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Progress Publishers

Moscow

MAY 13 1983 [1]

Translated from the Russian by Alex Timofeyev

Style editor Angus Roxburgh

Designed by Victor Korolkov

Written by: Andrei Andreyev, Vladimir Krivoruchenko,
Victor Moshnyaga, Dolores Polyakova and
Stanislav Chibiryayev

Compiled by D. Polyakova

KOMCOMOJI. BOHPOCbl H OTBETbl

Ha amAuO.cK.OM.

__COPYRIGHT__ © FIporpecc», 1980
English translation © Progress Publishers 1980
Printed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

10401---974

014(01)-80

50---80

1102000000 [2] CONTENTS Page

INTRODUCTION................ i

1. THE KOMSOMOL: THE PRINCIPLES OF ITS STRUCTURE AND DEVELOPMENT...........35

2. THE KOMSOMOL AND THE COMMUNIST PARTY . . 63

3. THE KOMSOMOL AS AN EDUCATIONAL ORGANISATION ...................94

4. THE KOMSOMOL'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE COUNTRY'S ECONOMY......115

5. THE KOMSOMOL'S PARTICIPATION IN RUNNING THE AFFAIRS OF THE STATE AND SOCIETY .... 138

C. THE KOMSOMOL'S TIES WITH THE PROGRESSIVE YOUTH ABROAD...............180

LIST OF QUESTIONS..............235

[3] ~ [4] __ALPHA_LVL1__ INTRODUCTION

Young people, who account for over half of the world's population, actively influence the economic, political and cultural development of society. The role the younger generation plays in all spheres of society's life is continuously growing. The future of any nation is conditioned, to a great extent, by the views, aspirations, system of values and practical activities of its youth.

The progressive and democratically-minded young people of the world represent an important force in the international revolutionary and liberation movement. They are taking an increasingly resolute stand in the struggle against the omnipotence of international monopolies and capitalist exploitation in its diverse forms, against national oppression, racialism and remnants of the colonial past, against militarism and aggression, and for peace, nuclear disarmament and broad democratic freedoms.

The campaigns waged by young people in the capitalist countries to safeguard their vital 5 interests and rights reflect the profound crisis affecting bourgeois society today. They constitute one of the streams of the broad anti-imperialist movement, forming part of the peace movement together with courageous fighters for democracy and social progress.

The progressive young people of the world are anxious to organise their lives on the basis of justice, and aspire to rid mankind of wars, hunger, poverty and uncertainty of the future. Young people want to have free access to education and freedom to exercise their right to work---which would give them moral satisfaction apart from material well-being.

In the socialist states young people are an important force in society, and make a sizable contribution to the building of socialism and communism.

The young men and women of developing countries are fighting to strengthen the economic and political independence of their peoples. They wage a courageous struggle within the national liberation movement to put an end to the power of foreign capital and to the domination of dictatorial and reactionary regimes.

The young generation is not homogeneous in its social composition, therefore the youth movement is marked by a great diversity of views. In their search for a practical answer to the burning issues of the day the young people in the capitalist countries try out different methods, but do not always find the correct, radical solution. Quite often their protest becomes spontaneous and 6 assumes politically immature forms. The bourgeoisie is always ready to capitalise on such a situation by diverting their attention from the struggle which could undermine the capitalist structure. In an attempt to weaken its class adversaries, the reactionary quarters try to drive a wedge between the old and the young generations of revolutionaries and to split the democratic movement. The bourgeoisie will go to any length to push the young people into adventurism and extremism, using flattery and demagogy, empty promises and bribery, intimidation and brute force.

Experience has shown the progressive youth that in the struggle for their vital interests young people have to act together with the working class. The objective conditions of social development have made the working class the people's vanguard in the pursuit of interests common to all the exploited and oppressed. The revolutionary core of the working class---the Marxist-Leninist and Communist parties---consistently fight for the abolition of exploitation of man by man, for the liquidation of all forms of material and spiritual enslavement, and for the building of a classless, communist society which would provide the individual with unlimited opportunities for free and all-round development and allow every man to benefit from the tremendous achievements of science, technology and culture.

While fighting for the triumph of genuine democracy, the Communists are guided not only by the interests of the working class, but also by those 7 of the peasantry and intellectuals. The goals and the programme of the struggle waged by the Communists correspond to the vital interests and requirements of young people. Throughout their history the Marxist-Leninist parties have shown real concern for the younger generation and understanding of young people's demands in the spheres of social development and civil rights. Realising this fact the progressive youth demonstrates its readiness to follow the path trailblazed by the Communists. An increasing number of young activists are joining the ranks of communist youth organisations which voluntarily help the Communist and Workers' parties safeguard the interests of all working people on earth. The communist youth organisations, representing an integral part of the international communist movement, share its goals. Since these parties have a good command of scientific theory, coupled with the tremendous experience of the revolutionary struggle, the youth organisations regard them as their political leaders, thus underscoring the fact that their ultimate goals objectively coincide.

This is a book about one such organisation---the Komsomol, or the Leninist Young Communist League---which is the vanguard organisation of young people in the USSR.

The Komsomol: what does it stand for?

The Komsomol is short for the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (or YCL).

Let us try to understand the role played by the Komsomol within socialist society by expanding 8 the meaning of each of the five words in its name.

The word `All-Union' means that it is a single, centralised organisation with members from all territorial and national regions of the Soviet Union.

The Komsomol and its local organisations are international, since they include young people irrespective of their nationality. From its very foundation, the Komsomol has honoured the principle of national equality when enrolling new members. Nowadays its membership includes young people of all nationalities and ethnic groups which inhabit the Soviet Union (there are over 100 such groups). The main condition for anyone wishing to join the Komsomol is his or her readiness to abide by the Komsomol Rules^^1^^, in particular that which obliges its members to participate actively in the building of communist society. According to the Komsomol Rules now in force, `membership of the Komsomol is open to any young citizen of the Soviet Union who accepts the Komsomol Rules, takes an active part in the building of communism, works in one of the Komsomol organisations, carries out all Komsomol decisions and pays membership dues.'

In literature describing the early years of the Komsomol one comes across several other names of the organisation, such as the Russian Young _-_-_

~^^1^^ These Rules codify Komsomol organisational principles. The fact that the Rules are adopted at the Komsomol Congress, its highest authority, underscores the importance of this document for the organisation as a whole.

9 Communist League (RYCL) and the Russian Leninist Young Communist League (RLYCL).

The name RYCL was adopted by the First AllRussia Congress of the Workers' and Peasants' Youth Leagues, held from 29 October to 4 November 1918. The Congress laid the foundation stone of the Komsomol. The word `Russian' in that name emphasised the place of its origin---the Russian Soviet Republic, which was proclaimed by the Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies (25--27 October 1917) following the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution.

However, the attribute `Russian' should not be understood in the sense that the RYCL included only the young people of Soviet Russia. The international essence of the Komsomol (in terms of its organisational structure, activities and spheres of influence) was revealed from the very first days of its existence in the fact that the RYCL also incorporated those young communist leagues that had been formed in other Soviet republics---the Ukraine, Byelorussia and Transcaucasia. These young republics came into being in the outskirts of the former Russian Empire following the victory of the socialist revolution and as a result of the implementation of the Leninist principle of every nation's right to self-determination.

The Komsomol retained the word `Russian' in its name until its Seventh Congress in March 1926, when it was renamed `All-Union'. The new name fully corresponded to the new type of state 10 organisation which came into being on 30 December 1922, when the First Ail-Union Congress of Soviets adopted the Declaration and the Treaty on the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).^^1^^

Both these attributes---'Russian' and `All-Union' ---indicate the multinational character of the communist youth organisation. The Komsomol was founded on the principles of friendship and fraternal solidarity among the peoples of the world's first worker-and-peasant state and on the principles of proletarian internationalism. This subject will be described in more detail below.

And now about the word 'Leninist'. At its Sixth Congress, which was held from 12 to 18 July'1924, the Komsomol was named `Leninist' after Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Explaining its decision to rename the RYCL the `Russian Leninist Young Communist League' (RLYCL), the Congress emphasised that this was done not solely to honour the memory of the great man, but also `to inspire the working youth of all Soviet peoples, together with its _-_-_

~^^1^^ These were constitutional acts on the creation of a unified state of a new type---the equitable unification of equal nations. The union was open to the already existing Soviet republics and to those which might be formed in the future. The Treaty defined the structure of the country's supreme organs, the voting procedure and the interrelations between the Ail-Union and republican organs, and established single All-Union citizenship. Each republic retained its right of secession from the USSR.

11 leading body---the Young Communist League---with a single will and the determination to live, work and fight as Lenin did and to follow all Lenin's behests.^^1^^

By the time of the Sixth RLYCL Congress, the country had lived for several months without Lenin, whose death shocked the country on 21 January 1924. But the Communist Party, founded by Lenin, continued his cause. It was the Communists that led the country's working people in implementing Lenin's plan for building socialism in the Soviet Union, and it was they who immortalised his ideas and behests through their tireless efforts. The Leninist party had won high authority among the people, as was demonstrated by the wish of progressive workers, peasants and intellectuals to join the Party ranks. In the first week after Lenin's death the workers of the Moscow region filed over 6,500 applications for Party membership.

Taking into account the prevailing mood of the workers, the Central Committee of the RCP(B)^^2^^ announced the Leninist Enrolment _-_-_

~^^1^^ Tovarlshch komsomol (Comrade Komsomol), Documents of Congresses, Conferences and YCL Central Committee, 1918--68, Vol. 1, Moscow, 1969, p. 139 (in Russian).

^^2^^ RCP(B) stands for the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) which was the official name of the revolutionary Marxist party founded by Lenin. This name was used from March 1918 (the Seventh Party Congress) till the 14th Party Congress, held in December 1925 which renamed it the Ail-Union Communist Party ( __NOTE__ Footnote cont. on page 13. 12 Campaign in January 1924. The Komsomol followed suit by sending its best members---industrial workers---to join the Party. At the same time the campaign to enrol young workers and `toiling' peasants as new RYCL members was also started. In the course of these campaigns 89,240 of the best Komsomol members joined the Party while the Komsomol membership was boosted by 400,000 new members. The campaign to increase the Komsomol membership encouraged the organisational and political consolidation of its ranks and enlarged the proletarian core in the youth league.

Therefore, when the Komsomol took Lenin's name, it fully realised the extent of its civilian duties to the country. `Specially important tasks and even greater responsibilities were placed on us Komsomol members,' said the Komsomol Manifesto adopted by the Sixth RLYCL Congress, `when we inscribed the name of Lenin, our teacher and leader and an example for all of us to follow _-_-_ __NOTE__ Footnote cont. from page 12. Bolsheviks). At the 19th Party Congress, held in October 1952, the name was changed again---tp the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).

The Party's first name was the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which was adopted by its First Congress in March 1898. At the Second RSDLP Congress Lenin's supporters formed the majority (bohhinstvo in Russian) and became known as Bolsheviks, as opposed to the opportunistic minority. This is how the notion of bohhevism---the true revolutionary Marxist line---appeared in the workers' movement and became the guiding political philosophy of the new type of proletarian party.

13 in all matters, on our banner. Our task is not merely to double and triple our efforts in implementing Lenin's behests. ... Komsomol members enjoy no extra benefits as compared with the non-- partisan youth, but they do have greater responsibilities.^^1^^ The Manifesto, known among the Soviet youth as The Komsomol Oath, went on to list the RLYCL's main objectives. The first one was to involve all young working people in the building of socialism, to lead them in their liberation from the burden of centuries-old superstitions and morals, to instil feelings of civil responsibility and collectivism, and to encourage young people to broaden their education. The second task was, while assimilating the historical experience of the older generation of Communists and the heroic traditions of the Communist Party, to become staunch Leninists and courageous fighters against all opportunistic attempts to challenge its unity.

The Komsomol remains faithful to its oath. This was convincingly proved in the speeches made by the delegates and guests to the 17th Komsomol Congress during the jubilee session (27 April 1976) to mark fifty years since the Komsomol was given Lenin's name.

It is not surprising that when a future member is asked by Komsomol veterans why the organisation bears Lenin's name, he or she gives several reasons. Bearing great name means to implement faithfully Lenin's behests, to bring up the young _-_-_

~^^1^^ Tovarishch komsomol, Vol. 1, p. 142.

14 people as conscientious fighters for the ideals of the proletarian revolution and as well-educated, industrious and staunch young builders of communism who take an active part in society's life. To be worthy of Lenin's name means set an example for all young people to follow, to inform the younger generation about Lenin's doctrine about the Party, the proletarian revolution and the building of socialism and communism, and to mould the young people's outlook on the ideas of MarxismLeninism and the examples of Lenin's life and work.

One more thing should be added here: even before assuming Lenin's name, the entire history of the Komsomol was intimately linked with Lenin and the revolutionary proletarian Party which he founded.

In the most crucial moments of the struggle waged by the working class, the Party took important decisions which simultaneously affected the destinies of the youth movement and the formation of its ideological and organisational foundations.

The resolution `On the Attitude Toward the Student Youth', the draft of which was prepared by Lenin and which was adopted by the Second RSDLP Congress, was the first Party document dealing with developing a youth movement in Russia. Moreover, this document was adopted by the Congress which in fact created the Marxist party, a fundamentally new organisation in the international communist movement (the First RSDLP Congress only proclaimed its establishment while it was 15 the Second Congress that adopted its Programme, Rules and organisational procedures).

This resolution formulated the priorities of the youth organisations which were being set up, and contained basic statements about their activities and about Party guidance of the youth revolutionary movement. Though the title of the resolution mentioned only the RSDLP's attitude toward students^^1^^, its importance was not confined to the Party's relations with only one stratum of young people or only to the early 20th century. The main idea behind this resolution was to elaborate the fundamental principles of RSDLP contacts with young people in general since this coincided with the interests of the proletarian struggle against autocracy and capitalism. While regarding the progressive youth as a reserve contingent, first of a bourgeois-democratic and then of a socialist revolution, Lenin repeatedly pointed out that the Party's active support to the youth campaigns, while ensuring their correct political orientation, would multiply the forces of the revolutionary movement. And, on the other hand, any _-_-_

~^^1^^ Taking into account the growing activity of university, high- and secondary-school students and their desire to form youth organisations, Lenin deemed it necessary to express the attitude of the newly-born Party toward this trend. Lenin thought that it was the Party's prime duty to render as much assistance as possible to the students' organisations, to ensure the constant influence of the Party on them, to help young people form a dialectical world outlook and to safeguard them from possible errors and false friends.

16 underestimation of the younger generation's potential would objectively make the class enemies stronger.

Therefore, the resolution emphasised, the main objective facing youth groups and societies was to foster a clear-cut socialist world outlook among their members. This obliged youth organisations on the one hand to make serious efforts to master Marxism, and on the other hand to have a full understanding of opposing political views. Lenin and the Party encouraged young people to develop a comprehensive attitude toward Marxism, devoid of any dogmatism, which would be instrumental in shaping their active class orientation and their conscious selection of ideological principles.

Lenin repeatedly emphasised that the unification on ideological grounds of young proletarians and students into one organisation left no room for double standards and amorphous behaviour and ruled out the peaceful coexistence of opposing views within one organisation. Any ideological unification, according to Lenin, signified a compromise-free ideological break from the class enemies. `...The first thing to do is to achieve a clear, definite, precise, well-thought-out delimitation of ``positions'', platforms and programmes,' Lenin advised, `and then to combine the forces that can march together by conviction and social nature; combine them only for the action on which unanimity can be expected.'^^1^^

_-_-_

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 36, p. 210.

__PRINTERS_P_17_COMMENT__ 2---1888 17

Thus, ideological unanimity based on Marxism is the first condition for the success of revolutionary youth leagues. Their activities are realised in two directions:

---the propagation of socialist ideology among young people in general;

---the young people's participation in class battles on the same barricades as the proletariat, with the Marxist party at its head, is fighting. Moreover, Lenin always pointed out the advantage of teaching young workers and students in the course of the struggle itself.

However, the true unification of the progressive youth hinges not only on ideological, but also on organisational foundations.

Lenin's article `The Youth International' (1916) had special importance in shaping the organisational principles of the youth revolutionary movement. In it, Lenin defended his idea about the organisational independence of youth leagues and substantiated his view with the following three arguments. Firstly, every new generation `advances to socialism in a different way, by other paths, in other forms, in other circumstances' compared to their fathers. Secondly, `the opportunists fear such independence. . .'. Thirdly, the league needs this organisational independence `because of the very nature of the case', for `unless they have complete independence, the youth will be unable either to train good socialists from their midst or prepare themselves to lead socialism forward.'^^1^^

_-_-_

^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 23, p. 164.

18

Thus, Lenin regarded organisational independence as the organisational and operational form of the activities of youth leagues best suited to drawing young people into the life of society and to their interests and age. At the same time Lenin thought that the organisational independence of youth leagues would encourage the independent behaviour and the revolutionary zeal of their members. Such organisations could transmit the Party's influence to the broad masses of young people.^^1^^

_-_-_

~^^1^^ Before the February Bourgeois-Democratic Revolution of 1917, however, the organisationally independent unions of the proletarian youth could not become part of the political scene, their establishment being simply impossible in the atmosphere of all-out despotism and lack of elementary democratic freedoms in tsarist Russia. The struggle which the working class waged against autocracy and capitalism was extremely hard and demanded great efforts and many sacrifices.

Besides, the division of the working youth into independent unions could severely weaken the proletarian forces, split their ranks on the basis of age and thus weaken the Party, where there was a high proportion of young workers.

In these conditions Lenin and his comrades-in-arms consistently pursued the idea of drawing the class-- conscious young workers into the Party ranks and into other proletarian organisations.

Although there was no independent proletarian youth movement in pre-revolutionary Russia, the Communist Party carried out its work among the youth by using the effective means of class-conscious propaganda to raise the revolutionary fervour of young workers, peasants and students.

The first revolutionary organisations of the __NOTE__ Footnote cont. on page 20. 19

Guided by Lenin's theoretical views and practical instructions and having analysed the experience of the youth movement, the Sixth Party Congress (July-August 1917) adopted a special resolution `On Youth Leagues'. This historic document laid down the ideological, political and organisational foundations of the future Komsomol. In order to consolidate the driving forces of the approaching proletarian revolution, it obliged all Party organisations to pay maximum attention to the establishment of class-conscious socialist unions of the working youth. The latter had to be organisationally independent (i.e., be self-governed, operate outside Party cells, have Rules of their own, and central and local organisations), be truly mass organisations in terms of their composition and operation, ideologically linked with the Party and working under its guidance.

Thus, Lenin's ideas about creating a class-- conscious proletarian youth and about the activities of revolutionary youth leagues were further developed by the Sixth Party Congress. Since that time such leagues have become the main organisational forms of the youth. Their activities laid the corner-stone for the formation of the Komsomol.

The continual efforts of the Leninist Party resulted in attracting wide sections of the youth to the cause of the socialist revolution. The youth organisations in Moscow, Petrograd and elsewhere _-_-_ __NOTE__ Footnote cont. from page 19. proletarian youth began emerging after the tsarist autocracy had been toppled.

20 took an active part in the October Revolution of 1917. Many young heroes and leaders of the young workers' organisations died on the battlefield defending the revolutionary cause and paving the way to the triumph of Soviet power.

After the dictatorship of the proletariat had been established, it became urgent to unite isolated unions of the worker-and-peasant youth in one All-Russia organisation.

The socialist revolution created favourable conditions for the solution of the economic, political, cultural, moral and legal problems facing the nation and its younger generation. The worker-- andpeasant government nationalised industry, banks, railways, land and handed it all over to the working people as public property. These radical revolutionary measures undermined the social base of exploitation. Soviet power put an end to national privileges, inequality and oppression of nations, nationalities and ethnic groups. With the toiling peasantry's support, the working class had to safeguard and consolidate these gains, suppress the inevitable resistance of the deposed classes, lay the foundations of a socialist economy, overcome the country's material and cultural backwardness and carry out the complex tasks of forming new social relations and creating a new moral code.

The execution of this tremendously complex and unprecedented task was headed by the Communist Party which, after the proletariat had gained political power, became the leading and guiding force of society.

21

The very first decrees of Soviet power gave the working youth full civil and social rights. The exploitation of child labour was ended once and for all: the revolution banned child labour in industry and limited the employment of juveniles.

Given the ideological, political, organisational and material assistance of the Party and the state, young workers and peasants enthusiastically joined in the task of building socialism. And this is understandable, for the objectives of building socialism coincided with the urgent needs of young people and with the awakening of their enthusiasm for work and political activities.

However, the people's work was interrupted by the Civil War and the foreign military intervention. In 1918, a sizable part of the Soviet state was occupied by the imperialist troops of Germany, Britain, France, the USA and Japan. The White Guards and the domestic counter-revolutionary forces, which included landlords and capitalists who had been deposed in October 1917, as well as kulaks who hated Soviet power, started a fierce struggle against the workers and peasants.

In these conditions the consolidation of the Party's links with the masses, including trade union and youth organisations, was of paramount importance. However, the absence of an all-Russia youth organisation hampered the Party's guidance of the youth movement and lessened the Party's influence on the upbringing of young people in the communist spirit. The Party tried to win the youth over to its side in the course of the struggle 22 against the attempts of counter-revolutionary parties to control the youth movement.

