dominance since 1936, he was succeeded by Tage Erlander, who would govern for another 23 years.
- Sweden joins the UN: On 19 November 1946 Sweden was admitted to the United Nations, signalling a deliberate shift from wartime neutrality toward active multilateral engagement in the new post-war international order.
- Baltic soldiers extradited: On 25 January 1946, Sweden transferred approximately 146 Baltic soldiers to the Soviet Union from the port of Trelleborg — a decision that sparked immediate domestic protests and remains one of the most controversial episodes in modern Swedish history.