[2]
~
[3]
__TITLE__
Soviet
Youth
and
Socialism
__TEXTFILE_BORN__ 2007-12-14T10:07:44-0800
__TRANSMARKUP__ "Y. Sverdlov"
PROGRESS PUBLISHERS
MOSCOW
[4]Translated from the Russian by S. Vechor-Scherbovich
(C)
MOJTOAE>KL> B yCJIOBHflX COUHAJ1H3MA
1 1 II (IHCAtll'iCKOM .'MbtKC
flTCJihCTno «riporpecc» , MOCKBH, 1973, c HJiJiiocTp ~
CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS:
Volkov, Y. E., Dr. Sc. (Phil.)
Kogan, L. N., Dr. Sc. (Phil.)
Krivoruchenko, V. K., Cand. Sc. (Hist.)
Sokolov, N. Y., Cand. Sc. (Law.)
Torsuyev, Y. V., Cand. Sc. (Phil.)
Trainin, A. S., Dr. Sc. (Hist.)
__COPYRIGHT__ First printing 1974M
11301--068 014(01)---74
[5] CONTENTS Page Publishers' Preface................. 7 Youth and Society................. 9 Youth: Shock Detachment in the Building of Communism ... 37 Youth and Spiritual Values of Socialism......... 65 Youth Participate in State Affairs........... 91 The Part of Soviet Youth in the Management of Production . . 144 YCL---the Mass Independent Public and Political Organisation of Soviet Youth................ 170 [6] ~ [7] __ALPHA_LVL1__ PUBLISHERS' PREFACEThis book is about the life of young people in the Soviet Union, the first country in the world to build a socialist society. Naturally, we cannot hope to give a complete and comprehensive picture of the life lived by millions of Soviet young men and women of different age groups, by millions of young workers, collective farmers (members of agricultural co-operatives), office employees, schoolchildren, students, and young specialists in all fields of the economy. The youth of the Soviet Union constitute millions of people in the most varied professions, with the most different life orientations, educational and cultural levels, tastes and needs, degree of participation in public activity, and so on.
But for all the differences between individual (or even group) features and destinies, there are common features born of the essence and distinctive features of the socialist society. These include lofty cultural demands, ideals and aspirations, in particular the desire to work with all one's might and main for the benefit of society, and an attitude of mind which regards work as the principal life task and the principal field for the application and development of one's abilities; comprehension of the unity of interests and goals with the older generations, continued dedication to the cause and traditions of the fathers who made the revolution, built the powerful socialist state and defended it against all enemies; a feeling of responsibility for the country and its social production, and the consequent development of public activity, greater participation in the affairs of the 8 state and society; patriotism integrally united with socialist internationalism; and the constantly rising level of education, professional skill and general culture.
Some of these features are summed up and examined on the basis of facts, which have been supplemented by statistical data, collected throughout the country. In other cases, they are mentioned in sketches to illustrate the general in the particular.
[9] __ALPHA_LVL1__ YOUTH AND SOCIETY __ALPHA_LVL2__ [introduction.]According to the CPSU Central Committee Report to the 24th Party Congress more than half the Soviet Union's population are young people. "The Party,'' Leonid Brezhnev said, "has been and shall go on giving much of its attention to the problems, cares and interests of young people.''^^1^^
The 1969 International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties paid much attention to youth and its role in the world revolutionary process. The successes of the world socialist system, the class battles in the capitalist world and the upsurge of the national liberation movement are drawing more and more young people into the revolutionary struggle in active opposition to imperialist wars, militarism, racism and neo-fascism.
However, the contribution which they make to the general revolutionary struggle depends on their orientation, ideals and the road they follow.
If a keen ideological struggle is to be waged for the minds of young people, then a theoretical analysis of their role and place in the revolutionary process and in building socialism and communism is required. This analysis should be accompanied by practical work in helping young people shape an integral Marxist-Leninist world outlook and drawing them into the active struggle for the revolutionary transformation of the modern world.
_-_-_^^1^^ Congress of the CPSU, Ducumcnls, Moscow, 1971, p. 90
10 __ALPHA_LVL2__ METHODOLOGY IN THE STUDY OF YOUTH PROBLEMSThe scientific methodology in the study of youth problems is founded on the Marxist-Leninist theory of society. In its approach to the problems of the younger generation, Marxism-Leninism regards youth as an integral part of society, a part of definite classes. The Marxist-Leninist approach to youth is, first and foremost, a class approach.
It is not by chance that the definition of ``youth'' as a category, or rather, the methodological principles for such a definition are the centre of heated arguments.
It is clear that the evaluation of youth's role and place in society and its part in the revolutionary process depends on whether we regard youth as a homogeneous group, isolated, so to speak, from the existing relations in society and even opposed to the remaining ``adult'' population, or as a group, a category which reflects the class structure of society.
The bourgeois ideological doctrines about youth are based on the desire to disprove or distort the class principle, the most important feature of the Marxist-Leninist approach, to substitute the conflict of generations for the class struggle, oppose the younger generation to the working class and its vanguard, the Communist Party, and thereby undermine the unity of the revolutionary forces in the modern world. Bourgeois ideologists regard the age peculiarities of youth as something absolute; they represent youth as a group which is primarily characterised by age and not by social conditions. In this way the bourgeois ideologists are trying to imprison the younger generation within the capitalist ideology, direct it into the channel of bourgeois politics and make it adopt the bourgeois order of things and way of life.
The upsurge of political activity of the youth in recent years dealt a heavy blow to theories about the ``sceptical'' and ``indifferent'' young generation. Now the ideologists of capitalism resort more and more frequently to pseudo-- revolutionary theories which proclaim youth as the decisive factor at the current stage of historical development, as "the third principal class and the only revolutionary force of modern times''.
Such theories belittle the role of the working class in the struggle against capitalism. In flirting with young people 11 the bourgeois ideologists oppose them to the working class, preventing young people and students from uniting with the working class in their revolutionary actions.
This calls for a close examination of the methodological principles employed in the study of youth problems.
The Marxist-Leninist approach requires, first and foremost, a concrete historical analysis of youth---its place in the society's class structure, its attitude to the ideology and policies of the various classes in the given society, its role in the class struggle at its present stage, and the sum total of all the factors which make an impact on the formation of the younger generation.
Speaking about the participation of students in the revolutionary movement, Lenin said that "the students would not be what they are if their political grouping did not correspond to the political grouping of society as a whole".^^1^^ Lenin ridiculed all those who attempted to attribute the political aspirations of Russian students to the force of ideal motives of youth and not to the real conditions of public life in Russia.
All this is particularly true when we mean not only students but youth as a whole whose class structure reflects that of society more fully and, at the same time, determines the political goals of young people.
However, class affiliation does not mechanically shape the outlook of young people, but rather factors of "social being'', in all their entirety.
Lenin wrote that "the class division is, of course, the ultimate basis of the political grouping; in the final analysis, of course, it always determines that grouping. But this ultimate basis becomes revealed only in the process of historical development and as the consciousness of the participants in and makers of that process grows. This 'final analysis' is arrived at only by political struggle, sometimes a long, stubborn struggle lasting years and decades, at times breaking out stormily in the form of political crises, at others dying down and, as it were, coming temporarily to a standstill.''^^2^^ _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, "The Tasks of the Revolutionary Youth'', Collected Works, Vol. 7, p. 45.
^^2^^ Ibid., p. 46.
12 Characteristically enough, Lenin ridiculed as ``super-clever'' all arguments to the effect that "bourgeois students cannot become imbued with socialism".^^1^^It was the course of social development in pre-- revolutionary Russia and all the various social factors in their entirety that determined the formation of the student youth and led the most progressive of them, including those from bourgeois families, to the revolutionary struggle against tsarism and landlord and capitalist power.
Today we see how more and more students in the capitalist countries, influenced by the development of the modern society and the upsurge of the revolutionary struggle, are siding with the working class which expresses the basic interests of the working people who constitute the overwhelming majority in every country.
Thus the historical stream of events and analysis of the development of the modern world corroborate again and again that the social consciousness of youth is decisively determined and shaped by the totality of social factors operating in given historical conditions. It may be said that the social portrait of youth reflects the processes, tendencies and problems of society, in which young people live, and of the times in which they grow up.
This is precisely why the basic problems of youth are, first and foremost, the problems of the whole of society, the problems, which can be solved only within the framework of a general revolutionary process. This means that the problems of youth should be examined concurrently with the processes, events and phenomena in society and the world in general.
There are many factors which influence the formation of youth. Therefore, if we want to establish the basic (rather than haphazardly chosen) characteristics of modern youth, we must examine the sum total or at least the most important of these factors.
In the case of Soviet youth, researchers single out three groups of factors which influence its formation.^^2^^
_-_-_~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 7, p. 42.
~^^2^^ Youth: Interests, Aspirations, Ideals, Moscow, 1969, pp. 50--58 (in Russian).
13Group one---factors which are characteristic of modern times. The most important of them are the struggle between the two systems, the growing influence of socialism, the upsurge of the national liberation movement and the downfall of colonialism, the mounting anti-monopoly struggle in the developed capitalist countries, and the scientific and technological revolution.
Group two---factors related to the social system in which the younger generation grows up. These factors are determined by the dialectics of the socialist society's development, by the laws governing this development. The principal factors are socialist social relations, public ownership, the principle of distribution according to the amount of work done, the distinctions between town and country and between mental and manual work, socialist democracy and broad opportunities for the development of the personality.
These are precisely the factors that determine the basic new features of man in the socialist society---new attitude to work, communist conviction, collectivism and internationalism; they ensure reliable prerequisites for the development of the individual (in education, culture, management of public affairs, etc.).
Group three---factors related to the peculiarities in a particular period of society's development.
The current stage of building communism in the Soviet Union is characterised by creating the material and technical basis of communism, evolution of socialist democracy, growing participation of the working people in the management of society's affairs, and ever fuller satisfaction of the people's growing material and cultural requirements. These factors are very important in raising Soviet youth, and provide the best opportunities for educating and developing the individual.
At the same time we must also take into account the age peculiarities of young people. It is precisely these peculiarities that express specifically (in comparison with other age categories) tendencies and problems common for the entire society. These age peculiarities make some problems more acute and others less so. In the capitalist countries the proportion of young people among the unemployed is particularly high, and they get much less for their work than 14 senior age groups. Unemployment and unequal pay for equal work have naturally nothing to do with age peculiarities; they are the result of the social system, and can be eliminated only with the eradication of capitalism.
Age is to a great extent responsible for such psychological qualities of youth as the desire for adventure, maximalism, emotionalism, vigour, sincerity, the desire for change.
While we are on the subject of the age peculiarities of youth and the specific manner in which they are expressed in present-day conditions, we should like to stress once again that it would be wrong to attribute exceptional or decisive significance to these peculiarities, and even more so, to use them as the basis for the explanation of all processes or for formulating all problems. Naturally, the other extreme--- that of ignoring the peculiarities specific to youth---is also wrong.
Thus, the Marxist-Leninist approach to the study of youth problems is a dialectical approach. According to MarxismLeninism, youth, its features and moral make-up, determined by class affiliation and the laws governing the development of society, of which youth is a part, should be studied in conjunction with the age peculiarities which give "youthful colouring" to problems common to the whole of society.
