Knud Jespersen

Jespersen was born in Sulsted and grew up in northern Jutland.^[4] His mother worked as a domestic servant. Jespersen was raised by his grandparents, until he moved in with his mother and her husband at the age of thirteen.^[5]

During his teenage years Jespersen joined the resistance movement against the German occupation of Denmark.^[4] Both his mother and stepfather were members of the Communist Party. Following the 'police action' against the Communist Party on 22 June 1941, the entire household joined the underground resistance.^[5] In 1942, Jespersen himself became a member of the Communist Party.^[1] Both Jespersen and his stepfather were arrested and held in concentration camps.^[4] His stepfather, Christian Andersen, was arrested by the Gestapo in a raid on the family residence in December 1943. He died in the Neuengamme concentration camp a year later.^[5][6] Jespersen arrested on 27 March 1945 and was detained at the Frøslev Prison Camp.^[5][6] Jespersen was scheduled to be transferred to Germany, but was released after the Liberation on 5 May 1945.^[5]

After the war Jespersen became a trade union activist.^[3] Following his release he began to work as a casual labourer.^[5] He was elected local union chairman of warehouse workers in Aalborg in 1953.^[6][7] During the strike movements of the spring of 1956, he became known as an agitator.^[5]

He became the chairman of the Communist Party district organization of North Jutland County in 1951. In 1952 he became a member of the Central Committee of the party.^[1] He was elected to the Aalborg municipal council in 1954.^[5] When the Communist Party chairman Aksel Larsen was ousted from the party in 1958 Jespersen was named the new party chairman at the 20th party congress.^[5][7] Jespersen's ascent to the party leadership had already been signaled a few months earlier, when the party substituted Larsen for him as the head of the delegation to the congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia.^[5]

As the leader of the Communist Party Jespersen reaffirmed the pro-Moscow line of the party, positioning the Danish party as one staunchest supporters of the Soviet Union in the European communist movement.^[5][7] He was an outspoken opponent of the Eurocommunist trend. However, during the 1968 Warsaw Pact intervention in Czechoslovakia he did express certain reservations (albeit no outright condemnation) of the Soviet actions.^[7] He did also condemn repression against Charta 77 signatories in Czechoslovakia in 1977.^[5]