Komsomol is a mass patriotic organization of Soviet youth. There are no other examples in the history of the youth movement, which over the years of its existence have reached more than 160 million people and could boast of real achievements. The Civil War, the labor five-year plans, heroism during the Great Patriotic War, virgin lands, Komsomol shock construction projects - all this is the Komsomol. The birth of the Komsomol is not an act instilled from above, it is a combination of energy and the heat of the hearts of young people who dream of being useful to their homeland.
Background
The initiator and ideologist of the organizational completion of attempts to create numerous youth groups was V.I. Lenin. And they were created before the revolution. First, youth primary organizations formed within the party and united workers and students. It was students who were the most revolutionary class of the time. During the period of dual power (February-October 1917), when history could turn both towards the bourgeois and the socialist system, N.K. Krupskaya and V.I. Lenin developed a program of revolutionary youth associations.
In large cities, organizations were created that became the basis for creating a structure of national scale. For example, the SSRM (Union of Socialist Workers' Youth) in Petrograd, approaching the birthday of the Komsomol.
Congress of Workers and Peasants
At the height of the Civil War (1918), the first congress of delegates from scattered youth organizations across the country took place in Moscow. 176 people arrived from everywhere: from territories captured by the White Guards, as well as by the German army (Ukraine, Poland); from detached Finland and the self-proclaimed Baltic republics, as well as from Vladivostok occupied by Japan. They were united by a desire to create a new power, built on the principles of justice. The opening day of the congress (October 29) will go down in history as the birthday of the Komsomol, which brought together more than 22 thousand people.
The adopted charter and program of the All-Russian organization said that it is independent, but operates under the leadership of the Communist Party, which determined its ideological orientation. The main speaker was Lazar Abramovich Shatskin, the author of the program. His name is little known in the country, because during the years of Stalinist repressions he will be shot for charges of Trotskyism. Like many other first secretaries of the Central Committee, who headed the organization until 1938.
Symbolism of the RKSM
The lists of delegates to the first congress were not preserved even in the archives. In the future, the task arose of identifying membership in an organization that was called the RKSM (Russian Communist Youth Union). Since 1919, Komsomol tickets appeared. In the conditions of the civil war, during which the Central Committee announced three mobilization, they were kept and guarded at the cost of life. A little later, the first icons appeared. Their release, first in insufficient quantities, was engaged in by the Komsomol itself. The birth of the Komsomol was immortalized with four letters of the RKSM against the background of a flag with a star. Badges were awarded to production leaders and the best representatives of the organization.
Since 1922, a new uniform form was approved with the acronym KIM, which means the Communist International of Youth. The form will also change in 1947, acquiring the final form only in 1956. It will already be awarded to all members of the organization along with the Komsomol ticket.
The tasks of the Komsomol
In 1920, the Civil War was still ongoing, but it became clear that the Red Army was winning. This set the Bolshevik Party serious tasks to restore the destroyed economy, create the country's energy base and create a new society. The state needed competent personnel, therefore 2.10. 1920 At the next (III-m) Komsomol congress, V.I. made a speech Lenin, who determined the mission of the newly created organization: to learn communism. In its structure, there were already 482 thousand people.
In the year of the birth of the Komsomol, it was important to win, but now it was necessary to form the generation that was to live in different social conditions. The front was replaced by the labor front. Grandiose accomplishments in the pre-war years were made possible thanks to the participation of working youth in collectivization, Komsomol construction projects, patronage of universal education, the movement of “thousand-strong workers” (who fulfilled the plan by 1000%) and higher professional education (labor schools). Many Western analysts believed that the success of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War was made possible by educating a person of a new formation, putting the country's interests above personal ones, in which the Komsomol succeeded.
The birth of the Komsomol: the name of V.I. Lenin
In January 1924, the country was shocked by the news of the death of V.I. Lenin, leader of the world proletariat and leader of the country. In the summer of that year, the congress (VI) of the RKSM was held, at which the question of assigning the Komsomol named after V.I. Lenin was decided. The appeal spoke of a firm determination to live, fight and work in Lenin's style. His book "Tasks of Youth Unions" has become a desktop for every Komsomol member.
The birthday of Lenin's Komsomol (12.07) added the letter “L” to the abbreviation of the organization’s name, and over the next two years it was called the RLKSM.