Such was the pre-history of the Komsomol which was intimately linked with the activities of Lenin and the Communist Party of which he was the leader.

After the victory of the October Revolution Lenin, though constantly occupied with the important affairs of the state, displayed, as before, a keen interest in young people and showed concern for the fostering of social activism, communist ideals and moral values among them.

On the instructions of the Party Central Committee, Nadezhda Krupskaya, Lenin's spouse and closest confidante, was put in charge of the Organising Bureau, set up in July 1918, and entrusted with the task of convening All-Russia Congress of Young Workers' and Peasants' Leagues.

Delegates to this Congress were anxious to greet Lenin in person and hear his statement on the burning issues of the day. However, mindful of the fact that Lenin had been wounded recently,^^1^^ doctors asked him to abstain from addressing big rallies. Despite this Lenin closely followed the deliberations of the First RYCL Congress and played host to a delegation of the Congress's presiding officers. One of the Komsomol veterans, present at _-_-_

~^^1^^ On 30 August 1918, Lenin was wounded in an assassination attempt staged by the terrorist Fanny Kaplan when he was leaving a meeting at one of the Moscow factories (today it bears Lenin's name),

23 this meeting, recollects that Lenin was specially interested in the ideals and heroes of the young people as well as in their ideas and aspirations. He asked the visiting delegates such questions as `What heroes of the past do you most esteem?', `Whom do you want to imitate?' and `What songs do you like best?' Lenin also wanted to know how the young people visualised the goals and objectives of the established communist league, what role young workers played in the struggle for Soviet power and what contribution the youth made to the building of socialism and communism. Therefore, he asked the delegates whether all the country's regions were represented at the Congress, whether there were many young peasants, what local youth leagues did in their localities and what they knew about the activities of their young colleagues abroad.

Listening to the delegates' replies, Lenin gave them much practical advice. However, Lenin's main speech to the first Komsomol members, `The Tasks of the Youth Leagues', took place on 2 October 1920 at the Third RYGL Congress.

The Civil War was drawing to a close. The encirclement of the enemy forces around the young Soviet republic was broken and the main counterrevolutionary forces smashed. For three years the White Guards and interventionists tried to strangle the world's first worker state, but all in vain. The heroism of the people who defended the sacred socialist Motherland foiled their schemes.

The Civil War and the armed foreign 24 intcrvention, however, deprived the country, for a considerable time, of fuel and raw materials---many industrial enterprises, mines and transport networks were either destroyed or stayed idle. Large agricultural areas remained unsown and crop yields drastically declined. Hunger and devastation were weakening the Soviet republic. On the opening day of the Third Komsomol Congress Pravda wrote that in the last four months food supplies to Moscow, including bread, had declined catastrophically. A telegram sent to Lenin on 1 October 1920 informed him about the food shortage in Petrograd. Similar news reached the Kremlin from all over the country.

The Communist Party took urgent measures to fight hunger, devastation and disease.

Having a profound belief in the country's communist morrow, Lenin managed to visualise its outlines even in that dreadfully difficult year of 1920. Addressing the Third Komsomol Congress, he devoted his speech not to the burning issues facing the country, but to the tasks and prospects of the Komsomol and the entire Soviet youth in defending gains of socialism. He appealed to the millions of young men and women to begin a campaign for a new socialist way of life and new culture.

Lenin's speech `The Tasks of the Youth Leagues' culminated his thorough study and creative application of Marxist theory, resulting from his analysis of the class nature and origins of the proletarian youth movement in the countries of 25 Western Europe and the social activism of young people in Russia's three revolutions in the epoch of imperialism (in 1905--1907, in February 1917 and October 1917). Lenin also summarised the Communist Party's varied experience in the ideological and organisational consolidation of the militant youth and the Party's patronage of the Komsomol over the past two years.

Lenin's ideas on the youth movement, set forth in some 200 books and articles written by him at different periods of his life, show that he connected the question of bringing up the younger generation with the proletariat's interests and the goals of its Communist Party.

Lenin's speech at the Third Komsomol Congress contained a precise and laconic formula which graphically expressed the meaning of the Komsomol activities as the forward contingent of the Soviet youth. `The Youth League, and the youth in general, who want to advance to communism,' Lenin said, `should learn communism.'^^1^^

This means:

---study Marxism---the revolutionary ideology of the working class---and transform this knowledge into convictions, in order then to turn them into actions ('the ability to evolve communist views independently'^^2^^, `organise and unite the entire young generation and set an example of training and discipline'^^3^^);~

_-_-_

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 31, p. 284.

~^^2^^ Ibid, p. 295.

~^^3^^ Ibid.

26

---master the best achievements of world culture and contribute to the establishment of socialist culture ('You can become a Communist only when you enrich your mind with a knowledge of all the treasures created by mankind'^^1^^);~

---be always and everywhere an active builder of the new society ('Every day, in every village and city, the young people shall engage in the practical solution of some problem of labour in common, even though the smallest or the simplest'^^2^^);~

---foster in oneself and in one's friends the features of true sons and daughters of the country and become bearers and propagandists of the new communist morale, based on the struggle against the exploiters and the psychology of egoism, petty ownership and careerism ('the struggle for the consolidation and completion of communism'^^3^^).

Thus, Lenin's most important political behests and instructions concerning the problem of bringing up the rising generation in the communist spirit and his views on the urgent economic and cultural issues, became known to the Party and the Komsomol on 2 October 1920. Having taken Lenin's ideas as practical instructions for actions, the Komsomol has become the genuine school of communist education through which over 140 million have passed since its founding.

The word `communist' in the Komsomol's full _-_-_

~^^1^^ Ibid., p. 287.

~^^2^^ Ibid., p. 299.

~^^3^^ Ibid., p. 295.

27 name implies that it has developed as an integral part of the overall communist movement and as one of its organisational forms.

From the very beginning the word `Communist' was inscribed on the Komsomol banner, was present in all its subsequent full names, and is laid down in its Rules. It points to the political nature of the Komsomol activities and to the ultimate goal---communism---for whose sake the socialist revolution took place. `We must take a definite communist platform. . . for without communism we, of course, do not have and cannot have any other programme,'^^1^^ proclaimed a report to the First Komsomol Congress.

It is known from memoirs about the Komsomol's early days that the idea of calling it `Communist' came from Yakov Sverdlov, Secretary of the Communist Party Central Committee, who had previously consulted with Lenin. The idea was later debated in the Congress Organising Bureau, at the conferences of local youth leagues and in the hostel where the delegates, who had come from all corners of Russia, lived. The Petrograd delegation had the most firm stand on this issue and resolutely argued in favour of `Communist'. Some delegates, however, thought that this word sounded too categorical and would not attract many young workers, to say nothing of the peasants, into the _-_-_

~^^1^^ Protokoly Pervogo syezda RKSM (Verbatim Reports of the First RYCL Congress) Moscow, 1934, p. 42 (in Russian).

28 league. Therefore, they preferred some `non-- partisan' name. One delegate expressed the idea that the youth league should merely be engaged in cultural and educational activities while bearing the lofty ideas of communism in the deep of its members' hearts. `The Communists' duty is to fight,' objected vehemently one Petrograd (later Leningrad) representative. While speaking in favour of the Petrograd delegation's proposal, Oskar Ryvkin, the future Chairman of the Presidium of the Komsomol's first Central Committee, elected by the Congress, declared: `We want to bear this communist spirit not only in our hearts but in the organisation's name, too.' The Congress adopted the name `the Russian Young Communist League' by a majority of votes.

The political essence of the Komsomol was clearly manifest from its first steps in October 1918. Its First Congress clearly defined the Komsomol's short-and long-term objectives as `to spread communist ideas and involve young workers and peasants actively in the construction of Soviet Russia.^^1^^ In this way the Komsomol firmly took up the positions of the working class and its vanguard---the Marxist party.

The word `Communist' reflects the ideological unity of the Komsomol and the Party and defines its place and role in the political system of Soviet society as the CPSU's helpmate and reserve.

The first function of the Youth League was to _-_-_

~^^1^^ Tovarishch komsomol, Vol. 1, p. 8 29

29 `help the Party build communism'^^1^^ (italics supplied). This is a multifarious function realised primarily through the Komsomol's permanent task of bringing up tin: rising generation in the spirit of loyalty to the revolutionary cause and continuation of their fathers' heroic accomplishments. The Marxist-Leninist doctrine serves as the ideological and theoretical foundation, the most important factor for drawing young men and women into the Komsomol ranks, and an effective instrument for educating the non-partisan youth.

The Komsomol helps the Party with its organisational work and through its active efforts to encourage young people to carry the economic and cultural tasks facing Soviet society.

The second Komsomol function is to be a reserve pool for the CPSU. This function is linked with the first one, for young Communists and officials for Party, trade union and economic organisations are all trained within the Komsomol ranks. Of all public organisations operating in the Soviet Union, only the Komsomol has the right to recommend its members for CPSU membership and it has utilised this right since 1922. All in all, over 13 million have joined the Party ranks on Komsomol recommendations.

The closeness of the Komsomol to the Communist Party, apart from being reflected in its name and in the nature of its activities, lies also in the fact that in its early days the Komsomol initiated _-_-_

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 31, p. 289. 30

30 the idea of worldwide unification of young revolutionaries under the communist banner. Since October 1918, the Komsomol Central Committee sought information on the revolutionary youth movement in the West and looked for ways of establishing contacts and coordinating its activities with the Youth International. The Komsomol members devised plans for setting up an international youth organisation as soon as possible. Six weeks after the establishment of the Third Communist International (Comintern) on 20 April 1919, the Komsomol Central Committee issued an appeal to convene the founding congress of the Young Communist International. The objective and subjective conditions for such a meeting were clearly ripe: as a result of the October Revolution in Russia the world revolutionary movement had gained momentum and Communist parties were established in a number of countries, thus making it possible to set up the Comintern. Besides, some young communist leagues were in the making and the youth unions abroad declared, one after another, their support of the Comintern. The Young Communist International whose establishment marked the beginning of the modern international communist youth movement was set up on 20 November 1919, with active organisational and political support from the Komsomol.

Now about the word 'League'. In practically every language this word stands for community, unity or a federation of unions. In November 1918 the Komsomol united 22,100 young men and 31 women, whereas now its membership has swollen to almost 38 million. This is a body of like-minded people who are united by common political views, moral values and the goal of building communism.

As to the word 'Young' Komsomol membership is open to Soviet citizens between the age of 14 and 28. However, if elected to higher Komsomol organs, people over 28 years may still be counted as members.

The age limit means that the Komsomol is constantly renewed. The period when young men and women are qualified for Komsomol membership coincides with the natural period when young people's personalities, ideological views and moral values are being formed.

The Komsomol is not a sectarian, closed and elitist' (as alleged by bourgeois historians and sociologists) group, isolated from the broad masses of the rising generation, but a truly mass and democratic (by its composition and nature) organisation. Of course, the Komsomol has always had strict membership qualifications, never trying to enroll as many new members as possible. At the same time, the Komsomol does not follow any restrictive membership policy, since that would weaken its role as an organisation for bringing up wide sections of young men and women. Today, some 60 per cent of the Soviet Union's younger generation are Komsomol members.

As for the membership criteria, the Komsomol is more open than the Communist Party. Initially, it was primarily young workers and peasants who 32 were admitted as its members. Later on, however, the Komsomol opened its ranks to the youth from all social strata. Today, young workers, peasants and intellectuals have equal rights in joining the Komsomol, without any restrictions in terms of educational standard, profession, etc.

The `grass-root' nature of the Komsomol is not only reflected by the figures of its annual growth and the absence of any social restrictions on its membership---it is revealed in the very nature of the Komsomol activities, which wisely take into account the specific requirements of its members, differing by age, education or trade, but still draw all of them into the orbit of interests and affairs of the state.

The Leninist Komsomol was decorated by the six highest Soviet orders:

Order of the Red Banner was the first decoration given to the Komsomol for its members' military feats during the Civil War.

Order of the Red Banner of Labour marked the heroic labour and initiative which distinguished Komsomol members during the building of socialism and the development of socialist emulation.

Order of Lenin was awarded for outstanding services to the Motherland during the Great Patriotic War (1941--45).

Order of Lenin was awarded for successes in bringing up the Soviet youth in the communist spirit, active participation in the construction of socialism and on the occasion of the Komsomol's 30th anniversary.

__PRINTERS_P_35_COMMENT__ 3---1888 33

The third Order of Lenin was awarded for the Komsomol's sizable contribution to economic and cultural development, especially for its members' heroic labour while developing the virgin lands.

Order of the October Revolution was awarded on the occasion of the Komsomol's 50th anniversary, for its outstanding services and successful work in bringing up the younger generation.

During the jubilee session held in the Kremlin Palace of Congresses in October 1978 to mark the Komsomol's 60th anniversary, Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, presented the Komsomol Central Committee with a Memorial Red Banner of the CC CPSU in recognition of the great achievements of the Komsomol in the building of communist society.

[34] __ALPHA_LVL1__ THE KOMSOMOL: THE PRINCIPLES OF ITS
STRUCTURE AND DEVELOPMENT

Is the Komsomol part of the Communist Party
or is it part of the system of state-run
organisations?

Neither one, nor the other. The Komsomol is organisationally independent and operates outside the Party. Moreover, the Komsomol is completely autonomous, for it has its own Rules and structural set-up, and its own governing central and local bodies, elected by rank-and-file members.

The Komsomol is a public, not a state-run organisation.

At the same time, together with other public and state-run organisations, the Komsomol is a component of the political system of Soviet society in which `for a long time now it has firmly occupied a worthy position',^^1^^ as Leonid Brezhnev stated in his speech to the 17th Komsomol Congress.

This system is described in Article 7 of the _-_-_

~^^1^^ L. I. Brezhnev, Following Lenin's Course, Moscow, 1975, p. 421.

35 USSR Constitution: `Trade unions, the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, cooperatives, and other public organisations, participate, in accordance with the aims laid down in their rules, in managing state and public affairs, and in deciding political, economic, and social and cultural matters.' The Constitution goes on to state that the leading and guiding force of Soviet society and the nucleus of its political system, of all state and public organisations, is the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

The Communist Party, armed with MarxismLeninism, determines the general perspectives of the development of society and the course of the home and foreign policy of the USSR, directs the great constructive work of the Soviet people, and imparts a planned systematic and theoretically substantiated character to their struggle for the victory of communism. Having described the role played by the CPSU, the USSR Constitution emphasises: `All party organisations shall function within the framework of the Constitution of the USSR' (Articles).

The CPSU, as a political organisation of the highest type, guides society directly and through a system of state organs and mass organisations. That is why the Communist Party has always been interested in having a revolutionary youth organisation which would pursue its policy among various sections and groups of the youth. It is the Komsomol that plays the role of a link between the Party and the broad masses of the rising 36 generation, between the Soviet political system as a whole and the youth.

One of the main principles underlying the activities of the Komsomol members is their political activism, enthusiasm and initiative, which are instrumental in handling this task.

While laying the theoretical foundations of the revolutionary youth league, Lenin recognised political activism and enthusiasm as the most important methods of self-education and moulding conscious socialists capable of advancing socialism, i.e. of instilling the scientific ideas of Marxism in the broad masses of the youth and winning them over to the side of the working class.

In his speech to the Third Komsomol Congress, held in October 1920, Lenin emphasised that the Komsomol members' enthusiasm and creative efforts should be focussed on the solution of the short-term and long-term tasks facing Soviet power. In the grim years of rehabilitating the country's economy after the Civil War and the foreign military intervention, it was essential to help the Communist Party and the Soviet state in their struggle against hunger, in rehabilitating the devastated economy, wiping out illiteracy, organising the new way of life and establishing humane relations among people. The Komsomol's later tasks included setting up socialist industry, collectivising agriculture, instilling communist ideology in the minds of the entire nation and bringing about the socialist cultural revolution.

Several decades of the YCL's successful 37 activities have demonstrated that enthusiasm and political activism are, indeed, at the basis of the Komsomol's development. Examples of this are to be found below, illustrating the tremendous contribution made by the rising generation to the country's economic and cultural development. ` Whatever tasks the Party has set,' stated the Report of the CPSU Central Committee to the 25th Party Congress, `the YCL has always tackled them with the enthusiasm of youth.'^^1^^

The main principle of the Komsomol's organisational structure is democratic centralism. This means the election of all Komsomol governing bodies from top to bottom; periodic reports by its organs to their primary organisations and higher bodies; strict discipline within the League and the unfailing subordination of the minority to the majority's decisions; the strict observance by lower organs of all decisions taken by the Komsomol's top organs.

We can see that the essence of this key principle lies in the organic combination of the principles of democracy and centralisation.

The YCL Rules offer its members wide opportunities, including the right to elect and be elected to the Komsomol governing bodies, to discuss freely all questions pertaining to the League's activities at Komsomol meetings and in the youth press, to table proposals and openly uphold one's _-_-_

~^^1^^ Documents and Resolutions. XXVth Congress of the CPSU, Moscow, 1976, p. 101.

38 opinion until a decision is taken, and to criticise any YCL member or body at the League meetings. The democratic principles ensure a collective spirit in managing Komsomol affairs and safeguard the normal operation of Komsomol organisations, and the right selection, appointment and upbringing of Komsomol functionaries. They also encourage the raising of social activism among the Komsomol members and greater freedom of criticism and self-criticism. Any problem relating to the Komsomol's activities is solved by collective decision, after a free and business-like discussion in which all Komsomol members can directly participate. At the same time the Komsomol makes constant improvements in the forms and methods of governing the activities of all its branches by showing concern for the strengthening of discipline, raising its organisational standards and heightening controls.

Strict discipline is mandatory for all---both the leaders and rank-and-file members. Its observance, however, does not imply the mechanical execution of all decisions taken---on the contrary, it presupposes initiative on the part of those who are entrusted with their implementation and a creative attitude to the common cause. Within the YCL ranks discipline goes hand in hand with initiative.

Lack of discipline, an uncommitted attitude towards one's duties and failure to fulfil any task assigned are incompatible with socialist democracy. It is not surprising that the CPSU and the 39 Soviet government regard the strengthening of discipline by all citizens as an essential condition for the building of communism.

A combination of centralism and democracy consolidates the unity of the YCL, makes it more combative and ensures the cohesion of will and coordinated efforts of the Komsomol members. The YCL is built on a territorial-production principle: primary cells at industrial enterprises or colleges are then united into regional Komsomol organisations.

In accordance with the principle of democratic centralism, the Komsomol has its supreme authority---the All-Union Congress---which expresses the will of Komsomol members across the country. The Congress is a plenipotentiary meeting of representatives who have been elected under a unified system from a list of candidates. The formation of the Congress body from representatives elected by the Komsomol organisations ensures the participation of all Komsomol members in mapping out the main objectives of their organisation and the election of its governing bodies. Any delegate represents both the regional organisation which delegated him or her to the Congress, and the entire YCL whose interests he or she takes into account.

The frequency of these congresses is set out in the YCL Rules.

In the periods between congresses the YCL Central Committee is the highest governing body of the Komsomol, wielding broad powers given it by 40 the Komsomol Congress. It manages all YCL activities, organises all its branches to implement YCL Congress decisions, supervises the observance of the YCL Rules, selects Komsomol functionaries, approves the editorial boards of the central youth newspapers and magazines published by the Komsomol, allocates YCL funds and controls the execution of the budget. In its work, the YCL Central Committee is guided by Congress decisions and has to present its reports to the Congress. The Central Committee represents the Komsomol in state and public organisations and also in its contacts with foreign youth leagues.

The YCL Central Committee is a collective organ. Its plenary meetings are convened at intervals laid down by the Rules. More important questions of the Komsomol's ideological and organisational work are discussed at these meetings, which also map out concrete steps to implement Congress decisions.

In order to ensure continuous and operative guidance, the Central Committee elects from its midst a Bureau and a Secretariat. The Bureau executes the daily management of Komsomol affairs, sets the practical tasks of the Komsomol organisations, considers their reports and holds meetings with representatives of public and state organisations. The Secretariat is in charge of organising and executing current work.

Primary organisations or cells form the Komsomol organisational backbone. Each Komsomol 41 member must participate actively in the work of his or her cell.

These cells admit new Komsomol members, rally them around the Communist Party, encourage rank-and-file initiative, involve Komsomol members in socio-political activities and maintain close contacts with the broad masses of the youth.

These cells are also the basis of the whole system of elected organs: they elect delegates to district and town Komsomol conferences which in turn elect delegates to the higher conferences, including the YGL Congress.

It is in the primary cell that Komsomol members are given the first lessons of political and ideological education and find their place in socialist society and in the nation's effort to build a communist society.

The YCL Rules formulate the principal tasks to be performed by the primary cells. Their activities are directed by the higher Komsomol organisations, and by the Komsomol committees in the primary cells, which organise their work with due account for the over-all Komsomol objectives and the individual wishes and interests of its rank-- andfile members.

The efficiency and authority of each primary cell is directly proportional to the activity of each Komsomol member. Primary Komsomol cells play a leading part among young people at industrial enterprises, offices and colleges by exerting an allround influence on their work, studies, way of life and leisure time.

42

To sum up, the implementation of the principle of democratic centralism ensures the growing authority of the Komsomol in the political system of mature socialist society.

