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What is the essence of Soviet foreign policy?

p Soviet foreign policy expresses the fundamental interests and goals of the working class, the collective-farm peasantry and the intelligentsia, i.e., of the entire nation.

p ’.. .The economic interests and the economic position of the classes which rule our state,’ Lenin pointed out, ‘lie at the root of both our home and foreign policy.’  [180•1 

p The basic principles of Soviet foreign policy, laid down by Lenin, have been implemented since the dictatorship of the proletariat was established. The first decree of the young republic of workers and peasants was the Decree on Peace, written by Lenin. It should be recalled that the Great October Socialist Revolution triumphed at a time when the First World War was still raging. The Decree proposed that the governments of the belligerent countries immediately start talks 181 on the signing of a just and democratic peace treaty without annexations or reparations. The Decree on Peace has become a fundamental document of Soviet foreign policy, based on the principles, proclaimed by Lenin, of proletarian internationalism and the peaceful coexistence of states with different social systems.

p The relations between socialist countries are based on the principle of proletarian internationalism. The typical features of these relations are mutual assistance, promotion of each other’s successes, equality and sovereignty, close cooperation in all spheres of economic and cultural life and in the defence of the socialist community from outside enemies. This principle also underlies the relations between the Soviet Union and developing countries oriented towards socialism.

p Another major principle of the CPSU foreign policy line is the peaceful coexistence of states with different social systems. The Party Programme stresses that ‘...peaceful coexistence of the socialist and capitalist countries is an objective necessity for the development of human society’.  [181•1 

p The CPSU has drawn the fundamental and practical conclusion that a new world war can and must be averted by the joint efforts of all the world’s peace forces, including the socialist and non-socialist countries.

p Describing the essence of the Party’s foreign policy the 25th GPSU Congress stressed that the Soviet Union’s international standing has never 182 been so stable. The Soviet people have been living peacefully for almost four decades. The positions of the socialist countries have grown much stronger and detente has become the major trend in international relations.

p The Communist Party of the Soviet Union is consolidating and developing the Peace Programme advanced by the 24th Party Congress. At its 25th Congress the Party pointed out that the further struggle for peace and for the freedom and independence of peoples requires the following vital tasks to be fulfilled:

p —While steadily strengthening their unity and expanding their all-round cooperation in building a new society, the fraternal socialist states must increase their joint active contribution to the consolidation of peace.

p —Work must be done to terminate the expanding arms race, which is endangering peace, and reduce the accumulated stockpiles of arms, and to bring about disarmament. For this purpose everything must be done to complete the preparation of a new Soviet-US agreement on strategic arms limitation and reduction, and to conclude international treaties on a universal and complete ban of nuclear weapons tests, on banning and destroying chemical weapons, and on banning the development of new types and systems of weapons of mass destruction. It is also necessary to convene, at the earliest date possible, a World Disarmament Conference.

p —The efforts of peace-loving states should be 183 concentrated on eliminating the remaining hotbeds of war, first and foremost in the Middle East.

p —International detente must be deepened and embodied in concrete forms of mutually beneficial cooperation between states. Vigorous work should be done to ensure the full implementation of the Final Act of the Helsinki Conference.

p —The security of Asia must be ensured, based on joint efforts by the states of that continent.

p —Work should be done towards concluding an international treaty on the renunciation of force in international relations.

p —Great emphasis is laid on the international task of completely eliminating all vestiges of the system of colonial oppression, infringement of the equality and independence of peoples, and all seats of colonialism and racialism.

p —Discrimination and all artificial barriers in international trade must be eliminated, as must all manifestations of inequality and exploitation in international economic relations.

p This programme reflects in concrete terms the Soviet policy of peaceful coexistence and detente.

p The new Soviet Constitution, adopted in October 1977, contains a special chapter on the foreign policy of the Soviet state. Article 28 proclaims, in particular, that ‘the USSR steadfastly pursues a Leninist policy of peace and stands for strengthening of the security of nations and broad international cooperation.’  [183•1 

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p ‘In the USSR,’ the Constitution goes on, ‘war propaganda is banned.’  [184•1 

The Soviet Union strives to make the positive processes and changes that are currently taking place on the international scene stable and irreversible. The CPSU is confident that the future belongs to this policy.

What is the attitude of young people toward the
Soviet foreign policy?

p ’To preserve this Earth of ours and to leave it to the rising generation with all its wealth and beauty unscarred by a nuclear holocaust—this, as we see it, is the goal to which the thoughts of humanity should be directed. The Soviet Union is doing everything in its power to maintain and consolidate peace. We trust that your future, dear young friends, will be the happiness of free labour on a peaceful planet.’  [184•2  These words, from Leonid Brezhnev’s speech at the 18th YCL Congress, evoked a most enthusiastic response on the part of the Soviet youth.

p The Komsomol, as all Soviet youth, wholeheartedly supports the peaceful foreign policy of the CPSU and the Soviet state.

p Today, the activities of the Komsomol have the following aims: the further consolidation of friendship and cooperation with the young people of the socialist countries and with their youth leagues; the development and deepening of 185 cooperation with the communist youth leagues of the industrialised capitalist countries and the developing states on the basis of the principles of proletarian internationalism; all-round support for the struggle waged by young people in the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America for economic and political independence against imperialist monopolies and against all traces of racism, apartheid and colonialism; the broadening of contacts and consolidation of ties with communist and other progressive organisations abroad who are fighting for the peace and security of nations, against the arms race and for national and social emancipation.

During the sixty years of its existence the Komsomol has always been a consistent supporter of the ideas of peace and friendship among nations, and of the policy of peaceful coexistence between countries with different social systems.

What are the international ties of the
Komsomol and the Soviet youth?

p Proletarian internationalism has always been one of the major principles of the international workers’ and communist movement. Lenin stressed that true internationalism consists not in the verbal recognition of the working people’s international solidarity, but in its practical realisation.

p The ideas of proletarian internationalism have been a decisive factor in the Komsomol’s activities ever since its birth in October 1918.

p Lenin attached great importance to the question of the Komsomol’s international cooperation 186 with the working youth of the whole world. In a conversation with a group of delegates to the First Congress of the Russian Young Communist League Lenin advised the Komsomol’s Central Committee to establish contacts immediately with the International Bureau of Socialist Youth and carry out its activities in cooperation with the Youth International. The programme adopted by the RYCL Congress pointed out that Soviet Russia’s Komsomol was one of the contingents of the Youth International. Thus the Russian Young Communist League expressed its internationalist character and its loyalty to the cause of the international proletarian solidarity right from its inception.

p At the time of the Civil War and foreign military intervention the main internationalist duty of the RYCL boiled down to the need to defend the gains of the Great October Revolution. Therefore, the Komsomol appealed to the democratic youth of the whole world to render all-out support to the just struggle of the Soviet people in defence of the world’s first workers’ and peasants’ state. ‘The interests of the working youth throughout the world are the same,’ ran the RYCL appeal, ‘as is its enemy—the exploiters of the whole world. Young proletarians in France, Britain and other countries, protest against the interference of your governments in Russia’s affairs. Demand that they stop their assistance to the counter- revolutionary armies of the Russian bourgeoisie. . .’

p At the same time, in pursuance of its 187 internationalist duty, the Soviet youth rendered moral assistance and material aid to the young communist movement in many Western countries. The RYCL Central Committee adopted a special resolution on holding a ‘Red Day of Assistance’ for the proletarian youth of the West. And an aid fund was collected all over the country on 24 June 1920.

