63

What was Lenin’s idea of relations between the
revolutionary Workers’ Party and the revolutionary
Youth League?

p Lenin attached great importance to the participation of young people in the revolutionary struggle and was deeply interested in the development of the youth movement both in Russia and elsewhere.

p The first organisations of the proletarian youth emerged in West European countries at the turn of this century. This was associated with the transition from capitalism to imperialism and the fact that the increasing number of worker-and-peasant youth were drawn into capitalist production and were exploited to an ever greater degree. Describing this process Lenin wrote: ‘The bourgeoisie makes it its business to promote trusts, drive women and children into the factories, subject them to corruption and suffering, condemn them to extreme poverty.’  [63•1 

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p Besides, the struggle for the rcdivision of the world, which had begun in the early 1900s, and the hectic preparations for World War I went hand in hand with the militarisation of the countries involved—which all placed a heavy hurden on the youth, since they were the main source of recruitment for the capitalist armed forces.

p Thus, the total absence of economic rights on the part of young proletarians, the military burden, the limitation of political and civil liberties, including access to culture and education, were the major reasons that led to the creation of young workers’ leagues and determined their objectives.

p The development of socialist ideas among the working class and their increasing influence on the rising generation were the second major reason for the emergence of the proletarian youth movement.

p In other words, the nature of the new epoch formed the conditions for the powerful enhancement of the fighting spirit and the class consciousness of young workers and intensified their desire for unification.

p The first socialist youth leagues emerged as organisationally and politically independent units. This was largely due to the fact that in the majority of West European countries where bourgeoisdemocratic revolutions had already triumphed, there existed certain, albeit limited, democratic freedoms and a broad workers’ movement, while the proletarian parties operated legally.

p Having become an organised form of protest against exploitation and oppression, the proletarian 65 youth leagues formed an integral part of the workers’ movement and drew young people into the proletarian class struggle, which posed, apart from the general demands voiced by the workers and exploited masses, certain fundamental social problems of the rising generation.

p From the outset of their activities, the socialist youth leagues organised their work, depending on specific conditions and needs, in three main directions. Seeking to improve the economic position of young workers, these leagues aimed at:

p (1) achieving shorter working hours, banning overtime and night shifts, and ensuring trade union rights;

p (2) waging anti-war propaganda and demonstrating against the militarisation of the youth and its utilisation for the suppression of the workers’ movement;

p (3) carrying out cultural and educational activities in order to develop the class consciousness of the youth.

p However, the initial steps of young workers’ leagues took place in an atmosphere of confrontation within the Social-Democratic movement, where two trends were clearly discernible: supporters of revolutionary Marxism and reformists. It was only natural that their attitude towards the youth and the objectives of their leagues were dissimilar. Only a few parties (representing the Left wing of Social-Democracy) contributed to the organisational and political unification of the socialist youth leagues and considered it their duty to educate young 66 people and draw them into the revolutionary struggle. The majority of Right-wing Social-Democratic parties, deeply eroded by opportunistic ideas, did not wish to see—indeed, feared—any growth of political activism among young people. At best, they ignored the existence of youth leagues, or used to interfere with the leagues’ activities, assumed a patronising attitude towards them and did everything in their power to lead them away from the real revolutionary road to narrow pathways of petty achievements, associated with cultural advance and resolving various economic and legal problems.

p The progressive youth, however, did not yield to such cunning schemes. Despite the opportunist tactics of some Socialist parties which supported the bourgeoisie in their respective countries (which had long been preparing and finally started World War I), most of the youth leagues retained their anti-imperialist stand and continued their fight against militarism.

p The activities of the best youth leagues operating in Western Europe at that time were distinguished by a genuine revolutionary, internationalist spirit and selfless devotion. It was not accidental that Lenin recognised many instructive features in the development of the youth movement in the West and held that the experience of proletarian youth leagues would be essential for the elaboration of the ideological and organisational foundations of the youth revolutionary movement in Russia.

