All-Union Leninist
Young Communist League Всесоюзный ленинский коммунистический союз молодёжи |
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Founded
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October 29, 1918
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Dissolved
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September 1991
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Ideology
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The
All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (Russian: Всесоюзный
ленинский коммунисти́ческий сою́з молодёжи (ВЛКСМ))), usually known as Komsomol (Russian:
Комсомо́л,
a syllabic
abbreviation from the Russian kommunisticheskii soyuz
molodyozhi), was a political youth organization
in the Soviet Union. It is sometimes described as
the youth division of the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), although it was officially
independent and referred to as "the helper and the reserve of the
CPSU".
The
Komsomol in its earliest form was established in urban centers in 1918. During
the early years, it was a Russian organization, known as the Russian Young
Communist League, or RKSM. During 1922, with the unification
of the USSR, it was reformed into an all-union agency, the youth
division of the All-Union Communist Party.
It
was the final stage of three youth organizations with members up to age 28,
graduated at 14 from the Young Pioneers,
and at nine from the Little Octobrists.
INTERNET SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komsomol
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Image of Komsomol poster. Caption says
"Prepare for worthy successors to the Leninist Young communists"
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History
Before
the February Revolution of 1917 the Bolsheviks
did not display any interest in establishing or maintaining a youth division,
but the policy emphasis shifted in the following months. After the Russian
Civil War of 1917-1922 ended, the Soviet government under Lenin introduced
a semi-capitalist economic policy to stabilize Russia’s floundering economy.
This reform, the New Economic Policy (NEP), introduced a new
social policy of moderation and discipline, especially regarding Soviet youth.
Lenin himself stressed the importance of political education of young Soviet
citizens in building a new society.
The
first Komsomol Congress met in 1918 with the patronage of the Bolshevik Party,
despite the two organisations having not entirely coincident membership or
beliefs. Party intervention in 1922-1923 proved marginally successful in
recruiting members by presenting the ideal Komsomolets (Komsomol youth) as a
foil to the bourgeois NEPman. By the time of the second Congress, a year later,
however, the Bolsheviks had, in effect, acquired control of the organisation,
and it was soon formally established as the youth division of the Communist
party however, the party was not very successful overall in recruiting Russian
youth during the NEP period (1921-1928).
This
came about because of conflict and disillusionment among Soviet youth who
romanticised the spontaneity and destruction characteristic of War
Communism (1918-1921) and the Civil War period. They saw it as their duty,
and the duty of the Communist Party itself, to eliminate all elements of
bourgeois culture from society. However, the NEP had the opposite effect: after
it started, many aspects of bourgeois social behavior began to reemerge. The
contrast between the "Good Communist" extolled by the Party and the
bourgeois capitalism fostered by NEP confused many young people. They rebelled
against the Party's ideals in two opposite ways: radicals gave up everything
that had any bourgeois connotations, while the majority of Russian youths felt
drawn to the Western-style popular culture of entertainment and fashion. As a
result, there was a major slump in interest and membership in the
Party-oriented Komsomol.
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"Youth on the planes" propaganda
poster
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In
March 1926, Komsomol membership reached a NEP-period peak of 1,750,000 members:
only 6 percent of the eligible youth population. Only when Stalin came to power
and abandoned the NEP in the first Five Year Plan (1928–1933) did membership
increase drastically.
The
youngest people eligible for Komsomol membership were fourteen years old. The
upper age-limit for ordinary personnel was twenty-eight, but Komsomol
functionaries could be older. Younger children joined the allied Vladimir Lenin All-Union
Pioneer Organization. While membership was nominally voluntary, those who
didn't join lost access to officially sponsored holidays and found it very
difficult (if not impossible) to pursue higher education.
