Olav Andreas Scheflo (9 September 1883 – 25 June 1943) was a
Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
* Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
* Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including ...
Communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
politician and journalist.
Olav Scheflo was a member of the
Norwegian Labour Party
The Labour Party ( nb, Arbeiderpartiet; nn, Arbeidarpartiet; A/Ap; se, Bargiidbellodat), formerly The Norwegian Labour Party ( no, Det norske Arbeiderparti, DNA), is a social-democratic political party in Norway. It is positioned on the centr ...
from 1905. After the
October Revolution
The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...
he fought hard to convince the Labor Party to join the
Communist International
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by a ...
and Scheflo was a Norwegian representative at the second congress of the Comintern in 1920 and was member of the Comintern Executive Committee from 1921 to 1927. Critical towards
Stalinism
Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory ...
, he left the
Norwegian Communist Party
The Communist Party of Norway ( no, 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 ...
in 1928 and rejoined the Labor Party in 1929.
When
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
's Communist leader,
Zeth Höglund
Carl Zeth "Zäta" Konstantin Höglund (29 April 1884 – 13 August 1956) was a leading Swedish communist politician, anti-militarist, author, journalist and mayor (''finansborgarråd'') of Stockholm (1940–1950).
Höglund can be credited as t ...
was offered to be made honorable corporal in the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
in 1918 but declined, the offer instead went to Scheflo, who gladly accepted the position.
When
Leon Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...
lived in exile in Norway in 1935 and 1936, Scheflo strongly defended him against attacks from both
Stalinist
Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory o ...
and the Norwegian bourgeoisie. However, he would never become a real
Trotskyist
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...
since he was closer to the Soviet
Right Opposition
The Right Opposition (, ''Pravaya oppozitsiya'') or Right Tendency (, ''Praviy uklon'') in the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was a conditional label formulated by Joseph Stalin in fall of 1928 in regards the opposition against certain m ...
.
Scheflo's autobiography is ''Den røde tråd i Norges historie'' (''The Red Thread in Norwegian History'').
After the split in the party
With the party split of 1923, he sided with the Norwegian Communist Party (NKP) in which he was voted into party leadership as a Comintern representative (until 1927) and editor of the main organ of the party, Norges Kommunistblad. In 1924 he was sent to prison for publishing a statement against strikebreaking during the great Iron strike (a series of labor conflicts from 1923-24). That same year, he was condemned for “encouragement of punishable deeds” after having agitated for a military strike.
Politically, Scheflo was relatively moderate and was counted among the right wing in the NKP. The conflict within the party led to his resignation as editor of the main organ in 1927.
In March 1928 Scheflo left the NKP in protest against the party’s negative attitude towards the
Hornsrud government. From 1929 he was a member of the Norwegian Labor Party and from 1931 he was the editor of the party newspaper Sørlandet in
Kristiansand
Kristiansand is a seaside resort city and municipality in Agder county, Norway. The city is the fifth-largest and the municipality the sixth-largest in Norway, with a population of around 112,000 as of January 2020, following the incorporation ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scheflo, Olav
1883 births
1943 deaths
Norwegian communists
Norwegian Comintern people
Comintern people
Executive Committee of the Communist International