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p Diverse youth organisations existed in Russia at the beginning of this century. Their motley array included associations, founded and led by Marxists, non-Marxist progressive unions which nevertheless opposed the autocracy, opportunistic organisations which opposed the working class’ fundamental demands, and some other groups.

p The Marxist party’s approach to each of these associations naturally varied.

p Lenin held that the Party’s tactics towards the different youth leagues should be flexible. This should be based on the Party’s ultimate goals and those of the proletarian movement, taking the specific historical situation into account and paying attention to the interests of each individual youth league.

p In the period of preparations for the first Russian revolution (1905-07) when an acute conflict between the autocracy and the broad masses of workers was growing, Lenin stressed that no organisation which opposed and fought tsarism, even though not from the positions of revolutionary Social-Democracy, should be requested either to accept the Party’s programme or to maintain contacts with the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party, since ‘their mood of protest and their sympathy for the cause of international revolutionary Social-Democracy in themselves’  [67•1  were sufficient. This idea became the basis of the Party’s approach to other political groupings in Russian society, 68 which aimed not at scaring them away from the Bolsheviks, but, on the contrary, to rallying all progressive forces intent on fighting the autocracy and gaining democratic freedoms.

p Here is just one example to illustrate the history of the Party’s approach to student leagues which put forward various revolutionary demands but did not share a common political platform with the Bolsheviks. Referring to the tactic of maintaining contacts with such groups, Lenin stressed the necessity of giving them all-round assistance and winning them over to the side of the fighting proletariat. Lenin recognised the real possibilities of approaching them on ground which would correspond to the interests of the working class and the students.

p At the dawn of the youth democratic movement Lenin deemed it necessary to establish close contacts between the student leagues and the revolutionary proletarian party, so that the youth, who lacked political experience and revolutionary staunchness, could gain useful practical advice from their older comrades, avoid making mistakes at the outset of their revolutionary activities, and withstand the influence of false friends.

p Addressing secondary-school students, Lenin wrote: ‘Try to establish closest (and most secret) contacts with the local or all-Russian Social- Democratic organisations, so as not to be alone when you begin your work, so as to be able to continue what has already been done before, rather than begin all over again, to take your place at once 69 in the ranks, to advance the movement and raise it to a higher stage.’  [69•1  The same idea was stressed by Lenin in the draft resolution of the Second Party Congress (1903) ‘On the Attitude Towards the Student Youth’ which stated that all party organisations should assist students in their attempts to unite, while, in starting practical activities, all students’ associations, leagues and groups should establish, well in advance, contacts with party organisations.

p It is understandable that at the beginning of their revolutionary activities the majority of school and university students did not share many of the Bolsheviks’ demands and, in particular, refused to support the demand for all power to be transferred to the workers and peasants. Taking this fact into account, Lenin appealed for a patient and careful attitude towards the young fighters. He held that it was the Party’s duty to assist students’ associations and groups in their organisation, in working out practical tasks, elucidating the Party’s objectives and attracting the rising generation to revolutionary activities. The Bolshevik Party supported all students’ progressive initiatives, including those on academic problems. Thus, when in 1908 groups of students which were associated with the Bolshevik Party had refused to support their fellow students’ demands to put an end to the military and police methods existing in schools and colleges and to oppose the reactionary 70 teachers, lecturers and professors, on the grounds that such measures were outside the scope of the Bolshevik Party’s political slogans, Lenin-pointed to the mistakenness of such views because the students’ attacks against the vestiges of serfdom in the state educational system of tsarist Russia were objectively of a political nature and were aimed against the existing regime. Besides, after the defeat of the 1905-07 revolution, when a wave of political reaction swept the country and the tsar mercilessly crushed any manifestation of freedom, an open political struggle was inconceivable. What was needed were close and secret contacts between the students and the Social-Democratic organisations, aid for the student youth from the revolutionary proletariat and the utilisation and broadening of the democratic movement to include academic problems. ‘Like every other support of primitive forms of movement by Social- Democracy,’ Lenin emphasised, ‘the present support, too, should consist most of all in ideological and organisational influence on wider sections.’  [70•1 

p Thus, Lenin deemed it necessary to maintain contacts with the youth leagues, though the latter might not share a political platform with the Bolshevik Party, and support those of their demands which coincided with those of the proletariat, and, consequently, with the interests of the revolutionary struggle. The Bolshevik Party supported the revolutionary actions of school and university students, 71 won them over to the proletariat’s side and fostered young revolutionaries.

p However, the Party’s policy towards the Socialist (later, Communist) youth leagues, whose aim was to disseminate the Party’s policy among broad sections of the youth, was denned by Lenin in a different way.

