Furubotn and the new Communist line in 1945

The new line adopted by international Communism after the war came as both an encouragement and a relief to Furubotn. It allowed Communism to take on a national slant, and opened up for untraditional ideas concerning the road to socialism. Furubotn was one of the Communist leaders who welcomed it, because it might justify the independent political leanings he had developed especially during the war - and which he was keen to develop further. This clearly became apparent in internal communist circles in the spring of 1946.(1) Furubotn said he was surprised by the new trends in Marxist that were being displayed by other Communist parties. This suggests that he had not been expecting the emergence of a line so close to his own ideas. His surprise probably stemmed from the difficulties he had experienced with the Russians during the war: which appeared to herald a more restrictive line than that which emerged in 1945.

It is also worth noting that Furubotn, speaking of the German Communist Party (KPD), gave as his opinion that the new line was more than just a purely tactical move due to the more favourable climate Communist parties were enjoying internationally; he maintained that there had been a real change of mentality, as for example when the German party was prepared to speak openly of its prewar weakness, i.e. in connection with Hitler's assumption of power in 1933.(2) No wonder, then, that Furubotn felt optimistic about the new line and claimed that the Communist parties were headed by Marxists.(3) That statement can also be taken, the other way round, as an indication that he had found the Marxist standards of Communist parties less than satisfactory before 1945.

After 1945, on the other hand, he was happy to look out for impulses from international Communism.(4) The NKP must concentrate on ``specifying the tasks which lie ahead for our country, and the distinguishing characteristics of developments in our country...''. There was no apparent difficulty in that wording; but ``distinguishing characteristics'' was potentially explosive. This had already been apparent during the war years with all the difficulties Furubotn had with the Russians because he was taking special Norwegian features as a point of departure. ``Distinguishing characteristics'' now became official Communist world policy - until such time as a new change of course might be adopted. Furubotn thus now had his opportunity.

Furubotn and the national issue

Furubotn campaigned intensely for a policy based on what he saw as Norway's ``distinguishing characteristics'' and he tried to hammer out a national ideology for the NKP. He had already done his utmost during the war to encourage his fellow comrades to study the national issue.(5) He quoted Lenin to illustrate what he meant by the concept:(6)

Everything now depends on whether the Communists in each country deliberately take into account not only what in principle are their main tasks, but also the specific peculiarities, in each country according to the special features of its economy, politics, culture, national composition, colonies, religious divisions, etc. As long as national and constitutional differences exist between countries and peoples -- and such differences will remain for a long, yes a very long time -- the uniform international tactics of the Communist workers' movement require, not that these special features be eliminated, not that the national differences be removed (that would at present be an absurd dream), but an adaptation of the basic principles of Communism which varies them in their details, which adjusts them correctly, which adapts them to the national and nation-state differences. To explore, study, discover, predict and understand national idiosyncrasies, the specifically national element in each country's particular way of fulfilling the uniform international task -- that is the main task in the historical moment in which all advanced countries (and not only the advanced ones) now find themselves.