Vidkun Quisling

Norwegian traitor Vidkun Quisling was born in 1887. An army officer, he served as military attaché in Petrograd from 1918-19 and in Helsinki from 1919-21, later assisting Fridtjof Nansen in relief work in Russia. He was Norwegian minister of defense from 1931 to 1933. He then left the Agrarian party to found the fascist Nasjonal Samling [National Unity] party. In 1940 he secretly aided Germany in its invasion and conquest of Norway, and as a reward was installed by the Germans as head of the collaborationist Norwegian government. Almost universally despised in Norway, and not particularly popular with his German masters, he nevertheless remained in power until May of 1945, when he was arrested after the Germans in Norway surrendered. He was tried by the post-occupation Norwegian government for high treason, convicted, sentenced to death and executed by firing squad. From his last name has come the commonly accepted epithet for one who turns traitor and collaborates with the enemy: "quisling".