Komsomol
had little direct influence on the Communist Party or on the government of the
Soviet Union, but it played an important role as a mechanism for teaching the
values of the CPSU to youngsters. The Komsomol also served as a mobile pool of
labor and political activism, with the ability to relocate to areas of
high-priority at short notice. Active members received privileges and
preferences in promotion. For example, Yuri
Andropov, CPSU General Secretary (1982-1984) in succession to Leonid
Brezhnev, achieved political importance through work with the Komsomol
organisation of Karelia
in 1940-1944. At its largest, during the 1970s, the Komsomol had tens of
millions of members; about two-thirds of the present adult population of Russia
is believed to have joined.
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Monument to Courage, Firmness and
Faithfulness of members of the Komsomol
in Sevastopol.
It is one of the monuments of the Great Patriotic War.
Built in October 1963 using means collected by members of the Komsomol of
Sevastopol. Sculptor Stanislav Chizh, architect V.I.Fomin.
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During
the early phases of perestroika in the mid-1980s, when the Soviet authorities
began cautiously introducing private enterprise, the Komsomol received
privileges with respect to initiating businesses, with the motivation of giving
youth a better chance. The government, unions and the Komsomol jointly
introduced Centers for
Scientific and Technical Creativity for Youth (1987). At the same time,
many Komsomol managers joined and directed the Russian Regional and State Anti-Monopoly Committees.
Folklore quickly coined a motto: "Komsomol is a school of
Capitalism", hinting at Vladimir
Lenin's "Trade unions are a school of Communism".
The
reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev, perestroika
and glasnost,
finally revealed that the quality of Komsomol management was bad. The Komsomol,
long associated with conservatism and bureaucracy, had always largely lacked
political power. The radical Twentieth Congress of the Komsomol (April
1987) altered the rules of the organisation to represent a market orientation.
However, the reforms of the Twentieth Congress eventually destroyed the Komsomol,
with lack of purpose and the waning of interest, membership and quality of
membership. At the Twentysecond Congress of the Komsomol in September
1991, the organisation disbanded. The press organ of the Komsomol, the Komsomolskaya Pravda, survived the
organisation and still exists (as of 2015).
A
number of youth organisations of successor parties to the CPSU continue to use
the name Komsomol, as does the youth organisation of Ukrainian communists: Komsomol of Ukraine.
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Klim
Voroshilov at a meeting with Komsomol members (1935)
“Kliment Voroshilov at a meeting with
young Communist League members”. USSR Commissar of Defense Kliment Voroshilov
(fourth right) has a meeting with Young Communist League female members
awarded an honorary title "Voroshilov marksman."
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The
ideal Komsomolets
Not
only was the ideal Communist youth an asset to his (or her) organisation, but
he also “lived correctly”. This meant that every aspect of a Komsomolets’s life
was in accordance with Party doctrine. Smoking, drinking, religion, and any
other activity the Bolsheviks saw as threatening were discouraged as “hooliganism”. The Komsomol sought to
provide them with alternative leisure activities that promoted the improvement
of society, such as volunteer work, sports, and political and drama clubs.
These efforts proved largely unsuccessful, since the Bolshevik Party and the
Komsomol were not in touch with Soviet youths’ desires and thus were not able
to manipulate them. Soviet youth remained relatively politically unaware or
uninterested during the NEP period.
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Komsomol membership card, (1983)
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Komsomol Membership Cards
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Komsomol direction. Document in the USSR
youth guarantee compulsory employment
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Youth
Campaigns During NEP
In
1922 with the establishment of the New Economic Policy, the Soviet government
changed their rhetoric directed towards the youth from a revolutionary,
militaristic tone to one with emphasis on philosophical education through
book-learning and stability of the state by peaceful means. The young
communists were uninterested in these new principles, and mass culture
campaigns became the most important tool used by the Komsomol as an attempt
retain membership during the 1920s.