The definition of youth as an age-and-demographic group conceals the essence of the matter---the social heterogeneity of youth and the paramount importance of social factors in the formation of its world outlook.
The definition of youth as a specific social group is also fallacious, because it substitutes the age division for the class division of society and therefore elevates age to the status of an independent social factor.
Youth is a socio-demographic group with a social structure which corresponds to the given society; its formation is decisively determined by particular historical social conditions and by specific age peculiarities.
At every given moment we should have scientific knowledge of the characteristic features and peculiarities of youth so as to objectively assess the results already achieved and further improve the communist education of young men and women.
15But the very assessment of the principal peculiarities which really characterise youth and reveal its essence, and the selection of research methods to ensure the objectivity of the collected data require greater specification of the methodological principles applied in studying man in general.
The study of a man or a group of people, their features and traits, is first and foremost a study of society. This is because man is both the subject and the object of social relations.
Many sciences---psychology, pedagogy, medicine, sociology, aesthetics---are devoted to the study of man and each of them has created its own image of man. Depending on the aspects under research and the level of research, the image of man is characterised by different parameters and qualities in usage in the given science. At the same time, every science which studies the moulding of man must proceed from an integral conception of man and from the determination of the role, place and relations of the ``specific'' image in the general theory of the individual. Consequently, no study of the features and traits of youth can be undertaken outside of the general philosophical and sociological theories which alone can give an integral image of man.
This thesis is important in principle, because it indicates, in the first place, that the study of man and his essence always involves social research, and in the second place, it shows that the analysis of empirical facts obtained by concrete sociological studies must be based on the integral conception of the individual presented by Marxism.
Karl Marx said that "the human essence is no abstraction inherent in each single individual. In its reality it is the ensemble of the social relations".^^1^^
This definition of man's generic essence indicates the dominating significance of social factors in the formation of man. But it would be wrong to extend this definition to every single man, because then the origin of man's individual peculiarities would become obscure.
_-_-_~^^1^^ K. Marx, F. Engels, Selected Works in 3 volumes, Moscow, 1969, Vol. 1, p. 14.
16In the meantime, however, every concrete sociological study deals with single individuals. "The premises from which we begin,'' Marx and Engels wrote, "are not arbitrary ones, not dogmas, but real premises from which abstraction can only be made in the imagination. They are the real individuals, their activity and the material conditions under which they live, both those which they find already existing and those produced by their activity. These premises can thus be verified in a purely empirical way.''^^1^^
The task, therefore, is to use the analysis of empirical facts obtained by concrete sociological research as the basis and single out in man the typical and general features which characterise youth as a whole or some definite groups within it, and discover how the factors stipulating various qualities are related to one another and why these qualities differ for groups and individuals.
In this connection, it is essential to formulate our conception of the individual, of the "concrete man'', and compare this conception with the definition of man's generic essence.
The starting point here is provided by a most important methodological principle which was formulated by Karl Marx, who said that the concrete should be regarded as the process of synthesis, as the result. The concrete is the unity of the general, the specific and the individual. The concrete man is the result of the ensemble of social relations, environmental peculiarities, individual social experience and individual psychophysiological qualities. Since we are primarily interested in the features and qualities, determined by social factors and formed under the influence of upbringing and education, the study of man in this case becomes first and foremost the study of the individual.
Since the individual is determined by the factors mentioned above (the totality of social relations, the environment, individual social experience), it objectively follows that the classification of the features and qualities of individuals, who become the subject of empirical research, should be brought into correlation with the studies of the whole of society (qualities common to the whole people and the whole of youth) and its social and demographic structure _-_-_
~^^1^^ K. Marx, F. Engels, The German Ideology, Moscow, 1964, p. 31.
17 (qualities which characterise one or another group of young people). What is more, generalisation, analysis and systematisation of individual social experience, definition of the right criterion for its typology, will afford an opportunity for uncovering still more subtle relationships in the determinate nature of the various aspects of personality. __ALPHA_LVL2__ THE GENERAL AND SPECIFIC FEATURESAs a component of society, young people are characterised by the common features determined by the dominating production relations and ideology. As a specific age group in society, youth also has its own features. Finally, the specific features of various groups of young people (workers, farmers, etc.) are determined by their social and age differentiation.
Thus a study of youth requires an analysis of the main features common to the entire younger generation and the specific features of the various social and age categories that make it up.
A personality is principally characterised by its world outlook, moral qualities, ideals, value orientations, interests and needs.
Under socialism the totality of social relations forms a new social type of man.
In answer to the question "What are the motives behind the behaviour of your contemporaries?'', in a questionnaire circulated by the CG YCL, young people mention the desire to win the respect of people, to be useful, and to fulfil their duty as the most important motives.
The general features of the new social type of the individual originated during the consolidation of the new social system. Loyalty to the great ideals of communism, selfless devotion to the common cause, class solidarity with the peoples fighting for freedom and independence, revolutionary ardour---these and other principal qualities of the Soviet man, engendered by revolutionary struggle and socialist transformation, are the determining features which the younger generations inherit from their seniors. The community of features of the different generations in the era of __PRINTERS_P_17_COMMENT__ 2---411 18 building socialism and communism indicates that "the socialist reality, the versatile activity of the Party, State and all public organisations decisively influence the younger generation and are responsible for its lofty political and moral qualities".^^1^^
The process of building communism enriches the social type of the individual. Having inherited from the senior generations the basic features, which are determined by the whole tenor of the socialist society, youth, naturally, acquires new features and peculiarities which reflect the present stage of building communism.
Further effort in the upbringing of young men and women requires a deep study of how the individual develops, influenced by various factors, and which of the latter should be pinpointed as principal and decisive ones. The concepts of activity, practice and personal social experience are very important if we want to understand the laws governing the development of the individual (including the causes and factors responsible for the fact that people are different even though they grow up in similar conditions, belong to the same social and demographic groups and even have more or less similar psychophysiological characteristics).
Man's activity, its purpose and nature are greatly influenced by his affiliation to a particular class or social group, but the influence, though significant, is not absolute. The concept "personal social experience'', therefore, cannot be reduced to the specific environment in which the given man exists or to the sum total of his "social roles''; it is primarily the result of man's activities, his entire practical experience in society.
``The chief defect,'' Marx wrote, "of all hitherto existing materialism---that of Feuerbach included---is that the thing [Gegenstand], reality, sensuousness, is conceived only in the form of the object [Objekt] or of contemplation [Anschauung], but not as human sensuous activity, practice, not subjectively.''^^2^^ To this he added: "The materialist doctrine that men are products of circumstances and upbringing, and that, _-_-_
~^^1^^ 50th Anniversary of the YCL and the Tasks of Communist Education of Youth. A Resolution of the CC CPSU. Komsomolskaya Pravda, October 6, 1968.
~^^2^^ K. Marx, F. Engels, Selected Works in 3 volumes, Vol. 1, p. 13.
19 therefore, changed men are products of other circumstances and changed upbringing, forgets that it is men that change circumstances and that the educator himself needs educating.''^^1^^The laws which govern the development of the individual also determine the principal methods by which the process is directed. These methods, of course, cannot be reduced to didactics. They envisage an alteration of conditions and circumstances for the formation of the individual; a system of incentives to draw the individual into the required activities; and education which provides man with experience and knowledge of the preceding generations and thereby ensures the further progress of human society.
We must, moreover, keep the following in mind. The individual is the product, the result of interaction between various factors. But, from the viewpoint of educational and pedagogical influence, every given individual represents not the result, but the starting point, and the analysis of the individual as the result is of primary importance for clarifying the action of the formative factors. Even such of man's qualities which are determined by his psychophysiological peculiarities can be changed by training to a lesser or greater degree.^^2^^
This is particularly true of the socially-conditioned qualities of the individual whose evolution takes place in the process of unceasing social activity. Thus, the findings of all tests are limited, because at best they indicate the result of development and the possibilities for "today`s'' individual in one or another field of activity, for the individual is not a metaphysical unchangeable entity, but a projection of the given state of the process, reflecting its continual moulding.
The fact that man's activity and practical experience in society decisively influence the formation of his personality makes important the study of the motives behind this activity. Thus, knowledge of these motives, their origin and, consequently, ways of influencing the direction, content and character of this activity is, naturally, absolutely necessary _-_-_
~^^1^^ Ibid.
~^^2^^ The Individual Under Socialism, Moscow, 1968, p. 75 (in Russian).
20 for the education of the individual; for this knowledge provides ample opportunities for effectively influencing the process of education.Human needs are the determining and motivating force of human activities. Engels said that "men became accustomed to explain their actions from their thoughts, instead of from their needs".^^1^^
Soviet scientists who examined the category ``needs'' regard it as an objective phenomenon, as a peculiar form of expression of necessity in animate nature and society. They note that though the ``needs'' are an inner necessity of the living organism or the human being, they are at the same time a specific expression of the exterior necessity.
Being the motive force of human activity, needs are at the same time its result. They express the inner tendencies of the object's development and help to reveal the essence of phenomena and man's social nature. This is why the study of youth's social requirements helps us to understand the essence of youth, the dynamics of its development, the distinguishing features of various groups, and the degree to which they conform to the socially necessary requirements. Requirements take the form of interests and demands. The Central Committee of the YCL conducted a special study--- a "social portrait" of youth---which was devoted to the demands and interests of young men and women.
The findings of this study as well as the analysis of work done on the same subject by many research institutions and scientists lead to the conclusion that Soviet youth today has the following principal social needs that show a tendency to grow:~
---a need for meaningful, creative and skilled work;~
---social and political activity, participation in managing the affairs of state and society;~
---a need for using spare time in a fruitful way;~
---a thirst for knowledge.
__FIX__ Here is a LVL3 heading embedded at beginning of paragraph; add markup so heading can be extracted by scripts.The Need for Meaningful Work. Numerous practical sociological studies conducted in the Soviet Union point to this need as a definitive social trait of youth. In describing young people in the era of victorious socialism, the _-_-_
~^^1^^ F. Engels, Dialectics of Mature, Moscow, 1954, pp. 238--39.
21 sociologists of the other socialist countries come to similar conclusions. The sociological research laboratory of Leningrad University, headed by Professor V. A. Yadov, conducted a poll among 2,665 Leningrad workers under 30, which revealed that the main factors which determine the worker's attitude to his job are its nature and the creative opportunities it provides.All other social groups within the younger generation of the country also hold that interesting work is of primary importance in the individual's orientation among human values.
``Interesting work" was the most frequent answer to the question "What is most important for happiness?" submitted during the poll conducted by the Central Committee of the YCL. This need, which is typical for all categories of youth, is particularly strong among those whose work provides great opportunities for creativity, that is, among those whose demands are actually shaped and determined by work.
This tendency becomes more visible when we compare youth groups within one and the same category but with different levels of professional skill. Rural machine-- operators, for instance, have a greater need for interesting work and are more content with their work than unqualified young people engaged in agriculture.
A growing need for interesting work, founded on the public character of ownership, socialist relations of production and better living and cultural standards, is typical of all young people. Today this need is connected, first and foremost, with the actual content of the work in hand and the training received. This need tends to grow with the technological advance, the progress in educational standards, and the gradual introduction of universal compulsory secondary education.
