Haakon Lie - Early Years

Early Years

Born into a family of Finnish origin but unrelated to Trygve Lie, Lie was the son of a fireman in Oslo – then called Kristiania. Though he describes his childhood as a happy one, his family was poor and, until 1916, his father had to work 112 hours a week. With his parents, two brothers, and two sisters, he shared one room and a kitchen. Lie got involved with the labour movement at the age of sixteen, in 1921. Here he met some of his lifelong friends and colleagues: Martin Tranmæl, Oscar Torp and Einar Gerhardsen. When the Labour Party left the Third Communist International in 1923, and was split between the new-founded Communist Party and the remaining social democrats, Lie ended up on the latter wing. The bitter strife between the two factions strongly influenced his lifelong anti-communist stance.

In 1927, after giving up university studies and a brief stint as an industrial worker, he became a forester. He was happy with this occupation, but after a bout of tuberculosis in 1927, had to give it up as well, and started working as secretary for the party. In 1931 he was made leader of Arbeidernes Opplysningsforbund (AOF, Workers' Information Society), an institution recently created to promote education in the working class. Lie has cited the AOF as the proudest achievement of his career.

In the early 1930s he made journeys to both Germany and Russia. His experience with authoritarian states – both fascist and communist – helped reinforce his political outlook of a democracy/dictatorship dichotomy rather than a simple right/left one. During the Spanish Civil War in 1936–39, he helped organise aid to those fighting the fascists and, during the winter of 1936–37, he visited the country. At one point the former pacifist Lie also took flying lessons to actively participate in the conflict, but this plan was never carried out.