Nils Bucht was one of the so-called “Kiruna Swedes” - a group of about 1000 people who during the 1920s- and 30s emigrated to the Soviet Union seeking better fortunes as the situation in Sweden at the time was dire, especially in the north.

Many, like mr Bucht, met gruesome ends at the hands of the Soviet secret police whilst a few were able to return to Sweden, often as shells of their former selves - case in point being Bucht’s childhood friend Otto Högberg, who after escaping the USSR and returning to Sweden refused to greet people at the door and tried to hide at the corner of rooms due to paranoia about being abducted by Soviet agents or local communists.

What, if any, culpability the Swedish Communist Party, todays Left Party, holds in the fate of the Kiruna Swedes is a matter of debate and the issue has been used as a wedge against the party in modern political discourse.