The growing interest in fruitful and creative work is undeniably a progressive tendency in Soviet society's development, because it makes labour not only more qualified and efficient, but a vital human necessity. Research results give grounds for asserting that labour has, to a great extent, become one of the most vital necessities in professions where it provides moral satisfaction and extensive creative opportunities. At the same time this need for interesting work 22 involves a whole complex of economic and educational problems. Under different conditions depending on the level of development of productive forces, the desire to satisfy this need leads to the migration of young people from the countryside, to the fluctuation of manpower at industrial enterprises, and acute shortages of labour, particularly in the services.
The difficulties involved in the solution of this problem are connected with a number of contradictory factors. The rapid development of the scientific and technological revolution requires considerable improvement in education--- general and special, higher and secondary, and this will inevitably generate a greater urge for meaningful work. But at the same time it is necessary to recruit the labour force for agriculture, the services, which has an obvious tendency to expand, and for some sectors of industry, as well as to create incentives so that young people would readily apply for work in these branches. The ways of solving this problem are discussed both by practical workers, responsible for the education and upbringing of youth, and by theoreticians.
Taking into consideration the contradictory factors which affect the conclusions, we may say that the solutions are not and cannot be simple. It is important, however, to select the main direction, the chief link. The decisive factors here should be the long-term interests of socialist society---the competition with capitalism, the creation of the material and technical basis of communism, and defence of the country. All this requires further scientific and technological progress. It follows, therefore, that only scientific and technological progress can decisively affect the professional structure of labour, i.e., make it more meaningful and gradually eliminate unskilled and uncreative kinds of work. It is just as important to note that in calling upon youth to make their contribution to scientific and technological progress and thereby take part in the solution of this major state problem, the Komsomol takes account of the innermost needs of the young people, and is helping them to satisfy these needs. This is of tremendous importance for the formation of the younger generation's world outlook.
It is but natural that scientific and technological progress is unable to eliminate some uninteresting and unskilled forms 23 of labour either now or perhaps even in the future. This calls for additional measures.
In the first place, it is necessary to pool the efforts of various departments and organisations to raise the social prestige of certain professions, particularly in agriculture and the sphere of services. (Questionnaires indicate that farm work and services stand at the bottom of the list.) Of course a single measure or even a year-long campaign is insufficient for this purpose. Work should obviously be carried on in two ways: firstly, by revealing the opportunities inherent in the professions concerned, including those rising from the creative attitude of the worker himself and from scientific and technological progress, and, secondly, by showing the importance of these professions for society.
In the second place, fuller use should be made of economic incentives. In practice it often happens that unskilled labour is paid just as well or even better than skilled labour, i.e., a certain compensation is provided for uninteresting and arduous work; the worker is being recompensed, as it were, for the spiritual and physical losses he suffers. It is expected that this tendency in remunerating arduous or tedious work will increase, particularly in the case of professions which would not yield to automation or mechanisation.
In the third place, it is very important to offer prospects to young people engaged in uninteresting work and to plan their promotion to grades of higher skill in their profession (this makes skill grades, classification, etc., an absolute necessity), as well as from less interesting to more interesting work. This upward movement should be envisaged by the collective's plans for social development.
There are other means for eliminating the contradiction between the urge for interesting work and the actual possibilities of realising this urge. This, for instance, may be done by enrolling young people for temporary or seasonal work (students going to the farms on vacations) and mobilising them for first-priority projects. The recruitment of youth for farm work, for instance, is conducted as an important assignment of society, and therefore the young people are encouraged to display a maximum of independent action, autonomy and initiative, as the case is in student building detachments.
24To sum up, we may say that the elimination of the above contradiction lies not only in further scientific and technological progress but also in the totality of moral and material incentives, aimed at mobilising youth for work in important fields of the economy.
The Need for Public and Political Activities. Under socialism the spiritual development of youth is determined by its public and political activities and the participation of the younger generation in the management of the affairs of society and state. Addressing the Plenary Meeting of the YCL Central Committee on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the YCL, Leonid Brezhnev said: "The Soviet system gives young people wide possibilities for public activity and for participation in affairs of state. One cannot imagine the work of our Soviets, trade unions and state institutions without the active participation of Komsomol members."^^1^^ The last elections considerably increased the number of young deputies in the local Soviets, the Supreme Soviets of the Union Republics and the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
Many practical sociological studies which have been conducted in this country in the past few years prove that there is an increase in the social and political activity of young people. The poll conducted by the Public Opinion Institute of the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda revealed that the broadest masses of the working people regularly participate in public activity, and youth in this respect is numerically ahead of all the other age groups.
Like the other general features of the Soviet youth of the 1970s, their public activity is a manifestation of the principal laws of socialist development and communist construction in the country. Growing socio-political activity of the youth is stimulated by the evolution of new social relations, the increasing role of the subjective factor under socialism, the extension of socialist democracy, and the growing consciousness of the working masses.
Though the common tendency towards public activity is obvious, and there is a rising demand for interesting work and participation in the affairs of the collective and the _-_-_
~^^1^^ L. I. Brezhnev, Following Lenin's Course, Moscow, 1972, p. 93.
25 society, a considerable number of young people either abstain from public activity or are dissatisfied with it.Naturally enough, the young people, who want their public activity to be rewarding and their assignments, of value to society, and who look for most efficient forms of Komsomol activity, tend to react sharply to formalism and poor organisation of work.
There is a number of factors to show the importance of encouraging the social and political activity among young people.
The so-called process of acceleration (the early intellectual and physiological maturity but late social maturity of young people owing to a longer period of training), which is in evidence in many countries, can lead to a dangerous discord between the developed need for serious public activity and the actual possibilities available for satisfying it. When a young man is deprived of an opportunity to prove his ability to act as a full-fledged citizen and participate in and influence the affairs of the collective, he tends to develop the traits of parasitism and infantilism which may subsequently result in a sceptical and a philistine, consumer attitude to life.
The participation of a young man in the collective's public life affords him an opportunity to express himself as a personality; this is particularly beneficial in cases when the job itself, being unskilled or of little interest, offers no such opportunities.
Finally, today when bourgeois propaganda and revisionists of all hues and shades are viciously attacking socialist democracy, young people clearly understand the fundamental advantages of socialist democracy, which ensures the actual, direct, personal participation of people in management---the advantages which clearly dwarf the false democracy of bourgeois society. Understanding of this fact should be backed up by practical experience. The participation of young people in managing the affairs of a collective, society and state, and the development of inner-Komsomol democracy and various forms of self-government in youth collectives are weighty instruments for stimulating public activity and, still more important, particularly in present-day conditions, for shaping the ideological outlook of young men and women.
26The need to intensify social and public activity has been underscored by the CPSU Central Committee resolution on "The 50th Anniversary of the YCL and the Tasks of Communist Youth Education''. This resolution points out the way and provides big new opportunities for tackling these tasks. The assignment to the Komsomol of important and responsible jobs in all fields of state, economic and cultural development; the instruction to invite Komsomol organisations to the solution of all problems bearing on the life, work and rest of young people; the setting up of youth committees at the Supreme and local Soviets---all these measures are aimed at enhancing the role of the Komsomol in the life of society; they open up before the Komsomol new opportunities for drawing youth into public and political activity and mark an important stage in the further development of socialist democracy and social relations.
The Need for Fruitful Leisure Time. The growing need for fruitful leisure time is a characteristic feature of modern youth.
Analysis of the "time budgets" in socialist and capitalist countries furnishes an interesting comparison between the ways Soviet youth and young people in other countries spend their free time.
This comparison shows that Soviet youth spend their leisure time in a much more meaningful way. They give more time to reading and learning than young people abroad.
Higher educational standards and material security, and more leisure time create realistic prerequisites for the allround development of the young man's personality. Sociologists note the wide cultural interests of Soviet youth, of which books, newspapers, radio, television and cinema are among the most long-standing.
Typically enough, the most popular recreations with young people today are those in which they can fully express their personality and creative talents and which, moreover, contribute to the development of the individual's activity and initiative. These include amateur art, tourism, sports, photography, amateur cinema, music, making collections of various kinds, and other hobbies.
But at the same time an opposite tendency can be observed. The swift development of the mass media, particularly 27 television and cinema, is giving prominence to passive forms of recreation, while inadequate development of amateur clubs, associations and societies provides little scope for the individual's creative talents which often find a spontaneous outlet: common interests often give rise to so-called informal groups or companies which remain beyond the influence of the Komsomol, or of public and state organisations. This has an unfavourable effect on the upbringing of young people, whose leisure time is wasted and its extension does them more harm than good.
This goes to show the importance of solving the twofold problem of satisfying the growing need for fruitful recreation on the one hand, and making recreation more rewarding on the other. To achieve this end it is necessary first of all to improve the work of cultural and educational establishments and mass information media so that they can focus their attention on utilising the individual's active and creative potential. The resolution of the CPSU Central Committee on "The 50th Anniversary of the YCL and the Tasks of Communist Youth Education" instructs "the USSR Ministry of Culture, the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions and the Central Committee of the YCL to take steps so that the work of clubs, Houses of Culture, libraries, parks and other cultural institutions will comply to the greatest possible extent with the growing needs of contemporary youth, contribute to the development of their active interest in the arts, and help to uncover their talents and abilities.''
Apart from improving the structure of various amateur groups, inside their own premises, clubs extend their outside activities. They become centres for encouraging creative interests of young people who live within the sphere of their influence; to this end they arrange competitions, festivals and exhibitions, including competitions for amateur poets, singers and guitarists, festivals of amateur films, exhibitions of engineering achievements, paintings, photographs, handicrafts, collections, etc.
The enrichment of recreation as such will undoubtedly develop a more selective attitude to the huge volume of information which young people have at their disposal. Therefore it is particularly important to guide the reading 28 interests of young people and recommend them the best books, films, radio and television programmes, etc.
Many departments and institutions take care of man's leisure time. In order to co-ordinate and plan their work and pool their funds, it would be expedient to set up committees (councils, headquarters) under district and town Soviets of Working People's Deputies which would be responsible for the recreation of all residents, particularly young people, of the given district or town.
The Need for the Self-Development of the Individual. The high level of education and increasing thirst for knowledge are an important feature of contemporary youth, reflecting the achievements of the socialist society.
In 1927--1928 there were 11,466,000 pupils in primary, seven-year, eight-year and secondary schools compared with 45,385,000 in 1969--1970---a fourfold increase; in schools for adults and worker and farmer youths the figures were 172,000 and 4,041,000 respectively for the given academic years---a 24-fold increase. In 1969 some 564,900 students graduated from the country's higher educational establishments.
The higher level of education has made a considerable impact on the cultural life of young people and is largely responsible for the wide range of their cultural interests and requirements. Soviet scholars note that education is influencing such important aspects of the life of the youth as professional orientation and future plans, the attitude to work, public and political activity, the use they make of mass means of communication, recreation and aesthetic development.
This shows that a proposal to decelerate the tempo of education, as made by some researchers, is unfounded. These recommendations spring from a limited understanding of the problem. True, a higher level of education gives rise to greater material and cultural needs and that, in some cases, can aggravate the contradiction between the needs and the possibility of satisfying them. But if they are correctly understood and timely channelled in the right direction, the contradictions themselves can become a mighty stimulus of social development. In addition, a higher level of education affects all aspects of the life of both society and its individual members. The growth of education is directly tied up 29 with greater public and political activity, enrichment of leisure pursuits, and an effort to improve production by making inventions and finding most rational techniques.