One
of the most popular campaigns was the Novyi Byt (The New Way of Life). At these
assemblies, Komsomol Leadership promoted the values which they considered to be
the most important for the ideal young communist. The New Soviet Man was to be
“a lively, active, healthy, disciplined youngster who subordinates himself to
the collective and is prepared for and dedicated to learn, study, and work.” By
establishing strict guidelines to what they expected, the Komsomol was able to
denounce the traits and habits they saw harmful to the youth. It condemned
sexual promiscuity, drinking, smoking and general mischievous behavior, as it
posed moral danger to the organization’s young members. The majority of the
youth did not take this well, as unsavory activities were enticing to them. At
a time when membership was at its lowest (1.7 million in 1925), the Komsomol
harmed only itself, as this type of campaign further distanced the organization
from their target audience.
The
Komsomol also launched campaigns of an anti-religious nature. The new communist
regime wished to dismantle the already limited control the Orthodox church had
on society, and the young were generally interested in seeing the upheaval of
old traditions than their elders who had lived under the tsar’s rule. The
Komsomol rallied members to march in the streets, declaring their independence
from religion. Problems came when the enthusiastic youth took this passion too
far. Open harassment of church members sprang up, and earned the Komsomol a
negative image in the minds of older generations. When the League made attempts
to draw back on their anti-religious rhetoric, Soviet youth became increasingly
disinterested in the organization.
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“21st Komsomol congress: Viktor
Mironenko steps down”.
Komsomol (Young Communist League) First Secretary Viktor Mironenko retreating
from the platform of the 21st YCL congress after voicing his self-resignation
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Youth
reactions
Many
youths were drawn to “hooliganism” and the Western bourgeois culture of
entertainment, which included cinema and fashion magazines. It is no
coincidence that these youths were primarily from the peasantry or working
class. They saw Western culture as a way to elevate or distinguish themselves
from their humble beginnings. The Soviet authorities eventually made their own
films with ideologically “pure” messages, but it was not the same. Soviet
pictures, which were often informational or political, lacked the draw of
Westerns or romances from Hollywood. Both the authorities and the youths
themselves blamed the NEP for corrupting Soviet youth culture. Because the
Komsomol was simply not as attractive to these young men and women, the
government began to limit their cultural and entertainment options. This
signalled the end of the NEP, and the end of the brief influx of Western
culture in Soviet Union before Stalin’s ascendancy.
Militant
young Communists were a threat to the older Bolsheviks because they had the
potential to undermine the new, NEP-based society. The shift from destruction
of an old state to creation of a new one, mirrored by the shift from War
Communism to the NEP, was necessary to maintain and stabilise the Bolshevik
regime. The Party’s disapproval of young militants was necessary in order not
only to define what was considered proper behavior, but also to maintain social
and political control over the masses. However, after Stalin came to power and
the NEP was abandoned in favor of the revolutionary, anti-bourgeois Five-Year
Plans, many of the young radicals’ ideas were absorbed back into the mainstream
and they no longer presented a problem.
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Members Celebrate 80 Years of the Komsomol in
Moscow
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Young
Women in the Komsomol
The
ideology of the new Soviet regime under Vladimir Lenin strove to break down
societal barriers that they believed to be harmful to their goal of unity.
Specifically, they hoped to elevate women to a level equal to men. The Komsomol
pushed hard to recruit young women and raise them under this new mindset. In
the period of the early 1920s, women primarily stayed at home and performed the
majority of housework. The Komsomol seemingly represented a door to a public
life unseen by women of the time. Young women enthusiastically joined as they
were finally given a chance to detach themselves from the traditional
patriarchal structure. Moreover, they were drawn to the Komsomol because it
promised them an education during a time when young girls were deprived of a
proper one in favor of preparing them for household duties. The Soviets
encouraged women to take an active role in the new system and participate in
the same activities and work their male counterparts were involved. The Soviets
desperately needed to create unity between men and women at this young age in
order to establish legitimacy and security to their rule.
