Elias Volan

Elias Karelius Johansen Volan (10 March 1887 – 26 December 1974) was a Norwegian trade unionist.

He was born in Inderøy Municipality as a son of crofter Johan Berent Johannessen Volvollan and Lise Eliasdatter Kjærbo.

He was also a member of the Dutch Radicals (refer to Fagopposisjonen av 1911), and through his fellow adherents (spearheaded by Martin Tranmæl) he was elected chairman of the Norwegian Union of General Workers in 1918 and deputy chairman of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions in 1920.

[2] Because of this he was removed as Norwegian Union of Building Workers leader in 1927, and instead became head of trade matters in the Communist Party of Norway.

[1] After the German invasion of Norway in 1940, the leadership of the Confederation of Trade Unions fled together with the royal family and government.

On 14 April he co-signed a petition to the people to remain calm under the new German rule (following the Lysaker Bridge sabotage).