Today the growing social needs we have mentioned above are typical (in different degrees, of course, and in various combinations) of all groups of young people. The objective process of the personality's all-round and harmonious development finds expression in the growing fruitfulness of his working and leisure hours, in his rich spiritual world. These common features, which characterise the cultural life of the present Soviet younger generation, reflect the basic laws of socialism which are bound up with the formation of new, communist social relations (new attitude to work, participation in the management of state and social affairs, and allround development of the individual).
Social and Demographic Youth Groups and Their Distinguishing Features. These needs, which are common to all young people, exhibit themselves specifically for any individual youth group. These groups should become the object of our study if we want to find the practical ways of achieving the common aims in educating the youth as a whole and to establish relative priority for the different tasks involved in bringing up a particular group.
These considerations stress the importance of correctly establishing the signs by which one group is distinguished from another and, consequently, the structure of youth in general as a part of society. In principle, there is no end to such signs, so the leading ones should be pinpointed, which affect the social portrait of the chosen group as a whole, and, on this basis, the principal groups and categories comprising youth can be defined.
From the methodological viewpoint the specific signs of youth groups (social affiliation, age, sex, education, etc.) are not equal in their significance. This allows to single out the principal categories objectively, with due regard for each sign's significance. The materialist conception of social development requires that priority should be given to social and economic characteristics.
The rise of the spiritual needs in the individual is decisively influenced by the social affiliation connected with man's vital activity---labour. In the CPSU Central Committee's 30 Report to the 24th Party Congress, Leonid Brezhnev noted that "the different groups of our young people---young workers, collective farmers, specialists, students and schoolchildren---have their own special features. The Komsomol must be able fro work with each of these groups"^^1^^.
A comparative analysis of the principal features and needs of the various social youth groups reveals the essential differences between them and helps to formulate a series of tasks which should be given priority in the work with one or another category of youth, the central task being the upbringing of the younger generation in the spirit of communist ideology and morality, as well as respect for work at factories, farms and in the fields.
These are some of the important tasks as we see them: education in the spirit of the heroic traditions of the working class; assistance to young people in raising their skills, and making still richer their every leisure hour, and more active participation of factory Komsomol organisations in the drafting and implementation of social development plans which envisage a complex solution of the problems mentioned above.
However, an analysis of the peculiarities of social categories is an insufficient basis for specified, differentiated work with the various youth groups within the categories concerned. Subdivision into groups can be made according to a variety of signs: profession, education, earnings, age, etc., and the leading tendencies should be established.
Proceeding from the determining role of the social division of labour for the inner-class distinctions and from the analysis of experimental studies, we believe that subsequent differentiation shuuld be made on the basis of a worker s skill and the nature of his work in their unity, which implies different levels of incomes, education, cultural requirements and professional training, public activity, fruitful recreation, and needs in general.
Research work indicates that in all cases primary concern should be given to groups with lower qualifications. It is particularly important to open up prospects to young men and women in such groups, providing them with opportunities _-_-_
~^^1^^ 24th Congress of the CPSU, Moscow, 1971, p. 96.
31 for continuing their education, raising their skill or acquiring a new profession.The increased duration of adolescence in modern society (many sociologists believe that it lasts as long as 15 years) results in a greater number of age groups of the younger generation. Specialists, who study youth problems, correctly single out junior and senior age groups among young people.
The comparative age survey of the younger generation reveals that age substantially influences the formation of the individual, and the ways and means of drawing young people into public life. The tasks to be pursued in work with the junior age groups involve preparing them for practical life and work, explaining the existing contradictions, laws and tendencies of social development and helping them to formulate their life plans in accordance with the objective needs of the socialist society and its development.
A comparison between two groups---young men and young women---shows that their basic spiritual values are identical. The differences are insignificant, and they mostly concern the rational nature of the interests of young men and the emotional nature in the case of young women. This, in part, is displayed by the differences in their choice of information sources and the structure of their leisure time. Young men prefer problems of engineering, economics and science, while young women are mostly interested in moral and ethical problems. With the beginning of family life the differences become greater. Women over 23 or 25 have less leisure time, and that, of course, affects in a way their interests.
Group differentiation of youth can be continued further as a means of solving particular problems, but it should not be carried too far in determining the principal directions and forms of work, otherwise specific problems may assume undue importance and overshadow the general picture. The categories and groups must reflect sufficiently well the existing social relations and the actual differences.
It would be well to point out once again the importance of a single approach in determining the structure of youth. Such a single approach makes study of the younger generation more purposeful and ensures an identical interpretation of their problems and comparability of the findings. 32 Subjective definition of categories and groups is, as a rule, of no value in practical work.
Division of youth according to social and class affiliation and also according to sex and age, with definite subordination of each subdivision, gives a picture of the social differences and specific age peculiarities of the youth groups. Sometimes these factors reenforce each other and their combined influence is manifested with particular strength in one or another group, while at times these factors neutralise each other and their influence is hardly felt. If we learn to know how these factors affect the characteristics of the corresponding groups, we can foretell their behaviour in any given situation.
To Educate the Man of Communist Tomorrow. In noting the specific features of the various social and demographic groups of young people, we should repeat once again that the younger generation has a number of general features common to all young people.
These common features, in turn, result from the objective tendency of socialist society towards homogeneity and the elimination of class and social differences.
If we were to analyse the main social needs of youth in their entirety, we would find one essential and unifying feature: the growing desire of man in socialist society to assert his personality, to express himself as builder and active participant in all fields of activity. The rising level of culture and education, which results from socialist relations in society, generates a great thirst for knowledge which, together with work, affords the individual in the socialist society an opportunity to express himself most fully. This stimulates the further development of the social relations and of the individual.
The formation of the man of the communist tomorrow is, naturally, a long process, it depends on the development of productive forces, and the improvement of social relations and ideological education.
It is very important that all people should see today the actual prospects open for the development of the individual and thereby take an active and conscious part in the process.
In helping the young man to understand his place in life and shape his world outlook, it is very important to encourage 33 his desire for knowledge, creative activity, to build up his determination to realise these desires, and to draw him into activities that will help to bring to light his latent talents.
The socialist world outlook enables man to take up an active position in life and to struggle resolutely against smug philistinism and narrow-mindedness, as well as against inert scepticism and nihilism. Some people think that communism is a society of consumers and that it can be built without the active participation of all, without transforming activity on the part of all people in all spheres of life or without constant self-education. It is not enough simply to smash these conceptions theoretically; they must be nullified by training the individual to take up an active position and understand the main direction of his development and role in moulding the man of the communist tomorrow.
Thus, the study of youth's social needs helps us towards a deeper understanding of its essence; this understanding is absolutely necessary for setting concrete tasks in the communist education of youth. As we see it, the forecasting and planning of social needs is the basis of social prognostication and social planning, which if co-ordinated and dovetailed with economic planning, will serve as a reliable foundation for the purposeful upbringing of young people.
The social needs of youth we have examined are not something that belongs exclusively to the younger generation. In as much as they are engendered by socialist social relations, they are typical of the entire Soviet people. At the same time it is important to underline the tendency of these requirements to grow due to the continual progress of the Soviet socialist society, its growing economic might, the rising cultural, educational and material standards, the development of socialist democracy, scientific and technological advance, and growing leisure time. Hence, it is only natural to expect that the operation of these factors will determine the further development of the above-said social needs in every new younger generation.
The growing need for interesting work, public activity, fruitful recreation and for knowledge objectively reflects the laws governing the development of socialist society which provides greater opportunities for the all-round development of the individual. Consequently, regular and purposeful __PRINTERS_P_33_COMMENT__ 3---411 34 ideological and educational work with the aim of developing these needs among youth is both necessary and effective, because it coincides with the basic directions of the development of the individual under socialism.
These needs are important not only in themselves. They characterise man in the principal spheres of his vital activities (work, public and political activity, utilisation of leisure time) and therefore they determine, to a great degree, the entire trend of the individual's development.
But, as we have pointed out, one cannot help seeing the possible and actual contradictions between the needs themselves and the conditions required for their satisfaction. The acuteness of the contradictions depends on the scope of the requirements and the degree to which they are satisfied.
Therefore, in setting specific tasks in youth work, we do not restrict ourselves to studying the demands themselves and the possibilities of satisfying them. We correlate the needs of youth with the needs of the whole society, and the tasks which that society is tackling, and compare the existing needs with the actual conditions and possibilities of satisfying them and with socially necessary requirements. The trends of development, the contradictions and the degree of their acuteness, revealed in the course of such a profound analysis, will help to determine the concrete goals of activities concerned with educating young men and women, raising them in the spirit of communist convictions and developing definite traits in them.
In talking about the formation of definite qualities, it is difficult to say which of them are more important and necessary for man and society. But this is precisely what makes the work of the educator so valuable and responsible. It is his task to single out the principal, important and essential features, which will lead him to the goal set.
Human traits have been evolved during the long historical formation of man as a continually accumulating result of consecutive changes in social relations.
In the antagonistic types of society the individual's traits are centred around two main poles: individualism, which characterises the ruling class, and conformism, which is foisted on the oppressed masses by the whole system and way of life. A fundamentally new type of individual is 35 possible only in a society free from the exploitation of man by man---in socialist and communist society. This individual is above all part of a collective. The formation of a collectivist spirit is an objective requirement of socialist society, which is essential for its development and evolution into communist society.
The individual develops as he cognises the world, his own self and society, and transforms them in the process of his practical activity. This is why industriousness and thirst for knowledge are indispensable for his development.
We have already mentioned this tremendous thirst for knowledge and the vital urge to work. The day-to-day activity of Soviet youth proves that it has been developing in the spirit of collectivism. It is, of course, difficult to measure this spirit, like any quality of man in general, in figures or percentages.
Love for their country, Party and people, and ability to give priority to the collective interests---these are the distinguishing features of Soviet young men and women. It is interesting to note that in their replies to the questionnaire circulated by the YCL Central Committee, young people named as negative qualities extreme individualism (vanity, disrespect for people, careerism) and conformism (servility, cowardice, etc.).
But it should be noted that in the process of development of the individual certain negative tendencies may arise. The demand for interesting work sometimes leads to disrespect for manual labour, a higher level of education and individuality may turn into individualism, and better living standards can breed philistinism. That is why it is vitally necessary to inculcate respect and love for work as such, and oppose manifestations of individualism and philistinism.
The guiding tendency of man's development is his world outlook and knowledge, which become his convictions. These are his most important and, so to speak, definitive characteristics. The very pattern of Soviet youth's spiritual requirements, its moral make-up testifies to the fact that the socialist ideology is woven into the very fabric of the younger generation's life.
Today the world outlook of youth is shaped in specific conditions, which should not be ignored. Young people of 36 today have not been steeled in the class struggle, they do not know the hardships of the first years of building socialism or the trials of the war years. This is why it is so necessary to back knowledge with personal experience, so that the acquired knowledge will turn into convictions.
The formation of the individual---his social requirements, moral qualities, world outlook---is a very complicated, multistage process, influenced by many factors. Consequently, the further scientific study of the individual, its formation, and the education of young people at various stages of their evolution and maturity are acquiring increasing importance.
