Swedish Diplomat Alva Myrdal Dies : Shared 1982 Nobel Peace Prize for Disarmament Efforts

Alva Myrdal, a Swedish diplomat and social critic who shared the 1982 Nobel Peace Prize for her unceasing efforts to promote world disarmament, has died at a suburban Stockholm hospital, one day after her 84th birthday.

She was the wife of Gunnar Myrdal, who shared the Nobel Prize in Economic Science in 1974. Mrs. Myrdal had been bedridden for two years, had undergone brain surgery last September and had also suffered from a heart ailment.

She died Saturday.

Prime Minister Olof Palme issued a statement saying: “We will remember Mrs. Myrdal for light and happiness in her conviction and for the strength and breadth of her deeds.

“She dedicated the last decades of her life primarily to fighting for peace. With her unprecedented stamina and fighting spirit, she offered hope and comfort to those who felt despair over the madness of the arms race.”

During her long fight for disarmament, Mrs. Myrdal received the first Albert Einstein Peace Prize, three other peace awards and nine honorary doctorates, five of them from U.S. universities.

She never lost the enthusiasm that attracted international attention from the moment in 1961 that she pleaded for a nuclear test ban treaty in her first speech as Sweden’s delegate to the U.N. disarmament conference in Geneva.

She became increasingly critical of the United States and Soviet Union for what she saw as their unwillingness to work seriously for disarmament.

Criticizes Superpowers

“The actions of those who lead the superpowers are governed by a deep lack of reason and common sense,” she said after winning the Nobel Peace Prize along with Mexican diplomat Alfonso Garcia Robles in 1982.

Born Alva Reimer in Uppsala, Sweden, on Jan. 31, 1902, she grew up in a middle-class home in Eskilstuna in south-central Sweden.

She married Gunnar Myrdal (pronounced Meer-dawl) in 1924, shortly after she graduated with a bachelor of arts degree from Stockholm University.

Mrs. Myrdal studied in the United States and Switzerland and received her master of arts from the University of Uppsala, north of Stockholm, in 1934.

Mrs. Myrdal was a teacher for 20 years, a longtime defender of feminist causes and an expert on population matters.

Her first book, “Crisis in the Population Question,” was co-authored with her husband in 1934. In it she warned of the dangers inherent in Sweden’s declining birthrate. That book and others published in that period were credited with laying the groundwork for Sweden’s advanced welfare state.

Named to U.N. Post

In 1949, Mrs. Myrdal, whose husband survives her, was named head of the U.N. Department of Social Affairs and later became head of social studies for the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

She became Sweden’s first female ambassador in 1955, when she was named an envoy to India, where she developed a close friendship with the late Jawaharlal Nehru, then India’s prime minister. She later became a member of Parliament for the Social Democratic Party, now headed by Palme.

In 1966, she became Sweden’s minister for disarmament.

When she was appointed, she admitted that she knew little about the subject and asked that the announcement be delayed several weeks so she could bone up on disarmament.

Although she resigned seven years later, she continued to lecture and write on peace and disarmament.

“I have never, never, allowed myself to give up,” she said after winning the Einstein Prize in 1980.