To Örebro University

This article traces a number of key moments in the formation and development of Sverges kommunistiska parti, sektion av Kommunistiska Internationalen (Communist Party of Sweden, section of the Communist International or SKP) through the lens of its major periodicals. The chronological scope is the transition of the party from a breakout group of the major parliamentary Sveriges socialdemokratiska arbetareparti (Social Democratic Worker’s Party or SAP) in 1917, through its Comintern days, splits, bumps, new directions, and battles with social democracy, to the height of its public support during the latter part of the Second World War. The history of the first three decades of Swedish communism is tightly bound up with the history of a small number of energetic individuals and the periodicals with which they were powerfully identified. Zeth (Zäta) Höglund and Ture Nerman were the two major figures in the foundational years and until the first party split in 1924. Later party leaders then took over the charge of the major publications. The spectrum of periodicals was broad, reaching from newspapers to magazines to reviews, some loyal others dissident, but all crucial for working out the forward path for the party at times of tumult and strife within its higher ranks. This article demonstrates the closely-knit links between party, people and periodicals during the rise of communism in Sweden. In their rich textuality and compositional complexity, each periodical provides a kaleidoscopic lens through which to study the ideas it mediates.