Skyddet av statliga samlingar i svenska museer, arkiv och bibliotek i händelse av krig, ca 1914–2018

The protection of state-owned museums, archives and libraries in Sweden in case of war, c. 1914–2018 This essay investigates how parts of the collections of public museums, archives and libraries were to be evacuated in case of an armed conflict in Sweden in the 20th and early 21st centuries. It is based on previously classified archival documents, public inquiries and policies. The author has studied the protection and uses of cultural heritage in war-time Scandinavia. This research is further developed in the present essay by presenting a timeline up to year 2018. An important reason for this research is the worsening of the international security in the Baltic Sea region since the Russian occupation of the Crimean peninsula. The Swedish Contingency Agency (Myndigheten för samhällsskydd och beredskap) and the National Heritage Board (Riksantikvarieämbetet) have commissioned the author to study the development of policies in Sweden and to analyse the current situation both domestically and internationally. Much of the previous experience from preparing Swedish society for war have been forgotten over the years as the civil defense was disassembled. The results of the project are only partially accounted for here, leaving out most of the international context and focusing the domestic historical development. A study of the archives of state agencies that historically have had the responsibility to coordinate evacuation planning have not been possible to include in the present paper. The project continues and will result in publications promising to give a more complete picture. The first preparations for protecting collections in case of war were made in the autumn of 1914, but the measures taken then were limited to some central government archives in Stockholm together with some of the elite collections in the capitol. As war became more imminent in Spring 1939, preparations were made anew. This time action was more urgent since there was the fear of air war with possibly devastating consequences for civil society. Large volumes of archives, museum and book collections were evacuated from Stockholm to mansions and castles at a presumably safe distance from the capitol, which was expected to be bombed if Sweden was attacked. After the war a completely new organisation for civil defense was developed. The issue of evacuation of cultural property was investigated for some time, and in the early 1960s policies were put in place to better coor