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p The First World War roused broad sections of the working population to political action in Russia. Exhausted by the war, devastation and hunger, the workers and peasant soldiers rose up to topple autocracy, which they considered to be largely responsible for their misery. As the monarchy fell and the people won democratic freedoms, conditions were created for legal revolutionary activities. Many mass organisations were set up, which took an active part in the revolutionary movement. Lenin wrote: “Millions and tens of millions of people, who had been politically dormant for ten years and politically crushed by the terrible oppression of tsarism and by inhuman toil for the landowners and capitalists, have awakened and taken eagerly to politics."  [72•1 

p The first youth organisations were set up immediately after the bourgeois-democratic revolution in Russia in February 1917, but they were not connected with one another. Until then the 73 young progressive workers had taken part in the Bolshevik Party’s illegal work, but this form of activity alone was clearly not enough once the young people had been roused to vigorous action. The young workers, most of whom did not know that there were special, independent youth organisations in other countries, realised intuitively that such organisations had to be set up in Russia. Bourgeois party representatives tried, among other things, to use the spontaneous meetings and rallies to further their own ends, distract the young people away from the political struggle and confine the activities of youth organisations to “cultural work" and “self-education”. However the young workers in Russia did not repeat the mistakes made by many youth organisations in Western Europe. The Russian bourgeois and petty-bourgeois parties were prevented from deflecting young people from the workers’ revolutionary struggle and turning youth organisations into non-political unions and societies largely because the Russian young workers’ organisations were always helped and supported by the Bolshevik Party ever since they were set up.

p The first Russian youth organisations were set up in Petrograd in April 1917 on the young workers’ own initiative.

p When she returned to Russia in April 1917, Nadezhda Krupskaya wrote several articles on the youth movement for Pravda, to inform Russian youth about the revolutionary youth movement in the West. She stressed that young people must take part in the economic and political struggle. She also emphasised the importance of the first step in the work of youth organisations, saying: "The youth organisation in Russia is now in the process of being formed. These first steps are of 74 the greatest consequence. They are the ones that determine the course of the entire movement: they determine whether the youth organisation in Russia will be a workers’ organisation, whether it will march hand in hand with the workers’ organisation of its country and the Youth International ... or whether it will divorce itself from the working-class movement for a time."  [74•1 

p The establishment of the Labour and Enlightenment Union in Petrograd showed that, had it not been for the Bolsheviks, the young workers could have followed the wrong lines and limited themselves solely to educational and cultural activities.

p At Nadezhda Krupskaya’s proposal, the Second Petrograd City Conference of Bolsheviks adopted the following resolution: “The conference considers that: 1) youth organisations must be workers’ mass organisations, socialist in spirit and closely connected with the Youth International; 2) the Party must show every consideration for the emerging independent youth organisations; it must help them and send its members to establish close ties between the adult workers’ movement and the youth movement. The conference therefore believes it necessary to support the youth organisation in Petrograd and to assist it in taking a form which will enable it to help train conscientious and active Party members, capable of coping with the tasks with which life will confront them.”

p When they heard about the establishment of the first socialist youth organisations, young Russian workers began to write to Pravda, asking how they should set up their own organisations. In 75 reply Nadezhda Krupskaya, who had studied the main errors made by youth organisations, such as the drawing up of their own party programmes and excessive involvement in cultural and educational activities, invited young people, in a special article on this question, to discuss her Draft Rules for youth organisations.

p The Draft Rules envisaged youth participation in the workers’ great struggle “to liberate all the oppressed and exploited from the yoke of capital”. This was followed by a clause on the Russian organisations’ solidarity with the international revolutionary youth movement. It stated that since the “Young Workers’ League of Russia is loyal to the slogan ’Workers of all countries, unite!’, it hereby joins the Youth International and declares itself to be a section (a part of this International)"  [75•1 .

p Once the first working youth organisations were set up in Petrograd and Moscow, they mushroomed throughout the country. In May 1917 youth organisations in Petrograd alone had about 50,000 members, which was equal to almost onehalf of the membership of the European socialist organisations in the Youth International.

p The emergence of youth leagues greatly increased youth participation in the political and economic struggle. The young people, full of resolve, joined the ranks of the socialist movement under the banner of the Bolshevik Party. They took part in all the workers’ activities and began to hold their own meetings and rallies.

p In May 1917 Pravda carried a report on a young workers’ rally and demonstration held in 76 Petrograd on the initiative of the factory youth organisations in the Vyborg District. The demonstrators carried banners saying “Long Live Socialism!”, “Long Live the Third International!" and “The Young Workers Are the Pledge of Socialism!”. One young man said in a speech: “We young people, who also have the experience of our fathers, will achieve socialism and bring their struggle to an end.”

