Background
Johan Nordahl Brun Grieg was born in Bergen, Norway. He was related to the famous composer Edvard Grieg, and brother of the powerful Norwegian publisher Harald Grieg. Grieg studied at King Frederick’s University (now the University of Oslo). Grieg made his debut in 1922 with first book of poetry Omkring Kap det gode Haab ("Around the Cape of Good Hope"), which was followed by Skibet gaar videre ("The Ship Sails On") in 1924. Grieg spent 1927 as a newspaper correspondent in China, where he witnessed firsthand the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communists. The same year saw the production of Grieg's plays En ung manns Kjaerlighet ("A Young Man's Love") and Barabbas.
From 1933 to 1935, he lived in the Soviet Union. He was officially invited to study the techniques of Soviet stage and film. Upon returning to Norway, he became known as an ardent supporter of Joseph Stalin's policies, and became the chairman of the Friends of the Soviet Union in the same year. In 1937, he famously wrote a defence for the Moscow Trials, attacking a number of Norwegian authors who had criticized these trials. His novel Ung må verden ennu være was also a defence for Stalin and the Moscow Trials. In many articles, he also criticized the supporters of Leon Trotsky, whom he viewed as a traitor.
His 1935 play Vår ære og vår makt (Our Honor and Our Glory) was an attack on shipping industry's exploitation of seafarers. From 1936 to 1937, Grieg published the magazine Veien Frem, which initially succeeded in attracting a number of prominent writers, but as the magazine adopted an increasingly Stalinist position in the discussion relating to the Moscow Trials, most of them severed ties with it and it ceased publication. His 1937 dramatic play Nederlaget ("The Defeat") was about the Paris Commune.
From 1940 onwards, he committed himself toward the struggle against the occupation following the Nazi invasion of Norway. In 1940, he escaped to England in the same vessel carrying the Norwegian Royal family and the National Gold reserves.
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