Major
conflicts surfaced when the regime took these new steps. The Bolshevik Party
was not the most popular at the time, and much of the rest of the nation wished
to hold onto their patriarchal values. Parents hesitated allowing their
daughters to join the youth organization, because “the Komsomol seemed like an
immoral organization, for it removed young girls from adult control, and then
required for them to attend meetings held at night.” Soviet citizens felt that
if they released their hold on their children, they would be corrupted by the
Komsomol’s influence. They also worried that if their daughters became
independent and promiscuous, then no man would want to marry them. Aside from
this point parents, wondered who would take care of the home if all the young
women left home to join the Komsomol.
Women,
generally, were also unprepared for the realities of the workforce. The ancient
structure of female subordination allowed for little in terms of work
experience. Men had been given better education and were traditionally raised
to take part in military and industry. Therefore, they had a much wider range
of opportunity than women whose only role had been caretaking. Here lies the
irony of the regime’s efforts; the Komsomol tried desperately to empower young
women achieve equality, yet women’s perceptions of themselves worsened because
they were now being directly compared to their much more prepared counterparts.
Even
though the Communist Party preached and demanded equality, men dominated both
the governing body and the Komsomol’s leadership. Upward mobility, contrary to
initial belief, was incredibly hard for women to achieve. In addition, female
Komsomol openly encouraged their members to pursue positions of teaching and
nurturing of young Soviets rather than positions of real authority.
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Propaganda poster encouraging Komsomol
members to participate in farm work
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Recruitment
of Peasant Women
The
Komsomol also had issues with recruitment and motivation of women amongst the
rural populations. During NEP, this demographic represented only 8% of the
organization. Poor membership numbers from rural areas were the result of a few
different factors. By 1925, the failures of implementing equality in the
Komsomol were evident to young rural women, as society still perceived them as
inferior because they were both women and came from the peasant class. Various
women’s organizations criticized the Komsomol because of these failures.
Chiefly, the Women’s Bureau of the Communist Party, known as Zhenotdel, openly
criticized the youth organization. Komsomol women were provided little in
regards to programs that could interest them in involvement. Annual
conferences, where organization leaders gathered to discuss topics interesting
to female members, were truly the only activities in which early Komsomol women
took part. Therefore, the Youth League made concerted efforts to fix these
issues and raise membership of peasant women.
Strategies
to Recruit Women-1920s
The
Komsomol’s original tactic to recruit peasant women failed miserably.
Representatives were sent to the countryside to reveal to potential recruits
that they were being oppressed by male dominance, and that the youth
organization provided them with an opportunity recreate themselves as
independent women. However, women did not rally to the League in the numbers
that the organization hoped for. The Komsomol turned to the Zhenotdel, which
was more favorable to young peasant women, and cooperated with them to achieve
better results. Another strategy was the addition of activities suited to the
interests of the target demographic. Sewing and knitting classes became popular
during the 1920s for rural Komsomol women. Additionally, educational classes,
such as health and feminine hygiene were used to both draw more female members
and alleviate concerns of rural parents. Peasant families were more inclined to
allow their daughters to join the Komsomol since they knew they would be
participating in beneficial programs rather than mischievous behaviors such as
drinking and dancing.
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“Soldier's Valour sign of Central
Committee of Komsomol”. Soldier's Valour sign of the Central Committee of the
Komsomol established on October 17, 1968.
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Demographic
issues
Soldiers
returning from the Civil War, students in provincial towns, and workers fleeing
the poverty of the cities established the first rural Komsomol cells in 1918.
Most administrators, who wanted to retain the “proletarian character” of the
organization, did not initially welcome peasants into the Komsomol. However, it
soon became obvious that peasants were too large a part of the population (80%)
to ignore. Also, peasants, who were benefiting from the NEP’s compromise with
small producers, were in a better position to join than workers, who struggled
with unemployment and other economic problems and thus had less interest in
joining.
Older
peasants reacted negatively to the growth of the Komsomol in rural areas. They
saw the administrators as intruders who prevented their children from
fulfilling their family obligations. The Komsomol needed full-time commitment,
and peasant youths, who saw it as a chance for social mobility, education, and
economic success, were willing to abandon their traditional duties to join. At
the end of NEP, the majority of Komsomol members were peasants, while the
administration remained largely urban.