While answering the questions of the delegates to the Third Congress of the Russian Young Communist League (October 1920), Lenin clearly indicated that the Komsomol should follow the general guidelines of the Communist Party if it really wishes to be communist. The Young Communist League needs constant guidance from the Communist Party, if it sets itself the task of building communism and proclaims itself the Party’s helper in accomplishing this historical mission.

What opponents did the Communist Party have
to fight while spreading its influence on the
youth?

p In the initial period of the Komsomol’s existence there were people both in the international youth movement and in young Soviet Russia who opposed Lenin’s principles of relations between the Communist parties and the revolutionary youth leagues. These parties, depending on their programmes, specific goals and tactical guidelines, treated the youth in various ways. The special attention paid to the youth is due to the fact that the rising generation comprises a considerable (and the most dynamic) section of the population, the future of mankind. The prospects of the class 72 struggle and society’s fate depend on young people’s convictions, the road they take in life and on the class ideals for which they are fighting. Playing such a big part in society’s life, young people, however, have considerably less practical experience than the older generation. The ‘seething, turbulent and inquiring youth’ often lacks ‘theoretical clarity and consistency’.  [72•1  Right and Left-wing opportunists are striving to capitalise on this fact.

p One of the main objectives of the opposition groups in their efforts to influence the Komsomol was to drive a wedge between the Communist Party and the Komsomol, tear it away from the vanguard of the working class and lead it aside from resolving the basic problems of building communism and bringing up the younger generation in a communist spirit.

p The Komsomol’s history knows many examples of the struggle waged by opportunists against the ideological and organisational principles of the youth league, laid down by Lenin and the Communist Party.

p It is a known fact that in his fight against the Communist Party and Leninism, Trotsky set the youth against the Party apparatus and the veteran Party cadre, hardened in the revolutionary struggle, calling the youth ‘the Party’s most sensitive instrument’ and referring to the students as ‘the barometer of the revolution’. The Trotskyites 73 planted the idea of equal footing between the Party and the Komsomol among young people as a kind of political gimmick. This theory would have led, in fact, to the Komsomol’s separation from the Party leaders, its complete isolation and grave violations in the succession of revolutionary generations. This ‘equality’ theory was contrary to the resolutions of the First Congress of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Youth which founded the Komsomol and defined the aims and goals of the new communist youth organisation, called upon to become the Party’s helper and reserve.

p Another theory, that of the Komsomol’s ‘ neutrality’ towards the problems raised and solved by the Party, in fact came very close to the ‘equality’ theory. Any refusal of the Komsomol to follow the Party line and, consequently, that of the working class, would have removed the Komsomol from the solution of nation-wide tasks and lead to its political isolation. The Komsomol cannot remain uncommitted towards the Party policy for it then would lose its status as the Party’s helper. At the same time, the assistance rendered by the Komsomol, as the communist vanguard of the youth, is needed for solving important tasks of society’s revolutionary transformation in accordance with the vital interests of the working people.

p Widespread was another idea of Party- Komsomol relationship involving the principle of ‘ contracting parties’. This would have put a sign of equality between the two. There were also some attempts to set off the Party’s guidance of the 74 Komsomol against the proletarian leadership inside the League.

p The policies of all opposition groups boiled down to down-grading the importance and necessity of bringing up young people in the spirit of MarxismLeninism and leading the Komsomol away from the progressive revolutionary theory. Lenin’s opponents inside the Communist Party, who raised their voice against socialist transformations, tried to isolate the Komsomol from politics and encouraged a disdainful attitude to the study of revolutionary theory. Bourgeois nationalists, national deviationists and chauvinists hampered the upbringing of the youth in the spirit of proletarian internationalism, thus weakening the unity of the rising generation.