A person brought up in the spirit of communism devotes himself to people, his individuality is expressed within the collective and for the collective. It is to this end---the acquisition of communist morality---that the relations in the collective should direct the young man, and it is from this viewpoint that his activity in the collective during his formation should be assessed.
[37] __ALPHA_LVL1__ YOUTH: SHOCK DETACHMENTFollowing the triumph of the Great October Revolution, the youth of the first country to establish the dictatorship of the proletariat actively joined in building the new society.
In reply to the appeal of the Communist Party, millions of young men and women went forth to build factories and plants, the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Combine, the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Station, and numerous new towns.
This enthusiasm for labour was most visibly expressed on a mass scale in socialist competition which, in turn, became the most important instrument for encouraging this enthusiasm. "It is only socialism,'' Lenin wrote, "which ... by abolishing the enslavement of the people, for the first time opens the way for competition on a really mass scale.''^^1^^ He pointed out that "far from extinguishing competition, socialism, on the contrary, for the first time creates the opportunity for employing it on a really wide and on a really mass scale".^^2^^
Socialist competition soon assumed a mass scale. The first important milestones in its progress were "shock work'', the Stakhanov movement, labour roll-calls, socialist pledges, and front-line teams during the Great Patriotic War.
The highest form of emulation is the movement to promote a communist attitude to labour, which was initiated in the late 1950s. This movement combines into one the struggle _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 27, p. 259.
~^^2^^ Ibid., Vol. 26, p. 404.
38 for achievement in production with the promotion of a higher ideological, moral and cultural levels.Soviet youth actively participates in all labour movements. Today more than 40 per cent of Soviet young people are engaged in the country's economy. They are particularly numerous in the modern fields of production which require a high level of general and technical education. By the beginning of the Ninth Five-Year Plan, young people accounted for 66 per cent of all chemical workers; 65 per cent of fitters and 70 per cent of turners.
The national economy annually absorbs at least 3 million young workers, collective farmers, specialists and office employees. Naturally enough, the advancement of communism greatly depends on the participation of young people in labour and their cultural, professional, ideological and moral background.
Continuing the glorious traditions of shock teams, the Komsomol organises youth collectives in the most important and difficult sectors of production. These teams initiate socialist competition among young people.
Getting them to serve as patrons over major projects is a means of involving youth in economic issues; it helps to teach them how to carry out responsible assignments.
In the Report of the CC CPSU to the 24th Party Congress Leonid Brezhnev gave a high appraisal of the activity of Soviet youth on the labour front under the leadership of the Leninist Young Communist League. "It would be hard to name a sector of economic and cultural development,'' he said, "where the energy, creative initiative and ardour of Komsomol members have not been displayed. Organisation of Komsomol shock building projects, team contests of skill by young workers, students' building detachments, youth production brigades, and summer work and recreation camps are the concrete and vital tasks being accomplished by the Komsomol, which is the leader of Soviet young people.''^^1^^
During the Eighth Five-Year Plan (1966--1970) young workers made a great contribution to the construction of the material and technical basis of communism.
_-_-_^^1^^ 24th Congress of the CPSU, Moscow, 1971, p. 96.
39The Komsomol organisations sent more than 350,000 young volunteers to the country's most important projects. They built 15 blast and open-hearth furnaces, 13 rolling mills, 20 agglomerate factories and coke batteries, nearly a thousand kilometres of electric transmission lines, 3,000 kilometres of railways and more than 8,000 kilometres of gas and oil mains.
The collectives of the All-Union Komsomol shock projects, such as the Cherepovets Metallurgical Combine, the Krasnoyarsk Hydroelectric Power Station, the Almalyk Chemical Works, and the Khrebtovaya-Ust-Ilim railway, became real schools of advanced methods and communist youth education.
Many interesting movements were born and much initiative shown during the Eighth Five-Year Plan. The young workers of Gorky, for instance, launched a campaign under the slogan "No laggards in our ranks!''. The aim was to give a helping hand to the novices in production who were not sufficiently active in public life, so that they would catch up with the advanced workers, acquire and subsequently raise professional qualification and develop an urge for making innovations in engineering. The results were quick to come. In the very first year the number of workers who failed to fulfil their production quotas in the region's enterprises was reduced by more than a third. The thirst for knowledge grew and many more young workers joined evening classes. Thousands of them enrolled in schools of advanced methods and learned new professions.
The young workers of the Dynamo Plant in Moscow initiated a movement for personal plans of higher labour productivity. Soon the movement spread to other enterprises. On the eve of the 24th Party Congress the young workers of the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Combine sponsored a new movement---emulation contracts between advanced and lagging teams. "Catch up with us!" was the slogan.
The emulation of Komsomol-youth collectives assumed a particularly mass scale on the eve of Lenin's centenary. A good illustration of this was the work of the Komsomolyouth collectives in the Tushino District of Moscow.
There are nearly 300 youth collectives in the district. The Komsomol-youth team led by Victor Nikitin (Krasny Oktyabr 40 Plant) regularly fulfilled its assignments by an average of some 161 per cent. The quality of work was excellent. The team assumed patronage over novices who soon started to overfulfil production quotas as well. In 1969 five novices were helped to acquire qualifications in this way. Each of the team-members learned to handle two or three operations. The workers in the team were awarded the titles "Master of Quality" and "Shock Worker of Communist Labour''.
In the same year 875 young men and women in the plant competed for the title "Champion Young Lathe-Operator''. Courses of technical training were opened in all shops, young workers learned advanced methods of work, and, as a result, their labour productivity went up by 20 to 25 per cent.
Young people in the district competed for the title "Master of Quality''. The YCLers of the No. 1 Dye-and-finishing Factory pledged themselves to acquire two or three related professions.
The initiative of Maria Ivannikova, a weaver at the Frunze Textile Mill in Moscow, who called upon her comrades to save enough raw materials to supply the production needs through the whole of April 22, 1970 (Lenin's centenary), was widely supported by other factories. Her example was followed by the young workers. The YCLers of the No. 1 Wool-Spinning Mill undertook to save enough raw material for four days' work.
These are just a few examples. The past five-year-plan period stimulated many movements among young people, both at industrial enterprises, and in the countryside. Advanced Komsomol-youth teams of tractor drivers and machine operators competed for bumper harvests, higher cattle productivity and so on.
The YCLers and young people of the Zavety Ilyicha collective farm (Obukhovsky district, Kiev Region) were among the initiators of the emulation.
The team led by Maria Kuryan had always produced good yields of sugar beet, but they knew that in the neighbouring district the team led by Hero of Socialist Labour M. Lysenko had much better results, though the soil was almost of the same quality. When the subject was touched on during a lecture at an agricultural university for young people Maria decided to challenge the famous team.
41The story was printed in the local newspaper, and it stirred all the young beet-growers in the district. They spent the winter attending agricultural courses and went for consultations with twice Hero of Socialist Labour Olga Diptan. Now their sugar beet harvests are increasing from year to year.
Today all the teams are mechanised and so they have doubled the size of their fields to a total of 70 hectares. Manual labour has been reduced to a minimum.
Young cattle-breeders also joined the movement. Nadya Gavrilets, the secretary of the farm's Komsomol organisation, said: "Our girls decided to get 4,000 litres of milk from each cow!" At first the news astounded some people because even the best collective farms could only manage half this figure. Some thought that the milkmaids were boasting, but Nadya said: ``Don't you worry, Lesya herself promised to come to our aid.''
A few words should be said about Lesya. She left home to join a partisan detachment while still a girl, came through the Great Patriotic War with honour, and when peace came, graduated from an institute and soon became a school-mistress. Then she was elected chairman of the collective farm.
Lesya encouraged the milkmaids. Nadya Gavrilets and her friends spent many long days in the dairy farm before they finally won through. They are now getting 4,000 litres of milk from each cow, while Maria Sutkovaya and Sofia Yermak get even more than that.^^1^^
Thanks to their own knowledge and industriousness young people are managing to achieve good results in the fields and on the farms.
What is the source of this million-fold enthusiasm?
The material factor, of course, plays a certain (and quite important) role. It is well known that under socialism material benefits are distributed according to the amount of labour done: the more and the better the work, the greater the remuneration. This principle of socialism is the fairest one possible in the given social and economic conditions and stimulates people to raise their labour productivity. _-_-_
^^1^^ Komsomolskaya Pravda, June 19, 1970.
42 Consequently, a man's readiness to improve his well-being by greater personal contribution to the common cause is a natural inclination and not "petty bourgeois economism'', as some Left-sectarian falsifiers would have us believe.The desire to improve one's personal well-being is not the only motivation; and it has been proved in practice that it is neither the only nor the principal motive behind the urge to work exhibited by Soviet youth. Nor does the Soviet citizen's personal interest in the results of his work amount merely to egoistic indifference towards everything that bears no relation to material remuneration.
Economic incentives in socialist production imply both material and moral remuneration. But this is not all. Everyday life can provide us with plenty of facts which convincingly prove that the ideological conviction and the political consciousness of the Soviet people are the major source of labour enthusiasm. A vivid manifestation of this are the Communist subbotniks which, on the initiative of the working people themselves, are now held every year.
Sociological research has proved that working people--- particularly young men---are prompted mainly by ideological and moral motives. According to one survey the "most important" motives were, first and foremost, opportunities for constant self-improvement (given by 88 per cent of young people questioned), the opportunity for creative activity (53.5 per cent) and the chance to contribute to the national economy (48.9 per cent); only 28.8 per cent mentioned good pay as a motive for work, and 8.8 per cent career prospects. It is interesting to note that only 20.9 per cent said that guarantees of a secure future were of great importance to them. This is easily understandable, because the Soviet young man is usually confident of the morrow.
The new, communist attitude to work is developing and growing stronger under the influence of the socialist way of life and the collectives in which the Soviet citizen is raised from childhood. This new attitude to work and full comprehension of its great social significance were strikingly revealed by weaver A. V. Smirnova when she addressed the 24th Congress of the CPSU: "Today the Soviet worker,'' she said, "is the real master of the land, he is the creator of all values. .. . He regards work not only as a source of 43 earnings, but also as a mighty link binding him to a sacred communion of fellow-workers, who are engaged in creating the fairest social system in the world.''
__ALPHA_LVL2__ THE FRONT-LINE OF THE NEW FIVE-YEAR PLANThe decisions of the 24th Congress of the CPSU generated a new wave of enthusiasm among Soviet youth. Here are some of the statements by young workers which Komsomolskaya Pravda printed during and after the Congress.
K. Strokan, secretary of the Komsomol organisation of the Kiev Aircraft Plant: "Today, when the 24th Congress of the CPSU is in session in Moscow, the young aircraft builders are working with great enthusiasm. They are overfulfilling their shift quotas by 50 to 100 per cent. . .. All our YCLers and all young workers are now busy drawing up personal plans for the Ninth Five-Year Plan. These plans include ways of raising labour productivity and introducing innovations. True to their traditions, the Kiev aircraft builders will spare no efforts and knowledge to implement the Party's grand plans.''
N. Rebenok, team leader of the Avangard collective farm (Chernigov Region): "We decided to get a much better harvest than in previous years. We have been called upon to do so by the new five-year plan which is being discussed at the Party Congress.''
