17. An Original Quisling
Vidkun Quisling (1887 – 1945) was a Norwegian army officer and right-wing politician, who led an unsuccessful fascist party in the 1930s. He betrayed his country to the Nazis in WWII, and collaborated with its German conquerors. The Nazis initially rejected him as too seedy and slimy 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 had a good start that give little hint of future ignominy. He did well in school, and graduated from the Norwegian Military College with the highest ever score since its inception. He was sent to the USSR as a military attache in 1918, and became Norway’s military expert on all matters Russian.
In 1922, Quisling worked on League of Nations humanitarian relief efforts in the Ukraine, and exhibited considerable administrative talent and skill. While there, he 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 in a period of cutbacks, Quisling traveled 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. He 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, appointing himself its Fuhrer.