p The Komsomol expanded its ties with the fraternal youth leagues, supported the unity of the international working-class movement and the unity of the young workers in their struggle against imperialism. The contacts between the Komsomol and the Western youth communist leagues became ever stronger with the widening of communication channels and information exchange.

p The Komsomol offered its sister organisations abroad wide opportunities to learn about the activities of Soviet youth and to strengthen international cooperation through an exchange of delegations. The YCL Central Committee invited young workers in Germany, Austria and France to visit the Soviet Union. Such visits of foreign youth delegations and their meetings with young Soviet workers turned, as a rule, into manifestations of strengthening proletarian solidarity.

p The broadening of internationalist ties gave rise to such a fine tradition as the exchange of banners. The banners which the Soviet Komsomol cells presented to their foreign colleagues were carried at mass demonstrations in Hamburg, in the suburbs of Paris and in the streets of Rome. At the 188 same time, on festive occasions such as May Day or the Revolution Anniversary the Soviet youth carried the banners of the fraternal youth leagues from Austria, Italy, Britain, France and other countries.

p In the 1930s the worldwide struggle against fascism spurred the further expansion of the Komsomol’s international ties. To win young people over to the side of the Communists and all other progressive forces fighting against the fascist ideology became one of the major tasks of the Young Communist International and the Leninist Young Communist League.

p In the pre-war years the main spheres of the League’s international work were participation in international anti-imperialist and anti-fascist congresses, conferences, meetings and rallies. Delegations of Soviet students and young people participated in such representative youth forums as the International Anti-War and Anti-Fascist Youth Congress (held in Paris in 1933), the World Students’ Congress (Brussels, 1934) at which the struggle against the threat of war and fascist reaction was discussed; the World Youth Conference, held in Paris in 1935, and the Second World Youth-for-Peace Congress, held in 1938 in Vassar College near New-York City.

p The proletarian solidarily of Soviet youth is solidarity in action. This was vividly demonstrated in the late 1930s, when assistance was rendered to the Spanish people in their struggle against reaction and fascism. At industrial enterprises, collective farms, institutes and schools people collected 189 funds to help republican Spain. Soviet Komsomol members voluntarily joined anti-fascist internationalist brigades on the side of the Spanish republic in order to fight the insurgents and their supporters.

p With the beginning of the Second World War and the treacherous attack of Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union, the League’s international ties were completely subordinated to the defence of the country and the strengthening of the antifascist front of the world’s youth. The first antifascist meeting of Soviet youth, which adopted an appeal to the world’s youth, took place on 28 September 1941 in Moscow. The appeal voiced a firm belief in the victory over fascism and called on the progressive youth abroad to strengthen the anti-fascist front.

p In many countries of the world young friends of the Soviet Union started an anti-fascist campaign. In Britain, for example, a Soviet-English Friendship Committee was formed, including members of parliament, writers and artists. The Committee organised the collection of presents for the Red Army and staged mass demonstrations and meetings in support of the heroic struggle of the Soviet people.

p An Anti-Fascist Committee of Soviet Youth was established in the Soviet Union, whose aim was to develop cooperation with the progressive youth organisations abroad and inform their foreign colleagues about the work, struggle and life of Soviet young people.

p The mission of a Soviet youth delegation to the 190 United States, Britain and Canada in the autumn of 1942 was very important for the development of cooperation among young people in the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition. Over a period of 130 days the delegation visited 43 towns in North America, where the Soviet representatives made speeches at puhlic meetings.

p The Soviet youth delegation participated in the work of the International Students’ Conference in Washington in 1942 and the Internationl Conference of Youth Organisations held in Britain the same year, in which 30 countries took part. The latter conference adopted the ‘Appeal for Action in the Struggle Against Fascist Aggressors’. With a deep sense of gratitude and admiration the participants spoke about the heroism of the Red Army and the heroic deeds of Soviet youth.

p During the war years the Anti-Fascist Committee of Soviet Youth maintained friendly relations with almost 150 youth organisations in the United States, Great Britain, China, Cuba, Uruguay, Chile and other countries. In 1943 the Committee organised an exhibition of photographic documents under the general title ‘The Komsomol in the Great Patriotic War’, which was shown in many towns and cities around Britain. In 1944, on the occasion of the Red Army’s 26th Anniversary, a meeting of young combat officers representing the armies of the Soviet Union, Great Britain, the United States and Canada, the French Air-Force unit Normandie-Niemen and the Czechoslovakian troops stationed in the USSR, was held. 191 Representatives of the British and Canadian embassies and of the Australian mission also participated.

p The third plenary meeting of the Anti-Fascist Committee of Soviet Youth (held in May, 1944) addressed an appeal to the young soldiers and officers of the allied armed forces fighting in Europe and to the Soviet-English Friendship Committee. This appeal contained a list of concrete tasks facing the young people in the countries of the anti-Nazi coalition during the allied troops’ offensive.

p The victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War and the end of World War II brought radical changes in the international situation: the forces of imperialism were weakened—a fact that led to further consolidation of the democratic youth movement, which in the course of the Second World War and the common struggle against fascist aggression was getting organised into a unified international movement.

p The Soviet youth took an active part in the preparations for and running of the World Youth Conference (October-November, 1945), which established the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY), and the First Congress of Students (August, 1946) which founded the International Union of Students (IUS).

p In the first post-war years the international ties of the League and of the Anti-Fascist Committee of Soviet Youth developed further: in the period from 1944 to 1947 some 48 delegations from 22 countries visited the Soviet Union. The 192 decisions of the 20th CPSU Congress (held in 1956) were of fundamental importance for the further consolidation of the Komsomol’s international links. Having analysed the international activities of the Komsomol and the Anti-Fascist Committee in the spirit of the 20th Party Congress, a plenary meeting of the YCL Central Committee (April 1956) elaborated a broad programme for consolidating and strengthening international cooperation. In July of that year the Conference of the Soviet Youth Organisations decided to disband the AntiFascist Committee and establish instead the USSR Committee of Youth Organisations (CYO USSR). A Students’ Council, established under the auspices of the above Committee, was entrusted with the task of strengthening and developing international ties of Soviet students.

p The USSR Committee of Youth Organisations is a public body which represents the interests of Soviet young people in the international democratic youth movement. The Committee’s Rules stipulate that it coordinates the activities of Soviet youth and children’s organisations, with the aim of strengthening friendship and cooperation with youth associations abroad.

p The Committee also represents the interests of the Soviet young people in such Soviet public organisations as the Soviet Peace Committee, the Union of Soviet Societies for Friendship and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, Soviet Afro-Asian Solidarity Committee, and others.

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p In August 1956 the YCL Central Committee and the CYO USSR jointly elaborated a broad programme of relations with the youth organisations of the socialist developing countries. This programme aimed, in essence, to improve ties and cooperation in solving concrete economic development problems; it also hoped to establish and expand the direct links between the republican, regional and district committees of the YCL and the corresponding organisations in these countries.

p For the purpose of encouraging international tourism, Sputnik, the International Youth Travel Bureau, was set up in June 1958. The 1950s were also marked by greater cooperation with youth communist leagues and by contacts with youth associations in the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

p During the 1960s and 1970s the Komsomol continued the traditions of international solidarity with young fighters abroad, against imperialism, for peace, and their peoples’ security, democracy and social progress.

p The most prominent features of socialist internationalism are mutual assistance and fraternal cooperation in the building of socialism and communism. The YCL’s relations with the youth leagues of the socialist countries are based on the principle of equality and guided by the wish to see that the unity, solidarity and mutual assistance of young people in the fraternal socialist countries bring the maximum benefit both for their national and international interests.