p The opposition tried to disrupt the revolutionary succession of the generations of Soviet people and instil a negative attitude in the youth towards the revolutionary experience of the old generation, urging the youth to rely on their own experience, which the young people naturally lacked. The opposition leaders forecast inevitable clashes between the young and the old generations. They rejected the idea of the Komsomol as a unified socio- political organisation of Soviet youth. Soon after the creation of the Komsomol, so-called ‘youth syndicalists’ first proposed to set up councils of young workers, separate from the Komsomol, whose aim, they claimed, was to safeguard the interests of ‘Russia’s working youth’. Later they proposed to form youth affiliations of trade unions. The errancy of such 75 proposals lay primarily in the fact that the ‘youth syndicalists’ objectively led to the isolation of the Young Communist League from the young generation of workers.

p The conceptions of the opposition groups, no matter what they were, sought not to develop the youth movement in the country, but rather to derail the youth league from the communist road. They raised their voices against the most essential elements of the Komsomol’s status as the Party’s helper and reserve. They attacked the Komsomol’s organisational principles and activities, above all, the principle of democratic centralism.

p In their attempts to win over the youth, they made sudden and erratic changes in their policies: at one time they would woo students and proclaim them to be the driving force of the revolution, then they would sing similar praises to young workers; at one time they would support the idea of drawing the broad masses of the peasant youth into the Komsomol ranks, then they would change their stand to proclaim the League as a purely proletarian class organisation; at one time they would criticise the Komsomol for not interfering in the Party’s internal affairs, then they would advocate the idea of remaining neutral towards the Party.

The opposition groups failed to win large sections of young people to their side. The Komsomol and its local branches completely rejected their ideas. The Komsomol actively supported the Party’s general line, thus confirming the principles of 76 relations between it and the Party, elaborated by Lenin.

What necessitates the Party guidance of the
Komsomol?

p The revolutionary movement of the proletarian youth is part of the general proletarian movement. Therefore, the activities of revolutionary youth organisations should be tailored to the interests of the proletarian movement as a whole. The working class is the leading force of the historical process of the revolutionary transition from capitalism to socialism and communism, while its revolutionary party represents the political vanguard of the working class. The revolutionary Marxist party of the Russian working class, founded by Lenin, led the worker-and-peasant struggle against tsarism and later the struggle for the victorious socialist revolution. Today this party organises the building of communism and is the political leader of society and the entire Soviet people.

p Thus, the position the Party holds in society determines the nature of its leadership of the Komsomol, which is part of society’s political system.

p As far back as 1920, the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party stressed in its instructions to the local branches: ‘Since its founding, the Russian Young Communist League has been an assisting organisation, a school of communism in which our proletarian and semi-proletarian youth is educated in the communist spirit and acquires habits of revolutionary and organisational work and in this way is prepared for replacing the cadre of 77 fighters for socialist society. That is why the close bonds existing between the Russian Communist Party and the YCL are easily comprehensible, and it is clear why the activities of the Young Communist League are carried out under the Communist Party’s guidance, above all with respect to the purity of the principles underlying our programme.’  [77•1  This thesis has retained its significance to this day.

p The Party leadership of the Komsomol is necessitated by the need to ensure the continuity of the revolutionary cause. The youth may make a maximum contribution to all spheres of the nation’s material and cultural life only if it operates in accord with the older generation by capitalising on the latter’s achievements and experience, and if it inherits and continues their fathers’ traditions. Society’s history is a living and creative process.

p ‘Young workers,’ Lenin wrote, ‘need the experience of veteran fighters against oppression and exploitation, of those who have organised many strikes, have taken part in a number of revolutions, who are wise in revolutionary traditions, and have a broad political outlook.’  [77•2 

p The present generation of Soviet youth, who have inherited a tremendous material and technical base, begin their adult lives in conditions of advanced socialism, when the gradual building of 78 communism has become a practical task of the day. They continue the cause started by the older generation.