Both
the urban and rural populations had problems with the Komsomol’s attempts to
unify the two demographics. Rural parents believed that because the League’s
administration was city-centered, their children would be negatively influenced
by city dwellers. In addition, land owning peasants were much more affected by
the government’s revocation of private ownership, and many were uninterested in
allowing their children to participate. For its part, the urban population
viewed itself as superior to the peasants. They saw the rural members as
backward and uneducated, and were angered by their swelling numbers.
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Komsomol Badge
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Leaders
(First Secretary of the Central Committee)
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Branches
Public
safety
- Armenian SSR: ՀԼԿԵՄ (abbreviation)
- Belorussian SSR: Ленинский Коммунистический Союз Молодежи Белоруссии, ЛКСМБ
- Estonian SSR: Eestimaa Leninlik Kommunistlik Noorsooühing, ELKNÜ[26]
- Karelo-Finnish SSR: Ленинский коммунистический союз молодежи Карело-Финской ССР, ЛКСМ КФССР
- Latvian SSR: Latvijas Ļeņina Komunistiskā Jaunatnes Savienība, LĻKJS
- Lithuanian SSR: Lietuvos Lenino komunistinė jaunimo sąjunga, LLKJS
- Moldavian SSR: UTCLM (abbreviation)
- Russian SFSR: Ленинский коммунистический союз молодёжи РСФСР, ЛКСМ РСФСР
- Ukrainian SSR: Komsomol of Ukraine, Ukraine Leninist Communist League of Youth (Ленинский Коммунистический Союз Молодёжи Украины, ЛКСМУ)
Public
safety
Children's organization
Honors
The
Komsomol received three Orders of Lenin,
one Order of the Red
Banner, one Order
of the Red Banner of Labour, and one Order of
the October Revolution. The asteroid 1283 Komsomolia is named after the
Komsomol.
INTERNET
SOURCE: http://russiapedia.rt.com/of-russian-origin/komsomol/
Of Russian origin: Komsomol
What’s in a name?
Komsomol (All-Union Leninist Young Communist League,
b.1918) was a youth organization controlled by the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union.The name comes from the first syllables of three Russian words
meaning Communist Union of Youth. In Russian - Kommunisticheskiy Soyuz
Molodyozhi. This became a typical model for the formation of acronyms after
the 1917 Revolution. It was used both for organizations and people. For
example, many children were named Vladlen or Vladilen after the Revolution
leader Vladimir Lenin.
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Flag of All-Union Lenin's Communist Youth Union,
VLKSM
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Who were the members?
Basically,
every teenager from the age of 14 in the USSR was a Komsomol member or komsomolets.
It was the third stage in the hierarchy of youth organizations– the first two
stages were Oktyabryonok (from October - the month in which the
Bolshevik Revolution took place) and Pioner (pioneer). Only those who
studied poorly or were sent to juvenile prisons did not receive this rank.
Children of very religious parents were also excluded. Komsomol
membership was valid up until the age of 28. But those who wanted to join the
ranks of the Communist Party earlier could do so.
What
did Komsomol organizations do? They encouraged good pupils and “spanked”
the bad ones. They set up meetings to support the decisions of the Communist
Party. In the fight against drinking in mid-1980s, for example, “alcohol-free”
Komsomol weddings were heavily promoted. They also performed free labor and
volunteer work – like helping poor or weak collective farmers with the autumn
harvest. Surprisingly, such activities were fun for most of the young Komsomol
members, as they didn’t have to go to school or university while performing
these tasks.
Monthly
Komsomol meetings were held in every class, in every school, in every
institution.
For many teenagers, Komsomol membership was not interpreted as
propaganda – it was simply a stage in their development and most still maintain
fond memories today.