Is it obligatory for young people to join the
Komsomol?

No, certainly not. The Komsomol is a voluntary organisation. Having decided to join, a young man or woman forwards an application to the primary cell at the industrial enterprise, office or college he or she works or studies. Apart from requesting to admit him to the Komsomol, the applicant pledges to implement the provisions of the YCL Rules. This underscores the fact that the voluntary membership in the Komsomol does not relieve its members of their responsibility to meet the obligations they voluntarily have taken on.

Though Komsomol membership is voluntary, this does not preclude extensive preliminary work undertaken by the Komsomol organisations to explain to future members the main objectives of the Komsomol. Extensive information is also provided on the history of the Komsomol, its revolutionary, militant and labour traditions and the role and place of the Komsomol in mature socialist society. The future members are organised into groups where they study Lenin's behests to Komsomol members, obtain the necessary political education and get acquainted with the YCL Rules and with the forms and methods of its activities under contemporary conditions. Besides, they receive concrete assignments from the appropriate primary cell and 43 are supposed to report on the results to a Komsomol meeting in their enterprise, office or college. This assignment is regarded as a test of their abilities as future members of the vanguard organisation of the Soviet youth.

The extensive preliminary work with the future members is conducive to raising the demands made on new members, encourages their active social involvement and, consequently, improves the qualifications of the future Komsomol members.

What is the procedure for admitting new
members to the Komsomol? Is there any difference
between membership in the Komsomol and in the
trade unions?

The norms and procedure by which primary Komsomol cells admit new members are laid down in the YCL Rules.

The question of each new membership is decided on an individual basis after having considered a new member's application, plus recommendations written by two Komsomol members who have been with the organisation for no less than a year and who know the applicant through their joint work or studies. The recommendations provided by two Komsomol members are compared with that of one Communist Party member.

The YCL Rules lay down a special provision for the Komsomol members' responsibility when recommending new members for admission. Those recommending a new applicant must be sure of the latter's readiness to fulfil the duties of a Komsomol member. The referees, at the same time, 44 undertake to patronise the new members and help them establish themselves as active members of their Komsomol cell. If, however, the Komsomol cell find a lack of sincerity on the part of the referees, it is authorised to demand explanations and censure them.

The need to obtain the necessary references enhances responsibility among applicants.

Each new admission is discussed at an open meeting of the primary Komsomol cell and is decided by a show of hands. The meeting's decision is effective immediately after its approval by a higher Komsomol body, but the term of membership is calculated from the day of the meeting in the primary Komsomol cell. The new member receives his card and badge at a solemn ceremony---a fact which heightens the educational impact of the occasion.

Of course, the nature of Komsomol membership differs from that of the trade unions. The Komsomol is a socio-political, essentially communist organisation which is the Party's helper and reserve. It unites young people on the basis of a common world outlook, recognition of the Party's ideological platform and readiness to realise its policy. Therefore, it would be correct to say that the nature of Komsomol membership is very near to that of the Communist Party. We have already given the criteria for becoming a member of the Komsomol. Compare them with the identical provisions of the Party Rules: `Membership of the CPSU is open to any citizen of the Soviet Union who 45 accepts the Programme and the Rules of the Party, takes an active part in communist construction, works in one of the Party organisations, carries out all Party decisions, and pays membership dues.'

As far as the trade unions are concerned, they unite people of the same trade or occupation. Citizens, irrespective of their ideological views, political sympathies or moral principles may become members of a trade union. `Under no circumstances,' Lenin emphasised, `must trade union members be required to subscribe to any specific political views; in this respect, as well as in respect of religion, the trade unions must be non-partisan.'^^1^^

__FEATURE__ Make background color of ` non-white so single smart backtick stands out?

Such is the fundamental difference as regards membership of the two organisations. The Komsomol has always been a union of people who have voluntarily set themselves the goal of implementing the Party's ideals.

How do Komsomol members display their social
involvement?

A major means of enhancing the socio-political activity of Komsomol members is the Komsomol assignment or task, which an individual Komsomol member or a group of them is entrusted to fulfil.

The lion's share of Komsomol assignments (over 90 per cent) Komsomol members receive in their primary cells, while the remainder is given by the higher Komsomol organs. This ratio indicates the high level of organisational work at a grass-roots level.

_-_-_

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 42, p. 378.

46

There are two kinds of Komsomol assignments: permanent and temporary. Permanent assignments are those which are carried out over a lengthy period of time, say, from one annual general Komsomol meeting to another. Temporary assignments are one-time jobs involving organising or executing something. A Komsomol member may take this assignment not only from the Komsomol meeting, committee or bureau, but also from the secretary of his primary cell or the group organiser.

Both permanent and temporary Komsomol assignments may be individual and collective.

In distributing individual assignments personal qualities of Komsomol members, such as their inclinations, interests and educational level, are taken into account. It is important to balance the objectives of the Komsomol and the subjective interests of the member. Only then would the latter be satisfied with his assignment, which is an important stimulus for more active social work.

Collective assignments are those which are given a group of Komsomol members, an individual Komsomol organisation or even the entire League. It is stated in the YCL Rules that the Komsomol 'by proxy (italics supplied) of the Communist Party is in charge of the daily work of the Lenin AilUnion Organisation of Young Pioneers'. The first detachments of Young Pioneers---the children's communist organisation---emerged in February 1922 in Moscow. Komsomol activists were appointed to look after them. Having analysed and 47 summarised the experience of these detachments, the Second All-Russia Komsomol Conference recommended, at its meeting on 19 May 1922, to disseminate it across the country. This was how the mass children's communist organisation was born. Since 23 May 1924---the day when the first parade of Young Pioneers took place on Red Square---it has borne the name of Lenin. Today, this organisation has over 25 million young Leninists in its ranks. It is headed by the Central Council which is set up by the Komsomol Central Committee and works under its auspices in close contact with the organs of education, trade unions, sports organisations, and the like.

Another type of collective assignment given the Komsomol by the Party is the patronage of the building of the country's biggest projects, the system of vocational training, rural schools, and so on.

The execution of collective assignments strengthens the Komsomol ranks and instils young men and women with a spirit of comradeship and mutual assistance.

The League keeps constant watch over the execution of assignments and encourages their successful fulfilment through various incentives.

How are the Komsomol's funds collected and
spent?

The Komsomol's main sources of income for both central and local organisations are membership dues and the revenues of the Komsomol publishing houses, newspapers and magazines.

The Komsomol budget is augmented by income 48 from such activities as the collection of scrap metal and waste paper, participation in urban and rural development projects, organisation of commercial performances, large-scale sports festivals, distribution of books, etc. The operations of the entire youth League, including its local branches, are run on the country-wide Komsomol budget, controlled by the League's governing organs both centrally and locally. The Komsomol does not receive any government grants.

Membership dues, however, are the main source of the Komsomol funds. To pay one's dues regularly is a fundamental condition for Komsomol membership. This requirement is associated not only with the need to provide material support to the organisation, but also with the task of strengthening the organisational and political foundations of the youth league, since the timely payment of membership dues testifies to a high sense of responsibility on the part of Komsomol members and disciplines them.

In the course of the six decades of the Komsomol's existence the assessment scale of membership dues has been repeatedly lowered. Thus, in 1958--66 the scale of dues was cut by approximately 60 per cent. This, however, has not reduced the organisation's receipts, which actually rose by over 350 per cent between 1958 and 1974.

The Komsomol funds are spent in the interests of its members and of young people at large: for training and upgrading the Komsomol cadre, the development of its system of political education, __PRINTERS_P_49_COMMENT__ 4---1888 49 acquisition of training materials and visual aids, organisation of hiking trips and large-scale sports competitions. The funds are also used for holding Komsomol conferences, congresses, plenary meetings, festivals and youth rallies. Certain funds are also allocated for equipping and maintaining the premises of the Komsomol organisations.

Certain amounts of money are earmarked for setting up Komsomol printing shops, thus enlarging the circulation of the Komsomol's and Young Pioneers' publications, as well as for building sports camps, tourist resorts, houses of Young Pioneers and youth clubs. The construction of youth tourist camps in the Crimea and the Caucasus, the Young Pioneers' Palace on Lenin Hills in Moscow, the Youth Houses in the cities of Komsomolsk and Leningrad, as well as other projects were financed from Komsomol funds.

Besides, large amounts of money are spent on memorial rooms and houses dedicated to the heroic deeds of Komsomol members and Young Pioneers, on the erection of monuments, obelisks and memorial plaques in honour of the young heroes who glorified their Motherland with their feats.

To sum up, Komsomol funds are used for a single purpose, to ensure the harmonic development of young Soviet men and women, and to stimulate their participation in the economic and cultural development of their country.

What use can the Komsomol make of the mass
media?

The Komsomol runs a large network of youth 50 publications. This dates back to the Fifth Komsomol Congress, held in 1922, which specified the objectives of the first Soviet youth publishing hovise, which was named Molodaya Gvardiya (Young Guards).^^1^^

In 1922 Molodaya Gvardiya took its first steps by printing 584,000 copies of youth-oriented popular books and booklets, and immediately became an active fighter for the new man and the chronicler of the best Komsomol achievements. Compare this figure to the over 40 million copies which are published annually for young people in the 1970s. During the whole period of its operation Molodaya Gvardiya has published over 14,130 titles with a total of over 700 million copies.

The range of books published by Molodaya Gvardiya is very wide---including fiction, historical, political, aesthetic and ethic literature. It also publishes series of popular books, intended for the general reader or specific categories of young people. The most popular series is The Lives of _-_-_

~^^1^^ The printing of youth newspapers, magazines and political literature started right after the founding of the Russian Young Communist League. The first issue of the first newspaper---Yuny Kommunlst---printed by the Komsomol Central and Moscow Committees, appeared in December 1918. The founding of its own publishing house was a new stage in the organisation of printed propaganda and made possible publication of literature on a planned basis. With the appearance of the YCL central newspaper---Komsomolskaya Pravda (1925)--- the establishment of the Soviet system of youth-oriented publications was completed.

51 Famous People, whose publication was launched in 1938 by Maxim Gorky, the great Soviet writer and devoted friend of young people. The readers of this series can learn about many great personalities of all times and peoples: men of letters, artists, musicians, scientists, public figures, revolutionaries, important figures in the communist and working-class movement, Party leaders, Komsomol organisers and leading workers. Such series as Komsomol: Your Heroes, The Vanguard of the Leninist Komsomol, The Komsomol Activist's Library, The Young Pioneer-Activist's Library, For the Young Pioneers' Organiser. The Young Marxist's University, and Our Festivals are intended for Komsomol activists, propagandists and leaders of Young Pioneers engaged in educational work among the youth. The series called The Masters of Art---to the Youth is intended for young people who are interested in art. The books of this series contain philosophical ideas on the tasks and goals of art, and on its humanistic importance.

Since 1967 Molodaya Gvardiya has been publishing a series of fiction and biographies for children, under the heading A Pioneer Means the First. These are books about outstanding figures in the liberation movement, world-famous travellers and pioneers in science, art and literature.

The publishing house is justifiably proud of the fact that it offers its readers the best works of world and Soviet classical literature, as well as those of outstanding contemporary writers, poets, scientists, artists and young talents.

52

There are other Komsomol publishing houses, such as Molod (Youth) in Kiev, capital of the Ukraine, and Yosh Gvardiya (Young Guards) in Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan. These publishers print books mainly in the local languages.

Thanks to the concern shown by the Communist Party and Government to the Komsomol's activities, tremendous opportunities are at its disposal for political education and ideological work among young people. Across the country there are 228 Komsomol and Young Pioneers' periodicals published both centrally and locally.

The Komsomolskaya Pravda is the leading and most popular YGL newspaper with a daily circulation of 10 million copies. In 1930, the newspaper was awarded the highest Soviet decoration---the Order of Lenin---for the initiative it showed in starting socialist emulation in the country. Three more orders have since been given to Komsomolka, as it is affectionately nicknamed by its readers.

The Komsomol also publishes some 30 magazines on different subjects, ranging from socio-political publications to literary, popular scientific and sports magazines. Their circulation per issue reaches almost 15 million copies. Some of them are intended for the rural reader and some for the urban. Age is also taken into account. Thus, teenagers are fond of reading such magazines as Yuny Tckhnik (Young Technician) and Yuny Naturalist, while the older youth prefer such magazines as Tekhnika Moloclyozhy (Technology for the Young), Smena (Rising Generation) and Selskaya Molodezh ( 53 Rural Youth). The Komsomolskaya Zhizn ( Komsomol Life) magazine, published by the YGL Central Committee, is intended for Komsomol activists. It contains information on various Komsomol activities, organisational and educational problems. The Molodoi Kommunist (Young Communist) magazine is also very popular among the youth.

Radio and TV stations allocate much time to youth problems. There is a special Yunost (Youth) Radio Station on the air. Programmes for young people are prepared by the Central Youth TV-- Programmes Division in Moscow, and by 154 radio and 122 TV youth programme departments elsewhere in the country.

The Yunost Radio Station and the Central Youth TV-programmes Division run special radio and TV broadcasts on the problems of young people's work, leisure and education. They also broadcast interviews with present and former Komsomol members, who tell the listeners and viewers about their achievements in the most diverse fields of the economy, engineering, agriculture, public education, science and art.

The number of young radio listeners and TV viewers across the country is tremendous. They impatiently wait for the most popular youth programmes, interviews and shows. The high rating of these programmes may be well assessed by the huge numbers of fan letters sent to radio and TV stations. Sometimes they ask specific questions, sometimes they request re-runs of interesting 54 features and prompt other topics for interviews. Their requests range from literature and musical quizzes, interviews with scientists to programmes featuring some far-away country or place. The senders of this mail tell their own opinions and those of their friends about the most interesting topics for `Round Table' discussions.

Youth programmes often air the first poems by young poets and stories about young artists and musicians. They also organise competition for amateur and professional artists and hold festivals of amateur art.

The editorial boards of newspapers, radio and TV stations liaise closely with the YCL Central Committee and local Komsomol organisations.

What incentives does the Komsomol use?

To encourage young people's initiative and enthusiasm, the League makes wide use of various incentives and awards.

The YCL Honorary Badge is the highest Komsomol award.

The names of those who achieve the best results in socialist production, education and culture are entered into the Book of Honour of the YCL Central Committee. Honorary badges, diplomas, Challenge Red Banners and pennants are awarded by the YCL Central Committee to young workers to mark their achievements in industry, agriculture, and studies. These are also awarded to Komsomol activists and those who attain the best results in educating young people.

A special place among these awards belongs to 55 the Lenin Komsomol prizes. In December 1965 the YCL Central Committee announced annual prizes for the best works of literature and art for and about young people, in an effort to encourage those who through their literary, musical or artistic skill and talent create true-to-life and artistic portraits of young contemporaries and express communist ideas in literature, art, theatre or film making. Similar prizes were established by local Komsomol organs. The first winners of Lenin Komsomol prizes were Nikolai Ostrovsky, who created the immortal character of Pavel Korchagin in his novel How the Steel Was Tempered; Nodar Dumbadze, a Georgian writer of stories for young people; Vytautas 2alakevicius, a Lithuanian film-- maker who directed an inspiring film No One Wanted to Die; Alexandra Pakhmutova, a composer whose songs are very popular among young people of many countries; Vladimir Chivilikhin whose stories are widely read by young people; the troupe of the Kiev Komsomol Youth Drama Theatre for producing a stage version of Molodaya Gvardiya, a novel by Alexander Fadeyev, which is a dramatic narrative about the young underground resistance members fighting fascist occupation troops in the mining town of Krasnodon during the Great Patriotic War of 1941--45.

The Komsomol pays a great deal of attention to the technical achievements of young people. This is borne out by the establishment of Lenin Komsomol prizes (in May 1967) for achievements in science and engineering. In the period between 56 the 17th (1974) and 18th (1978) Komsomol congresses, 56 collectives of over 200 technologists, were awarded such prizes. Six winners of Lenin Komsomol prizes became holders of the USSR State prizes and another five Komsomol prize-- winners were appointed directors of important research institutes.

In accordance with the decision taken by the YCL Central Committee in 1977, Lenin Komsomol prizes are also awarded to the young winners of socialist emulation. Giving such high decorations to Soviet young men and women who have won the respect of their fellow workers through their achievements enables the Komsomol to perform its educational tasks more effectively, encourage higher social activism among young people and strengthen the Komsomol discipline.

Does the Komsomol extend its activities to
young people outside its ranks?

From the first days of its existence the Komsomol has tried to influence the non-partisan youth. This policy is completely in line with Lenin's behests, since Lenin regarded the youth communist organisation as the vanguard of all Soviet young people. In his speech to the Third Komsomol Congress, Lenin indicated which qualities the Komsomol had to possess in order to become the established leader of the youth:

---to be always at the forefront and serve as a collective example for the others to follow ('You must be foremost among the millions of builders 57 of a communist society in whose ranks every young man and young woman should be.');

---`the Young Communist League must be a shock force, helping in every job and displaying initiative and enterprise';

---`the Young Communist League should teach all young people to engage in conscious and disciplined labour from an early age.'^^1^^

The Komsomol follows steadfastly the great Lenin's advice by instilling ideological staunchness, hard-working qualities, a thirst for knowledge and higher socio-political awareness in every member of the rising generation.

The patriotic drives started by the Komsomol organisations at industrial enterprises, state and collective farms and colleges aim to improve various aspects of society's life and are supported and developed further by all the youth. In other words, these campaigns affect everyone.

The Communist Party is profoundly interested in ensuring the unity and the revolutionary succession of generations, as well as the effective participation of young people in building communism. It also demands that the Komsomol expand its ideological and organisational influence to cover the whole of the rising generation.

Bourgeois scholars try to distort the essence of this demand. Here, for example, is what Darrell P. Hammer writes: `Through the Komsomol the _-_-_

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 31, pp. 290, 297, 299.

58 activists dominate other youth groups which serve as agencies of social control, recruitment, and mobilisation of opinion. The activists set the standard of behavior and of opinion, and they usually have the power to punish non-conformity.'^^1^^

However, young people are not forced to follow the Komsomol but regard it as the leader of the entire Soviet youth, expressing its needs, interests and aspirations. `The Komsomol is the organiser and leader not only of its members, but also of the entire Soviet youth,' said the resolution of the CPSU Central Committee `On the Occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Komsomol and the Tasks of the Communist Education of the Youth'.

A Komsomol meeting may address its decisions on important problems of Komsomol members' life, work and study to the non-partisan youth in the form of recommendations, advice or proposals, but not as instructions. The non-partisan youth are invited to be present at open Komsomol meetings, held at their enterprise or office. They have the right to take part in the discussion, express their opinion and put forward proposals. This being a meeting of Komsomol members, the nonpartisan youth cannot, however, be elected to its working organs (presidium or commissions) or take part in balloting. What attracts young people into the Komsomol ranks is the direct access this gives _-_-_

~^^1^^ Problems of Communism, July/August 1964, No. 4, p. 17.

59 to information on Komsomol activities and the genuine opportunity to make their own contribution to Komsomol campaigns. In the four-year period between the 17th and 18th Komsomol congresses alone over 19 million people joined the Komsomol.

What human qualities are moulded through the
Komsomol membership?

Here is what Yury Gagarin, the world's first cosmonaut and a former Komsomol member, had to say on this score after his historic flight in the Vostok spaceship: `I can only say that my best qualities have been moulded by the Komsomol. Just judge for yourself---what could happen to a 15-- year-old boy who had left his parents many hundreds of kilometres behind to enrol in a vocational school and thus, practically, stay clear of their control. However, because a strong Komsomol cell operated in the school, I immediately found myself surrounded by friends. I was involved in the Komsomol activities. A united and friendly family of foundry workers also took me in as if I were one of them. They moulded the qualities in my morale which later came in very handy in life. My period of study at an industrial technical college, where they elected me a member of the Komsomol bureau, also contributed much. The Komsomol cell in the Army unit developed in me a liking for public activism. In the military college I was also elected to the Komsomol bureau. And later, when serving in an Air-Force regiment, I was already a candidate for Party membership and was 60 greatly pleased to perform the duties of deputy secretary of the primary Komsomol cell.'^^1^^

A Communist and a man who trailblazed mankind's road into the unknown, Gagarin remains in the memory of Soviet people as a simple, modest, brave and purposeful man. His morale, which combined the best qualities of the younger generation, was formed by the socialist way of life, to which his teachers and workers' collective contributed. However, he considered the Komsomol to be the principal school of his ideological, political and labour experiences. Yury Gagarin was later elected delegate to the 14th and 15th Komsomol congresses. He was also elected member of the Komsomol Central Committee and awarded the highest Komsomol decoration---the Komsomol Honorary Badge.

And here is another statement: `Our first ideas about the great communist plans of our Party,' wrote Alexander Fadeyev, `were received by many of us Soviet writers through the Komsomol.' This is a typical view shared by any of the 150 million Soviet citizens who used to be Komsomol members.

Commenting on these two statements, the most important idea should be stressed---it is staunchness that the Komsomol instils. It forms one's firm beliefs in the future and the aspiration to work more and better to achieve the great aim in whose name the revolution was carried out---communism.

_-_-_

~^^1^^ Yury Gagarin, Est Plamya (There Is a Flame), Articles, Speeches, Letters, Interviews, Moscow, 1971, p. 88 (in Russian).