p In preparing for the decisive struggle, the Bolsheviks took account of the youth organisations’ enormous power and great revolutionary potentialities. Hence, the Sixth Party Congress, which dealt mainly with preparations for the socialist revolution, gave prominence to work among the young people. It adopted the following resolution: “The congress regards assistance to the class socialist organisations of young workers (in their establishment) as one of the most urgent tasks at the present time and calls on Party organisations to give the utmost possible attention to this work.”

p In determining the aims and organisation of youth leagues, the congress rejected the view that the leagues should engage primarily in cultural and educational work or that they should be a component part of the Party. Adopting Lenin’s position, the congress recognised the organisational independence of the youth leagues, which were not subordinated to the Party, but were ideologically connected with and guided by it. The Party entrusted the young workers’ organisations with the main task of achieving “the aim of developing the young workers’ class consciousness by spreading socialist ideas, by a vigorous struggle against chauvinism and militarism and, at the same time, by defending the legal economic and political interests of adolescent workers, male and female".

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p The congress drew Party members’ attention to the need for instilling in young people a keen sense of proletarian internationalism, which was so characteristic of most youth organisations in the European countries. It adopted a special resolution, entitled “Youth Leagues”, which stressed: “With due regard to the experience of Western Europe, where independent socialist youth organisations, unlike those in the care of official parties, are almost everywhere the buttress of the international Left-wing of the working-class movement, our Party must see to it that the young workers establish independent organisations in Russia as well, organisations which are not subordinated to the Party organisationally, but which are connected with it only spiritually."  [77•1 

p The resolution also stressed that Russian youth must join the Youth International and that socialist ideas must be spread more widely among young people.

p The decisions adopted by the congress played an important part in attracting young people into the leagues and helped provide youth organisations with experienced leaders.

p When the congress was discussing youth leagues on August 2, 1917, the young workers at the Putilov Works held a general meeting, at which a worker by the name of Vasily Alexeyev, a congress delegate and a Bolshevik leader of the young workers in Petrograd, made an impressive report, and a message of greetings to Lenin was adopted with great enthusiasm. In its resolution the meeting expressed full support for the Bolshevik assessment of current situation and protested against the 78 cruel persecution of the “vanguard of the revolutionary proletariat and army, that is, the Bolsheviks and their leaders”. The meeting expressed “its deep contempt ... for the socialist- revolutionaries and Mensheviks betraying the revolution”. The resolution said: “We youths have learned from our fathers’ bitter experience how dangerous it is to fraternise with the bourgeoisie.”

p The Bolsheviks explained the decisions adopted by the Sixth Party Congress to the young workers. In August congress delegates delivered a series of lectures and reports to the young people in Petrograd on such subjects as “The Sixth Party Congress and the Tasks Facing the Young Workers’ Leagues”, “The Current Situation" and “The Workers’ Political Tasks".

p Owing to the Bolsheviks’ great preparatory work, the young workers’ organisations in Petrograd were able to hold their first municipal conference on August 18, 1917. It was attended by delegates representing 13,000 young workers. D. Z. Manuilsky made the welcoming speech on behalf of the Bolshevik Party. A. Slutsky, member of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), made a report on the current situation, on the prospects of developing the revolution and on the part the young people were to play in the impending struggle. The conference proclaimed the establishment of the Petrograd Young Socialist Workers’ League (YSWL) and adopted its Programme and Rules. The conference resolution gave a clear definition of the tasks of the YSWL; it stated that, as a political organisation, its activities must be aimed at preparing young workers “for a conscious and resolute struggle to liberate all the oppressed and exploited from the yoke of capitalism".

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p The conference declared that socialism was no longer a remote dream, and that the epoch of the “transition from the dissemination of socialist ideas to a direct struggle for the realisation of these ideas" had set in.

p The young people in Petrograd soon gave a practical demonstration of their loyalty to the working-class cause and their readiness to defend it with arms.

p The Petrograd workers’ struggle against General Kornilov’s counter-revolutionary rebellion was the first military trial of strength for the YSWL. During these difficult days the Bolshevik Party alone was able to mobilise the masses and repulse the conspirators. The Party was in close touch with the people through such mass organisations as the Soviets, the trade unions and the Red Guards. On its initiative the workers and revolutionary soldiers rose up to defend Petrograd, thus frustrating the schemes of the bourgeoisie.

p The fact that the workers refused to obey the bourgeois Provisional Government’s order to disband the Red Guards and hand over their arms played an enormous part in the defeat of General Kornilov and his men. The workers’ Red Guards became the mainstay of the revolution. Seeing the danger facing the revolution, thousands of workers joined the Red Guards between August 26 and 30, 1917. They included many young workers who took an active part in protest rallies at all the factories and works in Petrograd, protesting strongly against the conciliators’ treacherous policies and demanding the transfer of power to the revolutionary workers and poorest peasants.

