During the Second World War, the NKP initially opposed active resistance to the German occupation, in deference to the non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Germany.

Once Germany terminated the pact and attacked the Soviet Union, the Communist Party of Norway joined the resistance.

The ruling Labour Party took a hard line against the communists, culminating in Prime Minister Einar Gerhardsen's 1948 condemnatory Kråkerøy speech.

Norwegian authorities considered the party an extremist organization, and its activities would be closely monitored by the Police Surveillance Agency throughout the Cold War.

It followed Khrushchev's lead by formally denouncing Stalin's rule after his death in 1953, but remained pro-Soviet until the end of the Cold War, despite occasional instances of disagreement.

It nonetheless supports traditional Soviet historiography and pro-Russian political views, opposing NATO, the European Union and the United States.

[4] The Norwegian Labour Party (DNA) became a member of the Communist International (Comintern) in 1919 under the leadership of Martin Tranmæl.

A split did occur along factional lines in 1921 and led to the establishment of the Social Democratic Labour Party.

A power struggle soon erupted between the Tranmælists and the supporters of Olav Scheflo, the party's parliamentary leader, following Kyrre Grepp's absence due to illness and later death in 1922.

Before the Labour Party conference in February 1921, Tranmæl came up with the Kristiania proposal, a declaration of semi-independence from Comintern.

The Kristiania proposal supported retaining membership in the Comintern, if the Labour Party could operate on more independent lines.

At the 9th Plenum of the Central Committee in 1928, they denounced the right-wing faction for supporting the Labour government of Christopher Hornsrud.

In 1930 the Comintern directly interfered into the affairs of the NKP, when it ordered Furubotn, the party chairman, to visit the Soviet Union.

[15] In 1933 the party took the initiative to propose a collaboration with the Labour in the 1933 parliamentary election in correlation with the Comintern's policy of a Popular Front.

According to that analysis the party should not take sides for one of the imperialist powers, a policy that was in clear opposition to the (then exiled) DNA government.

In the ongoing confusion within the party, Furubotn began to call for more active NKP resistance against the occupation.

On 31 December 1941, the party held a clandestine national conference, which adopted Furubotn's 'active war policy'.

The NKP came to play a leading role in the resistance movement, organizing sabotage and guerrilla activities.

In the national unity government formed after the war, two communists were included: Johan Strand Johansen and Kirsten Hansteen.

In it, he condemned the actions in Czechoslovakia, but also warned that the same thing could happen in Norway if the Communist Party was given too much power.

The speech represented the start of both an open and underground campaign against the party and its members, with the purpose of scaring away voters and reducing its influence in the labour movement.

Moreover, in an article in the same newspaper published on 11 November 1949, read: "It is clear that within our party there are nationalist, petty bourgeois, Trotskyist, Titoist elements, enemies of the Soviet Union and socialism, that may form a base for recruitment of agents to the bourgeois states and the counter revolution."

In the mid-1960s, the U.S. State Department estimated the party membership to be approximately 4500 (0.2% of the working age population of the country).

In the 1989 parliamentary election they joined forces with Workers' Communist Party (AKP), Red Electoral Alliance (RV), and independent socialists to form Fylkeslistene for miljø og solidaritet (County lists for Environment and Solidarity).

Even though the NKP survived the collapse of the Soviet Union, inner turmoil, and particularly lack of recruitment amongst youth, has since marginalized the party further.

However, this move failed to significantly boost recruitment, and subsequently the party's leadership was again dominated by older members, many of whom joined during the Soviet era.

The party still publishes a weekly newspaper called Friheten ("The Freedom"), which was started as a clandestine paper in 1941.

[25] Nordlys was acquired, temporarily lost in mid-November 1923, then published as communist again until 20 January 1924 when it again became aligned with Labour.

In Oslo there were Arbeidersken, Brygger'n, Den unge arbeider, Hammer'n, Huken, Kommunarden, Nødsarbeideren (renamed Steinspruten), Skyttelen, Sporvekselen and Stemplet.

Currently, the party retains its strongest bases of support in Oslo, Finnmark, Troms, Tromsø, and Namsos.