p The CPSU highly appreciates the Komsomol’s activities in encouraging the youth to take an active part in the building of communism. Speaking at the 18th Komsomol Congress, Leonid Brezhnev said: ‘By and large, I think, Communists of the older generation can be pleased with Soviet youth of the present day. They are growing up with communist convictions, and are deeply faithful to the cause of the Party and the great Lenin.’  [78•1 

p The Komsomol needs this constant Party guidance due to the sheer fact of being an organisation of young people who have a limited life experience, who are still learning revolutionary skills, moulding the major traits of their personalities and undergoing a thorough ideological and political education. This means that the Komsomol is in need of guidance by an organisation that has acquired a wealth of revolutionary experience and mastered the revolutionary theory and knowledge of society’s objective laws and development prospects.

p The Communist Party arms the rising generation and the Komsomol with a class-conscious understanding of the aims of society’s development and guides its activities so as to ensure the instilment of the Marxist-Leninist outlook among the young generation.

p Is the Komsomol able to cope with this task 79 independently, without the Party’s assistance? The history of the struggle waged by Lenin and the Party for the instilment of socialist ideology among young workers and revolutionary-minded students in the pre-revolutionary years, for the unification of isolated youth organisations and groups into one Marxist youth organisation, provides convincing evidence of the necessity for the Leninist party’s ideological leadership of the rising generation.

p The main factor is that the Communist Party is armed with a tested ideological weapon—scientific socialism—which it creatively develops through all stages of the building of socialism and communism by generalising the revolutionary experience of all generations of Soviet society. There is also another aspect to it: in conditions of the stepped-up ideological struggle between socialism and capitalism the Communist Party and the Komsomol protect young people from the influence of hostile imperialist propaganda.

p The Communist Party has been instructing the Komsomol to man the most vital sectors of society’s social, economic, political and cultural life, where the Soviet youth can demonstrate the best of their abilities. The Komsomol is greatly interested in such assignments since they give it a chance to serve the Motherland. In doing so the Komsomol wins high prestige among the broad masses of youth and the Soviet people in general.

p The CPSU passes on to the rising generation the rich experience of the class struggle and of building socialism and communism.

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p Showing concern for the uninterrupted continuation of the revolutionary class struggle, Lenin paid great attention to the mobilising and educational impact of the best working-class traditions, regarding them as an integral part of the development of the revolutionary energy, historical creativity and initiative of the masses. ‘We cherish this concern for revolutionary traditions,’ he said.  [80•1 

p In developing Lenin’s behest to bring up the rising generation in the revolutionary, militant and hard-working traditions of the Soviet people, the GPSU Programme and other Party documents aim to propagandise and utilise socialist society’s best traditions for bringing up the youth. As Leonid Brezhnev emphasised: ‘Our duty is to pass on to the rising generation our political experience and our experience in resolving problems of economic and cultural development, to direct the ideological upbringing of young people and to do everything to enable them to be worthy continuers of the cause of their fathers, of the cause of the great Lenin.’  [80•2 

p While guiding the Komsomol’s activities, the GPSU supervises the execution of its political directives. The reason for this lies in the prevention, revelation and timely correction of mistakes. The Komsomol card holders do realise the importance of spotting weak aspects of their work, of mapping out ways and means of overcoming faults and 81 obtaining the advice of authoritative and experienced people.

The CPSU Rules stipulate that the activities of the YGL local organisations are directed and supervised by the Party’s corresponding republican, regional, town and district branches.

How are the relations between the Communist
Party and the Komsomol governed?

p As was mentioned in the last section, the close ties between the Komsomol and the Communist Party are dictated by the function of the youth league as the Party’s helper and reserve. It is quite natural that in any sphere of its activities the Komsomol is intimately linked with the organisation for which it is both a reserve and helper. There are no other intermediate links. It is only the Communist Party that guides the Komsomol’s activities.

p The Komsomol maintains contacts with the state, state agencies and public organisations. None of them, however, is in a position to give orders, take decisions or issue directives involving the Komsomol. Only the Communist Party may direct its activities and take pertinent decisions.

p The Party guidance of the Komsomol is part and parcel of its overall leadership of society. Bearing in mind the general objectives facing the state and the Party, the CPSU defines the Komsomol’s main guidelines, which are specified in the documents of the Plenary sessions of the CPSU Central Committee, Politbureau and the Secretariat, and in public speeches by Party leaders. Guided 82 by these Party resolutions, local CPSU branches direct the activities of the relevant Komsomol organisations. Both the resolutions of the local Party organs and those of the YCL Central Committee are based on Marxist-Leninist theory and the directives by the top Party organs. This guarantees that the Party and Komsomol organisations act in unison.