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p The unification of the democratic youth forces is inseparably linked with the propagation of the principles on which the friendship of nations and the struggle against bourgeois nationalism and for the international solidarity of the youth movement rest. In the course of this struggle the conditions are shaped for working out the youth movement’s unified strategy.

p The international contacts of Soviet youth are convincing evidence of its fidelity to the principles of Marxism-Leninism. Stressing the importance of proletarian internationalism Leonid Brezhnev stated at the 25th Congress: ‘We Soviet Communists consider defence of proletarian internationalism the sacred duty of every MarxistLeninist.’  [194•1 

The international links of the Soviet younger generation are gradually expanding, and comprise almost all aspects of the socio-political life and work of the progressive youth of the world. To sum up, the international activities of the YCL represent a school of proletarian and socialist internationalism for all Soviet and foreign young people.

What.-is the Komsomol’s contribution to the
Peace Movement?

p The Soviet people play a most active part in all activities of the world’s peace forces, and the Komsomol makes 4 sizable contribution to this noble 195 cause. The YCL regards its efforts to safeguard peace as an important international task, as a part of the anti-imperialist movement and of the struggle against neocolonialism, for democracy and social progress.

p Soviet young people, with the YCL as its vanguard, take an active part in the preparation and holding of World Youth Festivals. The first such festival was staged in Prague in 1947. Today, these traditional youth rallies have become important landmarks in the international youth movement. They hold a special place in the history of the struggle of progressive forces.

p The YCL repeatedly sponsored a number of big anti-war events, among which the World Youth Forums of 1961 and 1964 should be given a special mention. These forums adopted such important documents as the Message to World Youth from the World Youth Forum and a number of resolutions ‘On the Banning of Nuclear Weapons’, ‘On Detente’, the ‘Appeal to the Governments of All Countries’ and a declaration calling for opposition to the danger of a thermonuclear war.

p The struggle for peace was furthered by the adoption by the Warsaw Treaty countries of the Declaration on Strengthening Peace and Security in Europe (July, 1966), by the decisions of the Conference of the Communist Parties of Europe in Karlovy Vary (April, 1967) on the question of European security, and by the decisions taken at the International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties (1969). Acting in the spirit of these 196 decisions, the YCL actively participated in youth conferences and meetings, whose participants discussed the problems of averting the danger of a new world war and the need for disbanding aggressive military blocs and for security and cooperation in Europe.

p The YCL actively supports the campaign to stop the arms race, started by the new Stockholm Appeal, which was adopted by the World Peace Council on 2 July 1975.

p The signing of the Final Act at the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe on 1 August 1975 in Helsinki gave new impetus to the struggle waged by the progressive forces of the world for peace and peaceful coexistence between states with different social systems.

p The YCL sees one of its main tasks in supporting the struggle waged by peace forces for the realisation of the main provisions of the Final Act, for detente and for supplementing political detente with military detente.

p In the wake of the agreements reached in Helsinki, an All-European Youth and Students Meeting was convened in June 1976 in Warsaw. This meeting, conducted under the slogan ‘For Stable Peace, Security, Cooperation and Social Progress’, became a major milestone in the development of cooperating among young Europeans.

p The YCL initiated numerous major political events involving young people, such as the worldwide ‘Youth Accuses Imperialism’ campaign (in 197 1970), ‘Youth for Anti-Imperialist Solidarity, Peace and Social Progress’ (in 1974), the world youth meeting ‘Leninism and the Struggle of Youth for Peace, National Independence and Social Progress’ (in 1970), the World Meeting of the Working Youth (in 1972) and the World Meeting of Young women (in 1975) to name but a few.

p The Komsomol’s efforts were highly praised on numerous occasions by the progressive youth of the whole world. For example, the appeal of the World Meeting of Young Women (1975) to Soviet young women stressed that, together with entire Soviet people, the Soviet youth was making an important contribution to the peace movement and the struggle for the national liberation, social emancipation and vital rights of young people around the globe.

p The further development of fraternal international ties with the progressive youth in the industrialised capitalist countries and with their communist youth leagues is one of the important directions of the Komsomol’s international activities. The forms which these ties assume are numerous: participation in the fraternal leagues’ congresses, delegation exchanges, educational tours and the holding of Days and Weeks of Friendship. Seminars on the questions of Marxist-Leninist theory and meetings devoted to the urgent problems of the international communist and democratic youth movement have also become an established practice. 198 Numerous ties and contacts between the YCL and the communist and democratic youth leagues of the capitalist countries allow young people to exchange the vast experience of political work among the masses.

p The joint actions of youth leagues with different political platforms and orientations occupy an important place in the youth anti-war movement. Recent experience has shown that the views held by different youth groups have grown considerably closer, especially concerning the struggle for the relaxation of international tension and for peaceful coexistence between countries with different social systems. Thus, the cooperation of Soviet young people with young SocialDemocrats in the Federal Republic of Germany, Finland, Belgium, Denmark, Norway and other countries has recently received a considerable boost.

p The successes in the struggle for peace and security and, in particular, the signing of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe created favourable conditions for the establishment of new contacts and the further development of relations with a number of governmental and pro-governmental youth organisations in the West.

While pressing for unity of action and cooperation between different youth contingents in the struggle for peace, against imperialism and reaction, the YCL resolutely opposes Right-wing groups, Left-wing extremists and the splintering 199 activities of revisionists and Trotskyists in the youth movement.

What forms does the friendship and
cooperation between the youth of the Soviet Union
and the other socialist countries take?

p The YCL persistently supports the unity and cohesion of the younger generation of the socialist community and hopes to increase the role of their youth leagues in the international communist and democratic youth movement. Solidarity with the peoples fighting against the aggressive policy of imperialism, for freedom, independence and social progress, has been the main feature of the joint activities of the socialist countries’ youth leagues on the international scene.

p In the YCL’s cooperation with the fraternal youth organisations a central place belongs today to the exchange of information and practical experience in the ideological, political and labour education of the rising generation, in the organisational forms involving youth in the active efforts aimed at establishing the material and technical basis of developed socialist society and the formation of the new social relations. The systematic help given by young people to big industrial projects has become a widespread phenomenon in the socialist countries. Shock labour at these projects has become a sort of practical school for young people.

p The construction of the Druzhba (Friendship) pipe-line is very indicative in this respect. This is one of the world’s longest oil pipe-lines, 200 Emacs-File-stamp: "/home/ysverdlov/leninist.biz/en/1980/KQA238/20070312/238.tx" stretching for some 5,000 km, and the YGL, the Czechoslovak Youth League, the League of Free German Youth, the Hungarian Communist Youth League and the League of Socialist Youth of Poland proclaimed it their joint project.

p The work and studies of socialist young people in the Soviet Union (take, for example, the work of several thousand Bulgarian workers and peasants done in the USSR since the summer of 1957) also helped to strengthen friendship and cooperation between the young people of these countries.

