Svein Blindheim

Svein Lavik Blindheim (29 August 1916 – 17 March 2013[1]) was a Norwegian military officer, known for his resistance work during World War II.

Svein Blindheim
Born(1916-08-26)26 August 1916
Voss, Norway
Died17 March 2013(2013-03-17) (aged 96)
NationalityNorwegian
OccupationMilitary officer
AwardsWar Cross with Sword

Personal life

Blindheim was born in Voss as a son of educator Severin Nicolai Blindheim (1890–1925) and teacher Ragna Lavik (1891–1976).[2] He was a maternal grandson of Andres Lavik,[3] and thus a grandnephew of Andreas, Dore and Johannes Lavik and nephew of Nils Lavik.[4] From 1945 to 1970 he was married to British citizen Joan Mary Tindale.[2]

Career

Before the Second World War he took education in Askim, and competed in middle distance running and skiing for the local sports club Askim IF. He took military education at Terningmoen.

He participated in the Battle of Fossum Bridge of the Norwegian Campaign, and was later a member of the Special Operations Executive branch Norwegian Independent Company 1. In 1944 he initiated and was the first leader of the sabotage group Aks 13000. He was decorated with the War Cross with Sword[2][5] and the War Medal with one Star for his war contributions.

Politically he aligned with the Liberal Party in the post-war period. In the 1961 parliamentary election he was a minor ballot candidate for the party.[6] In 1966 he was released from the Armed Forces after having criticized Norway's nuclear politics.[5]

In 1978 he was convicted to 75 days imprisonment for revealing espionage operations in the Soviet Union during the Cold War, even though the revealed information was made public by Finnish agents in a Finnish newspaper years before Blindheim.[7]

Selected works
  • Nordmenn under Hitlers fane. 1977.
  • Offiser i krig og fred. 1981.
  • Den lange reisen. Et oppgjør med krigen. 2006.
gollark: Join heavserver today! Nobody can escape!
gollark: It's too loosely defined.
gollark: "Economy" doesn't just refer to market systems, but to, well, any system which produces things.
gollark: Obviously not the ONLY thing. But up there.
gollark: Money is fairly important to life.

References
  1. Svein Blindheim er død, NRK (17 March 2013)
  2. Borgersrud, Lars. "Svein Blindheim". In Helle, Knut (ed.). Norsk biografisk leksikon (in Norwegian). Oslo: Kunnskapsforlaget. Retrieved 29 January 2010.
  3. Bryne, Arvid. Vi sloss for Norge (in Norwegian). p. 14.
  4. Odland, Paul. "Nils Lavik". In Helle, Knut (ed.). Norsk biografisk leksikon (in Norwegian). Oslo: Kunnskapsforlaget. Retrieved 30 July 2012.
  5. Henriksen, Petter, ed. (2007). "Svein Lavik Blindheim". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Oslo: Kunnskapsforlaget. Retrieved 29 January 2010.
  6. "Norges Offisielle Statistikk. XII. 68. Stortingsvalget 1961" (PDF) (in Norwegian). Statistics Norway.
  7. Borgersrud, Lars (1995). "Blindheim, Svein". In Dahl; Hjeltnes; Nøkleby; Ringdal; Sørensen (eds.). Norsk krigsleksikon 1940-45 (in Norwegian). Oslo: Cappelen. p. 45. ISBN 82-02-14138-9. Archived from the original on 14 October 2013. Retrieved 29 January 2010.


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