61

Being an independent organisation, the Komsomol constantly evokes in the youth the need for creative endeavour and daring aspirations. It provides young men and women with broad opportunities for active participation in state affairs. The Komsomol helps the Communist Party mould the harmoniously developed individual.

Komsomol members do not enjoy any privileges compared to the non-partisan youth, but by their patriotic deeds they have won themselves the respect of all the Soviet people.

The biographies of Komsomol members are clearly varied, but the meaning of their lives as Komsomol members is largely similar to that described by the world's first spaceman and the famous writer.

[62] __ALPHA_LVL1__ THE KOMSOMOL AND THE COMMUNIST PARTY

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

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.

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.'^^1^^

_-_-_

^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 23, p. 97.

63

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Having become an organised form of protest against exploitation and oppression, the proletarian 64 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.

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:

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

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

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

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 __PRINTERS_P_65_COMMENT__ 5---1888 65 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.

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.

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.

66

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.

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

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.

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'^^1^^ were sufficient. This idea became the basis of the Party's approach to other political groupings in Russian society, _-_-_

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 8, p. 219.

67 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.

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.

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.

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 68 in the ranks, to advance the movement and raise it to a higher stage.'^^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.

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 _-_-_

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 6, p. 282.

69 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.'^^1^^

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, _-_-_

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 15, p. 216. 70

70 won them over to the proletariat's side and fostered young revolutionaries.

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?

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 71 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'.^^1^^ Right and Left-wing opportunists are striving to capitalise on this fact.

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.

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.

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 _-_-_

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 23, p. 164, 72

72 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.

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.

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 73 Komsomol against the proletarian leadership inside the League.

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.

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 74 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.

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.

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 75 relations between it and the Party, elaborated by Lenin.

What necessitates the Party guidance of the
Komsomol?

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.

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.

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 76 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.'^^1^^ This thesis has retained its significance to this day.

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.

`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.'^^2^^

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 _-_-_

~^^1^^ Nasledniki revolyutsii (The Heirs of the Revolution). The Party's Documents on the Komsomol and the Youth, 1969, pp. 60, 61 (in Russian).

~^^2^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 2, p. 412.

77 communism has become a practical task of the day. They continue the cause started by the older generation.

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.'^^1^^

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.

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.

Is the Komsomol able to cope with this task _-_-_

~^^1^^ Socialism: Theory and Practice, July 1978, p. 4.

78 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.

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.

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.

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

79

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.^^1^^

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.'^^2^^

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 _-_-_

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 13, p. 39.

~^^2^^ 24th Congress of the CPSU, Moscow, 1971, p. 97.

80 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?

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.

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.

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 __PRINTERS_P_81_COMMENT__ 6---1888 81 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.

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

---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;

---the Komsomol is a communist organisation sharing the Party's Marxist-Leninist political platform;

---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;

---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 ;

---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 82 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?

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.'^^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.'^^2^^

The Party encourages the development of the Komsomol members' initiative and activism since _-_-_

~^^1^^ KPSS v rezolyutsiyakh i resheniyakh syezdov, konferentsii i plenumou TsK (CPSU in Resolutions and Decisions of Congresses, Conferences and Plenary Meetings of Its Central Committee), Vol. 2, p. 513 (in Russian).

~^^2^^ Nasledniki revolyutsii, p. 56.

83 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.'^^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.

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 _-_-_

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 23, p. 164.

84 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'.

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

(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;

(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

(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?

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

85

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.

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.'^^1^^

The working-class youth leagues which emerged during the preparation for the October Revolution took an active part in the armed uprising _-_-_

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 26, p. 180. 86

86 and defended the gains of the revolutionary proletariat in the battles with the counter-- revolutionaries.

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.

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.

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 87 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.

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 88 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?

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

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.

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.

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.

89

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.

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.

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 90 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.'^^1^^

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

---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.

---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.

---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 _-_-_

~^^1^^ Documents and Resolutions, XXVth Congress of the CPSU, p. 79.

91 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.

---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.

---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.

---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 92 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.

[93] __ALPHA_LVL1__ THE KOMSOMOL AS AN EDUCATIONAL
ORGANISATION

What is the principal task of the Komsomol?

The Leninist Komsomol was founded as an educational organisation and it developed and matured as such. It was called upon to mould in all young people a communist world outlook, conscious attitude towards labour, high moral principles and the feeling of patriotism and international solidarity with the working people around the world. It is only natural that Komsomol members should have a good command of the theory of scientific communism, and be able to implement it practically, thus proving their revolutionary convictions. Therefore the YCL Rules stipulate that Komsomol members should persistently try to master Marxist-Leninist theory, and raise their intellectual and cultural level and awareness of modern achievements of science and engineering.

The building of communist society requires, apart from the necessary material and technical base achieved through progress in science and technology, also the development of communist social 94 relations and the upbringing of the new man. Here lies the Komsomol's principal task---to instil communist consciousness among the masses, overcome the vestiges of the old society's psychology, attitudes and customs, and to develop the creative abilities and talents of each member of society.

The Soviet Union has been resolving this multifarious and complex task for the past sixty years. Its solution is based on the class approach to the tasks of education. The idea of such an approach was expounded by Marx and Engels. It was dictated by the goals of the struggle waged by the working class, which was destructive in respect of the capitalist system and, most importantly, creative from the viewpoint of building socialism and communism. It was not accidental that Marx and Engels linked education to the upbringing of new fighters for the cause of total social emancipation. `The more enlightened part of the working class fully understands,' wrote Marx, `that the future of its class, and, therefore, of mankind, altogether depends upon the formation of the rising working generation.'^^1^^

By developing further the thesis advanced by Utopian Socialists about the necessity of combining education with young people's productive activity, Marx and Engels evolved the idea of the harmonious development of the personality. They defined the purpose of such education in the light of the tasks which the revolutionary proletariat _-_-_

~^^1^^ Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Selected Works in three volumes, Vol. 2, Moscow, 1977, p. 80.

95 faced. Marx held that the combination of paid productive labour, mental education, physical exercise and polytechnical training would raise the working class high above the level of the upper and middle classes.^^1^^ This would help the working class to play the role of the working people's vanguard in the struggle for mankind's emancipation from all kinds of exploitation.

The need for the all-round education of young people does not, however, disappear after the final goal has been achieved (which is `the abolition of the classes and the creation of society under which private ownership of the land and of the means of production no longer exists.'^^2^^) In his Principles of Communism, Engels showed the ways toward and advantages of the all-round development of the personality. `Education,' he wrote, `will enable young people quickly to go through the whole system of production, it will enable them to pass from one branch of industry to another according to the needs of society or their own inclinations. It will therefore free them from that onesidedness which the present division of labour stamps on each one of them. Thus the communist organisation of society will give its members the chance of an all-round exercise of abilities that have received all-round development.'^^3^^

_-_-_

~^^1^^ See Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Selected Works in three volumes, Vol. 2, p. 81.

~^^2^^ Marx/Engels, Werke, Bd. 18, S. 533.

~^^3^^ Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Collected Works, Vol. 6, p. 353.

96

Marx and Engels maintained that, in contrast to capitalism, which is interested in workers' acquiring or improving their skills only inasmuch as it brings profit to the bourgeoisie, communism is genuinely interested in the all-round development of the creative potential of the individual and society.

Developing the ideas of Marx and Engels under new historical conditions, Lenin stressed that ` neither training and education without productive labour, nor productive labour without parallel training and education could be raised to the degree required by the present level of technology and the state of scientific knowledge.'^^1^^

In order to provide the revolution in Russia with conscious and energetic fighters, it was necessary to ensure a link-up between scientific socialism and the working-class movement, as well as the theoretical training of progressive young people.

The emergence of the first worker-and-peasant state brought about the urgent necessity to mould a new type of man---a convinced patriot, internationalist, skilful organiser and activist who is ready and able to combine his personal plans with the interests and aspirations of the collective and with those of building socialism and communism. Therefore Lenin saw as the most important task the inculcation of a whole complex of qualities typical of a true citizen in each young person who knows his trade, who is able to become a _-_-_

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 2, p. 472.

__PRINTERS_P_97_COMMENT__ 7---1888 97 craftsman and who is practically prepared for this. And this craftsman `should have a broad general education,. . . should be a Communist, and. . . should have a polytechnical outlook. . .'^^1^^

It is indicative that even at the initial stage of Soviet power the Party regarded the class-conscious education of the rising generation as an integrated system including both short- and long-term goals, which determined the educational activities, forms and methods, suitable for any specific historical situation.

Lenin's speech at the Third Komsomol Congress outlined this approach to the communist education of Komsomol members and young people in general.

During the transition from socialism to communism the possibilities for moulding the new man, who would combine a high cultural standard with lofty moral principles and physical perfection, are constantly increasing. The realisation of these possibilities objectively leads to the education, training and precise professional orientation of people with an all-round development who are able to do everything.^^2^^ Such prospects have been opened up today thanks to the gains of the socialist revolution---the emancipation of the working people from exploitation, unemployment, poverty and discrimination on the grounds of social origins, sex, national or racial distinctions. Once every member _-_-_

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 36, p. 534.

~^^2^^ See V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 31, p. 50.

98 of society is given an opportunity to display creative initiative in his work, select freely his speciality, receive general and specialised education and obtain more leisure time, the prospects of each individual increase and his capacities, abilities and talents can be intensively developed. `The moulding of the new man is effected through his own active participation in communist construction and the development of communist principles in the economic and social spheres, under the influence of the educational work carried out by the Party, the state and various social organisations'^^1^^ (italics supplied).

At the same time the educational work among the working people, in particular among young people, does not lose its importance but rather becomes an even more important factor in the struggle for the triumph of communism.

As the scale of young people's participation in the creative labour of the Soviet people is constantly growing and an increasing number of young men and women are engaged in all spheres of industry, agriculture, science and culture, the efficiency of their input to the building of the new society hinges on the level of their consciousness and enthusiasm.

Besides, the ideological training of young citizens acquires today special urgency in view of the constantly sharpening battle of ideas between socialism and capitalism.

_-_-_

~^^1^^ The Road to Communism, Moscow, 1962, pp. 563-- 64.

99 Emacs-File-stamp: "/home/ysverdlov/leninist.biz/en/1980/KQA238/20070312/199.tx" __EMAIL__ webmaster@leninist.biz __OCR__ ABBYY 6 Professional (2007.03.12) __WHERE_PAGE_NUMBERS__ bottom __FOOTNOTE_MARKER_STYLE__ [0-9]+ __ENDNOTE_MARKER_STYLE__ [0-9]+ [BEGIN]

The struggle between the two ideologies is an inevitable result of the irreconcilable contradiction of the two socio-economic formations. In the struggle between the two world outlooks there is no room for neutrality or compromises. With imperialist propaganda becoming more sophisticated, the political education of Soviet young people grows in importance.

Therefore, the education of young people in the spirit of communist ideology, Soviet patriotism, internationalism, high organisation and discipline, their active propaganda of the achievements and advantages of the socialist system and the upbringing of young men and women as active builders of new society, have remained the central tasks of the Komsomol.

All the basic forms of education---ideological and political, labour, patriotic, international, moral, aesthetic and physical---merge into one. All these facets of the YGL's educational activities taken as a whole represent a comprehensive system for moulding the active and all-round individual.

The Komsomol sees its prime duty in preparing young people for physical and mental work and active participation in the state, economic and cultural life of society, in teaching them to find their place in the complex conditions of modernday production in conditions of the revolution in science and technology, in helping them to comprehend cultural and moral values and encouraging them to lead an active intellectual life. The 100 foundations of such education are laid in secondary school. The further development of the individual depends on the diversity of his activities both at work and in his leisure pursuits. Here much depends on how well the Komsomol organisations in factories and schools utilise the opportunities to inculcate their members.

The Komsomol committees strive to apply the most tested and effective methods of political education in their work---methods which would grip the hearts and minds of young men and women.

Communists hold that the results of ideological education should be assessed by their practical impact on moulding the ideological and moral principles of the individual and by the growth of social activism in the rising generation. The consolidation and practical realisation of the convictions moulded in young people are reflected in their practical activities and patriotic aspirations, as well as in the whole complex of their socially useful activities. `Nothing adds so much to the stature of the individual,' Leonid Brezhnev said, `as a constructive attitude to life and a conscious approach to one's duty to society, when matching words and deeds becomes a rule of daily behaviour.'^^1^^

The desire of Soviet young people to study the theory of scientific communism testifies to their _-_-_

~^^1^^ Documents and Resolutions. XXVth Congress of the CPSU, p. 94.

101 political maturity. Young people undergo courses in Marxism-Leninism in their secondary, vocational and technical schools and in higher educational establishments. Similar courses of political education also exist in production enterprises. Today, over 16 million Komsomol members and other non-partisan youth go in for various forms of political education.

Young people are really interested in the success of collective labour, and this fact encourages them to acquire a good command of political knowledge and apply it to their practical work. The system of political education in the Komsomol, set up in 1923/24 and designed to teach the theory of revolution, the history of the CPSU and YGL, and the revolutionary, militant and labour traditions of the Soviet people, serves the aims of the ideological, political and internationalist education of youth and has been successfully in operation ever since its inception. Young men and women study theoretical works in the classics of Marxism-Leninism and various documents on the activities of the Communist Party and Komsomol. They also become familiarised with the strategy and tactics of the Party, the most vital aspects of the current Party policy and with the development of the revolutionary youth movement abroad, as well as with current Komsomol activities.

The system of political education embraces study groups, theoretical seminars, and so on. Every young person has the opportunity to choose the type of education which best suits his requirements, 102 interests and level of general and political education.

The political education of Komsomol members and young people at large is so organised as to help them better realise their tasks and make a greater contribution to the fulfilment of plans in their respective spheres of work. The knowledge acquired should also stimulate young people's initiative and enthusiasm.

Socialist society is resolving numerous problems. One of these is the increasing amount of leisure time, which has both positive and negative sides. When a person wastes his free time, as often happens, he inflicts damage on himself, his family, his production collective or fellow students or workers, and ultimately on society as a whole. Komsomol members cannot tolerate violations of ethical norms of the socialist way of life, in the same way as they frown upon inability to spend one's leisure time wisely.

The production collective is one of the main elements of young people's life in society. By relying on such a powerful tool as public opinion, the Komsomol organisations may successfully resolve many problems concerned with bringing up the youth.

To sum up, the Komsomol's central task lies in the sphere of education, for it instils staunchness, confidence in the future and the desire to work harder and better for the sake of implementing the great goal in whose name the socialist revolution was carried out---communism.

103

Even bourgeois ideologists have to admit that `the YCL is, in fact, the best school possible for political and communist education'.^^1^^

The Leninist Seminar and the Leninist `
Reporting Session': What are they?

These are the two forms of specific Komsomol educational activities which embrace wide sections of young people and enable Komsomol organisation to mould the character of each young man and woman. They are comprehensive because they combine various aspects of communist education. These forms were not invented by some Komsomol official but were introduced as the result of the experience of the best Komsomol organisations.

Back in the 1930s, after Nadezhda Krupskaya, Lenin's wife and colleague, addressed a meeting of young workers at the Moscow Automobile Plant, the Komsomol members at this plant decided to initiate a serious study of Lenin's works to enable them, through a better understanding of this great man's ideas and advice, to evaluate their social activism and their attitude to work, studies and public duties in the right perspective. It was decided to hold special seminars as part of the system of Komsomol political education, at which Komsomol members could present their reports. At these seminars young people were supposed to report on their studies of Marxism-Leninism and _-_-_

~^^1^^ See, for instance, Patrice Gelard, Les Organisations de Masse en Union Sovietique. Syndicates et Komsomol, Paris, 1965, p. 75.

104 the resolutions of the Communist Party and on his or her personal contribution to the building of socialism. Several decades later, in the 1960s, this initiative was transformed into a complex form of Komsomol ideological education, the so-called Leninist Seminars and Leninist `Reporting Sessions'.

At the seminars young people are taught to analyse the vital problems of the day in the light of Lenin's ideas. They are also requested to pay close attention to the evaluation of industrial and moral problems and in this way expand their sphere of social activism and compare their accomplishments and ideas with those prophesied by Lenin. By reading Lenin's article A Great Beginning, which contains the basic notions regarding communist labour, young workers are taught to practise an analytical approach to the organisation of socialist emulation in their work team and analyse their socialist labour commitments.

The very form of these seminars, which prompt discussion and help the participants to acquire. skill in presenting arguments, defending their point of view and persuading others, stimulates their intellectual abilities.

The so-called `Reporting Sessions' have also become part and parcel of the Komsomol's ideological, political and organisational activities. Their main idea is to assess the results of the efforts aimed at bringing up staunch and committed builders of communist society.

The central part of each session is a sort of 105 ideological and political test in which each Komsomol member reports on his academic progress or labour achievements, including his success in mastering Leninism, raising his educational and cultural level and participating in public activities. By presenting his report to his work mates or fellow students, each Komsomol member acquires a more profound sense of responsibility towards the whole collective. At the same time the responsibility of the Komsomol organisation for the development of each Komsomol member also grows.

Attaching special importance to improving ideological education of the youth, the YCL Central Committee passed a resolution to hold countrywide Leninist `Reporting Sessions' in 1976--80. The resolution calls upon all Komsomol organisations to help each young man or woman raise his or her level of political knowledge, general education, professional skill, and thus make a maximum contribution to fulfilling major targets of the Tenth Five-Year Plan, such as raising the efficiency and quality of production. The sessions are held in three stages to coincide with such national landmarks as the 60th Anniversary of the October Revolution (1977), the 60th Anniversary of the Komsomol (1978) and the 110th anniversary of Lenin's birthday (1980).

The Ail-Union March Through the Sites of the Revolutionary, Military and Labour Glory of the Soviet People: Why is it held? Are there any reasons to claim that this is a form of `para-military training' of young people?

106

These marches, conducted across the country, are, in fact, interesting and informative excursions through the country's past. In the course, young people learn about the remarkable achievements of the builders of communist society. Such tours have become an effective means of moulding young people's characters in line with the best traditions of the Soviet people.

The Ail-Union March has incorporated numerous forms of activities which have been conducted by the Komsomol organisations for several decades. These include youth scouting tours, in the course of which the participants may learn more about the history of the Soviet Union and the heroic deeds of the older generation, especially of their fellow-countrymen. The organisers and participants of these tours collect historical documents and relics of the past and interview witnesses of important historical events, thus contributing to the study of the area's history. By using these materials young people are able to study the history of industrial enterprises, educational establishments, government and public organisations. Thanks to the initiative of young people various memorial rooms and museums have been opened and special exhibitions held in state museums; joint meetings of the representatives of the three generations of Soviet citizens are conducted and public addresses by the veterans of the October Revolution, the Civil War and the Great Patriotic War are organised. The scale assumed by these numerous 107 excursions necessitated the organisational framework of the campaign to be introduced on an all-Union basis. On 25 May 1965 the Bureau of the YCL Central Committee adopted a resolution `On the All-Union Youth Tours to the Sites of Military Glory of the Soviet People'. The word `military' in the title was not accidental though it had nothing to do with the military training of youth. The fact was that in May 1965 the Soviet Union celebrated the 20th Anniversary of Victory Day in World War II. While preparing for this festive occasion young people acquainted themselves with the country's heroic past and, full of deep gratitude to their fathers who fought in the war, took an oath of loyalty to their traditions. In the interests of inculcating patriotic feelings, which is one of the Komsomol's major concerns, it was important to systematise and propagate the vast historical material gathered by young people. Taking this into account, the YCL Central Committee recommended its organisations to carry out excursions to the places of the Soviet people's military glory and organise joint meetings between young people and war veterans. It was decided to summarise the results of the All-Union March at the National Rally of the best tourist groups in September 1965 in the fortress-town of Brest. Brest was the first Soviet town which took on the fascist troops when they treacherously attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941.

To administer and control the conduct of the All-Union March, the YCL Central Committee 108 set up a Central Headquarters. Similar offices which incorporated representatives of tourist clubs, DOSAAF^^1^^ branches and Komsomol cells from the Army and the Navy, along with Komsomol activists, were established across the country.

Since the first march was mainly dedicated to the ideological and patriotic upbringing of young people, the YCL concentrated its attention on excursion to the sites of military operations conducted by the Soviet Forces and partisan detachments. The participants in this drive, conducted under the slogan `Let No One Forget; Let Nothing Be Forgotten', found out the names of scores of hitherto unknown war heroes, helped to open 27,000 museums and memorial rooms, and erected some 6,000 monuments, obelisks and memorial plaques.

Later, the ideological content of such excursions became more diversified: the Komsomol organisations used this specific form of activity as an effective means of propagating all the heroic--- revolutionary, military and labour---traditions of socialist society. The diverse forms of these excursions, including the investigative and propaganda activities, now centre around such historic stages _-_-_

~^^1^^ DOSAAF is short for the Voluntary Society for Assisting Army, Air Force and Navy. It was founded in 1927 with the aim of preparing ideologically staunch, physically strong and technically skilled young people for service in the Armed Forces. From the outset one of the society's duties was also to train tractor drivers, motor mechanics, electricians, radio operators and other technicians for the country's economy.