L. Papakina, deputy secretary of the Komsomol committee of the Yakovlev Flax Mill, Ivanovo Region: "We are all convinced that the tasks in front of us will be fulfilled. Today we are taking stock of our potentialities. The emulation which we started on the eve of the Congress revealed great possibilities. Six groups of YCLers succeeded in achieving a very high level of output, utilising their latent reserves to a maximum. The YCL group of Olga Aksenova has decided to fulfil the five-year plan in four years. I am certain that their example will be followed by many other groups.''
The facts of everyday life prove that young workers, collective farmers, specialists and scientists are unanimous in their decision to work efficiently and creatively during the new five-year plan and to raise their professional skill 44 so as to fulfil with honour the complex tasks of the Ninth Five-Year Plan. The collectives of industrial enterprises and construction sites widely support the slogan "5 in 4!" advanced by young workers of Leningrad. The slogan calls upon all young workers to fulfil the five-day production quota in 4 days. Young workers elsewhere add their own suggestions to the slogan. At the Arsenal Plant in Kiev the first to join the movement were the plant's veterans, Heroes of Socialist Labour A. Dovchenko and V. Filippov. Their example was followed by many young workers in Kiev, who initiated a movement "Catch up with the heroes!" As a result, more than 83,000 young workers in Kiev fulfilled the assignment for the first year ahead of schedule.
The YCLers of Kazakhstan launched the "Kazakh Hour" movement---the obligation to fulfil the day's quota one hour ahead of schedule. The YCLers and young workers of Krasnoyarsk announced a competition for Komsomol organisations under the motto: "Maximum labour productivity from everyone.'' The competition will last the full course of the five-year period. More than 200,000 young workers, collective farmers, specialists and scientists committed themselves to personal plans for raising labour productivity and fixed economically substantiated targets for each year. At the end of the first six months some 36,000 young workers in Krasnoyarsk achieved the highest production results in their collectives.
The Komsomol-youth collectives are competing to smelt the 150-millionth ton of steel, extract the 500-millionth ton of oil and increase output in the other branches of heavy industry.
Let us examine in greater detail how the young workers in the Kharkov Turbine Plant carry out the tasks set by the Party.
Half the workers in the plant are under 30. The fiveyear plan envisages a 6 percent increase in labour productivity. The workers decided to make it 7 per cent. When it comes to the production of modern gigantic turbines, this extra per cent means a tremendous saving not only of fuel and money but also measured in terms of the strain and efforts required of the entire collective. The battle for the "Kharkov per cent" became the target of all young workers 45 at the plant. These efforts have a tremendous influence on the formation of each young worker's personality.
Valya Pogorelova, a milling-machine operator from the 3rd turbine shop, has been working for the past seven years on turbine blades. She polishes them half as quickly again as envisaged by the norm. She is so slim that one wonders where she gets all the strength.
Valya and her work-fellows keep record of the amount of production materials they save in order to calculate, compare and analyse the cost of each case of absenteeism or each damaged tool and understand the mechanism of economy at the big modern plant. The battle for the "per cent" required that each worker should have a good understanding of his place and role in the collective. In this they are greatly assisted by the Party organisation, the administration, the local trade union committee and the plant's YCL committee.
The "Kharkov per cent" posed many problems for the turbine-builders. One of them---that of skill---directly concerns young workers. The 3rd turbine shop, for instance, installed new automatic lathes. Soon the operators learned to produce as many parts on three lathes as they formerly did on five lathes. It is not easy for novices to master the automatic lathes, so it was necessary to help them to "get into the rhythm''.
Experienced workers began to sign "friendship agreements" with their younger counterparts. Valya Pogorelova, for instance, volunteered to help a few young men from her shop. She and the other experienced workers share their know-how, attract young people to Komsomol work, and look after their general needs.
Agricultural workers are also displaying greater initiative. Following the example of the advanced farmers in the Kuban and Stavropol Territory, they launched a campaign for high rates and quality in harvesting. In 1971, nearly 40,000 Komsomol-youth detachments and teams of machine-- operators took part in the drive for efficient farming methods. This campaign is an excellent school of efficiency, knowledge and grain-growing know-how for thousands of young men and women.
The manifold activities of young people aimed at speedily implementing the decisions of the 24th Congress of the 46 CPSU have found general expression in a patriotic campaign under the slogan "Shock work, efficiency and initiative!''. This youth movement, which continues the glorious traditions of the Stakhanov movement, and the Komsomol shock construction sites, is now widespread.
The movement is designed not only to boost labour efforts. It pursues many other important goals. The aim is at least to mobilise reserves which are as yet dormant because of inefficient management, and utilise them for the benefit of society.
Following Lenin's behests and the Party's instructions, the Komsomol combines organisational work aimed at more active participation of youth in labour with educating it in the spirit of care for national property.
Initiative is closely interlinked with the struggle to accelerate scientific and technological progress. The efficiency of young workers requires that the technical base of production be improved and the quality of the more intricate production items be raised on the basis of constantly rising workers' qualification.
__ALPHA_LVL2__ YOUTH AND SCIENTIFICSoviet youth and the Komsomol link their activities with the struggle for greater scientific and technological progress and higher labour efficiency and production standards.
Young workers, collective farmers and specialists willingly join the struggle because under socialism its outcome corresponds to the interests of both society as a whole, and each worker individually. Scientific and technological progress eases the burden of labour, makes it more interesting, and raises the skill, and cultural and technical level of workers. There is nothing of the kind in capitalist society where the application of the latest achievements in science and engineering only swells the army of the unemployed.
Numerous sociological investigations in the Soviet Union have proved that the interest of young people in their work largely depends on the scope for creative initiative and opportunities for professional advancement it offers. The older the worker, the less he is dissatisfied with the 47 insufficiently high intellectual level of his work. Young people are usually more dissatisfied with uninteresting work. They want work with creative opportunities.
Automation, which makes work easier and reduces its monotony, affords man unrestricted opportunities for free and creative activity. This tendency is expressed in the disappearing contrast between work-time and leisure, and in the increasing leisure time which Marx regarded as a condition for the harmonious all-round development of the individual so that each could really contribute to the society "according to his ability''. The direct impact of the machine on man is exhibited in the considerable transformation that has taken place in the nature of work. Mechanical and monotonous operations are giving way to ones that require independent decisions and a growing stock of scientific and engineering knowledge.
Automation breaks the centuries-old chain which bound man and machine into a single work mechanism. As distinct from manual labour, in which the tool was the only means of subduing nature and as distinct from machine production, where a technical device as mighty as the machine stood between man and nature, automatised production includes a fundamentally important link like the cybernetic device. In its most advanced form automation affords man the maximum of technological freedom. As a result man is no longer tied to his lathe, or technological process.
Having emancipated his hands, energy and thoughts from the task of compensating the machine, man gains immeasurably more time and opportunities for developing his abilities and talents.
According to many research results, the advancing automation of production is accompanied by a huge growth in the proportion of mental work and an increasing number of problems requiring a creative approach.
The 24th Congress of the CPSU made an important contribution to the development of the scientific and technological revolution. Its decisions not only map out the road for intensive scientific and technological progress in general, but also indicate the changes which concern all aspects of material production and all elements of the productive forces.
48The Directives on the Five-Year Economic Development Plan for 1971--1975 envisage the designing and introduction of radically new tools and machine systems for the complex mechanisation and automation of the most vital production processes; they also envisage high output rates of automatic equipment with programme-digital control. In 1971 the output of programme-controlled lathes was increased by 50 per cent to a total of 2,500 units. They produce as much as 7,500 conventional lathes operated by 12,000 workers. By the end of 1975 the output of programme-controlled lathes will be increased by at least 250 per cent.
It is planned to start the production of machines and complex systems of automatic control over the technological processes in the metallurgical, chemical, oil-refining, oil, gas and coal industries and to devise automated lines for the building-material, light and food industries.
The 24th Congress of the CPSU set important tasks in the automation of the registration, collection, storage, transmission and processing of information, designing of complex technical means for a single nation-wide automated system of communication, broad introduction of economic and mathematical methods, employment of electronic computers and organisational techniques and means of communication in management and national economic planning. It is planned to step up the designing and the introduction of automated systems of planning and managing industrial branches, territorial organisations, amalgamations, and enterprises with a view to setting up in the future a national automated system of collecting and processing information.
The General Secretary of the CC CPSU Leonid Brezhnev said that the complex of branches creating the technical base for the automation of production and management were catalysts of scientific and technological progress. These branches include electronics, radio engineering and instrument-making. The Directives of the 24th Congress of the CPSU set them priority rates of development.
It is planned, in particular, to increase the production of instruments by 100 per cent, computers, by 140 per cent, and electronic computers, by 160 per cent, to expand the industrial output of modern instruments, apparatus and laboratory equipment for research work, as well as the means 49 of mechanising and automating administrative and engineering work.
The Congress set the task of introducing progressive, particularly non-stop, technological processes on a wide scale speeding up the development and industrial introduction of new processes in chemical technology and also processes based on electronics. New capacities must employ only modern technology. Measures are envisaged to develop and manufacture new and more economical materials, including polymers and extra-pure materials.
The Party's 24th Congress also mapped out a large-scale programme for developing of science, expanding fundamental and applied research work, and speedily introducing their results into the national economy. The Congress posed a problem of historical importance---that of amalgamating and integrating the achievements of the scientific and technological revolution with the advantages of the socialist system of economy, and of developing socialist forms of combining science and production.
The 24th Congress noted that "the revolution in the development of productive forces, touched off by science and its discoveries, will become increasingly significant and profound".^^1^^ This is why the full-scale programme of social and economic transformations on the basis of the achievements of the scientific and technological revolution, adopted by the Congress, outsteps in importance the margins of a single five-year period. It serves as the foundation for the Party's long-term plans.
The success of this programme greatly depends on the readiness of the working masses for these changes in the country's economy, particularly on the readiness of young people who are now receiving general and professional training.
This is why young people are actively joining the struggle to accelerate scientific and technological progress. The aims and directions of the work involved are as follows:~
---to master the achievements of modern science and engineering and introduce them into production;~
_-_-_~^^1^^ 24th Congress of the CPSU, Moscow, 197J, p. 69.
__PRINTERS_P_49_COMMENT__ 4---411 50---to ensure the introduction of scientific methods of work in production and raise the efficiency of production;~
---to encourage innovations in engineering;~
---to raise the level of production skill.
For this purpose the YCLers and young people of the Uralmash Plant in Sverdlovsk launched a campaign under the slogan "Scientific and engineering knowledge for all!'', the young workers of the Likhachev Car Plant in Moscow adopted the slogan "Learn, devise and introduce innovations!''
Young people with special scientific and engineering training, and young scientists and specialists play a particularly significant role in the struggle for scientific and technological progress. They actively participate in designing and introducing progressive types of machines and technologies. Young scientists and specialists in the Ukraine have started a movement under the slogan "Cybernetics in overalls'', stressing the need to introduce the achievements of cybernetics into production as quickly as possible.
Several years ago the Research Institute of Heating Devices in Moscow started a socialist competition under the slogan "Personal research subjects for all young scientists''. The young scientists made specific pledges: to master related subjects, methods and methodology of calculations, design new devices, etc.
