Youth Groups in the USSR (Edexcel A Level History): Revision Note

Summary

• This note will examine why youth groups were important to Soviet politicians

• Bolshevik leaders believed children were essential to securing the future of the Revolution

• Youth organisations were used to shape loyal, disciplined citizens committed to Marxism

  • They also offered an alternative community to the family, strengthening devotion to the Party

• Under Lenin and Stalin, youth groups promoted Communist values through

  • Education

  • Propaganda

  • Activism

• Khrushchev expanded their role in reform and economic campaigns

• Whereas Brezhnev used them to reinforce discipline and celebrate Party achievements

Why were youth groups important to Soviet politicians?

• Soviet politicians believed that youth groups were important because children

  • Were essential for the success of the Revolution

    • Their loyalty and devotion to Marxism would result in a socialist future

  • Had to be educated in Marxism

    • To ensure the success of the Revolution and its future

• Youth groups were important for propaganda as

  • It had the potential to create millions of loyal Soviet citizens

  • Would be used to instil the values of the Communist Party

    • Including political and social values as well as discipline, such as discouragement of smoking and drinking

• Communist party leaders believed that young people would be interested in Communism due to their perceived radical nature

• Youth groups offered children a second community

  • Which would be beneficial to the Soviet government, as children would form strong bonds and loyalty to the Party

    • They also hoped over time, it would help to diminish the role of the family

Bolshevik youth groups

• Komsomol was established in 1918

  • Young people aged between 14 and 28 years old were encouraged to join

• The Young Pioneers was established in 1922

  • Children aged between 10 and 25 years old were encouraged to join

  • Children were taught to build Communism and be its defender

• Both the Young Pioneers and the Komsomol

  • Wore a uniform

    • The Young Pioneers wore a white shirt with a red neckerchief with the organisation and rank badges on the sleeve of the shirt

    • The Komsomol wore civilian clothes with a Komsomol pin

  • Participated in activities

    • Such as hiking and camping

  • Had talks with local businesses and farms

    • Including factory workers and soldiers from the Red Army

• The Komsomol had more of an active role in the Party, as they sometimes

  • Handed out posters and pamphlets

  • Sent to markets to monitor prices

  • Participated in anti-religious campaigns

• In 1925, the Komsomolskaya Pravda was created

  • This was a magazine for the youth of the Soviet Union

  • It published articles promoting

    • Communist ideology

    • Government policies

• In the 1930s, Stalin encouraged members of the Komsomol to spy on their parents

• Khrushchev increasingly involved the Komsomol in Party activities

  • Komsomol leaders helped with the recruitment for the Virgin Lands Scheme

  • Khrushchev also wanted them to help with holding factory managers and Party officials accountable

    • They were to remind them of the Communist vision

• However, Brezhnev's vision for the Komsomol was different, as he believed they should

  • Celebrate the achievements of the Party

  • Monitor the discipline and obedience of the young people of the Soviet Union

    • To ensure the young respected the government and the values of hard work

• Brezhnev saw the leadership of the Komsomol as potentially dangerous and changed their focus

How successful were Bolshevik youth groups?

• Historians debate whether Bolshevik youth organisations successfully created loyal, committed young Communists, or whether many young people resisted Communist expectations and rejected official youth culture

Youth groups were successful

• The Young Pioneers and Komsomol helped politicise children from an early age

• Youth organisations provided

  • Structure

  • Community

  • Clear ideological education

• The Young Pioneers were used to model ideal socialist behaviour

• Central control over youth work tightened after the early 1920s

• Bolshevik youth groups replaced alternative organisations such as the Scouts

• Leaders saw children as essential to building the socialist future

Key historian

“Children might be unproductive at present; they were, however, essential to building the future. From the first, therefore, the leaders of the new regime targeted them not just as the recipients of nurture, but as an audience for political ideas. The first years of Soviet power were an era of relative laissez-faire: during the Civil War, the main task of the new leaders was to create a base of popular support to begin with. Much political activity went on in schools and in private children’s clubs, but often of a disorganised, carnivalesque kind. In 1922, however, began a period of more intensive regulation, as marked by the creation of the ‘Young Pioneer’ organisation that year, a branch of the Komsomol (Communist Youth Movement) for children aged 10 to 15, followed by the banning of the Scout organisation. In its early years, the Pioneers (known from 1924 also as ‘Young Leninists’) was an eminently serious political organisation, and its members were represented as fiery young activists and models for what were officially known as ‘unorganised children’. The following years were to see tightening central control in every other area of work with children as well, from literature and arts to education.” - Catriona Kelly, Children’s World: Growing Up in Russia, 1890–1991, (2007)

Youth groups were not fully successful

• Many young people resisted Communist moral expectations

• Komsomol rules on behaviour were often mocked or ignored

• Some youths preferred alternative publications, cultures and identities

• Young people created unofficial youth cultures, challenging Bolshevik norms

• Resistance showed the limits of Party control over youth behaviour

• The Komsomol struggled to appeal to all young people, especially workers and students

Key historian

“The peasant youth in the villages and collective farms appears to be another category in which Communist indoctrination is at a relatively low level. Komsomol enrollment in rural areas has always been significantly lower than in the urban industrial centers; and despite constant efforts to improve the ratio, the villages remain a weak link in the chain. It is in the countryside that cross-loyalties exert their most significant influence. The persistence among the older generation of antipathy to collectivization, memories of past suffering and present hardships, and strongly-ingrained religious attitudes leave an impress on the younger generation which Communist propaganda in the schools cannot wholly counteract or eradicate. Indeed, the relative weakness of the Communist apparatus in the villages contributes to the strength of family influences… New converts are won for Komsomol and Party, but how genuinely and profoundly fundamental attitudes shift is by no means clear.” - Merle Fainsod, The Komsomols - A Study of Youth Under Dictatorship, (1951)