p Those forms of joint activities which appeared in the 1950s received considerable development in the 1960s and 1970s, especially in connection with the adoption of the Comprehensive Programme of socialist economic integration. In accordance with this Programme the membercountries of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance are building a number of big industrial projects: the pulp-and-paper complex in UstIlym, the asbestos ore-dressing combine in Orenburg Region and the 2,750-km gas pipe-line from Orenburg to the USSR western border. The youth leagues of the participating socialist countries play a big part in the building of these and similar projects. Young people from the socialist countries work on the building sites, and the GDR youth proclaimed the building of a section of the gas pipe-line running through Chernigov and Vinnitsa regions priority project No. 1.

p The participation of the fraternal youth leagues 201 in joint projects inculcates among young workers an understanding of common internationalist tasks in the building of socialism and communism.

p The cooperation between the socialist youth leagues has recently been marked by broadening relations. Thus the contacts between the central organs have been supplemented by diverse contacts between local organisations. For many years some 130 YCL republican, regional, town and district organisations have maintained contacts with 150 corresponding organisations in the socialist countries.

p With friendly relations between the peoples of the socialist community growing rapidly, massscale joint undertakings such as bilateral festivals, friendship weeks, reciprocal visits of young people to youth camps, etc., are very important. The YCL maintains such traditional forms of cooperation with the youth organisations of Bulgaria, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, the GDR, Hungary, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, and Vietnam. Thanks to these joint activities the young people of the socialist countries have an opportunity to establish new friendships and have detailed discussions of their work and of the problems of educating young people in the communist and internationalist spirit. Festivals and other massscale meetings represent an advanced forum for sharing the experience accumulated in the course of the fraternal youth leagues’ activities.

p Since the late 1950s international youth tourism 202 has played a big part in establishing closer contacts between the young people of the socialist countries. The relevant youth organisations spare no efforts to make tourist trips more interesting and to raise their efficiency as a part of the internationalist education of young people. Longterm programmes of cooperation have been signed between the Leninist Komsomol and most of the youth leagues of the socialist countries. Apart from defining the goals of cooperation, these documents specified the ways in which the joint activities of youth organisations can and should be boosted.

p The meeting of the leaders of the fraternal youth leagues of the eleven countries which took place in Moscow in November 1974, was convincing evidence of the growing friendship and cooperation which exists among the socialist countries’ youth.

p Another consultative meeting of the leaders of the socialist countries’ youth leagues, and their subsequent meeting with Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee in November 1976, were exceptionally important for the further strengthening of friendship among the socialist countries’ youth. Comrade Brezhnev expressed his satisfaction with the successful outcome of the youth leaders’ meeting and stressed that it would serve the cause of further deepening and consolidating the unity and cooperation of the democratic youth in its struggle for peace, national independence and social progress.

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p In developing its international ties, the YCL is guided by the instructions of the CPSU Central Committee, which stipulate that it is necessary to develop cooperation between Soviet youth and the young generation of the socialist countries.

The cooperation between the YCL, the entire Soviet youth, and the rising generation of the socialist countries is an integral part of the further rapprochement of the peoples of the socialist camp and the increasing unification of their economic, social and cultural lives.

How does Soviet youth demonstrate its solidarity
with the young people in the developing
countries?

p The YCL builds its relations with the progressive youth organisations in the developing countries on the principle laid down in the CPSU Programme, which states that ‘the CPSU considers fraternal alliance with the peoples who have thrown off colonial or semi-colonial yoke to be a corner-stone of its international policy. The CPSU regards it as its internationalist duty to assist the peoples who have set out to win and strengthen their national independence, all peoples who are fighting for the complete abolition of the colonial system.’  [203•1 

p Each year the YCL broadens its international contacts with young people in the developing countries. Thus, during the period from 1970 to 1974 alone, some 150 youth delegations from Africa and the Middle East, over 80 delegations 204 from Asia and about 100 from Latin America visited the Soviet Union.

p Central to the Komsomol’s cooperation with the young people of these countries is the support it gives to the peoples of Asia and Africa for the complete liquidation of colonialism and the vestiges of colonial rule as well as for the development of their economies and cultures.

p While giving assistance and support to the young people in the developing countries, the YCL actively tries to draw them into the international youth democratic movement, which, in turn, creates favourable opportunities for expanding the cooperation between the youth organisations in the socialist and developing countries in their struggle against imperialism.

p The history of the YCL’s international contacts contains an abundance of concrete examples of solidarity. In 1968-74 the World Youth Campaign of Action for the Final Victory of the People of Vietnam, for Freedom, Independence and Peace was carried out with the active participation and support of the YCL. This campaign, in which millions of Soviet young men and women took part, consisted of political, moral and material assistance for the patriotic forces in Indochina, and gave a strong impetus to the solidarity feelings of Soviet youth.

p After the victory of the Vietnamese people and the formation of a unified and independent socialist state—the Socialist Republic of Vietnam— the Soviet youth’s solidarity campaign grew into a 205 nation-wide Soviet Youth to the Young Generation of Vietnam campaign. True to the principles of proletarian internationalism, Soviet young men and women collected funds for designing and equipping the Young Pioneers’ Palace in Hanoi, general schools and a children’s hospital named after Nguyen Van Troi, a hero of the national liberation revolution.

p Soviet youth gave resolute support to the just struggle of the Arabs against Israeli aggression in the Middle East. The YCL allocated funds for the purchase of medical supplies, sent groups of Soviet doctors and construction teams to the states that fell victim to the aggression and provided other forms of aid.

p The ties between Soviet youth and the progressive youth organisations in Asia are developing successfully. Here the cooperation with the AllIndia Youth Federation and the All-India Students Federation, which operate under the guidance of the Communist Party of India, should primarily be mentioned. The YCL regularly exchanges delegations with them and jointly organises Youth Friendship Weeks. From December 1974 to March 1975 a Soviet Youth exhibition toured a number of Indian towns and cities.

p The Komsomol pays much attention to the national liberation movements in Africa. The YCL Central Committee and the USSR Committee of Youth Organisations regularly sent groups of specialists to give assistance in the 206 development of the national economy and culture of the liberated areas of Guinea-Bissau, Angola and Mozambique.

p Since the late 1950s the Soviet youth’s ties with the youth associations in the countries of Africa and the Middle East, operating under the guidance of the revolutionary-democratic and national liberation movements, have developed rapidly.

p The solidarity movement with the progressive youth of Chile is exceptionally important for the international activities of the USSR youth organisations. Thus, in June and July 1974 the seventh traditional Week of Friendship and Solidarity of Soviet and Chilean Youth was held in the Soviet Union. Under the slogan ‘World Youth Is With You, Chile!’ Soviet young people hold meetings of protest and organise material aid and moral support for the Chilean Komsomol members and all Chilean democrats fighting against the fascist junta. Soviet youth is active in staging international campaigns of solidarity with Chilean patriots, thus contributing to the activation of Chile’s progressive forces in their struggle against fascism and reaction.

p While developing its cooperation with the Latin American youth organisations the YCL pays much attention to the consolidation of fraternal links with, and support of, die communist youth leagues. The YCL attaches special importance to the activities of those youth leagues which operate clandestinely.

All these facts, which illustrate the YCL’s 207 international ties with the youth organisations in Asia, Africa and Latin America, make it possible to draw the conclusion that very concrete forms of cooperation between the YCL and the young people from these areas have been established recently. The YCL’s activities show that Soviet young people steadfastly perform their internationalist duty by giving help to all young fighters for national liberation and social emancipation.

