Politiken was launched in 1916, first issue published on 27 April that year, by the left-wing of the Swedish Social Democratic Party.

The left-wing was expelled from the Party in the summer of 1917, and the Social Democratic Left, under the leadership of Zeth Höglund and Ture Nerman, became the Communist Party of Sweden, strongly supporting the Russia October Revolution and the Bolsheviks.

Politiken was first published two, later three times a week, but became a daily paper in 1917 and reached its peak in circulation in the early 1930s with approx.

[1] Over the years, the policies of Politiken changed and in the hands of Nils Flyg, Folkets Dagblad – Politiken slowly turned into a pro-German paper and by the end gave full political support for the German side in World War II.

Editors were: The Swedish poet and novelist Ingeborg Björklund also worked for the publication in the years before Flyg took over.