p To sum up, the relations between the Communist Party and the Komsomol rest on the following principles:

p —the Communist Party is the leading and guiding force of Soviet society, the nucleus of its political system and the state and public organisations, the YCL included;

p —the Komsomol is a communist organisation sharing the Party’s Marxist-Leninist political platform;

p —the Komsomol is a structurally independent youth organisation which bases its activities on the principle of its members’ initiative, which is growing both in depth and in scope;

p —the Komsomol is an organisation which directs its activities in accordance with CPSU resolutions and implements its policy on the basis of broad involvement and participation of the masses of young people ;

p —the Komsomol is the Party’s helper in bringing up the rising generation, in building communist society, and in strengthening and developing communist relations in society;

—the Komsomol is the Party’s reserve, which 83 brings up young people worthy of joining the Communist ranks.

Does not the Party’s guidance deprive the
Komsomol of its organisational independence and
activism?

p The Party’s guidance requires that the Komsomol is free to develop its initiative and demonstrate its activism. The principles of the relations between the Party and the Komsomol have remained unchanged throughout their history. The resolution ‘On the Youth Leagues’, adopted by the Sixth Party Congress, held in 1917 on the eve of the October Socialist Revolution, stressed: ‘The Party’s interference in the organisational structure of the working youth should not assume a patronising attitude.’  [83•1  It went on to state that the Party’s guidance should be flexible. In August 1919 the Party Central Committee emphasised that ‘the Party supervision of the youth league should not assume a patronising attitude, a sort of petty interfering into the organisational, propaganda, cultural, educational and other activities of the League and should be conducted only in accordance with the provisions laid down in the Rules and Instructions issued by the RYCL Central Committee.’  [83•2 

p The Party encourages the development of the Komsomol members’ initiative and activism since 84 these qualities help bring up committed and active members of society. Analysis of historical experience makes it possible to draw the conclusion that the initiative and activism of the Komsomol organisations are fully revealed when they are given concrete and important assignments—a fact which is in complete accord with the aspirations of the Komsomol members themselves. Advice, recommendations and friendly criticism—such are persuasion methods used by the Communist Party in its direction of the Komsomol. In doing so the Party is guided by Lenin’s behest that youth leagues ‘must be given every assistance. We must be patient with their faults and strive to correct them gradually, mainly by persuasion, and not by fighting them.’  [84•1  Another essential condition for the Party’s guidance is awareness of what is going on in the Komsomol organisations, as well as a friendly and careful attitude towards the Komsomol’s experience and the forms and methods of its activities. Things should not be run by orders and decrees, just as a passive attitude towards mistakes and shortcomings cannot be tolerated. A demanding and exacting attitude towards the youth leagues, devoid, however, of flirting—this is what Lenin told the Party was necessary, even before the revolution.

p The Party’s guidance of the Komsomol, as was precisely formulated in a circular letter of the Bolshevik Party Central Committee, dated July 1920, ‘should concern the main directions of work 85 and the main content of the propaganda activities aimed at eliminating major shortcomings, thus leaving sufficient scope for initiative by the rising generation of Communists’.

p Following these principles, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union:

p (i) creates the conditions for the Komsomol’s more active participation in the building of communism and in setting up the material and technical base of the new society, which is seen as one of the Komsomol’s main objectives;

p (ii) increases the Komsomol’s responsibilities for bringing up the youth by including a special provision in the CPSU Rules stipulating that the Party organisations rely on the Komsomol in this task; and

p (iii) broadens the possibilities for the Komsomol’s participation, along with other state and public organisations, in resolving problems concerning the youth.

The Party improves the forms and methods of guidance by making sure that they fully correspond to present-day demands, and to the tasks of building up the Party and Komsomol. The Party organisations differentiate their methods in treating various categories and groups of young people and YCL organisations.