What role does the Komsomol play in the
activities of the World Federation of Democratic
Youth?

p The participation of the YCL in the activities of the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) is one of the most important spheres of the international contacts of Soviet youth.

p The YCL contributed a lot to the establishment of the WFDY and to its role in the struggle for peace, democracy and social progress. Today, the World Federation of Democratic Youth is the most representative and authoritative international youth organisation, comprising over 200 national youth organisations from 105 countries.

p The contribution of Soviet youth, in particular of the YCL, to the development of the international democratic movement was highly praised in the WFDY’s message to the Eleventh YCL Congress (1949)—the first post-war YCL Congress. The message said that the peaceful work of Soviet young people was of international importance as a powerful stimulus to all young 208 democrats who are fighting in their countries for the abolition of social inequality, the exploitation of man by man and for the establishment of genuine democracy.

p In its turn the Eleventh Congress pledged that Soviet young people would honestly fulfil their historic duty, and obliged the Komsomol organisations to educate Soviet young people in the spirit of internationalism, friendship and solidarity with democratic youth of the world.

p We mentioned above how the YCL’s international links and those of the Anti-Fascist Committee of Soviet Youth, established in 1941, developed with other countries’ youth organisations.

p The YCL and the CYO USSR have actiyely participated in all WFDY and IUS undertakings by directing their efforts towards consolidating the democratic forces in the international youth movement. The Komsomol’s policy documents stress the necessity of strengthening the unity of the democratic youth movement and express support for the actions and aspirations of the young fighters against imperialism, colonialism, for peace, democracy and socialism. All YCL congresses summarise the results of activities carried out over the period under review, including the international ties of Soviet young people and, naturally, of the YCL with foreign youth organisations. The congresses also elaborate plans for future YCL cooperation with the youth organisations and young people of other countries.

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p The 15th YCL Congress (held in 1966) paid special attention to the strengthening of solidarity with the Vietnamese people’s struggle against the aggression of world imperialism. The Congress adopted an appeal to the progressive youth of the world to step up assistance and support for the just struggle waged by the Vietnamese patriots. It urged to take up a joint stand in defence of the just struggle of the Vietnamese people and, acting together with the progressive forces of the world, curb the aggressors and force them to leave Vietnam. Soviet youth gave substantial assistance to their Vietnamese brothers in the field of education.

p Summarising the results of the Komsomol’s international activities, the 16th YCL Congress (1970) stressed the tremendous importance of the documents adopted by the International Conference of the Communist and Workers’ Parties (1969). The efforts undertaken in the period since the previous Congress to expand the YCL’s international ties were commended at the 16th Congress. During this period the YCL and the CYO were engaged in cooperation with the communist and democratic youth organisations of 129 countries. In the same period 42 international and bilateral events were held in the Soviet Union, including Friendship Festivals. Some 461 foreign delegations visited the Soviet Union and 441 Soviet youth delegations went abroad.

p The Congress paid particular attention to the consolidation of the youth movement. The 210 Komsomol, stated a resolution of the 16th YCL Congress, will spare no efforts in its struggle against anti-communism, Right-wing opportunism and Left-wing extremism in the international revolutionary youth movement, carrying high the banner of proletarian internationalism and safeguarding the purity of Marxism-Leninism.

p The Congress unanimously confirmed that Lenin’s behest concerning the necessity of pooling young people’s efforts in the struggle for revolutionary internationalism has remained the central issue in the Komsomol’s international activities.

p After the Congress the YCL Central Committee and local Komsomol organs paid much attention to the expansion and further development of the international ties and solidarity of Soviet youth.

p In the period between the 17th and 18th YCL Congresses (April 1974 to April 1978) 634,000 young foreign tourists visited the Soviet Union and 533,000 Soviet young people went abroad on tours organised by Sputnik, the International Youth Travel Bureau.

p Today, the Komsomol cooperates with youth organisations in 130 countries.

p The YCL and the USSR Committee of Youth Organisations actively participated in the international actions carried out by the WFDY and the International Union of Students as part of the worldwide Youth Accuses Imperialism campaign and, above all, in the campaigns of 211 solidarity with the struggle of the peoples of Indochina, the Middle East countries and the young fighters for national liberation and social emancipation.

p This is how Josef Varga, Vice-Chairman of the World Federation of Democratic Youth appraised the Soviet youth’s contribution to the Federation’s activities: ‘In an attempt to give a brief answer to the question—what contribution does the Komsomol, Soviet youth make into the strengthening of international solidarity and into our Federation’s activities, I would answer in this way: great and very specific. I would only remind that it was on the YCL’s suggestion that the WFDY adopted a decision to carry out a worldwide Youth Accuses Imperialism campaign. Soviet young people give disinterested help to the peoples and youth of Indochina. The YCL regularly sends to the developing countries young doctors, skilful workers and civil engineers. For example, Soviet young people working in an international brigade of volunteers participated in the building of a secondary school in Cuba. I could cite many such examples, but, probably, the greatest merit of Soviet youth is its immense contribution into the building of communist society and strengthening the unity of the socialist community of countries and into the anti- imperialist struggle. And this, in turn, contributes to the successful activities of the WFDY, its growing authority and the fulfilment of the tasks which we are facing.’

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p The 18th YGL Congress (1974) stressed the special importance of the WFDY and IUS activities in the contemporary international youth movement, highly praised the contribution which they are making to the struggle of anti-imperialist and progressive forces for peace, security and cooperation between nations, and approved of the YGL’s policies in the World Federation of Democratic Youth and the International Union of Students. The Congress stated that the YCL would render active support to the activities of the WFDY and the IUS with their aim of stepping up the contribution of young people and students to the struggle of popular, democratic and progressive forces for peace, national independence, democracy and social progress.

p The YCL highly appreciates the fact that representatives of foreign youth delegations come to the YCL congresses. The speeches made by the heads of these delegations, and the meetings and talks which the representatives of young people from different countries have in the course of the various political and cultural events, impart to the YCL congresses the atmosphere of world youth forums. The exchange of views carried out at these congresses allows the experience of the fraternal leagues to be used for the solution of important problems faced by the entire international and democratic movement. A simple comparison of the number of guests at the YCL congresses—youth delegations from 44 countries at the 13th Congress in 1958 and from 213 107 at the 18th Congress—illustrates the growing international importance of YCL congresses. Representatives of 7 international youth organisations and of 135 communist, democratic and socialist youth leagues were present at the last Congress.

p The celebrations of the centenary of Lenin’s birth, held in 1970, was a big event which greatly contributed to the activism and unity of the world’s communist and democratic forces. In 1969 an international seminar Lenin and the World Today, and the Students’ Courses known as Lenin, Science, Education and Social Progress and Young Leninists in Artek were held in the Soviet Union. The central event in the whole jubilee campaign, however, was the world meeting of youth and students, held in June 1970 in Moscow and Leningrad under the title ‘ Leninism and the Struggle of Youth for Peace, Democracy, National Independence and Social Progress’, in which representatives of 141 youth organisations from 98 countries participated. A theoretical conference, ‘Lenin and the Revolutionary Education of Youth’, was one of the events on the meeting’s programme. The conference demonstrated a strong desire on the part of the world’s youth to master the theories of Leninism, and showed their readiness to fight imperialism in the name of social progress.

p The numerous demonstrations of youth solidarity carried out successfully by the WFDY show that it possesses the decisive factors needed to 214 unite the most diverse sections of the progressive democratic youth. The success of the youth movement largely depends on the unity of action of its contingents. Soviet youth therefore stands firm with the democratic youth of all countries and continents who are fighting against imperialism for a just peace on Earth. The YGL and CYO have done much to establish ties with different national and international organisations that are ready to cooperate in maintaining peace and consolidating detente. Other youth leagues from the socialist countries, which are also WFDY members, follow the same policies in their international activities.

p By acting in unison, the young people of the socialist community are expanding ties with the democratic youth organisations of the whole world with each passing year. The direct contacts between the socialist countries’ youth and the young people in the capitalist and developing countries promote the further consolidation of the international democratic youth movement.