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Joining
Komsomol by S. Grigoriev. 1949
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The 73-year-long history
The
Komsomol was set up on 29 October 1918 - one year after the Revolution - at the
first Youth Congress under the patronage of the Bolshevik Party. The aim was to
teach young people the values of Communism and prepare them for life under the
rule of the Communist Party. This was crucial for the Soviet Republic during
the Civil War (1918-1920), when young Komsomol members showed great
bravery on the fronts. Immediately following the war young people were at the
forefront of rebuilding the war-devastated country.
The
events of the time are described in the novel “How the Steel Was Tempered” by
Nikolay Ostrovsky. In this work of fiction the writer describes his own
experience during the war – specifically his work in the railway workshops in
Ukraine where he was a secretary of the local Komsomol organization. The
book describes the heroic deeds of the young people who built one of the
railroads in Ukraine, vital for the restoration of the country’s economy. At
the end of the book the main character (and the writer himself) loses his
eyesight. But he does not regret sacrificing his health for the good of the
country. One of the key phrases of the book is: “Properly spent is the life
that doesn't leave the man agonizing over all the years gone to waste.”
These
words were often quoted in schools all over the U.S.S.R. The aim was to make
young people think about how they could be useful to the Communist future and
what they could do for the home country.
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| Nikolay Ostrovsky “How the Steel Was Tempered” |
Komsomol pride
The
following stories are examples of how Komsomol members showed bravery
throughout Soviet history.
- during the Great Patriotic War in 1941-1945
many young people fought in the Soviet Army and in the underground resistance
(two of the most popular examples are Aleksandr Matrosov, the young soldier who
stopped the fire of the German machine gun with his chest, and Zoya Kosmodemyankaya, an 18-year-old partisan who was captured by
the Germans while setting fire to houses in the occupied German Territory and
was later executed by Germans);
– in the mid-1950s when the Soviet government
decided to plough the virgin soil in Northern Kazakhstan for crop harvesting
(known under the name of Tselina), Komsomol members flocked to
the area and set up hundreds of collective farms, surviving in the harshest
conditions, that even paid workers wouldn't have dared to live;
– in the 1970s and 1980s during the
construction of BAM (the Baikal-Amur mainline), which became a huge Komsomol
project, tens of thousands left their hometowns in Central Russia to endure the
harsh winter and summer humidity.
Neither
Tselina nor BAM produced any significant economic effects. But this was the
manifestation of the slogan that reveals the relations between the Komsomol
and the Communist Party: “When the Party says: ‘You must!’ The Komsomol
replies: ‘Will do!’”
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Komsomol members at the BAM
construction site
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Climbing up the ladder
The
Komsomol for some was a chance to show their dedication to their
country. For others, this was an opportunity to make a career within the
organization and advance to become a powerful member of the Communist Party.
Sometimes the latter were not good students or workers – all they wanted was
power.
At
the end of the 1980s some Komsomol bosses were smart enough to grasp the
opportunities of the free market.
They
used all their Party connections to set up their businesses at low cost or even
no cost at all. Among such “entrepreneurs” was Mikhail Khodorkovsky – once a very powerful man in Russia now
jailed for tax evasion and embezzlement. It was the time of the so-called “Komsomol
banyas” (“Komsomol bathhouses”) - young Russian nouveau riches
celebrating their first business successes with alcohol and lots of women.
After the Collapse of the USSR
The
Komsomol, as a compulsory all-Russia organization, ceased to exist after
the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. But it is still alive as a youth wing
of the now opposition Communist Party. Local organizations have become more
marginal and more radical – they justify the activities of Joseph Stalin and support moderate nationalism but they are no
longer numerous.
The
newspaper of the Komsomol, the daily Komsomolskaya Pravda,
outlived the organization. It is now one of best-selling tabloids in Russia.
Note: This entry was written by a former Komsomol
Deputy Secretary of the Army Company who was stripped of his post for smoking
“Marlboro” and being addicted to hard rock – things unimaginable for a good Komsomol
member in 1980s.
Written by Oleg Dmitriev, RT
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