109 of the country's past as the revolution, the postrevolutionary socialist construction, the participation of Komsomol members in socialist industrialisation and collectivisation, the Great Patriotic War, the post-war rehabilitation and, finally, the present-day achievements of the Soviet people in building communist society. Such is the scope of these investigative missions.

This new form of Komsomol activity evoked tremendous interest on the part of young people. While over 3 million took part in the first march, in 1977 the number jumped to 56 million.

While going on these missions young people undertake various assignments, such as writing essays on the area's history, conducting various memorial days and torch-light processions, holding rallies and meetings in honour of the heroes of the Civil War and the Great Patriotic War, patronising the families of war veterans and war victims, opening up clubs of young patriots and sports camps, and participating in such para-military games as Zarnitsa (Lightning) for Young Pioneers and Orlyonok (Young Eagle) for the Komsomol members and teenagers. In the course of the marches young people organise sports competitions in which they compete in various sports under the Prepared for Work and Defence sports programme.

The importance of these forms of Komsomol activities lies in the fact that they encourage ideological staunchness, enthusiasm for work and a broader world outlook, as well as the moral, political and physical strengthening of young people.

110

To sum up, although these marches involve many different aspects, it is the educative rather than military aspect which is the main one. The analysis and propaganda of the collected historical material helps young people to understand the present-day tasks. Besides, these marches prove the existence of revolutionary succession between all generations of Soviet society.

Thus there is absolutely no reason to allege that the All-Union March through the sites of the revolutionary, military and labour glory of the Soviet people is a form of militarisation or military training of young people, as some bourgeois Sovietologists claim.

Does the Komsomol show any interest in ethical problems? What are the basic principles of communist morality?

During the transition from socialist to communist society the role of ethics is increasing.

The instilment of communist ethics in the hearts and minds of Soviet youth is one of the Komsomol's major tasks. Each Soviet citizen strives to follow certain ethical principles, known as the moral code of builders of communist society. Here are these principles:

---fidelity to the cause of communism and affection towards the socialist Motherland and the socialist countries;

---honest work for society's benefit: he who does not work, neither shall he eat;

---the concern of each person for the preservation and augmentation of public wealth;

111

---realisation of one's public duty and intolerance of violations of the public interest;

---collectivism and comradely assistance: each for all and all for each;

---humane relations and mutual respect among people: man to man is a friend, comrade and brother;

---honesty and truthfulness, moral purity; simplicity and modesty in public and private lives;

---mutual respect within the family, and care for children;

---intolerance of injustice, idleness, untruthfulness, careerism and money-grubbing;

---friendship and brotherhood among all Soviet peoples, intolerance of national and racial hatred;

---intolerance of the enemies of communism, the cause of peace and the freedom of nations;

---fraternal solidarity with the working men of all countries and with all nations.

The Komsomol organisations do their best to educate young people in line with this code. Addressing the first generation of Komsomol members, Lenin said: `The entire purpose of training, educating and teaching the youth of today should be to imbue them with communist ethics.'^^1^^ The Komsomol has remained true to this behest.

Free and creative labour for society's benefit forms the basis of socialist society's ethics, and the vitality of this has been proved by many _-_-_

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 31, p. 291. 112

112 generations of Soviet people. Therefore, the selection of moral ideals and principles presents no problem for Soviet youth, which inherits socialist ethics from the older generation. To be of service to society and the interests of the people is the first moral principle for the majority of Soviet youth.

Man's deeds, and in particular his attitude to work, are the sole criteria of his moral qualities. In conditions of public ownership of the means of production the new---socialist---attitude to work has taken shape. Young people cannot visualise themselves outside of socially useful work and they are convinced that any work is socially useful if it is done in the name of lofty goals. The only problem is to select work to one's liking.

And Soviet youth does work hard: young people actively participate in such huge construction projects as the Baikal-Amur Railway or the land improvement schemes in the Non-Black-Earth Zone of the Russian Federation.

However, the YGL is far from resting on its laurels, for there are still instances when some young people violate the moral code. And these violations are constantly being combated. The Komsomol organisations pay much attention to fighting such vices as individualism and egocentrism, untruthfulness and careerism, tale-bearing and boot-licking. Such vices are often typical of young people who are rather narrow-minded and one-sided in their interests and aspirations. Therefore, the Komsomol organisations strive to ensure __PRINTERS_P_113_COMMENT__ 8---1888 113 the all-round development of the individual and encourage the creative urges of young men and women, and their desire to enrich their intellect.

The communist ethics does not require that the individual be completely lost in the collective. On the contrary, one of the aims of ethical education is to encourage such qualities as bravery, honesty, truthfulness and staunchness among young people. The moral code and the established norms of human intercourse in socialist society encourage the development of the individual, while individualism, i.e., the desire to separate oneself from lofty public interests and indifference and arrogance towards other people, is quite incompatible with the communist ethics.

Soviet young people are a morally healthy and energetic generation, full of joie de vivre and confidence in the future.

[114] __ALPHA_LVL1__ THE KOMSOMOL'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE
DEVELOPMENT OF THE COUNTRY'S ECONOMY

What is a shock-work construction project?

The history of the Komsomol's participation in the development of the socialist economy has been long and eventful. One of its most vivid pages is the Komsomol's systematic assistance and patronage of key national economic projects. Such construction sites, known as shock-work Komsomol projects, exist in every Soviet republic or administrative area. The Komsomol members work at such projects under the motto: `The Project--- Ahead of Schedule; the Work---of Top Quality!'

The Komsomol's patronage of key construction projects dates back to the years of the First FiveYear Plan which laid down the foundations of the socialist industry. It began with the first YGL appeals urging its members to work at such sites. The first all-Union appeal was launched in 1929, following a YCL Central Committee resolution, with the aim of assisting the construction of one of the first Soviet tractor works, in the city of Stalingrad (later renamed Volgograd). Such appeals 115 to the country's youth have since become common practice with the YCL Central Committee and local Komsomol bodies.

The enthusiastic desire of the Komsomol members to volunteer for work in the most harsh climatic conditions testifies to their high sense of patriotic duty and political and moral maturity. Country-wide appeals are also of great socio-economic significance since they help to redistribute manpower and provide labour to vast administrative areas and industries by drawing large numbers of young people into production. In 1960 the government-sponsored campaigns for recruiting workers for key construction projects were stopped. At the same time the countrywide appeals to the Soviet youth enhanced the League's prestige and proved its capacity to mobilise young people for big construction projects by the sheer force of example and persuasion. In the course of the ninth five-year plan period, for instance, Komsomol members participated in some 3,000 economic projects.

The initiative of young people has brought about some new forms of patronage, such as shock-work construction brigades. In 1978, for example, one such brigade, named after the 18th Komsomol Congress, and including young people from Moscow, Leningrad and all Soviet republics, left for the construction sites in Siberia and the Far East.

The construction of the Baikal-Amur Railway (BAM) has been justly regarded as a symbol of the courage and labour heroism of the Komsomol members in the seventies. This railway, stretching 116 for over 3,000 kilometres will cross Eastern Siberia and the Far East areas, provide access to the remote and wild areas of the taiga and open the way to tapping colossal natural riches.

The climatic conditions are very harsh, as is the engineering and geological situation faced by the builders along the route. Rails are laid on permafrost and require marshes to be dried and passes to be cut through mountain ridges. The builders have to erect over 3,200 tunnels, bridges, dams and other engineering structures. This is a formidable challenge which only strong-willed and determined people can take. That is why the 17th Komsomol Congress proclaimed active participation in the century's biggest project as an honourable undertaking of the entire League.

When the 17th Komsomol Congress was still in session, a 600-strong group of volunteers headed by Victor Lakomov, young Communist and Hero of Socialist Labour, left for the construction site.

Every construction project, big or small, begins with a blue-print and with the first stake being driven into the ground. People usually think that volunteers who come to the construction site begin their work in this way---from scratch. However, this is not quite so. The Komsomol's many years of experience in doing this kind of work have been very helpful for each new venture, including the BAM project. The plan of the Komsomol's patronage of the project takes into account various initiatives and practical proposals made by the YCL organs and other organisations. Young 117 workers at the BAM-supply factories do their best to fulfil BAM's orders ahead of schedule and with high reliability.

The programme of capital construction, advanced by the 25th Party Congress, made high demands on the Komsomol in terms of displaying initiative when patronising big construction projects. Thus 140 construction projects to be implemented during the tenth five-year plan period are proclaimed shock-work Komsomol projects.

The mass participation of Soviet young people in tapping the country's natural riches and developing production inevitably breeds scepticism among bourgeois ideologists, and a desire to present the positive features in a negative light. They claim, in particular, that the mass participation of young people in shock-work construction projects is not based on enthusiasm but is a direct result of the `pressure' applied by the Party and Komsomol organs.

But this is very far from the truth: the Komsomol is proud of being given a chance to distinguish itself by accomplishing difficult and responsible jobs, and that its assistance is needed by the Communist Party and the entire Soviet people. Every young worker at a shock-work construction project is proud to feel that he is a direct contributor to the country's welfare, and a sort of pioneer or trailblazer in his chosen field or industry.

What are students' construction brigades?

Those romantically-minded students who teamed up to form the first students' construction 118 brigade could not realise that they were trailblazers of a new venture. They simply wanted to be of help to their country even before graduating from university. They wanted to take on a new and challenging task, and in this way test themselves and harden their will.

The development of the virgin lands began in Northern Kazakhstan in the late fifties. This was a memorable page in the history of the Leninist Komsomol. Many young people volunteered to participate. People had to begin from scratch--- building houses, schools, hospitals and production facilities. And since builders were in high demand, students decided to start doing building jobs, at least for a time, themselves.

In late May 1959, the first students' construction brigade, made up of students of the Physics faculty of Moscow University, came to the virgin lands. When in October the results of their work were summarised it turned out that they had built 16 small houses and done 250,000 roubles' worth of other work.

Other students followed suit: during the Ninth Five-Year Plan alone some three million students worked in such brigades and built projects worth of some 5,000 million roubles. The Soviet government gave awards to about 1,700 participants and organisers of such brigades in recognition of their hard work, vigorous studies and scientific research, and passionate activism. In 1976 some 533,000 students worked in these construction brigades. Students' construction brigades are formed by 119 university and college students in accordance with certain legal provisions. Each brigade is headed by a team leader and foremen who are also students. Such brigades undertake various---mainly civil engineering---jobs with industrial or agricultural enterprises across the country. Students refer to that part of their summer holidays which they spend working in construction brigades as the labour semester.

Much has changed since the emergence of the first students' brigades but this patriotic movement has turned into a stable production factor, which has to be reckoned with in the state economic plans. Nowadays, students' construction brigades may be found everywhere.

Students no longer confine their summer-term jobs to civil engineering, but do odd jobs ranging from working as passenger train conductors and picking up fruit and vegetables in the fields, to processing fish at canneries, and other jobs in the food and light industries. Since 1971 students' brigades have also worked at restoring architectural monuments. Each summer the members of students' brigades, clad in special uniforms, can be seen on the construction sites of roads and railways, gas pipelines, power transmission lines and other big industrial projects. Quite recently, following the example of students in Moscow, Kiev, Riga and some other places, members of students' brigades began doing summer jobs in the service industry and retail trade. As a rule, students are given summer jobs in line with their future profession. Thus, 120 future doctors go to remote places in the summer to give medical treatment to the local population (for example, to shepherds on far-away mountain pastures). During the period of the Tenth FiveYear Plan the numerical strength of students brigades has reached its peak.

Of course, it is not always easy to organise the activities of students' construction brigades for it requires a great deal of preparation by the Komsomol bodies. Besides, each member should acquire the necessary knowledge of engineering safety rules, and practically every third member should be given the vocational skills of a joiner, bricklayer or other construction worker. Well in advance, the Komsomol bodies, in collaboration with relevant state ministries and administrations, plan the future distribution of students' brigades within the network of projects, including the supply sector, and discuss the problems of their accommodation.

After taking their summer-term exams, members of students' brigades are given free tickets to travel to their assigned places of work. Before the main body of the brigade arrives, an advance ` quartermaster's group' is sent to the place to prepare the necessary accommodation, such as tents, summer kitchens, etc. When students arrive for work at large industrial enterprises they are usually accommodated in hostels and have their meals in the workers' canteen.

An interesting new feature characterising the attitude of the students' brigades to socialist labour is the emergence of students' communes. It is a 121 voluntary association based on the principles of democratic self-government and the communist attitude to work, in which all problems concerning the brigade's life and activities are resolved by the students themselves. This is also a method of distributing the money earned among the brigade's members. First, each member of such a commune receives money for his or her work in accordance with the established norms and rates (which reflect the quantity and quality of the work done), and then the wages are redistributed with each participant getting an equal share. The decision on whether to form a commune or not is taken by the brigade's general meeting.

In the mid-1970s a new type of students' brigade---communist brigade---appeared in the Soviet Union. Its members work voluntarily and free of charge, contributing their earnings to some important public fund, such as the Peace Fund or the Solidarity Fund with the Patriots of Chile (and of other countries fighting against reactionary regimes), or the fund of the World Federation of Democratic Youth.

The majority of youths and girls that form students' brigades are Komsomol members. In the summer over 110,000 students assume the posts of brigade and team leaders and foremen, thus undergoing a practical course in economic management.

Besides working on assigned projects the members of students' brigades carry out a large number of social, political and cultural activities among the 122 local population. Thus, in the summer of 1975 alone students delivered over 200,000 reports and lectures and gave some 78,000 amateur performances. In the places where students' brigades are stationed, students set up special consultation posts where anyone can obtain information on how to prepare for university or college studies and how to cope with the difficulties of taking up a university course, etc. Secondary school leavers and senior-grade schoolchildren often come for advice.

It should be mentioned, however, that the movement of students' brigades would be practically impossible, were it not for the assistance of the Party, and the local state and government organisations. Each year Party groups involved in forming the brigades in universities and colleges recommend over 20,000 young Communists to be included in students' brigades. Besides, over 8,000 lecturers and post-graduates with experience of working in the brigades, also join their ranks. Young Communists, either students, post-graduates or lecturers, who act as organisers and commissars, cement the discipline in the students' brigades.

What is the main idea of socialist emulation?
What role does the Komsomol play in its
development?

The main idea behind socialist emulation is to effect the transition first of foremost and then of ordinary workers from passive participation in material production to a creative attitude towards the fulfilment of every production assignment; from forced discipline to conscious discipline; and 123 from individualism and concern for one's quota to comradely mutual assistance. Socialist emulation has revealed a fundamentally new attitude to work. The credit for this goes to the socialist revolution which put an end to the exploitation of man by man and changed people spiritually.

Even in the first post-revolutionary years socialist emulation became one of the most important stimuli of efficient labour; it radically changed the production relations between people and transformed the labour process itself.

At all stages of building socialist and communist society socialist emulation has been a powerful tool for awakening and developing the people's creative urges, for moulding the spirit of collectivism, raising the productive forces, improving production relations, educating working men and drawing them into enterprise management.

The Komsomol's history is closely associated with the organisation and development of socialist emulation, which had its forbears in the form of shock Komsomol production teams. They were named `shock' teams because they were foremost in dealing with various problems arising in the course of work. These teams were characterised by their high labour productivity and their ability always to put in that bit extra to meet planned quotas.

When the 14th Party Congress (December 1925) proclaimed a policy of industrialisation, the entire Komsomol turned into a shock group of workers. Socialist emulation among shock Komsomol teams 124 helped to produce the first results of the industrialisation policy---the first blast furnace, the first turbine and the first Soviet-made tractor.

The YCL sponsored mass-scale socialist emulation, and the movement became universal in 1929. On January 26, the YCL set forth its attitude to socialist emulation and suggested that all Komsomol organisations join the drive to lower production costs and improve the quality of output. This is what Komsomolskaya Pravda wrote on the occasion: `We contrast socialist emulation to capitalist rivalry, careerism, individualism, moneygrubbing, exalted and morbid fervour and phoney patriotism of individual persons and groups. The principles of this emulation rest on dovetailing individual and public interests, and on the basis of socialist education and drawing broad sections of the population into the country's reconstruction.

The year of 1929 saw the first contracts on socialist emulation concluded between work teams, sections, workshops and whole industrial enterprises. The Komsomol was in the forefront of the socialist emulation campaign, aimed at increasing labour productivity and discipline, saving time and raw materials, encouraging care to be taken of equipment, increasing output and fighting those guilty of wastes and shoddy output.

The Komsomol's efforts in developing socialist emulation were highly esteemed by the Communist Party and Soviet government: the League's central newspaper---Komsomolskaya Pravda--- was awarded the Order of Lenin (in 1930) and 125 the YCL itself the Order of the Red Banner of Labour (in 1931).

In 1935, with the emergence of the Stakhanovite movement, the socialist emulation campaign reached a new height. This movement was named after Alexei Stakhanov, a young Donbas miner, who in one shift produced 102 tons of coal, operating a simple pick-hammer, against a daily quota of 7 tons. Twenty days later Stakhanov set a new world record by turning out 227 tons in one workshift.

The labour exploit of this young miner became for the Komsomol members of those days a symbol of man's limitless potential when work is regarded not as man's hard and routine duty but rather as a source of profound personal satisfaction and a deed of great social import. Therefore the Komsomol organisations became ardent propagandists of Stakhanovite methods of work. In fact nothing extraordinary was behind the labour achievements of Alexei Stakhanov and his followers: they were a result of more rational organisation of work and the introduction of advanced technology. Members of the YCL were the first to follow suit and became pioneers of the new methods of work among broad sections of young workers. The Party approved and guided the Komsomol's patriotic campaign.

During the Great Patriotic War the heroic traditions of efficient labour were further developed and multiplied. The slogan `Everything for the War Effort! Everything for the Victory!' well 126 reflected the aspirations of youths and girls (often in their teens) who came to work at factories in order to replace their fathers who had gone to fight the fascist invaders. The young workers demonstrated examples of heroic labour by overfulfilling their daily quotas, helping their comrades learn the secrets of the trade, making savings of raw materials and electricity, and introducing various technological innovations aimed at rationalising production.

'Front-line' Komsomol production teams became the best form of organising the more advanced young workers at industrial enterprises. The first such teams appeared in the Urals and the Volga area. Mikhail Popov, a young worker at the Urals Heavy Engineering Works, was the first to propose the formation of such teams in October 194-1. This is what he stated on the occasion: `From this day on we shall consider ourselves front-line workers who take an oath to perform any assignment for the Red Army without sparing our efforts.' The words `In Work as in Battle' became the motto of the Komsomol front-line production teams distinguished by the rational assignment of duties, high discipline and comradely assistance.

In the post-war period the new generation of Soviet youth have become worthy followers of their elders' achievements in the field of socialist emulation.

The emergence of a new drive for a communist attitude towards work---the newest and highest form of socialist emulation---presupposes, apart 127 from achieving the highest possible productivity of labour, the obligatory ideological, political, ethical and cultural growth of the individual. This drive is also associated with the Komsomol's name. A team of Komsomol members working at the Moskva-Sortirovochnaya depot of the MoscowRyazan Railway initiated this campaign in October 1958, when a joint Party-Komsomol meeting declared `Let us work and live in the communist spirit'.^^1^^

Work teams or collectives of workers who meet their commitments are given the title of communits^labour enterprises or teams, and individual workers who are not organised into teams, are given the title of shock workers of communist labour. The decision to award these titles is taken by the workers' general meeting, in which representatives of the Party, Komsomol and trade union organisations also participate.

This communist-attitude-to-work movement is spreading over the whole country, and the credit _-_-_

~^^1^^ It is indicative that new patriotic movement was born in the same place as the communist subbotniks (voluntary work without pay on Saturdays)---the product of the new attitude to work, which appeared as a direct result of the socialist revolution. Lenin praised this phenomenon as `the beginning of a revolution that is more difficult, more tangible, more radical and more decisive than the overthrow of the bourgeoisie' (V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 29, p. 411), for this transition is associated with the radical transformation of consciousness in line with socialist collectivism and comradeship.

128 for this goes largely to the Komsomol. The competition for the communist-labour titles helps individual team members mould their character, raise their cultural levels and broaden their world outlook.

Socialist emulation, then, has had a rich and eventful history. The Komsomol regards it not only as a school of economic management, but also as a means of communist education since it affects, apart from the sphere of material production, also people's spiritual and cultural life and the social relations.

Following Lenin's principles for organising socialist emulation, the Komsomol strives to publicise the results and disseminate the best experience. The YGL committees at enterprises set up special bodies to organise socialist emulation. Their main activities include: helping young workers map out their personal commitments (which must be economically and technologically validated if plans are to be fulfilled); maintaining wide publicity; drawing new participants into emulation; supervising the competition; and stimulating advanced workers morally and materially. As one might expect, each passing year enriches the Komsomol's experience in this field.

An important document which gave new impetus to socialist emulation was an appeal to the youth of today signed by veteran shock-workers, the first participants of the Stakhanovite movement, and veteran soldiers of the Civil and Great Patriotic wars. `We are proud of the glorious years __PRINTERS_P_129_COMMENT__ 9---1888 129 of the country's past and we are sure that the youth and Komsomol members of the 1970s will multiply the revolutionary, militant and labour glory of the Soviet people.' With these words, the veterans' appeal (dated 18 January 1973) called upon young people to carry on the older generation's cause.