In the 1960s and 1970s the young Soviet generation proved itself to be a worthy follower of the internationalist traditions of the older generations of the Soviet people. Soviet youth demonstrates its fidelity to the internationalist brotherhood of progressive youth around the world through all-round cooperation and solidarity with the fighters for peace, for national liberation and for the social emancipation of all working people.

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What is Sputnik?

p In the Soviet Union youth tourism develops mainly in the following directions: trips of Soviet youth abroad, the organisation of youth tourism inside the country, foreign youth travel in the Soviet Union and visits to youth camps.

p International youth tourist exchanges are one of the most popular forms of contact between young people of different countries. It accounts for an increasingly large share—over 50 per cent—of worldwide tourism. The 1950s saw the appearance of various youth travel bureaux in many countries of the world.

p On 24 June 1958 the YCL Central Committee adopted a resolution On the Organisation of Tourist Exchanges with Foreign Youth Organisations which stated that the central task of youth tourism was the further strengthening of fraternal ties with young people in the socialist countries, the broadening of political and cultural links between Soviet youth and young people in the capitalist countries, and the creation of additional favourable conditions for the spreading of truthful information about the life of the Soviet people. For this purpose the International Youth Travel Bureau, Sputnik, was set up to organise the travel of Soviet youth abroad and foreign young people across the Soviet Union.

p The international tourist exchanges of Soviet youth have been considerably developed in recent years.

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p The major sphere of development is the cooperation between the YCL and the Sputnik Travel Bureau, on the one hand, and the travel bureaux of youth leagues in the other socialist countries, on the other—which accounts for over 70 per cent of Soviet youth tourist exchanges. This fact reflects a logical trend towards consolidating and expanding cooperation between the young people of socialist community. The Communist parties of the socialist countries, government agencies and youth leagues promote massscale tourist travel by granting young tourists various privileges and by offering tourist trips as bonuses to those who excel in the development of socialist production. The socialist countries regard youth tourism as an important factor in the internationalist education of youth.

p Because of the interest in the Soviet Union shown by the socialist countries’ youth, the fraternal youth leagues are constantly stepping up tourist exchanges with the Soviet Union. They are anxious to ensure that all their young citizens have an opportunity to visit the USSR—the birthplace of the world’s first socialist revolution. The YGL creates the necessary conditions for meeting its foreign friends’ interests. The Komsomol, on the other hand, sees that as many Soviet young people as possible visit the other socialist countries.

p The tourist links with the socialist countries’ young people are fixed in the long-term programmes of all-round cooperation between the 217 YCL and the youth leagues of the GDR, Bulgaria, Hungary, Cuba, Poland, Czechoslovakia and other states.

p The youth tourist agencies in the socialist countries have accumulated considerable experience in organising travel for young people, exchanges of groups of specialists and students, so-called Friendship Trains and ship cruises.

p Sputnik maintains and develops business contacts with the progressive youth and students’ organisations of the capitalist and developing countries, with the trade union and tourist organisations and with the Friends of the Soviet Union societies in Austria, France, Switzerland, Sweden and other public associations. Tourist exchanges with the communist and democratic youth leagues in Finland, France, Italy, West Germany and Austria have expanded. Contacts with young people from twin-towns have also become more frequent.

p Contacts in the field of tourism with the rising generation of the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America and with the youth organisations of these continents have been consolidated and greatly developed over the past ten years.

p The CYO, the USSR Students’ Council and Sputnik offer various privileges for young people and students from Asia, Africa and Latin America during their travels in the Soviet Union.

p The Soviet Union hospitably welcomes guests from abroad who wish to get acquainted with the life of the Soviet people.

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p The official tours take foreign visitors to some 100 cities and towns across the Soviet Union: they may visit Moscow, Leningrad, Alma-Ata (Kazakhstan), Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Riga and Vilnius (in the Baltic Republics), Kiev (the Ukraine), Kishinev (Moldavia) and the worldfamous resorts of Yalta and Sochi. Visits to Siberia where tourists can see such towns as Novosibirsk and Bratsk, and to the ancient Russian town of Rostov (Yaroslavl Region), are very rewarding. The sites of international youth camps in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Tataria and various other places are also worth visiting.

p The itineraries of foreign guests are tailored to meet the interests of all kinds of tourists visiting the country.

p Sputnik works in conjunction with numerous youth, public and state organisations. Representatives of the CYO, the Union of Soviet Societies for Friendship and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, and of different plants, factories, universities and collective farms participate in the reception of various groups of foreign tourists.

p Tourists are given an opportunity to meet prominent Soviet scientists, actors, writers and other public figures. Such state bodies as the USSR Ministry of Higher and Specialised Secondary Education and the USSR State Committee for Vocational Training help foreign tourists meet representatives of different sections of Soviet youth.

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p In the course of these meetings Soviet young people discuss with the visitors the most topical international problems and readily answer their guests’ questions about various aspects of Soviet young people’s life.

p Tourist trips of Soviet youth abroad also serve the cause of strengthening international friendship and cooperation among the young people of the world. Young tourists, from all corners of the Soviet Union and belonging to different sections of the population, go on visits to many countries of the world. The Komsomol regards youth tourism as an effective means of establishing direct contacts between Soviet young people and their foreign counterparts, and therefore attaches great importance to such contacts. Tourism satisfies the desire of young people to get acquainted with the past and present of the world. It provides wide opportunities to establish contacts and make friends with new people. Moreover, it allows people to come together regularly and exchange opinions on the central problems faced by the rising generation.

p Today, a typical feature of the Soviet people’s travels abroad is the increase in tours organised for those belonging to a particular profession or trade. These account for over 33 per cent of all trips made by Soviet people abroad. In a short time this type of tourism has proved what great opportunities are available for business contacts between young people of different countries. Progress in science and technology inevitably 220 encourages young people engaged in modern industry to establish personal contacts for sharing production experience, methods of training and achieving high labour productivity.

p The international tourist ties of Soviet young people occupy a prominent place in the USSR’s programme for cultural cooperation with other countries.

p The cold war and its aftermath hampered the development of youth tourist exchanges and damaged the relations between young people of different countries. It is important to note that tourism has been an effective instrument in the struggle for detente and for better relations between peoples.

p The communique of the World Congress of Peace-Loving Forces (held in Moscow in 1973) stressed the exceptional importance of educating the younger generation with the help of various forms of tourism and pointed to the necessity of easing travel to other countries for professional and personal purposes. One of the Congress commissions, concerned with the problems of cooperation in the field of education and culture, pointed to the necessity of developing mass-scale international tourism accessible to the widest possible sections of the population.

