Emil Løvlien

Emil H. Løvlien (22 September 1899 – 4 June 1973) was a Norwegian forest worker, trade unionist and politician from Løten. He represented the Labour Party until the split in 1923, and the Communist Party thereafter. He was the chairman of the Communist Party from 1946 to 1965, and served three terms in the Parliament of Norway.

Emil Løvlien was born in Løiten as the son of smallholder Herman Løvlien (1858–1941) and his wife Oline (1857–1932). He was the younger brother of Ole H. Løvlien. Emil Løvlien attended secondary modern school from 1913, but left in 1914 to become a forest worker. In 1918 Løvlien joined the local branch of the trade union, Norwegian Union of Forestry and Land Workers. He also became involved in politics, and was selected as a member of the board of the local chapter of the Labour Party.

In 1922 Løvlien was selected to the national board of the Union of Forestry and Land Workers. He was elected to serve in Løten municipal council, but left the board of the Labour Party chapter, only to return in 1923 as a board member of the local Communist Party chapter. The Communist Party had split from the Labour Party in 1923, due to the latter's unwillingness to accept the Twenty-one Conditions, leading to exclusion from the Comintern. The next year, in 1924, Løvlien left the national board of the Union of Forestry and Land Workers, but began a two-year stint as board member of the Communist Party in Hedmark.

Løvlien stood for parliamentary election in 1930 and 1933, but unsuccessfully. In 1931, he was again elected to the municipal council. He was re-elected in 1934, and in the same year he became the party secretary of the Communist Party nationwide. Due to this position, he was also a member of the party's central committee, and served as a member of the board of the party newspaper Arbeideren from 1934. From 1936 he was also a member of the party politburo. He left all positions in 1940, the year that Norway was invaded by Nazi Germany, and the Communist Party declared illegal.

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