This essay aims to study the Communist Party in Karlstad, Sweden. The study starts with theseparation from the Social Democratic party in 1917 and follows the local party thru the early years tothe joining of the Comintern in 1921. The study then follows the local district to 1924. By using anactor and structure perspective the hope is to identify how the local district is changed and affected byoutside influences. The study also aims the see how a local communist district is structured and whothe local actors within the district are. To answer these questions a protocol book from Karlstad’s Communist party is used as the study’s main source. The chosen method for this study was aqualitative and this meant examining the material and then identify relevant data by sorting themaccording to three categories. These categories were based on the three research questions of the study.In the study Robert Michels theory, the iron law of Oligarchy is used to analyse the result. The resultof the study is presented chronologically. The result of the study showed that Karlstad’s early leftwing opposition had several people thatbecame leading figures in the growing party. They worked with agitating and addressing people withspeeches and the party magazine. When the leftwing opposition became a part of the internationalcommunist movement and renaming itself Karlstad’s Communist Worker state, the party madeattempts to organize. Before joining the Comintern actors within the party were able to express anddiscuss opinions. After joining, opinions that were out of line from that of the party were frownedupon and actions were at some points taken against this.In the discussion of the result, discussions were held with previous research within the same topic.While little research has been made on the communist movement in Karlstad, national andinternational material were used as comparison. In the discussion of the result, discussions were held with previous research within the same topic.While little research has been made on the communist movement in Karlstad, national andinternational material were used as comparison. In the discussion there were several ideologicalpatterns used to explain actions made by the party. The actor and structure perspective was also usedfor this purpose, as well as Robert Michels theory The iron law of Oligarchy.

In 1917, the Swedish socialist party SAP, Sveriges Socialdemokratiska Arbetarparti, was split in two. A more radical, leftish fraction broke out and became SSV, Sveriges Socialdemokratiska Vänsterparti (today Vänsterpartiet). The party division is often explained with different attitudes concerning parliamentarism and militarisation – a more compromising one and a more revolutionary and defence nihilist one – that in a time of world war and revolutions led to insurmountable disagreements. Several of the party members thought that the division would not be permanent, as it became. The cementation of the separation suggests that there were more fundamental differences between the leaving fraction and the remaining SAP than just short-sighted political questions such as the WW1. This essay investigates the concept of freedom in the social democratic discourse to discover whether different views and usage of the concept of freedom might indicate greater ideological differences that cemented the division. This is a thorough study of the Social Democrat magazine Tiden during the period 1915-1920, with this purpose. To see the differences properly, a theoretical background on freedom is made, where the differences between liberal, socialist and Leninist freedom together with the ideas of freedom to and freedom from, as well as Isaiah Berlins concepts of positive and negative freedom are distinguished and examined. After the examination of the material, the conclusion is drawn that the views on and ideas of freedom vary greatly, and that it is very likely that it did have an impact on the division, especially in a long-term perspective.