This thesis deals with the cultural efforts of the Swedish labour movement during the periodof 1917-1939. It aims to examine the similarities and differences between social democratsand communists in their approach towards culture.My theoretical guidelines are the dialectic and materialistic view on history as set forth byKarl Marx and Friedrich Engels.I have examined some important individuals in the cultural debate within the Swedish labourmovement, such as Ture Nerman and Arthur Engberg, and I also briefly outline the debate inthe Soviet Union from the classics of Lenin and Stalin.I have found that the social democrats were mainly concerned with a democratic distributionof the existing bourgeois culture rather than working for the creation of a new proletarianculture; the communists on the other hand made considerable efforts to benefit the workers'own culture based on class struggle, but failed to threaten the social democratic ideologicalhegemony among the Swedish working class.

The purpose of this study is to address a period in Swedish political history when the politicization of the Church of Sweden was formed, a politicization that still exist. How this period came about is viewed through the writings and speeches of an important member of the Social democratic party, Arthur Engberg, who became Minister of Education and Religion in the first Swedish social democratic government in 1932. Prior to being a minister, Engberg first argued to immediately separate the church from the state. Later, he argued that the church first must be reformed by the state before the separation can take place. The question addressed in the study is, if Engberg continued his efforts as a minister, 1932­–1939, or if he instead, as some implies, aligned with the church? The most authoritative literature when studying Engberg is Beltzén Arthur Engberg – publicist och politiker (Arthur Engberg – publicist and politician) from 1973 which suggest that he did follow his early intensions. This is however contradicted by a contemporary prominent party member, Rickard Lindström in an article in Tiden 1946. The method applied to study this question was to research Engberg’s writings and speeches in a chronological order and to put them into context with the parallel processes of the formation of the Christian Socialist Group and with the internal reformation of the church.  The conclusions drawn by the study is that Engberg became a defender of the church as the cultural institution he wanted it to be. He had come to realize that the church could be accepted and even useful for managing the religious matter of the state. As such it must be controlled by the state and a separation between state and church is not necessary in the foreseeable future.