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FK Sloboda Tuzla was founded in 1919, as a part of the Labour Sport Society Gorki, named after the great socialist Russian poet Maxim Gorky. The football club and the labour society was popular in a wide part of the sporting public in Tuzla and beyond. The club was formed on the initiative of the Tuzla branch of the newly formed Communist party of Yugoslavia, under the influence of the ideas of the October revolution of 1917 and revolutionary movements in Yugoslavia and Bosnia and Herzegovina as its integral part.

After the initial congress of unification and the creation of the Socialist Labour Party in Yugoslavia that took place in Vukovar, Croatia in 1919, the first conference of the Tuzla municipal organisation of the SWPY(c) took place on 17 October 1919 in Tuzla. The elected party council decided on the same day to start with the formation of a worker’s sporting society. The official founding of the club took place in the end of October 1919, and gathering was led by Jovo Sretenović, Mato Vidović, Safet Hadžiefendić, Ljubko Simić, Niko Trifković and Petar Dugonjić.

The men elected into the first Board of directors of the club were: Leonard Bancher, Mato Vidović, Niko Trifković, Stjepan Brkljačić and Alfred Puhta, Mijo Cuvaj and Ahmed Mandžić, Franto Bauzek (locksmith), Emil Kranjčec, Jakov Čurić and Petar Dugonjić, Franjo Miškovski, Safet Hadžiefendić, August Mot and Karlo Schwartz. The origin of the original name of the sporting society, Gorki, was explained by Petar Dugonjić:

When the final preparations for the organising meeting were being dealt with, it was suggested that the club be named Sokolović, after Mićo Sokolović, a known worker’s rights activist. Then Mitar Trifunović noticed: “People, few will know that we named the Club after our Mića. Most will think of Mehmed-paša Sokolović”. The practical Franjo Rezač insisted we go to the meeting with a concrete name suggestion. Mitar Trifunović then said: “If no one objects, I would suggest the club bears the name of Maxim Gorky”. I remember it well. Afterwards the name was accepted with enthusiasm at the meeting.

The first headquarters of the club was in Rudarska Street in Tuzla, not far from Skver is today. Afterwards the headquarters moved to the building of the Jewish Bank, then to the Grand Hotel and then back to Rudarska Street. The games were played on two fields – the first one was called the Communist playground between what today are the Chemical and Mechanical high-schools and the second one was the field where the Braća Ribar primary schools stands.

All the players were workers, and the Gorki first team had the following players: Mirko Veseli, Peri Mot, Karlo Krejči, Santo Altarac, Ivica Šifer, Franto Bauzek, Mijo Josić, Lorenc Ajhberger, Vili Zaboš, Slavko Zafani, Ahmed Mandžić, Alfred Puhta, Jozo Vikić, Malaga Mustačević, Dragoslav Stakić and several others. The coach was Brato Gamberger, former player of HŠK Zrinjski.

The club mostly played against other Tuzla football clubs. Namely, at the time of the formation of FK Gorki there were three other football clubs in Tuzla, Zrinjski, Obilić and Makabi, based around the Croatian, Serbian and Jewish population of Tuzla. In 1921 the Bosniak club Bura was also formed. Unlike these confessional clubs, FK Gorki was multinational and accepted members of all faiths and ethnicities.

It is important to note that the official ground of Tuzla in this period was the field of HŠK Zrinjski built in 1928 on the road to Solina from Brčanska Malta with the help of Kalman Liska, a wood merchant and president of HŠK Zrinjski.