During the tenth five-year-plan period some 200,000 Komsomol production teams (out of a total of 500,000) fulfilled their two-year quotas ahead of schedule. It is indicative that 96 per cent of the young workers in these teams continue their education, taking either evening or extracurricular courses.

The desire of young workers to carry on the heroic Komsomol traditions took a new form when two young workers from Moscow, Irina Bondareva and Igor Skrinik, volunteered to fulfil two daily production quotas: one for himself or herself and the second for an unknown young worker who volunteered to join the Army during the Great Patriotic War and lost his life in the battles against fascism for the honour, freedom and independence of his socialist Motherland. This patriotic movement combined the desire to achieve high labour productivity with the desire to preserve the memory of the courageous deeds of fallen heroes and of those who had worked in the `front-line' Komsomol teams. This was also a testimony to the present-day youth's aspiration to inherit the moral values of the older generation. The new campaign received the support of the YCL Central 130 Committee and was enthusiastically welcomed by millions upon millions of young workers across the country. The Komsomol proclaimed the entire League to be a shock force of the tenth five-year-plan period (1975--1980). This means that Soviet young people strive to mark each working day with high labour productivity, high-quality output, good progress in their studies and exemplary service in the Armed Forces. The Komsomol has started a movement to make young people's enthusiasm and creativity serve the fulfilment of the current five-year plan whose main aim is to increase efficiency and the quality of output. This movement points to the problems which young workers have to resolve in the course of the Tenth Five-Year Plan. They demand analysis of the results of previous Komsomol activities and improvements in their methods. Young people wish not only to follow in their fathers' footsteps, but also to surpass their elders' achievements. Therefore, the main goal of the movement is to give new impetus to their social activism and enthusiasm.

Socialist emulation is an important element of young people's upbringing. By encouraging a young person's ambition to be first in his work or studies, it provides him with an incentive to upgrade his professional skills and increase his general education level. It also helps him to solve problems arising in the course of production, and develops the positive qualities of his personality. Since socialist emulation and comradely assistance are inseparable, a feeling of collectivism is moulded in 131 young workers. While striving to attain a general rise in production, each worker derives great satisfaction from the atmosphere of comradely assistance.

__QUESTION__ This book escaped en/TAZ until 2007.03.12 ... was someone at LA Public Library on the look-out for books about youth?

How do young people, including Komsomol
members, contribute to the development of science
and technology?

Contributing to further progress in science and technology means, above all, benefiting society as a whole. To participate in this process is a good thing for young people.

It is not accidental that the desire of young people to master the latest achievements of science and technology and introduce them into mass production has become a broad movement. It illustrates their striving to test their abilities and creative talents. The Komsomol organisations take this fact into account when encouraging the development of young people's creative abilities in the field of science and technology. The idea behind this movement is to encourage higher efficiency and quality of output, i.e. to solve those problems which the Party regards as first-priority matters.

The 24th Party Congress (1971) pointed, among other things, to the merging of the results of the revolution in science and technology with the advantages offered by the socialist system. The realisation of this task is an essential requisite for creating the material and technical basis of communism. The working people strive to make full use of the broad opportunities offered by the 132 socialist system for bold experiments, creative activities and all sorts of innovations.

It is only natural that the YCL, being the Party's closest assistant, cannot stay on the sidelines of this important task. Therefore, the Komsomol organisations lead the young people's movement for the acceleration of progress in science and technology.

When encouraging young workers, students and other people specialising in engineering and scientific jobs to act creatively, the Komsomol relies on the qualities which are most typical of youth: striving for everything new, energy, initiative and quick wit.

Some objective factors (for example, the fact that in conditions of mature socialism workers with the highest educational level in history are involved in production) also contribute positively. Today, over 90 per cent of young industrial workers have either high, secondary or incomplete secondary education. This objectively broadens the opportunities available to the Komsomol for encouraging the rising generation to participate actively in scientific and technical progress.

Komsomol members patronise the introduction and commissioning of new technology and automated production lines at industrial enterprises. They also help modernise plant and equipment and set up completely mechanised enterprises. To this end special youth committees are set up which study the situation as regards plant and equipment and propose ways and means of modernising them. 133 Combined teams of young designers and technologists are also organised. These teams solve many problems, beginning with the project design stage and elaboration of the technological flow chart, and ending with the installation of radically improved parts and units.

Another area in which young people try to ensure technical progress lies in raising production standards. The Komsomol organisations are anxious to mould in every young worker a conscientious attitude to his work and to finding latent production reserves. They, for example, show concern for the most efficient use and storage of metals and organise the collection of metal scrap.

The efforts of the Komsomol organisations to encourage the work of young inventors and of those young workers who are keen to rationalise existing technology have been commended by the Party. This movement is characterised by the development of collective work and the setting up of joint teams of young workers, technologists and engineers, in an attempt to resolve the most complex and urgent production problems. The collaboration of young production workers, Komsomol members, with young researchers and academics may take varied forms---councils of young technologists, designers' and economic analysis groups, etc.

In an effort to improve the system of scientific and technical inventions by young production workers, the YCL coordinates its activities in the field with those of the trade unions, the USSR State 134 Committee for Science and Technology, the USSR Academy of Sciences, various state ministries and administrations, including such public bodies as the Scientific and Technical Society and the All-Union Council of Inventors and Innovators. The numerous branches of the last two organisations ( central, republican, and regional) have special youth sections. In 1977 the number of these young inventors' sections and groups totalled 351,000 across the country. During that year, some 1,200,000 proposals made by young inventors and aimed at improving existing technology, were introduced into production.

There is not a single sector in the entire Soviet economy where young people would not try their hand at making proposals for innovations. Every fourth student in apprentice or vocational schools is a member of the Young Inventors Club and every second student does part-time work in design bureaux, research and development institutions and experimental laboratories.

The drive for technological innovations is encouraged by such public campaigns as contests for the best innovation proposal held at enterprises throughout the Soviet Union. Proof of the efficiency of such campaigns can easily be found at the annual exhibitions of young people's achievements in designing and inventing. The first such exhibition was held in 1967 on the occasion of the October Revolution's 50th Anniversary. While some two million youths participated in the first All-Union Review of Young Inventors' 135 Achievements in 1967, nine years later, in 1976, their number had risen to 11 million. A display of young inventors' achievements, to which innovators from the Soviet Union and other socialist countries contributed, was staged in Moscow in May 1976 on the grounds of the USSR Exhibition of Economic Achievement and was very impressive.

The YCL organisations also run `Best in Trade' contests for young workers of different professions. The system of these contests, starting from local competitions and leading to the all-Union contest, has been designed to find the most skilful workers in the most common trades, such as lathe operators, drilling-machine operators, gas welders, brick-layers, painters, and the like. The contests are held in the best workshops and only the best and most up-to-date equipment in used. Only the winners of preliminary contests can go on to the all-Union finals. The winners are chosen by special juries which include well-known scientists, veteran workers, designers and innovators.

Similar contests are also being introduced for rarer but nonetheless important trades. The appropriate state ministries and the YGL Central Committee were put in charge of these competitions with the task of encouraging both veterans and novices to compete. The contests of young tyre-press operators, log-cutters, land-developers, ploughmen, cooks and waiters have become a tradition. At some enterprises mixed contests between boys and girls with the same qualification are also staged.

To sum up, these contests help meet the growing 136 requirements in improving work skills and raising the technical knowledge of young workers under the conditions of the scientific and technological revolution. As for their social aspect, they encourage the creative initiative of individual workers in the interests of society as a whole and are instrumental in moulding their professional pride, class consciousness and civic spirit.

The Party and the Komsomol regard the interest of young people in scientific and technological innovations as an important element contributing to the establishment of the material and technical basis of communism and as an inseparable link in the system of instilling in them the right attitude towards work.

[137] __ALPHA_LVL1__ THE KOMSOMOL'S PARTICIPATION IN
RUNNING THE AFFAIRS OF THE STATE AND
SOCIETY

What is the Komsomol's share of governmental
functions?

In conditions of socialism the `grass-root' participation in the country's state, economic, social and cultural development has become common practice. `The Soviet system gives young people wide possibilities for public activity and for the participation in affairs of state. One cannot imagine the work of our Soviets, trade unions and state institutions without the active participation of Komsomol members',^^1^^ Leonid Brezhnev stated at the jubilee plenary meeting of the YCL Central Committee, convened in 1968 on the occasion of the Komsomol's 50th Anniversary.

The Party's Central Committee and its local bodies are concerned that the Komsomol should make use of the advantages which socialist democracy has to offer and involve increasingly broader sections of younth in production management _-_-_

~^^1^^ L. I. Brezhnev, Following Lenin's Course, 1967-- 1971, p. 93.

138 and in the activities carried out by local Soviets and by the governing boards of collective farms, trade union, cultural, educational and sports organisations.

The Soviets of People's Deputies constitute the corner-stone of the political system of the Soviet Union, which is a socialist state of the whole people. The deputies who are elected to the Soviets as the chosen representatives of the working people have to report back regularly to their constituents of the Soviets' activities. Deputies who do not justify the confidence of their constituents may be recalled in accordance with a procedure established by law. For the first time ever the Soviets have proved to be a political system able to manage the affairs of state in the interests of the entire society---the working class, peasantry and intelligentsia of all Soviet nationalities and ethnic groups. It is through the Soviets that the people exercises its state power. The most important problems of the state are raised for coutry-wide discussion or put to a referendum.

Together with other public organisations the Komsomol actively participates in the work of governmental bodies. This participation may assume several forms:

Like the Party, trade-unions, cooperatives and other public associations and work collectives, the Komsomol has the right to nominate people to stand for election to the Soviets. Thus, in the course of the 1979 elections to the USSR Supreme Soviet, the country's highest legislative organ, 207 139 YCL members were elected. In the 1977 local (regional, district, town, village and settlement) elections 721,369 young people up to 30 years (or 32.4 per cent of the total) received the electorate's support. Among the young deputies elected 451,710 (or over 20 per cent of the total) were Komsomol members.

In December 1977 Boris Pastukhov, First Secretary of the YGL Central Committee, was elected a member of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet. This fact testifies to the growing role played by the Komsomol in developed socialist society.

Besides, the Komsomol actively participates in the election commissions which organise the balloting. In the course of the 1975 elections of deputies to the Supreme Soviets of Union and Autonomous republics, for example, some two and a half million young people worked on their staff, and some one and a half million of them were Komsomol members.

During election campaigns thousands upon thousands of Komsomol members are engaged as propagandists. They devote most of their attention to those young people who are casting their votes for the first time. Komsomol activists explain to them the essence of the policy pursued by the Communist Party and the Soviet state. They also tell young voters about the Soviet system of balloting, the rights and duties of the electorate, and about the nominated candidates by organising rallies at which young voters can meet them.

140

The USSR Constitution stipulates that all Soviet citizens, on reaching the age of 18, have the right to elect and be elected to the Soviets of People's Deputies. The only exceptions are people who are legally certified insane.

To be eligible for election to the USSR Supreme Soviet a citizen of the USSR must have reached the age of 21.

The YCL ensures in every possible way that young deputies exercise their duties successfully. The Komsomol organisations make use of young deputies to raise problems which are of particular concern for the rising generation and require to be settled by the appropriate Soviet. In fulfilling their duties young deputies bear in mind the instruction of the YCL Central Committee, which states that for each Komsomol member these duties represent important League assignments. Komsomol organisations stage meetings at which young deputies meet rank-and-file Komsomol members and League activists. At such meetings young deputies report to their constituents and receive their instructions. The YCL Central Committee has a tradition of holding these meetings with young deputies to the USSR Supreme Soviet.

How does the Komsomol participate in running
the state's affairs?

Komsomol organisations participate in the activities of both central and local governmental bodies. Thus, the League's representatives sit on the boards of a number of state ministries and agencies, such as the USSR Ministry of Higher and 141 Secondary Specialised Education, the USSR Ministry of Public Education, the USSR Ministry of Culture, the USSR State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting, the USSR State Committee on Physical Culture and Sport, and the USSR People's Control Committee. They enjoy the status of full members in settling any problem, not only those which directly concern young people. In this way, through its representatives, the League participates in decision-making by various state bodies.

Besides, the YCL representatives may be invited to participate as observers in the sittings of central and local governmental bodies.

Another important form of the Komsomol's participation in government is the work done by its representatives in various public agencies, councils and inspection bodies which operate in parallel with government agencies, both central and local, and render them assistance.

In December 1969, a number of Soviet ministries and agencies adopted, with the active support of the League, a resolution `On Job Counselling for School Leavers' which emphasised the importance of YCL representatives being directly involved in the activities of newly-established jobcounselling agencies, set up by the Ministries of Public Education in the Union and Autonomous republics as well as by regional, town and district councils of education.

The Party often appoints Komsomol functionaries and activists to various jobs of state importance.

142

Today there are some 428,000 primary Komsomol cells in the country, which enjoy broad powers. The CPSU Central Committee's resolution `On the Fiftieth Anniversary of the YCL and the Communist Education of Youth' stressed that all questions concerning the upbringing, education, vocational training, life, work and leisure of Soviet young people should be dealt with by the relevant state, trade union and economic organisations, in conjunction with the Komsomol.

In response to the League's proposals, the Soviet government established considerable privileges for those engaged in part-time studies. In the 1960s and 1970s the government adopted a number of important decrees regarding evening and correspondence courses. Thus, young people who took general education or vocational courses on a parttime basis had their working hours reduced and were granted various other benefits.

The friendly ties that exist between the League and the trade unions date back to the first postrevolutionary days, and grow fuller with every passing day. It has become common practice for the governing bodies of the League and the trade unions to adopt joint decisions and act together on nation-wide tasks related to the rising generation. In 1964, for example, the Presidium of the AllUnion Trade Union Council and the Bureau of the YCL Central Committee took a joint decision on the further improvement of health treatment for teenagers in sanatoria and resorts. In another joint resolution, one year later, the 143 two organisations pledged to pay more attention to workers taking up their first jobs. The resolution stipulated measures ranging from sending the newcomers to join the best work teams and workshops, paying special attention to their progress and assimilation and helping them to master their trade.

The work team is the primary unit of socialist production. Here, together with the trade union committees, the primary Komsomol cell has many tasks to attend to. They involve improvements in young workers' conditions of work, measures to stimulate their efforts, provide teenage workers with safe working conditions, protect young people's labour rights, and see to the distribution of free housing and the utilisation of funds earmarked for cultural activities and sports.

At the factory level, Komsomol organisations actively participate in such organs as young workers' and young engineers' councils, public personnel departments and quality-control councils. Practical requirements give rise to new forms of ` grassroot' participation in the management of industry---a fact which leads to further development and broadening of the democratic principles of developed socialism.

Komsomol members may directly influence the performance of an industrial enterprise since their representatives also sit in so-called production meetings, which are standing bodies consisting of workers, trade union and management representatives, as well as Party and Komsomol members. 144 At these meetings they discuss various problems pertaining to planning, organisation of production, the better use of the technology available and the spread of advanced production techniques. They provide good opportunities for young workers to come up with fresh initiatives and critical remarks and discuss the planned measures.

Over one million Komsomol members participate in the activities of the organs of people's inspection. These reflect a fundamental feature of socialist society, where the public demonstrates a great deal of concern for locating and quickly eliminating any faults and shortcomings. In an effort to raise production efficiency, for example, to save raw and other materials, and to improve the organisation of production, various forms of public inspection have emerged at industrial enterprises. The `Komsomol Search-Light' campaign, which involves some 3.5 million Komsomol members, is one such form. Young workers sound the alarm whenever they discover any production malfunctions or come across infringements of the labour laws. This campaign is very effective since it obliges managers to take immediate corrective measures. In the course of one country-wide campaign, aimed at revealing latent production reserves, the suggestions made by Komsomol members helped to save over 500 million roubles.

Another sphere through which young workers can actively participate in production management is the trade union organisations, among whose members there are over 25 million Komsomol __PRINTERS_P_145_COMMENT__ 10---1888 145 members, with about a million elected to posts in trade union organs.

All trade union committees establish their own youth commissions which also contribute to the cause of communist education of young people. Among some of their concerns are to widen the involvement of young workers and engineers in production matters, and to improve their conditions of work, housing, education, leisure, rest, cultural and physical training facilities.

Whenever a labour dispute arises between a young worker and the enterprise management, the case is taken to a special commission on labour disputes, made up of equal numbers representing both the trade union and the management. If the commission fails to resolve the problem, it is then taken to the trade union committee, whose decision is binding for the management and may only be revoked by a court decision.

Of course, there is still room for improvement in the work of Komsomol organisations and this is widely discussed in the press and debated at YCL meetings on various levels. Yet, in general, the majority of Komsomol cells make wide use of the available opportunities to settle problems concerning young people.

Using its right to initiate legislation, the YCL has made several proposals and participated in the discussion of a number of important issues involving, for example, benefits for teenagers and young men and women. For example, the YCL Central Committee was behind the Soviet government's 146 decision to improve the design of youth hostels, and to build clubs, libraries and community centres at the sites of major industrial projects patronised by the League.

Local Komsomol organs also make some legislative proposals concerning various aspects of young people's life. In recent years, regional, town and district YCL committees, together with the state bodies concerned, passed a number of resolutions connected with the upbringing and education of school pupils and young workers. Their goal was to coordinate the efforts of state and public organisations and map out the most effective forms of each organisation's share in the execution of joint undertakings.

Now, a number of new legislative proposals concerning young people are in the pipe-line, and are actively debated by YCL representatives.

The League's participation in the introduction of new legislation is just another manifestation of the democratic nature of the Soviet state system. While not possessing the power to enact new laws, the YCL nevertheless influences the whole process of working out new legislation; in doing so it expresses the will of the socialist state and, most importantly, it realises its obligations as a youth organisation acting in the interests of the country's youth. All this reflects one general pattern in the Soviet Union's development, in the course of which the mechanism of socialist statehood is transformed into public self-government.

__PRINTERS_P_147_COMMENT__ 10* 147

Youth Commissions, at the People's Soviets:
What are these?

Among the standing commissions of People's Soviets, formed to expediate the discussion of specific problems pertaining to the Soviets' terms of reference, there are so-called youth commissions. Today, there are over 12,000 such commissions across the country, and over 80,000 deputies work on them. Among the basic items dealt with by the commissions are the following:

---elaboration of problems related to the life of Soviet youth, including their upbringing, education, vocational training, work in general, leisure time, rest and health protection, as well as their participation in the country's economic and cultural progress;

---control over the activities of executive organs with respect to safeguarding young people's interests and rights;

---the execution of the Soviets' decisions related to young people and their involvement in the work of state organs and local governing bodies. This work should be carried out in close collaboration with the Komsomol and other public agencies.

Both chambers of the USSR Supreme Soviet--- the Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities---also deal with questions related to youth and have relevant standing commissions. It was in these commissions that such important topics as the joint work done by local Soviets and Komsomol organisations, the improvement of young people's education and many others were 148 discussed for the first time. In many instances these commissions levelled sharp criticism against certain shortcomings, pointing out ways of eliminating them. Thus, in March 1974 the commissions discussed how the labour legislation on young people's work in the Oil Refining and Petrochemical Industry was observed. While noting with satisfaction improvements in the conditions of work and safety precautions at the Oil Ministry's installations, still the commissions revealed certain cases of violations of Soviet labour laws. After studying the documents produced by the commissions, the Ministry issued a directive aimed at the immediate liquidation of the shortcomings. As a subsequent inspection showed, the Ministry began keeping a sharper eye on the observance of labour legislation.

Such examples are numerous since the Soviet state shows constant concern for the country's youth and their problems, and scrupulously safeguards their interests.

Does the Komsomol influence how young
people choose their careers?

On finishing their secondary education school leavers are confronted with the hard choice of selecting their future careers. The right choice is very important since it may influence his whole life and even have a direct impact on others. Yet selecting the right profession is not an easy matter. Moreover, the choice is influenced by the young person's social environment, including the views absorbed at school, and in the family. Naturally, 149 the Komsomol cannot stand aside in this matter.

Apart from ensuring conditions for efficient labour, the socialist state strives to make every man happy in his job and help him to use his capabilities to the best. Therefore, together with the trade unions, the Komsomol pays much attention to the problems of job counselling.

The broad contacts existing between secondary schools and industrial enterprises, whereby the latter patronise the former, are very important. Visiting near-by secondary schools, workers tell schoolchildren many interesting things about their professions and help in the work of school workshops, technical clubs and so forth. Such continuous friendly contacts help secondary school pupils get an idea of modern production and of various trades.

In the field of job counselling the YCL and trade union committees at industrial enterprises hold special competitions for young technicians, and organise scientific and technical conferences, young innovators clubs and joint meetings with the workers. All this helps secondary school pupils to familiarise themselves long before they graduate with various jobs and with the conditions of modern production.

The Soviet state attaches great importance to the correct organisation of job counselling. In the first place, this reduces the probability of wrong choices and disillusion at the start of one's career and, secondly, it facilitates the vocational training of young people, which encourages their rapid 150 involvement into the production process and leads to slow rates of staff turnover.

One of the Komsomol's important tasks lies in instilling in young people a respectful attitude to work. And since the preparation for work begins in school, it is here that a lively interest in socially useful labour and a firm belief in one's own abilities should be inculcated. Realising the importance of socially useful labour, school pupils set up working teams that undertake school repairs and are engaged in beautification projects, including planting trees and shrubbery in the school grounds.

