When he enrolled at the Imperial Alexander University in 1866, Axel Lille also joined what was then an illegal student nation. Two years later, when student nations were legalised once more, it continued its operations under the name Nyländska afdelningen (Uusimaa Student Nation). At the student nation, Lille gained his first experience of the work of a journalist and the exercise of political influence. A powerful group of pro-Swedish activists, Svecomans, had gathered around Professor Axel Olof Freudenthal at the student organisation. Lille joined this group, and soon he became one of its leading figures.

Axel Lille had already worked as a journalist during his student days at the student nation and, at the beginning of the 1870s, at the Svecoman newspaper Vikingen. The newspaper was forced to close due to financial difficulties, but in the autumn of 1882, Lille was involved in founding a new newspaper, Nya Pressen, where he was to exert an influence for the following 30 years. Nya Pressen became the new voice of pro-Swedish activists, and Lille, who was known for his expertise as a journalist and as a passionate advocate of Swedish speaking Finns, was chosen as the editor-in-chief.

Axel Lille, already known as a pro-Swedish agitator, returned to Finland from political exile at the turn of 1906. His first act was to re-establish the newspaper Nya Pressen, which had been closed down due to political censorship. He formulated a programme for the paper that was simultaneously a programme for political unification of the pro-Swedish movement. The Swedish Party had been plagued by internal divisions for years, and Lille had also organised a party conference 10 years earlier with the aim of bringing the movement together.

At the beginning of the 20th century, many Finns in Swedish-speaking circles were concerned about the preservation of Swedish cultural heritage in Finland. The reformed Swedish People’s Party of Finland, which represented Swedish-speaking Finns, decided at the initiative of its chairman, Axel Lille, to establish a special day to commemorate Swedishness and Swedish cultural heritage.