Quisling A Study in Treachery

A biography of the notorious wartime Norwegian leader, Vidkun Quisling, whose name is still used as a synonym for 'traitor'.

The word 'Quisling' is used all over the world as a synonym for 'traitor' or 'treachery'. The original Vidkun Quisling (1887–1945) was a gifted Norwegian army officer who earned notoriety when he sided with the Nazis on the first day of Norway's entry into the Second World War. Quisling's coup d'état in Oslo on 9 April 1940 was immediately denounced as an act of arch-treason, and even Churchill spoke of 'the vile race of Quislings'. Hans Fredrik Dahl's 1999 biography makes use of a complete range of source material from Nordic, German, Italian and Russian archives, and of family archives now in the USA. He traces Quisling's ultimately futile career from his earlier internationalist career as a diplomat and businessman to the drama of his trial and execution for high treason in 1945.

List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Prologue: innocent?; 1. Back in Norway; 2. The Russian dream; 3. A reluctant leader; 4. Mussolini or Hitler?; 5. A time of crisis; 6. Leader on probation; 7. Revolution from above; 8. Betrayed by Hitler; 9. On the edge of the volcano; 10. An enemy of the people; Epilogue: dangerous?; Archive sources; Bibliography; Index.

'Quisling' is used all over the world as a synonym for 'traitor' or 'treachery'. The Norwegian original Vidkun Quisling (1887-1945) earned his notoriety from siding with the Nazis. Dahl's 1999 biography traces Quisling's career through to the final drama of his trial and execution for high treason in 1945.