At the end of each academic year senior-grade pupils undergo practical training at local offices or enterprises for a whole month, thus contributing in a way to the country's well-being. Summer work and recreation camps, in which children of school age do various part-time jobs while on holiday, are also very popular. Such summer jobs make boys and girls physically fit and upgrade them culturally. Of course, school working teams and summer camps are voluntary enterprises, but still schoolchildren find them very useful and feel proud of the results of their work. These early tastes of practical work are very helpful when it comes to choosing a profession in the future.

The problem of job counselling is a regular topic in the youth press and on TV and radio. Recently, Komsomolskaya Pravda polled its readers on the problem. Though their letters expressed quite different views, the readers' response was 151 very enthusiastic---a fact which underscored the importance of the whole problem.

How does the YCL contribute to the
nationwide task of universal secondary education?

Since the school in the Soviet Union is one of the most important educational institutions, the YCL actively contributes to the development of public education. In their attitude to studies, Komsomol members set an example to the nonpartisan youth.

Remember, that in pre-revolutionary Russia only 28 per cent of the population in the 9 to 49 bracket were literate. The illiteracy rate among peasants was especially high. Nevertheless, back in 1919, when the young Soviet state was engaged in an armed struggle against the counter-- revolutionary forces and foreign intervention, with its economy lying in ruins, the Soviet government adopted a decree on `The Abolition of Illiteracy Among the RSFSR's Population'. This decree laid the foundation of the national system of public education. Komsomol members played a most active part in this `Wipe Out Illiteracy' campaign.

The situation was desperate, since in 1927 there were some 92,000 YGL members who themselves were illiterate. The Party and the YCL declared the abolition of illiteracy one of the most important tasks of the building of socialism. There was a popular slogan which called on each literate Komsomol member to teach the alphabet to an illiterate comrade. Young activists helped to draw up 152 lists of illiterate people and after undergoing a brief course in teaching, reading and writing they were appointed as group leaders. Also, after taking special course, the 50,000 most suitable Komsomol members were given teachers' posts in primary schools. In 1929--32 some 45 million (against a planned 18 million) Soviet citizens underwent elementary courses in reading and writing. To the surprise of Sovietologists abroad, who used to claim that `it would take ages to wipe out illiteracy in Russia', the literacy rate in the Soviet Union reached 87.4 per cent in 1939.

In the course of socialist construction a ramified system of schools, colleges, universities and other cultural establishments has been set up in the Soviet Union. Thanks to the country's growing economic might, free education---from the elementary schools up to higher educational establishments---was introduced in the USSR for the first time in history, thus making it accessible to all working men.

The League's contribution to the liquidation of illiteracy should be given high credit. Today, among Soviet secondary school teachers there are over 60,000 Komsomol members, who actively participate in the work of teachers' Komsomol organisations as well as those of the pupils. Every year young graduates of teacher-training colleges, most of whom are Komsomol members, begin their work in the country's schools.

In the Soviet Union there exist in-service courses for secondary school teachers, and the system 153 of studies in teacher-training colleges is being systematically improved.

Almost half of Soviet schoolchildren live and study in rural areas. The USSR Ministry of Education, together with the local YCL organisations, selects young people from remote rural areas to be admitted to the teacher-training colleges without taking the otherwise obligatory entrance exams. The League's concern for the well-being of rural schools has become one of its prime duties. In the course of the `Komsomol Helps the Rural School' campaign over 10,000 rural schools were built and some 80,000 study rooms, 18,000 pioneer' s rooms, 21,000 sports grounds and 19,000 training workshops equipped with the necessary facilities.

In the 1976--77 academic year over 46 million schoolchildren attended 159,000 general education schools across the country. Over 97 per cent of those who finish the 8-year course of studies continue their schooling to get the secondary education certificate. The remaining three per cent either sign up for vocational training school (their total number exceeds 6,000) or begin their working careers while continuing their studies in evening schools.

In the Soviet Union the unified state system of public education was based and is presently developing on the following truly democratic principles:

---equality of all in the field of education and obligatory schooling for all youngsters;

154

---the accessibility of secondary and higher education and free tuition; an integrated system of schooling (general and specialised, secondary and higher education);

---the unity of education and upbringing; ---the ties between education and upbringing, on the one hand, and the practical experience of the building of communism, on the other;

---the scientific character of education and its constant improvement on the basis of modern achievements in science, technology, culture and art;

---the incorporation of the principles of Soviet patriotism and socialist internationalism into young people's education and upbringing;

---the mother tongue as the medium of instruction and freedom of choice as far as the language of instruction is concerned;

---the humanistic and highly moral nature of education, aimed at bringing up the country's young citizens in the spirit of the moral code of the builders of communism;

---independence of the education system from religious institutions and the combination of its secular nature with the moulding of a materialist world outlook.

By 1980, i.e., during the Tenth Five-Year Plan, the new schools built will accommodate not less than 7 million pupils, out of which 4.5 million school places will be made available in rural areas.

Scientific and technical progress, combined 155 with the further development of Soviet society, are making new exacting demands of the modern system of education. Apart from the amount and quality of knowledge, what matters most are the habits and skills which the rising generation will acquire in school.

In 1976 new curricula were introduced in Soviet schools, a fact which entailed a complete review and modernisation of existing textbooks and prompted the appearance of new teaching manuals and methodological aids. The new curricula laid emphasis on more profound generalised scientific information while cutting back on the number of individual facts which previously had to be memorised. Today, with the volume of essential information growing rapidly, it is the student's ability to gain this knowledge independently and not lose his bearings in the rapid flow of scientific and political information that is allimportant, rather than the simple assimilation of a certain amount of scientific facts. Reading original sources, writing papers and reports, and discussing the country's topical problems are of great practical value for schoolchildren.

In the Soviet Union the preparation of schoolchildren for their working careers is closely linked with their polytechnical training in school, which aims to familiarise pupils with the basic industrial trades, modern technology and methods of production, the organisation of work and the economics of socialist production.

Such forms of polytechnical training as school 156 industrial complexes, training workshops at plants and factories, schoolchildren's agricultural brigades and summer camps for work and recreation, are becoming increasingly widespread in the late 1970s.

Finally, the number of Soviet teachers and their qualifications are also growing. Though the teacher's role in the educational process is great, however, the moulding of an individual presupposes his own goal-oriented efforts. The development of creative thinking and self-reliance in schoolchildren is closely associated with further development of the activities of the Komsomol organisations, which must be aware of all the aspects of school life, from academic progress to extra-curricular activities. What the League has to emphasise to each pupil is the fact that good academic progress is his main concern and patriotic duty.

School YGL committees organise the patronage of junior pupils and the tutoring of pupils with poor academic records by their more advanced comrades. In addition, Komsomol members stage contests in various subjects and organise `interest groups' in which schoolchildren have extra-- curricular lessons in history, geography, physics, maths and other subjects: all this helps to give schoolchildren more profound general knowledge. Any pupil's individual research confronts him or her with the necessity to look for special literature and thus evokes an interest in deepening the acquired knowledge. Numerous scientific societies, 157 lecture halls and interest groups for schoolchildren operate through the country.

Komsomol members remember well Lenin's words: `I must say that the tasks of the youth in general and of the Young Communist Leagues and all other organisations in particular might be summed up in a single word: learn.'^^1^^

Lenin's behest has remained at the centre of all the Komsomol's activities.

How can the Komsomol help a young worker
with his studies?

The YCL cell always welcomes any young worker's desire to continue his or her studies. This moral support is always helpful since combining work with studies is not an easy task and requires a great deal of stamina on the young worker's part. Any youth engaged in industrial production is given an opportunity to continue his or her studies in an evening school.

The history of this type of educational establishment dates back to the 1920s when the Party and the Soviet government took great pains to develop it. During the Great Patriotic War, when the Red Army was fighting the Nazi hordes and the whole population was working hard to contribute to the war effort and defeat the enemy, the Soviet government took a decision (in 1943) to open a network of evening general-education schools for young workers who could, besides _-_-_

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 31, p. 283. 158

158 working at a plant or factory, study on a parttime basis there.

The year of 1962 saw the emergence of another form of evening courses---so-called `schools of foremen'. In those schools, apart from receiving secondary education, young workers could improve their professional skills, enabling them to qualify as team leaders and foremen. Besides general subjects the students there are given fundamentals of pedagogics, so that the graduates have the option of working as instructors of production training.

All evening-school students enjoy a number of benefits: the right to a paid holiday during the examination session; the right to an extra day off each week which is paid at half the normal wage rate; the option of taking their annual leave in summer; and the guarantee not to be employed in a job preventing them from attending classes.

On the other hand, evening schools have experienced certain difficulties with the enrolment of students: while in 1966 the total enrolment reached its peak with 4,845,000 students, in 1970 their number dwindled to 3,925,000 and is still on the decline. There are several reasons for this. The prime one lies in the fact that due to the advance of Soviet public education the general standards of education have risen, providing many opportunities to study elsewhere. The second reason is the reluctance on the part of some young workers to continue their education since they mistakenly consider this problem their own 159 business. Finally, there is another (the smallest) group of young people who complain of the hardships of combining work with classes.

It is in the second and third cases that the Komsomol organisations have to step in. Komsomol cells organise extra lessons for those who are behind their comrades in their studies, help to remove any outside hindrances and apply methods of persuasion to those who lack faith in their own abilities. These methods manage to convert many who have given up their studies.

Given recommendations by their Komsomol and trade union organisations in industrial or agricultural enterprises, the best young workers are sent to attend university preparatory courses. After their successful completion, they are enrolled at universities or colleges without the otherwise obligatory entrance exams.

Some large Soviet industrial enterprises have turned into educational establishments of a sort, since they accommodate evening schools, vocational schools and even affiliations of technical schools and colleges. Young workers welcome this practice since it saves their time and enables them to undergo practical training directly at their place of work. It means that any young worker, after completing his or her secondary education, can continue to study and obtain an engineer's diploma. As a rule, young workers choose to specialise further in the line of their present occupation. Those who take up evening or correspondence courses in colleges are entitled 160 __CAPTION__ 1. ``All Young Workers---Join the Leninist Komsomol" runs
the banner carried by Komsomol members during a Red Square
demonstration in Moscow (1925) 199-1.jpg __CAPTION__ 2. 199-2.jpg __CAPTION__ 3. The eradication of
illiteracy was one of the first
tasks of the socialist
revolution in which Komsomol
members participated. A
reading and writing
lesson in a women's club in
Tashkent (Uzbekistan)
(1930) 199-3.jpg 199-4.jpg __CAPTION__ 4. Young people from all
corners of the country
helped to build a big
industrial centre in
Khabarovsk Region---the town
of Komsomolsk-on-Amur
(1930s) 199-5.jpg __CAPTION__ 6. Nadezhda Krupskaya
with the delegates to a
YCL Congress 199-6.jpg __CAPTION__ 5. N. Kamneva, a
Komsomol member, was one of
the first Soviet girl
parachutists (1938) 199-7.jpg __CAPTION__ 8. I,. Tomcliak, a
Komsomol member and fighter
pilot who shot down
seven Nazi planes in a
single engagement (1942) 199-8.jpg __CAPTION__ 7. Girls from a Komsomol
work team manufacturing
shells during World War II

(1944)

__CAPTION__ 9. Alexei Vikt<iro\r, a veteran worker of the
itate Bearings Plant with his young appn--
nices __CAPTION__ 10. Youth team 199-9.jpg __CAPTION__ 11. V. Kiselev, Secretary of
the YCL Committee at the
Vladimir Ilyich
ElectroEngineering Plant,
presents a Komsomol card to
V. Dorogova, a Komsomol
team-leader 199-10.jpg __CAPTION__ 12. N. Khlystov, deputy to
the RSFSR Supreme
Soviet, with his constituents 199-11.jpg 199-12.jpg __CAPTION__ 13. A young crane operator---one (if the
thousands of girls working at construction
sites across the country __CAPTION__ 15. Group of Komsomol members from Moscow leaving for the
Baikal-Amur Railway on 25 September 1974 199-13.jpg 199-14.jpg __CAPTION__ 14. The ``Yakutsky
Komsomolets" work team, a
winner in socialist
emulation, was given the honour
of laying the last section
of the Tynda-Berkakit
stretch of the BAM 199-15.jpg 199-16.jpg __CAPTION__ 18. Students from 130 countries study together with Soviet younp
people. Two girl students from Patrice Lumumba University 199-17.jpg __CAPTION__ 16. One of the most
resansible Komsomol
assignicnts is to lead a group
Young Pioneers. The
.oneer leader and pupils
i Moscow School No. 767
-e discussing a letter just
ceived from pen-friends 199-18.jpg __CAPTION__ 17. Gladys Marin, General
:cretary of the
Commun: Youth of Chile, with
>viet Young Pioneers __CAPTION__ 19. The first graduates of the Institute of Railway Engineers
(1978) __CAPTION__ 20. Control panel of the Nurek Dam (Tajik SSR), in whose cor
struction young people from all over the country participated 199-19.jpg 199-20.jpg 199-21.jpg __CAPTION__ 21. Young workers of the
Reftinskaya Dam resting
in the winter garden of
the new community centre 199-22.jpg __CAPTION__ 25. The Komsomol's international ties have a Ions-standing
tradition: delegates to the Congress of the Young Communist
International held in Moscow in 1935 199-23.jpg __CAPTION__ 26. Lasting friendship
between young people from
the socialist countries:
Soviet and Bulgarian
workers at the Druzhba gas
pipe-line construction site 199-24.jpg __CAPTION__ 27. The 18th YCL
Congress in session (April
1978) 199-25.jpg __CAPTION__ 28. An atmosphere of friendship and cordial relations prevailed
at the World Meeting of Youny Women in Moscow (1975); 199-26.jpg to two additional paid holidays (during the winter and summer exams) plus four months' paid leave to write their diploma dissertation.

It is only natural that whenever any difficulties arise, the workers who are engaged in study seek the help of their YCL cells, which in turn defend their case, if necessary, before the management. Together with the trade union committees the Komsomol tries to ensure that young workers who attend courses in technical schools or colleges are employed in line with their chosen speciality. Senior students are usually appointed to junior engineer's posts even prior to their graduation.

In the Soviet Union industrial and agricultural enterprises have the right to send their young workers to colleges and universities and pay them additional grants which exceed the state grant of a college student by 15 per cent.

Those who have worked for at least two years at an industrial enterprise enjoy certain advantages over other applicants in the enrolment of new university or college students.

How does the Komsomol contribute to the
activities of Soviet higher educational
establishments?

The League actively helped the Soviet state in establishing and developing the system of higher education. It may be stated that the formation of the principles and traditions intrinsic in the Soviet colleges and universities was largely due to the activities of student Komsomol cells and of the League in general.

__PRINTERS_P_161_COMMENT__ 11---1888 161

Soviet young people well realise how important knowledge, culture in general and management skills are for the successful building of communist society. As was already mentioned, society's first post-revolutionary task was to wipe out illiteracy---that shameful vestige of tsarism and the bourgeois political system. However, the education of trained specialists was no less important for the socialist state.

Though the revolutionary-democratic part of the intelligentsia gave its unanimous support to Soviet power right after the revolution, the other sections of the old intelligentsia failed to grasp the meaning of the new political and economic transformations and either stood aside or went over to the counter-revolution.

By the late 1920s an acute shortage of professional men---engineers, technicians, agronomists, mechanics, doctors, and teachers---had developed in the country, making the problem of preparing a new Soviet intelligentsia very urgent. Acting on the Party's call, the Eighth YCL Congress (May, 1928) proclaimed the `Youth into Science' campaign. It was important to get \vorking young people into higher educational establishments. The plans provided for the League to send 5,000 of its best members to universities and colleges each year. It turned out, however, that the number of willing applicants from the Komsomol was so great that in 1930 the League started special preparatory courses, and upon their completion 22,000 young men and women were enrolled. 162 These courses, known at the time as `workers' faculties', spread across the country and became extremely popular. In 1928 only 68 sucli faculties were opened, but by 1933 they numbered 1,025, with a total attendance of some 340,000. All in all, during the period of their existence, `workers' faculties' prepared over one million future students for higher education: among them many future gifted managers, designers, scientists and art workers. During the first five-year plan period (1928--32) which was completed ahead of schedule, some 270,000 young specialists got their diplomas. In 1934 over half of Soviet students were either young Party members or Komsomol members. After many new students of worker-and-peasant origin had been enrolled at universities and colleges their Komsomol cells grew bigger and stronger.

The development of the USSR system of higher education was interrupted on June 22, 1941 when Nazi Germany treacherously attacked the Soviet Union.

In those areas of the Soviet Union which the Nazis temporarily occupied they destroyed 84,000 general and technical schools and institutions of higher learning. Practically, one school out of four, one college out of three, and 605 research and development institutes, were left in ruins. Coupled with the huge losses in population---over 20 million---and devastations estimated at 2,600,000 million roubles, all this had a most detrimental effect on the system of higher and secondary __PRINTERS_P_164_COMMENT__ 11* 163 education. In 1945 only 1.3 per cent of Komsomol members had higher education, 17.4 per cent secondary (10 years of general school) and 48 per cent had finished 7 grades of general school. Some four per cent of Komsomol members did not even have primary education. Crash measures were needed to radically change the situation.

After the war the country took energetic measures to rebuild destroyed schools and colleges, and a programme of constructing new educational establishments was started. In the 1950--51 academic year Soviet universities and colleges had a roll of over 1,247,000 students and over 1,298,000 Soviet youth studied in secondary specialised educational establishments, with Komsomol members accounting for 87 and 76 per cent respectively.

After rehabilitating the war-ravaged country, the Soviet Union began rapidly to develop its economy, science and culture, including the entire system of education and preparation of qualified specialists.

In 1977 some 78 per cent of all workers employed in the national economy had either higher or secondary (sometimes incomplete) education. Over nine and a half million were studying in the country's technical schools, colleges and universities.

Today, 60 per cent of Soviet college and university students are of worker-and-peasant origin, while the remainder belong to the intelligentsia whose fathers themselves were either of workers' 164 or peasants' stock. Every fifth student worked for at least two years before entering a higher educational establishment.

As mentioned above, the system of part-time studies has become very popular across the country. Today, there are three main forms of education: full-time, evening, and correspondence courses. In contrast to full-time students, students taking evening or correspondence courses work during the day and study in the evening. Nevertheless the last two types of education ensure exactly the same amount of knowledge. For parttime students there are many benefits, including an unpaid holiday for taking entrance exams and paid holidays for writing dissertations or taking annual (or twice a year, depending on the type of college) or final exams.

Anyone up to the age of 35 is eligible to become a full-time student, and there is no age limit for those who wish to enrol in evening or correspondence courses. Applicants take entrance exams and those who score most points in this contest are admitted.

There are over 2,700,000 Komsomol members among Soviet students. The Komsomol cells at higher educational establishments help the teaching staff to improve academic standards, and assist students in acquiring the skills of organisational and political work. Practically, there is not a single sphere of activity in the higher educational establishment in which the League is not involved.

165

The Komsomol's activities in universities and colleges are acquiring an integrated and systematic nature. To teach students how to do independent research is one of the tasks of the YCL. This does not imply any substitution of teaching staff efforts, but, rather, is a form of assistance to the teachers. It is important to teach students to develop a creative approach towards problems, to be aware of new trends and able to utilise them for the solution of urgent socio-- economic problems. Soviet universities and colleges are proud of their harmonious relations between the students and the teaching staff.

Of course, there are some students who like to miss classes from time to time and who demonstrate lack of discipline. The result is poor academic progress and the likelihood of their dropping out. The League fights such instances of student's going astray. Applying `moral persuasion therapy', the Komsomol members cite the positive examples of other students with good academic achievements. This method works, as a rule, and today there are some 180,000 `A'-students in all Soviet universities and colleges.

Special grants and scholarships are awarded to the best students---grants named after Lenin and other outstanding Party and state leaders. About 5,500 students receive these increased scholarships.

It should be noted that the majority of students receive state grants, which are distributed according to the student's academic progress and his material status. `A'-students, for example, are 166 given extra money exceeding the normal rate by 25 per cent.

Students enjoy various benefits, including practically free accommodation for those who come from other towns or from rural areas. The students' dorms have such facilities as electricity, central heating, gas, reading halls, gymnasiums, club rooms, leisure lounges, showers, kitchens and so forth---and everything free of charge. Meals in the students' cafes and canteens are, as a rule, much cheaper than elsewhere. It should be mentioned here that the overall cost of educating one qualified specialist ranges from 4,500 to 12,000 roubles. But education in the Union is free and financed from the state budget.

Are there any forms of students' self--
government in the Soviet Union?

Representatives of Soviet students sit as full members on such boards as the Higher Education Council of the USSR Ministry of Higher and Specialised Secondary Education, and on the Rectors' Councils which are set up in many university and college centres. Students are also represented in scientific, technical, cultural, sports and other public organisations, whose scope of activities cover diverse aspects of students' life.

All universities and colleges have students' councils which operate in close contact with the Komsomol organisations. Students also participate in the work of the dean's and rector's offices. Among the problems they deal with are the allocation of rooms in hostels, of scholarships, the 167 organisation of sports societies' activities and amateur art groups.