What is the role of the numerous young
Communists working within the Komsomol ranks?

p The Party always considered it important to have some of its members working within youth organisations.

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p Let us look at history. In 1917, after the February Bourgeois-Democratic Revolution which toppled the tsarist autocracy in Russia, there emerged conditions, for the first time ever, which made it possible to set up legalised youth leagues. Numerous youth leagues appeared in March and April and, especially, in May 1917, and the Party was able to implement Lenin’s instructions concerning the guidance of the youth movement. In the meantime an acute struggle was waged against the reactionary and opportunist organisations which attempted to win the youth to their side.

p Bourgeois historians frequently falsify the facts and allege that in 1917 the Bolshevik Party overlooked the revolutionary movement among the working-class youth and let it go without Party guidance. The facts, however, testify to the contrary: the Party did not overlook the youth movement in 1917, on the contrary, it made the socialist leagues of young workers its helpers in carrying out the October Socialist Revolution. While preparing for the armed uprising in Petrograd, Lenin emphasised: ‘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.’  [86•1 

p The working-class youth leagues which emerged during the preparation for the October Revolution took an active part in the armed uprising 87 and defended the gains of the revolutionary proletariat in the battles with the counter- revolutionaries.

p The socialist and mass leagues of young workers were set up not only under the Party’s guidance but quite often with the direct participation of young Communists, who became their nuclei. Thus, the presence of young Communists in the youth leagues can be historically traced to their founding days.

p Analysing the experience of its contacts with the youth leagues which had existed prior to the Komsomol, and taking into account the scale and diverse character of the latters’ activities, the Communist Party always took good care to strengthen the Party core within the Komsomol ranks. No quantitative criteria for the number of Communists participating in the Komsomol’s activities were fixed, for the important things are the objective conditions of the development of Soviet society’s political system, including the Komsomol, and the specific requirements of each Komsomol organisation.

p In the initial years of the Komsomol’s existence the percentage of Party members within the Komsomol ranks was rather high—more than 11 per cent in 1919. This was due to a number of factors: firstly, the efficiency of the new-born youth league depended on the attention the Party organisations paid to its daily activities; secondly, from its founding days the Komsomol has always been a helper and reserve of the Communist Party; thirdly, there 88 was a shortage of skilled members in the Komsomol; and, fourthly, at the initial stage the Komsomol had to fight the attempts of the Trotskyites and other Right-wing opposition groups to win over the youth.

p The importance of the Party core within the Komsomol ranks has always been great from the point of view of the organisation’s numerical growth and inner development. The strengthening of this core helped to improve the over-all professional level of the Komsomol cadre, for this meant that experienced people who were proficient in Marxist-Leninist theory joined the Komsomol ranks. The line-up of the Komsomol cadre became more stabilised and the succession of Komsomol leaders and activists became more orderly. The share of young workers among Komsomol activists increased, for it has always been the Party’s policy to draw the best representatives of the working class and the collective-farm peasantry into its ranks. The number of Komsomol officials elected to the Party committees also increased, thus providing the latter with better opportunities for resolving Komsomol and youth problems. The links between the Party and Komsomol organisations became stronger. The prestige of the Komsomol organisations grew, and their role in resolving the problems which Soviet society faced also became more pronounced.

The presence of the Party core, consisting of tested and experienced Communists, in the Komsomol ranks made a favourable impact on 89 enhancing the activities of all Komsomol organisations and of the League as a whole.

What is the cause of the growth in the Party’s
guidance of the Komsomol today?

p Let us trace the historical road travelled by the revolutionary youth under the guidance of the Communist Party.

p Young workers and peasants took an active part in the Great October Socialist Revolution and members of the youth leagues showed heroism in all the decisive battles of the revolution.

p It was the domestic counter-revolutionary elements, the toppled bourgeoisie and landlords, with the support of the foreign military intervention, who plunged the young socialist state into Civil War. The Young Communist League, founded in October 1918, responded to the Communist Party’s call to defend the gains of the October Revolution on the battle fronts, and helped rehabilitate the country’s economy in the rear by organising the masses of young workers and peasants. After the Civil War the Komsomol members and the Soviet youth began to restore the war-devastated economy with great revolutionary zeal.

p In the years of the first Soviet five-year plans Komsomol members worked on the most important sites of socialist construction, and the Komsomol made great achievements in the industrialisation of the country’s economy, in the collectivisation of its agriculture, in carrying out the cultural revolution and in bringing up the youth in the communist spirit.