The young workers of Mine No. 22 in Karaganda Region, true to their slogan "No to manual work!" began to introduce means of mechanising ancillary processes. The Komsomol committee, assisted by the Party committee and the administration, compiled a map of bottle-necks in the field of ancillary mechanisation and examined how the suggestions made by workers and specialists were realised in practice. Within a month they relieved 30 miners of manual work. There are 70 headquarters and sponsoring groups for the introduction of this kind of mechanisation in mines, industrial enterprises, research institutions and higher educational establishments of Karaganda.
Young workers, as well as young scientists and specialists, also take part in the struggle for scientific and technological progress. In the first place they raise the level of their scientific and engineering knowledge and take part in 51 mechanising and organising production processes on scientific principles.
Much is being done to encourage the interest of various categories of young people in scientific and engineering innovations. Scientific and engineering societies in the country have a membership of more than a million young men and women, and over 950,000 young workers are members of the society of inventors and innovators. There are nearly 90,000 public design bureaus and groups of economic analysis and more than 100,000 creative teams which involve hundreds of thousands of young men and women. Reviews and exhibitions of youth engineering achievements and theoretical scientific conferences are held regularly. The first national review of youth engineering achievements involved only 2 million young men and women, compared with 7 million who took part in the review held in 1970. Nearly 7,000 young innovators were awarded USSR Economic Achievement Exhibition medals, and 15,000 won diplomas and medals of the Central Exhibition.
The reviews of youth engineering achievements are arranged in order to develop a mass youth movement to conquer the peaks of science and engineering and to help young people acquire information on the latest achievements, to introduce into production the best works of young innovators, to imbue young people with an urge for interesting work and to raise their cultural, engineering and professional level.
During the 3rd review, for instance, young people in Moscow developed and put into effect more than 2,500 innovation proposals outside the range of the plan.
Young scientists at the Research Institute of Chemical Engineering designed and supervised the manufacture of equipment for two technological lines for the Uvarovo Chemical Combine. The work was completed two months ahead of schedule, and the state saved 2.3 million rubles.
The reviews stimulated the work of public design bureaus. The main goals of public design bureaus are to offer engineering aid to inventors and innovators, investigate the urgent problems of production, patronage, introduce new subjects, and encourage the creative initiative of young 52 scientists and specialists. During the review, the public design bureaus produced some 1,000 projects.
There are many detachments of engineering innovations, schools of young innovators, urban and district exhibitions of youth engineering achievements. Scientific and engineering conferences of young workers and specialists are held regularly.
Much is being done to create and expand the material and technical base for scientific and engineering innovations and to organise engineering circles and clubs in research institutions, enterprises, houses of culture and residential areas.
The current scientific and technological revolution insistently demands that young people constantly raise the level of their scientific and engineering knowledge.
The demand for research and engineering personnel, as well as for highly qualified specialists in all branches of economy and management is growing. Their proportion in the total number of working people is rising.
Between 1960 and 1969 the country's population increased by 12 per cent and the number of workers and office employees in the national economy, by 41.5 per cent. During the same period, however, the number of specialists with higher education increased by 83.2 per cent, engineers, by 111.9 per cent, research workers, by 149.2 per cent, and research workers in engineering, by 202.0 per cent, an increase of more than threefold. Between 1959 and 1969 the number of unskilled workers was considerably reduced, while the number of laboratory assistants, machine-operators, controlboard operators, and adjusters of automatic machines and lathes more than doubled.
The country's progress in education and training of personnel is generally known. The foundation for this progress was laid during the early years of the Soviet Republic. Today there is a grand total of over 79 million students, i.e., one out of every three inhabitants in the country is studying.
Between 1966 and 1970 more than 7 million specialists graduated from higher and secondary technical schools, including more than 1 million engineers, 270,000 economists, over 200,000 agricultural specialists, about 200,000 doctors, 53 670,000 teachers and workers of cultural and educational institutions; some 200,000 young men and women graduated from universities. The training of specialists for new and advanced fields of science and the economy has been particularly stepped up. In recent years the number of specialists trained for electronic techniques and electrical instrumentmaking has grown by 150 per cent, while the respective figure for radio-engineering is 100 per cent.
The training of research workers has assumed a really gigantic scale. There are nearly 100,000 post-graduate students, half of whom are attending regular day courses.
The number of young people among scientists and engineers is constantly rising. As of June 1, 1967, some 56 per cent of all scientists were under 30. As of November 15, 1966, some 32.3 per cent of specialists with higher and special secondary education were under 30, while 52 per cent were under 34.
Even in the USSR Academy of Sciences institutions where the "intellectual entry fee" is very high, the number of research workers under 25 increased by more than 50 per cent in the period between 1965 and 1969, and the number of candidates of sciences under 30, by nearly 40 per cent.
The scientific and technological revolution has radically changed the conception of training people in the so-called mass professions. It also changes our views as to which professions are to be regarded as mass professions.
The first question implies that whereas formerly a man in the mass profession category was one with elementary education and experience, now he is a specialist with special secondary, secondary or higher education. In the current five-year period the ranks of mass professions will be replenished by nearly 30 million young people.
The main point behind the second question is that scientific work is swiftly becoming a mass profession alongside those of teaching (which has more than 3.3 million in its ranks) and medicine (nearly 2.7 million). There are now more than 900,000 scientists in the country. Along with engineers and auxiliary research staff this brings the total research personnel to more than 3 million.
The employment rates in science are 3 or 4 times higher than in other fields of the economy, and they are continuing 54 to increase. Even if the present level is to be retained, then, according to Soviet sociologists, by 1980 the number of research workers may reach 3.2 million and a total of 6.3 million if engineers and auxiliary staff are included. That will account for more than 6 per cent of the total number of people employed in the national economy.
It is quite natural that the proportion of those employed in science and auxiliary services should grow at the expense of the other fields of the economy, i.e., the distribution of young specialists from institutes is considerably to change. What demands does this place on young people and the entire system of education?
First of all, complete continuity in science is ensured by training more full-fledged researchers. The rapid increase in the number of those employed in science is accompanied by a decrease in the number of highly qualified scientists amongst research workers as a whole. The average age of scientists with medium and high qualifications is rather high.
Therefore, the present rates of scientific development already demand the regular promotion of young scientists capable of assuming full responsibility for scientific progress. The scientific and technological revolution requires that young people master the versatile and dynamic process of modern education and develop, as far as possible, the ability for quick creative thinking.
Substantial changes are taking place in the training of young workers. The traditional method of training workers consisted of an apprenticeship on the production floor, acquiring skill from experienced workers. This is being replaced by another method: training in special vocational schools where young people, besides acquiring practical skill, master the elements of theoretical knowledge. During 1965-- 70 vocational schools trained over seven million qualified workers for all branches of national economy, or 50 per cent more than during the preceding period. Today there are more than 5,350 vocational schools in the country where 2.4 million young men and women are preparing to join the ranks of the working class. This is a record peak in the history of the Soviet vocational schools.
The Directives of the 24th Party Congress envisage stepped-up training of young workers in vocational schools. 55 The task is to train at least 9 million qualified specialists during the current five-year period.
Universal secondary education for young people is, of course, an essential requirement for technological progress. Complex mechanisation is changing the nature of the work done by the bulk of qualified workers. Muscular strength and manual skill are giving way to intellectual activity.
The transformation of science into a direct productive force turns mathematics, physics, chemistry and, in some cases biology, into important qualification requirements for workers in many modern professions, and they have to apply their knowledge of these sciences in practical work.
The resolution of the 24th Congress of the CPSU states that the network of vocational schools providing secondary education must be expanded. Today their number has been increased to 660, and they are being attended by nearly 200,000 young men and women.
The experience of secondary vocational schools has proved that the general education helps the students to raise professional skill. Here are some figures: the labour productivity of graduates from the secondary vocational school No. 36 (the Ukraine) is 5.2 per cent higher than that of graduates from ordinary vocational schools, and 15 per cent higher than that of workers trained directly in enterprises. In the Znamya Kommunizma mine three out of every eight innovation proposals are made by graduates from that school. In three years of work in mine No. 4 the average level of their pay went up by 27 per cent, compared with only 7.5 per cent in the case of all other miners.
There is no doubt that vocational schools providing secondary education will become one of the principal ways of educating young people. More than 1,240,000 people are to be admitted to them in the course of the current fiveyear period. By 1975 the number of students in secondary vocational schools will account for at least a third of the total number of students in all day vocational schools.
The expansion of the vocational school system is accompanied by the improvement of professional training of young people directly at enterprises.
Scientific and technological progress is also changing the work of young people in the countryside.
56Addressing the 16th Congress of the Leninist Young Communist League, Leonid Brezhnev said: "Our agriculture is an important field of activity for the young enthusiasts of scientific and technological progress. The solution of the major tasks which the Party set before agriculture can be undertaken only by people technically educated and qualified, people who love the land and love to work on it. We note with satisfaction that the Komsomol has actively responded to the Party's appeal to help young farming people in mastering engineering professions which are in such sharp demand in the countryside.''^^1^^
The efforts of rural youth in the struggle for scientific and technological progress are primarily directed at higher efficiency of agriculture and cattle-breeding on the basis of scientific achievements, accelerated mechanisation of production processes, and mastery of engineering professions by the masses of young people in the countryside.
In 1969 the Komsomol youth of dairy farms launched an all-Union competition for higher production efficiency. Young people actively participate in the mechanisation of dairy farms and introduction of progressive methods of work in stock-breeding, help in the construction of premises for cattle, and come up with interesting proposals. On the eve of Lenin's centenary (April 1970), for instance, the YCLers and young people of the Lipetsk Region launched a twoyear campaign for the introduction of machine-milking. After the campaign had been successfully completed, they started to mechanise other difficult processes. Their initiative has been widely supported elsewhere.
Much attention is being paid to the training of rural youth in engineering professions. Many districts have set up special headquarters and committees which study the needs of collective and state farms in mass professions jointly with argicultural and other interested organisations and departments, draw up training plans for young people, and supervise the universal technical education of young men and women. Many regions and republics announced competitions between Komsomol organisations in the technical training of rural youth, with prizes for the winners.
_-_-_~^^1^^ 16th Congress of the Leninist Young Communist League, Shorthand Record, p. 23 (in Russian).
57In 1970 more than 950,000 village young people mastered technical professions, and thousands upon thousands of them are working as tractor and lorry drivers. Last year the number of machine-operators in collective and state farms went up by 86,000 against a rise of 26,000 in 1969. More than half a million machine-operators graduated to higherclass categories.
Many Komsomol organisations attract young women to technical professions, form women tractor teams, and help improving the working and living conditions for women machine-operators. In 1970 these courses of technical knowledge were attended by over 60,000 women---four times more than in 1969. The number of young women attending rural vocational schools increased from 4 per cent in 1966 to 9 per cent in 1970.
Several years ago the Komsomol organisations of Uzbekistan and the other cotton-growing republics undertook to promote the introduction of complex mechanisation in cotton plantations. They are doing a great deal to train young people in rural areas as machine-operators. In Uzbekistan, for instance, nearly 100,000 young men and women have qualified as machine-operators in the course of the past five years. In 1961 there were only 300 fullymechanised Komsomol-youth collectives working in the cotton fields; now there are more than 4,000.
