The portrayal of the Russian Revolution of 1917 in the Norwegian labor movement: a study of the editorials of the Social-Demokraten, 1915—1923.

Abstract

The thesis is devoted to the portrayal of the Russian Revolution of 1917 in the Norwegian labor movement in the period 1915—1923. The main source of the analysis is the editorials of the newspaper Social-Demokraten. The newspaper was the print organ of the Norwegian Labor Party and had three editors in the studied period, namely Jacob Vidnes, Olav Scheflo, and Martin Tranmæl. The author analyzes the attitudes expressed to the Russian Revolution and revolutionary means, examines how the influence of the Russian Revolution manifested itself in the Social-Demokraten’s editorials, as well as how the portrayal of the Russian Revolution was changing and reshaping under the editorship of the three editors. The conceptual framework for the thesis is the self / other relations, which is applied to comprehend why the Norwegian labor movement, unlike the Russian Bolsheviks, chose the peaceful development.

Key words: the Norwegian Labor Party, the Norwegian labor movement, the Social-Demokraten, the Russian Revolution, 1917, self / other.