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Khrushchev's gibes at Scandinavian capitalism particularly galled the Swedes, who have remained neutral in the cold war and are doubly furious at having to spend $57 million to revise their defense planning as a result of Colonel Stig Wennerstrom's espionage for Moscow (TIME, May 8). Sweden is intensely proud of the humane, egalitarian society it calls "industrial democracy"—and with reason. From poverty so desperate that hundreds of thousands of its people fled to the U.S. in the 19th century, hardworking, ingenious Swedes have not only turned their predominantly capitalist economy into the world's second most prosperous (after the U.S.); they have also managed to distribute affluence more equitably than any other people on earth.
Denmark, Norway and Finland have prospered similarly, and in decades of unbroken Socialist rule they have also developed egalitarian, secure societies, virtually unscarred by slums, unemployment, curable disease and illiteracy. To Danes, their aim is to ensure "the greatest possible happiness for the greatest number of people"; to Norwegians, to guarantee "security regardless of personal success."
Formidable physical barriers, most notably the great north-south mountain wall dividing Norway from Sweden, and old enmities have long separated the nations. Their different environments and histories have molded distinctive national characteristics. From their proximity to Western Europe and to each other in the north's most densely populated country, the Danes are the merriest, laziest, most sophisticated and animated (their compulsive small talk is known as snak). The non-Aryan Finns are of nomadic Magyar stock and are caricatured as somnolent, introverted and dour. The isolated Norwegians have a reputation for being tough, brave and simple. The Swedes, who were greatly influenced in the 19th century by Germany, are thought of as stiff, shrewd and neurotic. If a Norwegian invents something, according to one theory, a Swede will patent it, and a Dane will be in charge of promotion.
In another parable, possibly told by a Finn, two Danes, two Norwegians and two Swedes are wrecked together on a desert island. By the time they are rescued, the Danes have formed a cooperative, the Norwegians are fighting, and the Swedes are waiting to be introduced.
Nonetheless, an agreement permits citizens of the Nordic bloc to live, work, pay taxes and draw welfare benefits anywhere in Scandinavia (including Iceland, which won its independence from Denmark in 1944, Danish-ruled Greenland and the semiautonomous Faroe Islands), and today they virtually have common citizenship. They are linked by similar parliamentary systems, laws, education, a Lutheran background, their hunger for books and food, the absence of class, race or religious frictions or of governmental corruption. A passion for exercise explains the firm figures, clear eyes and radiant complexions of their beautiful women.