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p As 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.

p 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.

p A personality is principally characterised by its world outlook, moral qualities, ideals, value orientations, interests and needs.

p Under socialism the totality of social relations forms a new social type of man.

p 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.

p 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 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".  [18•1 

p 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.

p 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).

p 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.

p “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.”  [18•2  To this he added: "The materialist doctrine that men are products of circumstances and upbringing, and that, 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.”  [19•1 

p 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.

p 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.  [19•2 

p 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.

p 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 20 for the education of the individual; for this knowledge provides ample opportunities for effectively influencing the process of education.

p 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".  [20•1 

p 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.

p 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.

p 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: 

p —a need for meaningful, creative and skilled work; 

p —social and political activity, participation in managing the affairs of state and society; 

p —a need for using spare time in a fruitful way; 

p —a thirst for knowledge.

p 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 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.

p 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.

p “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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

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p To 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.

p 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."  [24•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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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 25 society, a considerable number of young people either abstain from public activity or are dissatisfied with it.

p 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.

p There is a number of factors to show the importance of encouraging the social and political activity among young people.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

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p The 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.

p The Need for Fruitful Leisure Time. The growing need for fruitful leisure time is a characteristic feature of modern youth.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.”

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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).

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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"  [30•1 .

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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 31 for continuing their education, raising their skill or acquiring a new profession.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p These common features, in turn, result from the objective tendency of socialist society towards homogeneity and the elimination of class and social differences.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p Human traits have been evolved during the long historical formation of man as a continually accumulating result of consecutive changes in social relations.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.).

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.