p At the time the YSWL directed all its activities at carrying out the Bolshevik Party’s appeals, which the YSWL members regarded as battle 80 orders. The Petrograd Committee of the YSWL immediately began to mobilise young people to defeat the insurgents. Committee members held meetings and rallies in the various districts and enlisted men into the Red Guards. With the help of instructors, the young people quickly acquired military knowledge. The YSWL was steeled and consolidated as it fought under the Bolsheviks’ leadership against the counter-revolutionary forces, and rallied the young people yet closer round the Party.

p Enhanced by the defeat of General Kornilov and his men, the Bolshevik Party’s prestige played a very important part in the establishment of a political army for the proletarian revolution. Using mass organisations, the Party carried on active work among the workers, soldiers and peasants, preparing them for the decisive battle against the bourgeoisie. The main task now was to consolidate ties with the masses. This became the aim of the activities carried on by the Petrograd Committee of the YSWL.

p The enlistment of young people into the Red Guards and their military training continued. At the same time the Petrograd Committee and district committees of the YSWL carried on extensive political and educational work among the young people with the help of the Bolshevik Party. The YSWL organised a series of lectures and reports, which were delivered by the Party’s best propagandists, including A. V. Lunacharsky, D. Z. Manuilsky, V. V. Vorovsky and M. M. Volodarsky. Courses were organised to satisfy the young workers’ strong thirst for knowledge, and many circles and schools for learning and writing were set up. The cultural and educational commissions under the Petrograd city and district 81 committees of the Communist Party assisted the YSWL in its work. The Petrograd Committee of the YSWL also began to concentrate its efforts on defending the young workers’ economic and legal interests.

p Youth organisations served as the Bolshevik Party’s reserve at a time when revolutionary enthusiasm was mounting in the country. At enterprises, youth committees helped with the work of the local Bolshevik organisations, trade unions and factory committees, distributed Bolshevik newspapers, and so on. Courses were given with a view to training agitators for work among the young people. Under the Bolsheviks’ guidance, the young workers prepared for the decisive struggle against the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.

p The upswing of revolutionary enthusiasm among the masses which followed the defeat of General Kornilov and his men also had an impact on the development of the Russian youth movement, which entered a new stage. The example set by the young people in Petrograd and the experience gained by the first socialist youth organisation helped young workers in other industrial centres become organised and set up their own leagues. The decisions adopted by the YSWL at its first city conference in Petrograd and published in the Bolshevik press played an important part in this.

p Young people in Moscow set up their own organisation with the Bolsheviks’ active support. As a result of district meetings, the first city conference in Moscow opened on October 8, 1917, and the young workers’ league of Moscow was officially named the Third International.

p As the youth movement developed in other industrial centres, the Central Committee of the 82 Bolshevik Party began to consider the question of holding an All-Russia Congress of Youth Leagues. The course of events produced other tasks of greater consequence, however, and the question of holding a congress was postponed for the time being.

p The revolutionary developments in the country compelled the Party to concentrate all its efforts on preparing the masses for an armed insurrection. Nevertheless, the Bolsheviks continued to devote a great deal of attention to the youth movement. Under their guidance young workers’ leagues were set up in the Urals, the Ukraine, the Donets Basin, the Crimea, the Russian Far East, Transcaucasia and the Baltic areas.

p The fact that a large number of leagues were called the Third International goes to show that the Bolshevik Party and its slogans had a strong influence on the young people, and that the young workers were imbued with the spirit of internationalism.

p Under the Bolsheviks’ guidance the workers, soldiers and young revolutionaries prepared for the decisive battle throughout September and October, .1917, .and anxiously waited for the signal to go into action.

p When the Bolshevik Party won a majority in the Petrograd and Moscow Soviets, it became clear that now most workers were supporting it. In his letters Lenin wrote that, with the existing balance of class forces, the Bolsheviks could and should come to power, and that “the present task must be an armed uprising in Petrograd and Moscow (with its region), the seizing of power and the overthrow of the government".  [82•1  He carefully 83 worked out a plan for the insurrection, and demanded:

p “The most determined elements (our ’shock forces’ and young workers, as well as the best of the sailors) must be formed into small detachments to occupy all the more important points and to take part everywhere in all important operations, for example: 

p to encircle and cut off Petrograd; to seize it by a combined attack of the sailors, the workers, and the troops—a task which requires art and triple audacity...."  [83•1 

p At its meeting in September 1917, the Petrograd Party Committee stressed that YSWL members must be encouraged to join the Red Guards, since the young workers were assigned an important role in the plan for the armed insurrection.

p Many young workers responded to the special appeal made by the Petrograd Committee of the YSWL to join the Red Guards.

On October 24 (November 6, New Style), 1917, the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party gave the signal for the insurrection to begin. A specific task was entrusted to the Red Guard headquarters in every district. Such important points as the telephone exchange and railway stations had to be taken over, and the Cadets had to be prevented from opening the bridges. Several Red Guard detachments immediately made their way to revolution headquarters, the Smolny Institute, from where they were to storm the Winter Palace, the last bastion of the Provisional Government. The young people took an active part in the most important operations, displaying courage and selfless devotion to the cause of the working class.