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p Having completed, in the main, the building of socialist society, the Soviet people, led by the Communist Party, made heroic efforts to build an advanced socialist society. These efforts, however, were interrupted by Nazi Germany’s treacherous invasion of the Soviet Union. In the years of the Great Patriotic War (1941-45) the Komsomol and the entire Soviet youth showed unprecedented heroism by fighting the Nazi invaders on the battle fronts, in the underground resistance movement and partisan detachments, as well as in the country’s rear—by their hard work in factories and on collective farms.

p Through its victory in the Great Patriotic War the Soviet Union not only defended its freedom and independence, but played a major part in ridding the peoples of Europe and Asia from the danger of fascist enslavement. As the Soviet Union resumed its peaceful life, the Soviet youth, led by the Leninist Komsomol, became active in all fields of the country’s socio-political, economic and cultural life.

p Now that a developed socialist society has been built in the Soviet Union and communist society is in the making, the Komsomol’s activities are becoming increasingly diversified. It is only natural that the broader the efforts of the Soviet people to build the new society, and the more complex tasks it faces, the bigger the part played by the Communist Party as the political leader and organiser of the working people. ‘The dynamic development of Soviet society,’ states the Report of the CPSU 91 Central Committee to the 25th Party Congress, ‘the growing scale of communist construction, and our activity in the international arena insistently require a steady raising of the level of Party guidance of economic and cultural development, the education of our men and women.’  [91•1 

p Let us sum up the conditions that motivate the increasing Party guidance of the Komsomol today:

p —In conditions of communist construction the leading and guiding role of the Communist Party in all spheres of society’s life is increasing; the Party intensifies its guidance of the Komsomol as its closest helper and part of the political system of Soviet society.

p —The tasks of communist construction, even in their most general form, are very complex. They involve the creation of the material and technical base of communism, higher productivity of social labour, the tapping of natural resources, the opening up of new economic areas, wide introduction of industrial methods in agriculture, and so forth. The Komsomol and the Soviet youth have much to do in all these spheres. The broader and more complex tasks presently faced by the Komsomol call for greater Party guidance of the YCL.

p —Ideological work and the upbringing of the new man, society’s future citizen, are acquiring greater importance today. This enhances the Komsomol’s responsibilities as an educational 92 institution. The higher educational and cultural standards of young people explain the greater responsibilities placed on the Komsomol cadre who are engaged in educational activities. This also calls for qualified assistance, given to the Komsomol by the Party in training propagandists, especially among Communist Party members.

p —The Communist Party has greatly enhanced the Komsomol’s role as its reserve. This is manifested in the increased number of Komsomol members joining the Party ranks. The Party regards the Komsomol as a school for future Communists. This also calls for greater Party guidance of the YCL.

p —Today the role of the Komsomol and other Soviet youth organisations in further raising and strengthening the international communist and democratic movement of young people and students is greatly increasing in importance. The international contacts of the Komsomol form an important sector of Soviet foreign policy as a whole. This Komsomol activity also calls for Party guidance.

p —The importance of work associated with the upbringing of the rising generation in the communist spirit, its education, the organisation of young people’s leisure and daily lives, and the complex and diverse character of these problems, necessitated the setting up of a special apparatus—youth commissions within the Soviets of People’s Deputies and similar commissions in the trade union organs. The solution of many problems associated with the lives and activities of young people depends 93 on the joint efforts of various public and state organisations. Consequently, it is necessary to coordinate the activities of such organisations in bringing up the youth along communist lines. It is only the Communist Party which is able to coordinate them.

To sum up, the Party’s increasing guidance of the Komsomol is motivated today by the growing part played by the Komsomol in creating the material and technical base of communism and in bringing up the new man, as well as by the needs of the Komsomol itself, since in developed socialist society its tasks and activities have greatly increased.