Furubotn's point of departure in 1945: the Communist Party

When Furubotn emerged from the underground in 1945, he was the only major Norwegian politician to have spent five years in the country, resisting the German occupying power. He had been the Gestapo's most wanted man. From 1944, he began to write articles under his own name in the illegal press, while at the same time the Nazi-controlled papers were trying to depict him as a dangerous revolutionary. All this had made him a national figure.

When he appeared at the Communist Party meeting, he was applauded to the echo. The Communist newspapers gave details of his resistance work, adding further to his popularity. High praise of him was also heard from abroad, for instance from the Communist youth association in Sweden:(1)

From youth in the face of bitter strife, Furubotn, the legendary hero of the resistance movement, now emerges as one of the greatest figures of the Nordic labour movement....

Personally to Furubotn, this meant a complete reversal of fortunes compared to the immediate pre-war period, when he had been banished to do penitential work in the provinces for the then tiny and relatively isolated NKP. The changes in international Communism also created a favourable climate for previously unheard of political experiments by individual Communist parties.

The climate in Norwegian society in 1945 was also favourable for the NKP, Furubotn's political instrument. Resistance had removed much of the negative impression under which the pre-war party had laboured: it had the wind in its sails. Outwardly the future looked bright for Furubotn and the NKP.

However, the favourable international Communist context, Furubotn's personal position, and the promising situation of the NKP as a party were only parts of the whole picture. Inner conditions within the party were another matter: would he be given scope to realise his ideas? Would the Russians accept or oppose him as party leader? Would they be able to play his opponents off against him and ultimately willing to collaborate with them to have him removed? To find the answer to these questions, we must take a closer look at the kind of party the NKP had become at the time of the liberation in 1945.

The strength of the NKP immediately after the war

Immediately after the war, the Communist Party experienced a growth, which remains unparalleled in its history. Its vote rose dramatically and a small party with no representatives turned into a medium-sized party with 11 representatives following the parliamentary elections in 1945. In the coalition government formed after the liberation the party had two ministers. The parliamentary elections in the autumn of 1945 probably did not give a complete picture of the party's nationwide strength. In some counties it submitted no list of candidates, so that the 12 per cent of the vote which it won must have been less than its real strength. Something similar can be said of the local government elections the same year, in which the party also entered without candidates in a number of districts. The party was for instance very much an urban party, with little support in country districts, except for parts of Northern Norway and the county of Hedmark. The party won over 20 per cent of the vote in 13 towns, but achieved this in only 71 rural municipalities.(2) In 1945, Norway numbered 64 towns and 689 municipalities.(3) Certain places stood out with high Communist votes, like Bergen with 25.6 per cent (4) and Kjelvik with 50.8 per cent.(5) In a number of municipalities the NKP was thus among the largest local parties and won the mayoralties or council chairmanships. The local and parliamentary election results made the NKP an important party in the Norwegian political landscape.