Communist Party of Norway

The Communist Party of Norway (Norges Kommunistiske Parti, NKP) is a communist party in Norway. The NKP was formed in 1923, following a split in the Norwegian Labour Party. It was Stalinist from its establishment and, as such, supported the Soviet government while opposing Trotskyism. During the Second World War, the NKP initially opposed active resistance to the German occupation, in deference to the non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Germany. Once Germany terminated the pact and attacked the Soviet Union, the Communist Party of Norway joined the resistance. As a result of its role in the anti-Nazi struggle, the NKP experienced a brief surge in popularity immediately after the war, but popular sympathy waned with the onset of the Cold War. The ruling Labour Party took a hard line against the communists, culminating in Prime Minister Einar Gerhardsen's 1948 condemnatory Kråkerøy speech. Norwegian authorities considered the party an extremist organization, and its activities would be closely monitored by the Police Surveillance Agency throughout the Cold War. Ideologically, the NKP has evolved since its founding. It followed Khrushchev's lead by formally denouncing Stalin's rule after his death in 1953, but remained pro-Soviet until the end of the Cold War, despite occasional instances of disagreement. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the party has recognized some of the flaws of the Soviet model. It nonetheless supports traditional Soviet historiography and pro-Russian political views, opposing NATO, the European Union and the United States. The NKP has been a marginal force in Norwegian politics since the late 1940s. It held a single seat in the parliament as late as 1961, but it has not been represented in any elected bodies in recent decades. In the 2017 parliamentary elections, it received only 309 votes. The Norwegian Labour Party (DNA) became a member of the Communist International (Comintern) in 1919 under the leadership of Martin Tranmæl.