History’s Most Notorious Traitor?
Vidkun Quisling (1887 – 1945) was a Norwegian army officer and right wing politician who led a fascist party in the 1930s that met with little success. He betrayed his country to the Nazis during WWII and collaborated with its German conquerors. The Nazis had rejected him early in their occupation as too seedy even for them. They finally relented to his entreaties and placed him in charge of a puppet government. Born to a pastor, Quisling’s life and career began well, with little hint of coming ignominy. He did well in school, and graduated from the Norwegian Military College with the highest ever score. He was sent to the USSR as military attache in 1918, and became Norway’s military expert on all things Russian.
In 1922, Quiisling worked on League of Nations humanitarian relief efforts in the Ukraine, and exhibited considerable administrative talent and skill. While there, he also met and married two Russian women in quick succession, the second marriage, which lasted until his death, either bigamous or unofficial. Discharged from the army during a period of cutbacks, Quisling travelled throughout Europe for much of the 1920s. He returned to Norway in 1929, and launched a political career marked by anti-Semitic, anticommunist, and anti-liberal positions. Quisling joined a movement called “Rise of the Nordic People”, and became Norway’s defense minister from 1931-1933. In 1933, inspired by the Nazis’ victory in Germany, he launched a fascist party, and appointed himself its Fuhrer.