The motto of the international tourist movement, for whose development the YCL shows great concern, is the unity and solidarity of the world’s progressive youth in the struggle for peace, national independence and social progress.

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What is the Students’ Council?

p The USSR Students’ Council already mentioned above, was established under the auspices of the Committee of Youth Organisations in July 1956. Its goals are to provide internationalist education for Soviet students, to consolidate cooperation and mutual understanding with students organisations abroad and to ensure that Soviet students participate in various international events.

p The Council has greatly contributed to the development of Soviet students’ international contacts, including the exchange of delegations. Every year a large number of delegations of students come from the other socialist countries, the countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America and Western Europe. Such visits promote better understanding among students of different countries of the world, broaden foreign guests’ knowledge of students’ life in the Soviet Union and of the system of higher education. In return, delegations of Soviet students go on visits abroad to learn about the life of students there.

p The USSR Students’ Council extends help to young foreigners receiving higher education in the USSR by awarding grants to those who were recommended to come and study by progressive youth and students’ organisations. Some of the Council’s grants are given to foreign students recommended either by the World Federation of Democratic Youth or by the International Union of Students.

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p The first group of foreign students from Asia and Africa—scholarship-holders of the Council—arrived in the Soviet Union in 1956. Today, thousands of students from the developing countries undergo training in the USSR.

p Students’ councils in Soviet higher educational establishments help foreign students with their studies and make sure that they become acquianted with the various aspects of Soviet life. Foreign students are invited to participate in the public affairs of their universities or colleges by organising and participating in different cultural and sports events. In many Soviet cities there are student international debating clubs where Soviet and foreign students can discuss various problems.

p There is a tradition among Soviet students of taking summer jobs during their vacations, and foreign students also participate in such projects. Moreover, there is an exchange programme of students’ work teams between Soviet educational establishments and those of the socialist countries. (The nature of students’ work teams and summer jobs was described earlier.)

p The development of Soviet students’ contacts in the field of sports and tourism is an essential part of the work of the USSR Students’ Council. The students’ sports society Burevestnik maintains numerous contacts with its counterparts abroad. The Soviet students’ tourist contacts are also growing. For example, many Soviet students go abroad on special Friendship Trains to 223 participate in various events staged in the socialist countries or to attend students’ festivals. Groups of student amateur artists also go on tours abroad.

p A direct exchange of groups of students between related educational establishments in the USSR and in other countries is also practised, especially in view of the traditional links existing between twin-towns such as Moscow and Berlin, Helsinki and Leningrad, Kiev and Leipzig, etc.

p The 1960s were marked by the intensification of social and political activism among students in the capitalist countries, and by their struggle for peace and democracy and against imperialist wars and aggression. In the course of this struggle many students in the West were attracted by socialist ideas. In their search for answers to their problems many foreign students turn again and again to Lenin’s theories.

p Considering this increasing interest in Leninism, the USSR Students’ Council started International Students’ Summer Courses. Ever since the first successful course, they have attracted young people of various political and ideological beliefs. The first course, opened in 1960, was held at a youth camp in the Crimea under the motto, ‘Lenin, Science, Education and Social Progress’.

p In 1970 the progressive students of the world celebrated the centenary of Lenin’s birth, and a Soviet-Danish students’ seminar ‘Lenin and Youth’ was held in Tampere. It is indicative that all the university corporations, students’ and youth 224 organisations of Finland, despite their differing political views, sent representatives.

p The Council’s multifarious activities are widely acclaimed by foreign students. On the eve of the Lenin’s centenary there was a meeting of the Committee of Scholarship-Holders of the USSR Students’ Council. In its message to all foreign students currently studying in the Soviet Union it stated: ‘We express our gratitude to the Soviet Union for giving us an opportunity to study in the country which is the great Lenin’s birthplace. The knowledge that we obtain here we need for continuing the revolutionary process of economic and social development in our countries. While celebrating Lenin’s jubilee together with the entire democratic and progressive movement, we hold that our best tribute would be the further profound study of Lenin’s theoretical heritage.’

In their turn, thanks to the broad international ties of the USSR Students’ Council, Soviet students have an opportunity to learn about the life of students abroad and strengthen friendship and solidarity with them.

How do Soviet students contribute to activities
of the IUS?

p Soviet students pay much attention to strengthening solidarity ties with all progressive students abroad. They give foreign students all possible assistance and support in their struggle for peace, democracy, social progress and students’ rights against imperialism, colonialism and neocolonialism. Correspondingly, the USSR Students’ 225 Council is a participant in the activities of the International Union of Students, the vanguard of progressive students throughout the world.

p The YCL and Soviet students gave great support to the internationalist unity of students during World War II. The common struggle against Nazism united democratic students, paving the way for the establishment of the International Union of Students (IUS) in August 1946. Ever since Soviet students have participated in its activities.

p The progressive anti-imperialist platform of the IUS unites broad sections of students from all continents. Soviet students invariably participate in all IUS campaigns of solidarity with the peoples, youth and students in countries fighting for national independence, for their democratic rights and freedoms, and against imperialism, colonialism, neocolonialism, reactionary and dictatorial regimes, race discrimination and fascism. The most important aim of the Soviet students’ activities in the IUS is to drive home to their colleagues in the capitalist countries that inseparable links exist between the students’ interests and the goals of the students’ struggle, on the one hand, and the basic problems of international life and the tasks which the broad working masses and all progressive mankind are facing, on the other. Thus, in the first post-war years Soviet students gave considerable help through the IUS to students in the capitalist countries in their struggle to broaden academic rights and freedoms and 226 to liquidate vestiges of fascism in the universities and other educational establishments.

p In the period of the cold war unleashed by imperialist circles in the West, the struggle to achieve peace and avert a new world war, and to halt the arms race, became the most important aspect of the Soviet students’ activities in the IUS, They actively helped to collect signatures for the first Stockholm Appeal demanding a ban on nuclear weapons, and for another petition calling for a Peace Pact to be signed by the five great powers. The campaign to stop US aggression in Korea assumed huge proportions, with Soviet students playing a big part in the IUS activities by drawing students from other countries into it. The progressive students resolutely condemned the colonial wars waged by Britain, France and Holland in Southeast Asia.

p World Youth Festivals, which had originally been sponsored by the YCL and Soviet students, became the biggest events conducted by the WFDY and the IUS in defence of peace.

p In the IUS the Soviet students pay much attention to strengthening the unity of the international students’ movement. This unity was disrupted during the cold war as a result of the divisive activities of Right-wing student leaders from the national students’ unions in the United States, Britain, the Netherlands and other capitalist states. The Soviet students unmasked the reactionary activities of these divisive elements and revealed the proimperialist orientation of the International 227 Students’ Conference, with its apolitical concept of students, and urged students in the capitalist countries to cooperate in the struggle to solve the urgent problems faced by society and the student community.

p The Soviet students’ activities in the IUS reached a new peak during the upsurge in the international students’ movement in the latter half of the 1960s. At that time the Soviet students paid special attention to the development of the students’ solidarity movement with Vietnam and other countries in Indochina which fell victim to US aggression. The Soviet students’ appeal, supported by the IUS, to oppose the aggression, evoked a broad, favourable response.

p The World Youth Campaign of Action for the Final Victory of the People of Vietnam for Freedom, Independence and Peace became a new stage in the solidarity movement. The campaign was launched by the IUS and the WFDY at the Ninth World Youth Festival (in Sofia in 1968) and from the outset enjoyed the Soviet students’ support.

p The Soviet students played the leading role in launching the solidarity movement with the Arab peoples and Arab students in their struggle against Israeli aggression. A number of international events, such as the International Conference of Solidarity with the Struggle of Peoples in Southern Africa and the Portuguese Colonies,, the international conference ‘Students and the African National-Liberation Movement’ and 228 the international conference for a just settlement of the Middle East conflict, etc., were organised by the IUS.