The college administration is very attentive to the students' views and takes them into account in practically all instances. Student representatives serve on committees that deal with applicants, and are included in the graduates distribution committees. Since there is no unemployment in the country every graduate is guaranteed work in his speciality. On the other hand, the national economy constantly requires new qualified specialists. So, several months before graduation, information on the vacancies available is passed to those about to graduate. In appointing a young graduate to a certain post, the committee takes into account the student's personal wish and the country's requirements.

In all Soviet universities and colleges there are educational commissions which are chaired, as a rule, by students. The majority of their members are also students---Lenin and state scholarship-- holders, post-graduates and young lecturers. The activities of these commissions are governed by special regulations and their main goal is to contribute to the efficiency of the educational process in general. The main method which this commission employs is the individual approach to each student.

Students' scientific societies have become very popular across the country. They exist in almost every Soviet higher educational establishment and over 1.5 million students actively participate in 168 them. The form of their participation may differ widely according to the profile of the institution in question.

Another way of encouraging the students' interest and creativity is through the so-called students' design (or economic, or technological) bureaux which exist now in over 300 colleges and universities. In the period from 1971 to 1975 alone, Soviet students received over 5,300 patents for their inventions and participated in the execution of over 70,000 scientific projects. The curricula set aside an increasing amount of teaching time for the students to undertake individual research. The Moscow Institute of Physical Engineering, for example, allots 200 academic hours a year for independent research.

Soviet students are in no way isolated from the rest of society and take great interest in all the endeavours of the Soviet people. In 1976 the number of students elected as deputies to the republican Supreme Soviets and other local Soviets exceeded 1,000.

What is the nature of the League's contacts
with young Soviet scientists?

Today, with the role of young scholars in Soviet society being especially great, the Komsomol maintains numerous contacts with the scientific community. One form of such contact is the annual contests of social scientists. While 1,300 young researchers participated in the first contest, the number of scholars who presented papers at the second contest grew to 3,000. Special 169 Komsomol prizes are awarded for the best contributions in the field of science, engineering and technology. The prize-awarding commission is headed by Academician Basov, himself a Lenin and Nobel Prize winner.

Councils of young Soviet scientists and specialists play an important role in the organisation of the young scientists' work and in directing their efforts towards resolving the tasks of technical progress. One such council, set up by the YCL Central Committee, gives practical assistance to the new Soviet scientific centres. The League was most active in helping with the architectural design of, and selection and training of scientific workers for the centres of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the Far East and the Urals and for the Cybernetics Centre of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.

The number of young scientific workers is on the increase, a fact which is not surprising since the overall numbers of scientists are growing as a consequence of scientific and technological progress and the general requirements of Soviet society's development.

Is there any creative freedom for young Soviet
artists? What is the League's attitude toward the
arts?

A considerable number of Soviet men-of-letters. artists, actors, film-makers and architects are young people who display a lively interest in the life of Soviet society and the surrounding world. They aim to combat with their art all the vestiges of 170 the past and anything that hampers the building of communism. The Komsomol's work with these young artists has facilitated the creation of works of art which directly reflect and analyse the urgent topics of Soviet life, and the typical aspects of the Soviet people's personal lives.

Lenin once remarked in a conversation with Clara Zetkin (1875--1933), one of the founders of the Communist Party of Germany, while discussing problems of art, education and upbringing, that `Art belongs to the people. Its roots should be deeply implanted in the very thick of the labouring masses... It must unite and elevate their feelings, thoughts and will. It must stir to activity and develop the art instincts within them.'^^1^^

The art which Lenin meant may only arise and successfully develop in an atmosphere of genuine artistic freedom. It is this kind of art, which is profound in its ideological content, highly artistic and varied in its national form and in its styles and genres, that has flourished in the Soviet Union.

`Take, for example, the influence exerted by fashion and the caprices of the tsarist court as well as by the tastes and whims of the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie on the development of our painting, sculpture and architecture. In society based on private property the artist produces for _-_-_

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, On Literature and Art, Moscow, 1970, p. 251.

171 the market, needs customers. Our revolution treed artists from the yoke of these extremely prosaic conditions.'^^1^^ And then Lenin said that any artist is free in his creative endeavours and has the right to free artistic expression and to follow his ideal.

True artistic freedom is incompatible with anarchy, individualistic gimmicks or so-called ` absolute' freedom. True talent, developed in conditions of freedom of conscience, cannot be devoid of conscience and is incompatible with irresponsibility and attempts to flee from real life and its struggle.

In the Soviet Union, as in the other countries of the socialist community, the principle of Party guidance of literature and art is in force. This presupposes, on the one hand, the artist's right to create freely in accordance with his chosen ideal. On the other hand, the Communists see their task in the planned guidance of artistic endeavours in accordance with the communist ideals. To guide an artist means to direct his artistic aspirations with tact, revealing to him the social prospects of art and driving home the idea that the approximation of his creative ambitions to the interests of society's progress will ensure that his people gain the maximum benefits from his works. The Party spirit and the freedom of artistic expression do not contradict each other. The more staunch the artist's class affiliations and _-_-_

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, On Literature and Art, pp. 249--50. 172

172 political views are, the deeper he grasps the essence of Marxism-Leninism, the more easily he can find his bearings in the whirl of life and follow the right road in the labyrinth of social contradictions and conflicts, and the firmer is the guarantee of success in his creative searches.

In the course of over six decades, Soviet art has produced numerous examples of free and fruitful development with artistic works full of vigour and creative perfection.

The Soviet artistic intelligentsia---writers, poets, artists, composers, performers, musicians and producers---constitute an integral whole with socialist society and the Soviet people. In their works they reflect the country's urgent problems.

The contacts between the YCL and the artistic intelligentsia are reciprocal, since the Komsomol shows every possible concern for the artistic growth of the country's young artists. Long-range plans, developed by the YCL together with the USSR Ministry of Culture and various artistic unions, include young artists' trips around the country, exhibitions, public discussion of books and so forth.

In accordance with the Soviet Constitution, which proclaims the right of Soviet citizens to public organisations, several bodies such as the USSR Architects' Union, the USSR Journalists' Union, the USSR Composers' Union, the USSR Writers' Union and the USSR Artists' Union have been in existence for some time. All these organisations have their own youth sections. Meetings 173 of young members of these professional unions are regularly held across the country and the League's representatives are among their regular participants. As a rule, new young members are nominated to the unions at these meetings. In Moscow alone there exist over fifty literary societies at large industrial plants, factories, community centres and educational establishments, in which young poets and writers can test their pen. And the Komsomol organisations are always ready to come and help the young artists.

The Komsomol often holds seminars, conferences and workshops for young artists. The YGL Central Committee regularly sponsors fact-finding missions of young writers and artists to the sites of the largest Soviet construction projects and organises, with the respective unions, `Books for the Young' and `Films for the Young' weeks.

The all-Union and republican exhibitions of young artists' and film-makers' works and festivals of youth theatres and poets have become important events in the life of Soviet youth. The 17th YCL Congress called on the Komsomol organisations to improve their work among the artistic youth, to produce a greater impact on the repertoire of theatres and film studios and on the main themes of exhibitions and to ensure that older masters show greater care towards the creative development of young talents.

The League's efforts to ensure the cultural development of the entire Soviet youth and 174 introduce it to the masterpieces of the Soviet and world literature, culture and art are also important. Soviet young men and women have at their disposal the widest opportunities for all-round development. Not everyone, however, who is fond of art can or should become a professional artist. Such people usually join amateur societies: in the mid-1970s the number of these societies in the Soviet Union exceeded 800,000 with a total of some 15 million members. Many young amateur artists achieved fame and became winners of amateur art contests and competitions for Komsomol prizes. These amateur artists participate in the artistic programmes of Soviet Youth Festivals.

Some more statistics will illustrate the opportunities which the Soviet youth has at its disposal to satisfy its interest in literature, art and aesthetic development. In the USSR young people are fond of reading---90 per cent of young men and women cite reading as their favourite pastime. Many Soviet publishing houses cater to young readers' tastes. In 1977 alone the Molodaya Gvardiya and other Komsomol publishing houses printed over 600 books and booklets in over 500 million copies.

In the Soviet Union there are some 154,000 stationary and mobile film projectors and the total annual number of film-viewers exceeds 4,500 million. There are also 549 theatres, 1,255 museums and 135,000 community centres which carry on an immense amount of cultural activities 175 and provide artistic education for the Soviet peopie.

What is the Komsomol's attitude toward
religious believers?

Let us first describe the prevailing attitude toward religious cults and organisations. It rests on the Soviet state's desire to honour the interests of all its citizens.

The USSR Constitution proclaims (in Article 52) that citizens of the USSR are guaranteed freedom of conscience, that is, the right to profess or not to profess any religion, and to conduct religious worship or atheistic propaganda. In the USSR, the church is separated from the state, and the school from the church. This means that any Soviet citizen is free to define his own attitude toward religion, to have or not to have religious views, to change his faith or to belong to any religious institution. No one is forced to be either an atheist or a religious believer, either to perform religious rites or not to. This is a matter for each person's conscience, and the right is guaranteed by law. At the same time each Soviet citizen has the right to be a non-believer and conduct atheistic propaganda.

The majority of Soviet youth, like the Komsomol members, have a materialist world outlook and consequently reject all beliefs in the supernatural with its gods, a life after death and the immortality of the soul.

The principle of freedom of conscience is a firm reality which is safeguarded by the state, most 176 importantly in the law about the separation of the church from the state. Under this law, the state does not interfere in the inner activities of religious institutions, and the church is separated from the state and its political, economic, cultural, public health, educational and other organisations.

Today, such organisations as the Russian Orthodox Church, the Georgian Orthodox Church, the Armenian-Gregorian Church, the Old Believers' Church, the Roman Catholic Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church, as well as Moslem, Buddhist and Judaic religious organisations and a number of sects, freely operate in the country. All these religious bodies are absolutely equal before the state and each of them is self-- governing. No questions are ever asked in the Soviet Union about religious views when interviewing for a job, during a population census, while issuing a passport, etc.

Soviet law safeguards against infringements of the lawful rights of believers, religious associations and clergymen. Any discrimination against believers or pressure on their conscience is strictly banned.

Therefore it may be correctly stated that discrimination against believers and non-believers does not exist in the Soviet Union, and the Soviet laws on religious cults are among the most humane and democratic in the world.

At the same time Soviet laws ban the use of religious assemblies for political purposes against the Soviet state's interests; they prohibit __PRINTERS_P_177_COMMENT__ 12---1888 177 incitement to evade one's civic duties or not to participate in socio-political life, and ban fanatical rites causing bodily or mental harm.

It should be mentioned here (hat the clergy in the Soviet Union, as a rule, follow the legal requirements and are loyal to the state. Today, there are only isolated cases, mostly in sectarian groups, where some people try to incite among believers discontentment with the religious policy of the socialist state, or force believers to stop listening to radio broadcasts, reading newspapers, consulting doctors, or serving in the Armed Forces. This is done, as a rule, by people following selfish and careerist purposes. Such actions violate Soviet laws, the rights and duties of Soviet citizens and are punishable by law.

It is a well-known fact that Communists regard religion as a vestige of the past. The atheistic propaganda conducted in the Soviet Union does not resemble an all-out military campaign. On the contrary, greater attention is given to moulding a materialist world outlook in the people's conscience. Its foundations are laid in the secondary school where natural sciences are taught, and continued in specialised educational establishments where the students study the fundamentals of scientific atheism, including a philosophical review of the entire struggle between the atheistic and religious views, which are presented with a wealth of concrete historical facts. The understanding of scientific facts emancipates man's conscience from religious superstitions. The 178 atheistic material publicised by the country's press, radio and TV serves the same aims. Sometimes such material appears as a result of requests by those who would like to know more about religion and atheism.

The League pays much attention to atheistic propaganda and very often local YCL cells organise special atheistic societies and `young atheists' clubs in which scientists, writers and former believers deliver talks on atheistic topics. In addition, Komsomol members practice an individual approach to believers and especially to children from families of believers with strong religious views.

From time to time the capitalist press publishes articles which allege that the presence of groups of young Soviet citizens in churches demonstrates their interest in' religion. There are very few believers among young people but, on the other hand, it is well known that many churches in the Soviet Union are famous for their magnificent architecture and rich interior decorations. Therefore, the desire of young people to see these relics of national history (for instance, the Novodevichy Monastery in Moscow or the complex of churches in Zagorsk, near Moscow) is quite understandable. The majority of young visitors are firm atheists, while the churches themselves are protected by the state in order to ensure their proper maintenance.

[179] __ALPHA_LVL1__ THE KOMSOMOL'S TIES WITH THE
PROGRESSIVE YOUTH ABROAD

What is the essence of Soviet foreign policy?

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.

'.. .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.'^^1^^

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 _-_-_

~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 27, p. 365. 180

180 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.

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.

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'.^^1^^

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.

Describing the essence of the Party's foreign policy the 25th GPSU Congress stressed that the Soviet Union's international standing has never _-_-_

~^^1^^ Road to Communism, p. 506.

181 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.

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:

---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.

---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.

---The efforts of peace-loving states should be 182 concentrated on eliminating the remaining hotbeds of war, first and foremost in the Middle East.

---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.

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

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

---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.

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

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

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.'^^1^^

_-_-_

~^^1^^ Constitution (Fundamental Law) of the Soviet Socialist Republics, Article 28, p. 31.

183

`In the USSR,' the Constitution goes on, `war propaganda is banned.'^^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?

'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.'^^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.

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

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 _-_-_

~^^1^^ Constitution (Fundamental Law) of the Soviet Socialist Republics, Article 28, p. 32.

~^^2^^ Socialism: Theory and Practice, July, 1978, p. 16.

184 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?

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.

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

Lenin attached great importance to the question of the Komsomol's international cooperation 185 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.

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. . .'

At the same time, in pursuance of its 186 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.

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.

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.

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 187 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.

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.

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.

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 188 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.

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.

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.

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.

The mission of a Soviet youth delegation to the 189 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.

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.

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. 190 Representatives of the British and Canadian embassies and of the Australian mission also participated.

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.

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.

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).

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 191 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.

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.

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.

192

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.

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.

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.

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.

__PRINTERS_P_193_COMMENT__ 13--1888 193

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.

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.'^^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?

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 _-_-_

~^^1^^ Documents and Resolutions, XXVth Congress of the CPSU, p. 37.

194 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.

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.

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.

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 195 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The YCL initiated numerous major political events involving young people, such as the worldwide `Youth Accuses Imperialism' campaign (in 196 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.

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.

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. 197 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.

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.

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 198 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?

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.

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.

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, 199 Emacs-File-stamp: "/home/ysverdlov/leninist.biz/en/1980/KQA238/20070312/238.tx" __EMAIL__ webmaster@leninist.biz __OCR__ ABBYY 6 Professional (2007.03.12) __WHERE_PAGE_NUMBERS__ bottom __FOOTNOTE_MARKER_STYLE__ [0-9]+ __ENDNOTE_MARKER_STYLE__ [0-9]+ 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.

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.

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.

The participation of the fraternal youth leagues 200 in joint projects inculcates among young workers an understanding of common internationalist tasks in the building of socialism and communism.

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.

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.

Since the late 1950s international youth tourism 201 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.

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.

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.

202

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?

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.'^^1^^

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 _-_-_

~^^1^^ The Road to Communism, p. 497.

203 from Asia and about 100 from Latin America visited the Soviet Union.

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.

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.

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.

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 204 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.

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.

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.

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 205 development of the national economy and culture of the liberated areas of Guinea-Bissau, Angola and Mozambique.

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.

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.

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 206 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?

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.

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.

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 207 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.

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.

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.

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.

208

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.

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.

The Congress paid particular attention to the consolidation of the youth movement. The __PRINTERS_P_209_COMMENT__ 14---1888 209 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 210 solidarity with the struggle of the peoples of Indochina, the Middle East countries and the young fighters for national liberation and social emancipation.

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.'

211

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.

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 212 107 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.

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.

The numerous demonstrations of youth solidarity carried out successfully by the WFDY show that it possesses the decisive factors needed to 213 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.

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.

214

What is Sputnik?

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.

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.

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.

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

215

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.

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.

The tourist links with the socialist countries' young people are fixed in the long-term programmes of all-round cooperation between the 216 YCL and the youth leagues of the GDR, Bulgaria, Hungary, Cuba, Poland, Czechoslovakia and other states.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

217

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.

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

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.

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.

218

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.

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.

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 219 encourages young people engaged in modern industry to establish personal contacts for sharing production experience, methods of training and achieving high labour productivity.

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

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.

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.

220

What is the Students' Council?

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.

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.

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.

221

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.

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.

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.)

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 222 participate in various events staged in the socialist countries or to attend students' festivals. Groups of student amateur artists also go on tours abroad.

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.

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.

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'.

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 223 organisations of Finland, despite their differing political views, sent representatives.

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?

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' 224 Council is a participant in the activities of the International Union of Students, the vanguard of progressive students throughout the world.

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.

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 __PRINTERS_P_225_COMMENT__ 15---1888 225 to liquidate vestiges of fascism in the universities and other educational establishments.

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.

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.

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 226 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.

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.

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.

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 227 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?

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 228 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 1,500 229 events, including mass rallies, demonstrations, international and national concerts, contests, clubs and many, many more.

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.

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.

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.

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

Preparations for the Eleventh Festival began under new conditions: thanks to the efforts of the Soviet Union, the other countries of the 230 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).

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 231 with young social-democrats, socialists, Christian democrats and other youth organisations.

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.

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.

Even today, the socio-economic problems of the 232 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

From 28 July to 5 August 1978 the capital of Cuba welcomed some 18,500 delegates from 145 countries and about 2,000 organisations 233 representing different political, philosophical and religious views.

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

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.

[234] __ALPHA_LVL1__ LIST OF QUESTIONS

The Komsomol: what does it stand for? . 8

Is the Komsomol part of the Communist Party or is it part of the system of state-run organisations?............ 35

What is the main principle of the Komsomol's organisational structure?....... 38

Is it obligatory for young people to join the Komsomol?............. 43

What is the procedure for admitting new members to the Komsomol? Is there any difference between membership in the Komsomol and in the trade unions?...... 44

How do Komsomol members display their social involvement?............. 46

How are the Komsomol's funds collected
and spent?.............. 48

What use can the Komsomol make of the
mass media?.............. 50

What incentives does the Komsomol use?. . 55

235

Does the Komsomol extend its activities to
young people outside its ranks?...... 57

What human qualities are moulded through
the Komsomol membership?........ 60

What was Lenin's idea of relations between the revolutionary Workers' Party and the
revolutionary Youth League?......... 63

What opponents did the Communist Party have to fight while spreading its influence on
the youth?............... 71

What necessitates the Party guidance of the
Komsomol?............... 76

How are the relations between the Communist Party and the Komsomol governed?. . . 81

Does not the Party's guidance deprive the Komsomol of its organisational independence and activism?............. 83

What is the role of the numerous young Communists working within the Komsomol ranks? 85

What is the cause of the growth in the Party's guidance of the Komsomol today?. . 89

What is the principal task of the Komsomol?. 94

The Leninist Seminar and the Leninist ` Reporting Session': What are they?..... 104

The All-Union March Through the Sites of the Revolutionary, Military and Labour Glory of the Soviet People: Why is it held? Are 236 there any reasons to claim that this is a form
of `para-military training' of young people?. 106

Does the Komsomol show any interest in ethical problems? What are the basic principles of communist morality?........ 111

What is a shock-work construction project?. 115

What are students' construction brigades?. 118

What is the main idea of socialist emulation? What role does the Komsomol play in its development?.............. 123

How do young people, including Komsomol members, contribute to the development of science and technology?......... 132

What is the Komsomol's share of governmental functions?............ 138

How does the Komsomol participate in running the state's affairs?......... 141

Youth Commissions, at the People's Soviets: What are these?............ 148

Does the Komsomol influence how young people choose their careers?....... 149

How does the YCL contribute to the nationwide task of universal secondary education?. 152

How can the Komsomol help a young worker
with his studies?............ 158

How does the Komsomol contribute to the activities of Soviet higher educational establishments?.............. 161

237

Are there any forms of students' self-- government in the Soviet Union?........ 167

What is the nature of the League's contacts with young Soviet scientists?........ 169

Is there any creative freedom for young Soviet artists? What is the League's attitude toward the arts?............... 170

What is the Komsomol's attitude toward religious believers?............ 176

What is the essence of Soviet foreign policy?. 180

What is the attitude of young people toward
the Soviet foreign policy?........ 184

What are the international ties of the Komsomol and the Soviet youth?..... ... 185

What is the Komsomol's contribution to the Peace Movement?............ 194

What forms does the friendship and cooperation between the youth of the Soviet Union and the other socialist countries take?................ 199

How does Soviet youth demonstrate its solidarity with the young people in the developing countries?.............. 203

What role does the Komsomol play in the activities of the World Federation of Democratic Youth?............ 207

What is Sputnik?. 215

238

What is the Students' Council?...... 221

How do Soviet students contribute to activities of the IUS?............ 224

How does Soviet youth participate in the festival movement?............ 228

[239] __ALPHA_LVL0__ The End. [END]

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