Since 1991, Komsomol Day is notpublic holiday. It is celebrated by those who associate their youthful years with this former largest youth organization in the world and are nostalgic for the Soviet past.
There is such a story about an elderly personwho was asked when it was better, now or under Stalin. “Of course, under Stalin!” Replied the old man. And he explained that then, several decades ago, he had all his teeth, his head was filled with thick hair and women loved him very much. And now what? One disgrace!
How was the Komsomol
The need for a communist youthorganization emerged almost immediately after the October Revolution, and it was framed at the height of the Civil War, in 1918. On October 29 (November 4, according to the Julian calendar), the creation of a socialist union of youth was proclaimed, soon renamed Communist (KSM). The next 72 years on this day it was customary to celebrate Komsomol Day. The date is conditional, as the organization was repeatedly renamed, and the Bolsheviks had minor assistants before.
On the badge, which appeared in 1922, theno less was the abbreviation "KIM", which stands for "Communist Youth International". According to the official version, the author of the idea of creating a young avant-garde and a certain preliminary stage of the future members of the Bolshevik party was V.I. Ulyanov (Lenin). This version confirms the fact of theoretical study of the issue, confirmed by the work "Tasks of the Unions of Youth", published in 1920. However, this happened already at the III Congress of the KCM, held in the same year.
Boris Bazhanov, who escaped abroad (1928)Stalin’s secretary insisted that his members were obliged to Lazar Shatskin, a prominent figure in the Bolshevik Party, who was shot, like many others like him, in 1937, to celebrate Komsomol Day.
Why did we raise a new generation of Leninists?
Whatever it was, and membership in VKSM, (afterLenin’s death was added the letter “L”, and the union became Lenin’s) in the first years of the organization’s existence was just as dangerous as in the RCP (b). Shortly after the end of the Civil War, peasant unrest began, associated with a tough policy of surplus, and little prepared, often illiterate representatives of rural or young people sent from the city, on whom the plundered rural population broke up their discontent, were at the forefront of the class struggle, sometimes very cruelly.
Actually, an independent organization KSMnever was, his task was to hold the party line on all fronts declared by her. On Komsomol Day, it was customary to honor the memory of all the young Leninists who died during collectivization and in all the wars in which they had to participate.
Particular attention was paid to the participation of membersorganizations in children's education. The system of ideological suggestion in the USSR had four levels. The children born in the Land of the Soviets became the Octobrists in primary classes, then they were accepted as pioneers, and only after that, at the age of 14, in Komsomol.
What do the aged Komsomol members yearn for?
The reasons why some of ourfellow citizens celebrate the Day of the Leninist Komsomol, are different. For some, these are nostalgic memories of a carefree youth that passed in calm and prosperous years, others firmly believe even today in the luminous ideals of communism, while others may have really been very well organized with different regional city committees. In addition to labor and military exploits, there were special buffets, and distributors, in common with party structures. And together with youth, how not to miss such benefits?
What can you learn
And yet there is a rational grain in the idea of coverageyouth some useful activities. Despite many unjust actions, the country's leadership ensured that the children were engaged in circles, sections at the palaces of the pioneers and sports societies, and completely free of charge. Perhaps, on Komsomol Day, many people recall this, looking at how the younger generation is painfully searching for its way.
