Asbjørn Sunde
| Asbjørn Edvin Sunde | |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Osvald |
| Born |
12 December 1909 Vikna |
| Died | 23 April 1985 (aged 75) |
| Allegiance |
Osvald Group, Spanish Republic, Soviet Union |
| Years of service | 1940–1944 |
| Battles/wars |
Spanish Civil War Second World War |
| Awards |
 Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" Defence Medal
|
| Other work | Author |
Asbjørn Edvin Sunde (12 December 1909 – 23 April 1985) was a Norwegian politician for the Communist Party of Norway, communist partisan during the Spanish Civil War, saboteur against the Nazi occupation of Norway during the Second World War, and a convicted Soviet spy. During the Second World War, from 1941 to 1944, Sunde's group, the Osvald Group, carried out approximately 39 acts of sabotage and assassination against the German occupation forces and Norwegian collaborators. In 1954 he was convicted by Eidsivating Court of Appeal of treason and espionage in favour of the Soviet Union, and sentenced to eight years in prison. He was released from prison in 1959 after serving two thirds of his sentence. He was expelled from the Communist Party of Norway in 1970.
Sunde had served a 30-month stint in the Royal Norwegian Navy, rising to non-commissioned officer rank in 1930. He was trained as both a first mate, a navigator and a gunner. He was married, and the father of one son. For several years he sailed in the Norwegian merchant marine. In the years preceding the Second World War, Sunde joined the Communist Party of Norway, wrote for the communist daily Arbeideren and was involved with work to aid and support the labourers and unemployed in his home town Horten.
Following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, Sunde played a central role in the early efforts of the Communist Party of Norway in support of the Spanish Republic. In January 1937 Sunde led a group of four volunteers he had personally recruited from Oslo to the headquarters of the International Brigades in Albacete, Spain. Sunde, who spoke Spanish, first served as an front line ambulance driver in Spain, before requesting transfer to a Republican special operations unit as a saboteur and partisan, operating behind Nationalist lines. Among the tasks Sunde carried out in the unit was railway sabotage. While in Spain he also wrote letters, describing his experiences and the situation in Spain, that were published in Arbeideren. Sunde left Spain in the summer of 1938, returning to Norway.
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