Thus, the scientific and technological revolution augments the wonderful advantages socialism has brought to the labour process and thanks to which more and more young people are beginning to see the principal goal of life and understand the principal joy of free creative labour. Work is becoming more interesting and offering greater opportunities for creative talents. Simultaneously, it is putting greater demands on the worker, and his knowledge and skill. The expenses involved in educating, training and raising the skill of workers are paid in full by the socialist state.
__ALPHA_LVL2__ TRAINING THE RISING GENERATION FOR WORKThere are undeniable facts to substantiate the great role being played by Soviet youth on the labour front. This is a logical consequence of the socialist system. Free labour, 58 which unites the interests of society and the individual, is the cardinal prerequisite for a full-blooded human life and the principal arena of a man's creative efforts. The young man, embarking upon independent life, finds himself in a social and psychological atmosphere in which people assess a person by his industriousness and success in work. Therefore, it is only natural that the young man should assert himself primarily in the sphere of production and work.
Does this mean, however, that socialist conditions exert an automatic influence? Does it mean that in every case these circumstances automatically help the young man embarking upon independent life to understand the lofty social and moral value of labour for the benefit of society and, consequently, make him willing to work efficiently to the best of his abilities? No, this process is neither simple nor automatic.
This is why the Communist Party, guiding the building of socialism and communism, has, in compliance with Lenin's instructions, always considered that one of its principal tasks is to conduct comprehensive educational work among the masses, particularly among youth. One of the most important aspects of this work is the bringing people up from early childhood in the spirit of the communist attitude to labour.
Lenin said that such education should be based above all on conscientious and disciplined work. He pointed out that "only by working side by side with the workers and peasants can one become a genuine Communist".^^1^^
In the Soviet Union the process of developing a love for work begins in childhood. After joining the Leninist Young Pioneer Organisation, schoolchildren are taught socially useful work. Naturally, the work they do, the time and energy they spend and the "production results" they achieve cannot be compared with what awaits them after they graduate from school and begin independent life. The aim is rather to help the little man to understand the joy of work, to see what he can do with his own hands for himself and, simultaneously, for his people and his country.
Usually the work done by young pioneers and _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 31, p. 298.
59 schoolchildren directly supplements their lessons. Many schools have their own fields where the pupils stage agrotechnical experiments. There are numerous other spheres as well where schoolchildren can apply their efforts and sense the joy of work: school shops, gardens and parks. Pioneers join "school forestries" and take care of forests, collect scrap metal, paper, medicinal herbs, wild fruit and berries. These small deeds acquire great significance if one remembers that they are conducted on a mass scale. Millions of children thus gain initial labour orientation and training.With students the process takes a different form. Student builders' detachments are recruited from volunteers who agree to spend part of the summer vacations working at industrial enterprises or on farms. In 1969--71 nearly 700,000 students worked in such detachments. In three years they completed construction projects to the sum of over 1,000 million rubles.
Students in builders' detachments are, naturally, paid for their work, but this is not what prompts them to sacrifice part of the vacations. The sociologists of the Urals Polytechnical Institute and Leningrad University who investigated the motives why students join the builders' detachments found that they wanted to be useful to society, to test their abilities in practical work and acquire the habits of working in a collective, which, as they correctly pointed out, all specialists should do. Moreover, they were attracted by the friendly atmosphere in the student detachments. In their answers to the questionnaires, the students said that work in the detachments encourages initiative, independence, fosters a feeling of responsibility, etc.
So, as we have said, various categories of student youth are involved in diverse forms of socially useful activities which prepare them for independent work in the future.
Thus, general labour orientation is supplemented by the formation of interest in definite forms of labour and this is precisely the goal pursued by schools and other organisations.
Several years ago the Palace of Young Pioneers and Schoolchildren in Irkutsk inaugurated the Znaniye ( knowledge) society in which specialists lecture to schoolchildren, arrange practical work and inform them about the exact 60 nature of some of the professions. There are more than 20 sections with a total attendance of nearly 1,500. Children can freely pass from section to section until they find the subject that interests them most. When the time comes for school-leaving examinations, most members of the Znaniye society have already worked out definite plans for the future.
In the geological section the lectures by prominent geologists and geochemists are supplemented by practical lessons in mines and pits, mineralogical museums, the local research institute, as well as by summer practicals in geological parties and expeditions.
The medical section trains the children to be doctor's assistants or nurses. During the three-year course they learn how to render first aid and take care of patients, they stay on duty in first-aid stations, and doctors take them to see patients being treated in polyclinics.
By attending all these lectures and doing practical work in laboratories, clinics and geological expeditions, the children acquire knowledge and, more important still, love for the chosen profession. They come to know the routine work in the professions which appeal to them and acquire the necessary skill.
It is particularly important to develop interest in the mass professions associated with industry and agriculture. Sometimes young men and women who are about to set out on independent life are quite prepared, on the whole, to work for the benefit of society, and are even eager to do so. Yet this eagerness tends to be limited to professions like nuclear physics, aviation, etc., rather than mass professions like lathe-operating, building, farming and servicing.
It is necessary therefore to emphasise the social usefulness of all professions even apparently ``uninteresting'' ones.
Speaking on the subject at the 24th Congress of the CPSU, Leonid Brezhnev stressed the importance of "correct and timely vocational orientation of young men and women, and education of the rising generation in a spirit of profound respect for work at factories, on farms and in the fields".^^1^^
This work is done, first and foremost, by schools and cultural and educational institutions.
_-_-_~^^1^^ 24th Congress of the CPSU, Moscow, 1971, p. 96.
61Three years ago school No.~19 in Cherepovets opened a vocational orientation club. The club's work is planned by the children themselves. Its sessions, which are attended by no less than a hundred members, are devoted to meetings with representatives of diverse professions and graduates. The club arranges excursions to enterprises and educational institutions. In the beginning, membership was limited to pupils of the 8th, 9th and 10th classes, but then it became clear that the work could not be restricted to the seniors. Now the club acquaints younger children with the wonders of engineering and arranges get-togethers of young pioneers which are devoted to the professions of their parents, and the general glorification of labour. Similar work is conducted in other schools in the town.
All the libraries in Cherepovets compiled special card indexes of literature which help the juveniles to select vocations. The libraries arrange book exhibitions, lectures and joint get-togethers with schools devoted to the question of choosing a vocation.
The professional orientation of teenagers becomes effective when the production collectives, which have a genuine reason to be interested in the training of the rising generation, join in.
In Cherepovets, for instance, this work in school No. 13 is done by the workers of the neighbouring plywood-- andfurniture factory. The workers, whose children study in the school or some of whom have themselves graduated from it, often meet with the schoolchildren and tell them about the professions in the factory. The factory has opened vocational courses for the pupils.
The experiment at the Kharkov Tractor Plant won recognition throughout the country. The workers there opened a special training shop where schoolchildren learn dozens of vocations. Moreover, the plant has set up production training sectors, engineering class-rooms and laboratories. All of them comply with modern engineering requirements and utilise the latest achievements in engineering, technology and labour organisation in industrial enterprises. In ten years the training shop has helped more than 8,000 schoolchildren to master diverse vocations. Every year half of the school graduates who pass through the training shop 62 find employment at the Kharkov Tractor Plant and other industrial enterprises in the district.
The Bratsk Ferro-Concrete Works, one of the major building-material producers in East Siberia, is also actively engaged in vocational training. The factory's engineers and advanced workers have replaced amateur circles by an organised system of vocational training. Together with their school-leaving certificates, the boys and girls are presented with diplomas as qualified electric welders, electric fitters, and crane operators. In the past eight years nearly 300 school-graduates have received such diplomas, and 121 of them decided to work in the chosen profession.
One important side of vocational orientation is to develop young people's interest in farm work. The rapid expansion of industry and the resulting urbanisation attract young people from the countryside to towns. The continual expansion of industrial production creates a constant demand for labour. At the same time, the mechanisation of agriculture reduces the need for manpower in the countryside. However, the army of agricultural workers needs to be continually replenished. So the job is to induce village young people to stay and work in agriculture.
The scientific and technological revolution in agriculture is helping to solve this problem. Young people willingly remain on collective and state farms which mechanise their production, improve the organisation of work, apply scientific discoveries and advanced methods, and take care of the farmers' cultural and living standards.
The 21st Party Congress Collective Farm in the Blagoveshchensk district, Altai Territory, is noted for its high cultural and living standards. There is a secondary school, a boarding-school, a House of Culture, a canteen, and a dispensary. In recent years the village has been completely modernised. Gas and running water have been extended to all homes, the streets are covered with asphalt and lined with trees, and there is a fine park. The Party and the Komsomol organisations are very efficient; there are three Komsomol-youth dairy farms, and many young people work as machine-operators and builders. Attention is focused on farm vocational training and the mechanisation of work, which is becoming better organised, more efficient and better 63 paid. There are diverse opportunities for recreation. The House of Culture and the libraries sponsor all kinds of circles and sports competitions. The local branches of the Voluntary Society for Assisting Army, Air Force and Navy and the Nature Protection Society are very popular. Work and life in general on the collective farm is pervaded by an animated spirit. So it is not surprising that most schoolgraduates decide to stay on the farm, while those who continue their studies in institutes and secondary technical schools plan to return to the native village.
But this provides only one of the prerequisites for solving the problem. Vocational training and orientation of rural schoolchildren are indispensable. It has been proved in practice, in the same Altai Territory, for instance, that apprentice production teams are best fitted for the job of inducing young people to remain in their villages.
There are now 370 apprentice teams and nearly 100 school forestries in the Territory. The children grow grain and vegetables, and plant forest belts in the steppes. Scientists and specialists supervise their experimental work and help them to organise seed-farming. The best seed is sent to collective and state farms. The apprentice production teams bring in the best results when the heads and specialists of farms help them with machines, allocate fields, supply the seeds, and inspect their work.
A secondary school in Ust-Pristan district organised its apprentice team a few years ago. The team was given 100 hectares of arable land, a few tractors and other farm machines. The school has also opened a vocational club with sections of agronomy, cattle-breeding, mechanisation, tradesmanship and medicine. Experienced specialists help the children to conduct experiments, compile technological charts and organise field work. That draws the school and production closer together and serves as the foundation of vocational training. In the past five years more than 150 schoolgraduates have decided to stay and work in the nearby state farms; 38 graduates joined an agricultural institute.
In recent years the measures taken to raise the prestige of farm professions and the profound transformation of agricultural production have increased the proportion of young people engaged in farm work. In 1970, for instance, 64 there were 43,000 more Komsomol machine-operators than in 1969; the number of cattle-breeders increased by 18,000, and the number of specialists, by more than 12,000.
In addition, much attention is being paid to the development of young people's interest in services (trade, etc.). Until recently catering professions were not popular with young people. School-graduates preferred to work in industry, and there were few who agreed to work as sales assistants, cooks, and so on. Thus there was quite a shortage of people in these professions, while the demand was constantly rising because the Communist Party and the Soviet Government have decided to expand the sphere of services.
Fulfilling their responsible assignment from the Party, the Komsomol organisations have sent many young men and women to work in the sphere of services. They have explained to young people the importance of these professions from the viewpoint of the national economy and the interests of society; young people are now more favourably disposed towards entering the sphere of services, and are quite willing to work in catering professions. Young caterers hold gettogethers and arrange all kinds of competitions. During the eighth five-year period the number of young people in the sphere of