The progressive trends in the students’ movement can easily be traced in Europe. They are reflected in the European students’ decision to participate more actively in the struggle for detente, peace, security and cooperation on the continent. Soviet students sponsored a number of conferences and meetings in the IUS which contributed to better understanding and greater cooperation among European students.

How does Soviet youth participate in the
festival movement?

p World festival movement was born in 1947 when 17,000 young men and women from 71 countries came to Prague for their first festival. Since then young people of the world have gathered ten times at its most representative forums— in Budapest and Berlin, Bucharest and Warsaw, Moscow and Vienna, Helsinki and Sofia and again in Berlin. Over 25,000 young people representing 140 countries of the world arrived at the Tenth World Youth Festival in Berlin, which was held in June-August 1973. They represented some 1,700 political, trade union, sports, tourist and other organisations. Representatives of the progressive youth took part in hundreds of antiwar meetings and demonstrations, and adopted important documents, calling upon young people to fight for peace and friendship among nations. If over 250,000 young men and women have 229 officially participated in all ten World Youth Festivals, conducted under the banners of peace, friendship, and solidarity in the anti-imperialist struggle, then many millions of young people helped to prepare for them and organise political campaigns linked with the festival movement.

p All the preparatory work was coordinated by the International Preparatory Committee and National Preparatory Committees. It should be mentioned here that in some countries these national committees have turned into permanent youth associations and this, in turn, has helped to streamline joint actions and improved the cooperation between different youth organisations.

p In this way the festival movement has become the most vivid manifestation of the progressive youth’s striving for peace and friendship. The WFDY, the IUS, the YCL and the youth leagues of the socialist countries actively participate in the preparation and holding of World Youth Festivals.

p Because of their socio-political impact these festivals have far exceeded the limits of purely youth events and become one of the most, popular contemporary movements and mass demonstrations of the world’s peace-loving forces.

p Taking the Tenth World Youth Festival as an example, let us assess the scale of these international festivities and the extent to which the YCL and Soviet youth were involved. The Tenth Festival had a programme previously unheard-of in terms of its diversity and scope—over 1,500 230 events, including mass rallies, demonstrations, international and national concerts, contests, clubs and many, many more.

p The opening ceremony, conducted at the Weltjugend Stadium in Berlin on July 28, was a demonstration of the unity of young people, in spite of having different political views, in their struggle for anti-imperialist solidarity, peace and friendship.

p During the preparation for this festival National Preparatory Committees were set up in over 100 countries of the world. This made it possible to involve almost all leading national and students’ organisations in the festival movement. The National Committees contributed greatly to the unification of progressive young people on an anti-war and anti-imperialist platform. The two international centres—the World Federation of Democratic Youth and the International Union of Students—again acted as chief organisers.

p The preparatory work prior to the Festival turned into constructive cooperation between the different contingents of democratic youth and established the basis for further effective undertakings.

p Soon after the successful Tenth Festival, the International Preparatory Committee decided to hold the next Eleventh Festival in Cuba in .1078.

p Preparations for the Eleventh Festival began under new conditions: thanks to the efforts of the Soviet Union, the other countries of the 231 socialist community and all peace-loving and progressive forces, detente was progressing and the principle of peaceful coexistence between states with different social systems was gaining recognition. The practical realisation of the Peace Programme, advanced by the 24th CPSU Congress (in 1971) and further developed at the 25th CPSU Congress (1976) has contributed to the general climate of relaxation of tension throughout the world. (We have already mentioned that the Peace Programme and its goals correspond to the vital needs of all people around the globe. The international democratic youth and students’ movements approved the decisions of the 25th CPSU Congress).

p In conditions of detente, the growing cooperation between different sections of young people has become a hallmark of the youth movement. In many cases preliminary contacts paved the way to concrete joint action aimed at solving many problems. It should be pointed out that the first signs of cooperation between young people with different political views appeared when ideological struggle markedly intensified under the conditions of detente. The USSR youth organisations, which make no secret of their convictions and fundamental principles, are ready to cooperate with youth organisations which profess different views, provided they are prepared to join them in the struggle for peace, freedom and independence of peoples. Soviet youth organisations are ready for such joint undertakings 232 with young social-democrats, socialists, Christian democrats and other youth organisations.

p The various youth and students’ organisations which participated in the work of the International Preparatory Committee approved the Festival’s motto—For Anti-Imperialist Solidarity, Peace and Friendship—and an Appeal to the world’s students and youth, which mapped out the main directions and stages of the Festival’s preparation and also outlined the future platform of the new youth forum. The International Preparatory Committee called on the world’s youth and students to start, as part of the preparations for the Festival, a broad joint campaign for peace, security, and the principle of peaceful coexistence between states with different social systems.

p As part of the preparations for the Eleventh Festival, the world’s progressive youth intensified their support of the struggle waged by Chilean patriots and democrats against the crimes of the fascist junta, and showed their solidarity with the Arab peoples fighting for a just and stable peace in the Middle East, with the young people of Asia, Africa and Latin America in their struggle against imperialism, colonialism and neocolonialism, racism and apartheid, and with the people in southern Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe who were fighting for liberation. They also supported the establishment of just and equitable international economic relations.

p Even today, the socio-economic problems of the 233 rising generation in capitalist countries remain urgent. In the period between the Tenth and Eleventh Festivals the young people of these countries continued their struggle against monopoly exploitation and mass unemployment, for democratic freedoms and social improvement.

p The International Preparatory Committee attached special importance to the solidarity of the world’s democratic youth with the people of Cuba, the host country of the Eleventh Youth Festival.

p The political platform of the Eleventh World Youth Festival (1978) evoked a broad response and found support among the progressive youth and students’ organisations.

p As part of their preparations for the Festival, the YCL and Soviet youth carried out a great deal of political work, including their participation in the worldwide campaign Youth for AntiImperialist Solidarity, Peace and Social Progress. The All-Union Festival of Soviet Youth, dedicated to the YCL’s 60th Anniversary, was an important stage in the preparatory work.

p The Eleventh World Youth Festival became a powerful demonstration in favour of peace, antiimperialist solidarity, consolidating detente, developing mutual understanding and friendship between peoples and averting the danger of a new world war.

p From 28 July to 5 August 1978 the capital of Cuba welcomed some 18,500 delegates from 145 countries and about 2,000 organisations 234 representing different political, philosophical and religious views.

p During the preparations for the Festival, the cooperation of progressive youth leagues and unions became even more varied in form and content.

p The message unanimously adopted by the 18th YCL Congress, in connection with the Eleventh World Youth Festival, stressed that the future of the international youth movement lay in the further expansion and strengthening of the antiimperialist youth front in the struggle of nations and their youth for peace and security, national independence and social progress.

World Youth Festivals have become one of the most broadly based democratic movements of today, for they contribute to the consolidation of the international students’ and youth democratic movement, and strengthen cooperation between youth organisations with different political and ideological views.