16 Facts About Komsomol

In March 1926, Komsomol membership reached a NEP-period peak of 1,750,000 members: only 6 percent of the eligible youth population.

Komsomol had little direct influence on the Communist Party or on the government of the Soviet Union, but it played an important role as a mechanism for teaching the values of the CPSU to the younger generation.

The Komsomol served as a mobile pool of labor and political activism, with the ability to relocate to areas of high-priority at short notice.

In 1929,7,000 Komsomol cadets were building the tractor factory in Stalingrad, 57,000 others built factories in the Urals, and 36,500 were assigned work underground in the coal mines.

The government, unions and the Komsomol jointly introduced Centers for Scientific and Technical Creativity for Youth.

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Folklore quickly coined a motto: "The Komsomol is a school of Capitalism", hinting at Vladimir Lenin's "Trade unions are a school of Communism".

The Komsomol, long associated with conservatism and bureaucracy, had always largely lacked political power.

The radical Twentieth Congress of the Komsomol altered the rules of the organization to represent a market orientation.

The Komsomol sought to provide its members with alternative leisure activities that promoted the improvement of society, such as volunteer work, sports, and political and drama clubs.

At these assemblies, the leadership of the Komsomol promoted the values they considered to be the most important for the ideal young communist.

The Komsomol pushed hard to recruit young women and raise them in this new consciousness.

Komsomol found it difficult to recruit and motivate young women amongst the rural populations.

Komsomol women were provided little in the way of programs that might encourage their involvement.

The Komsomol turned to the Zhenotdel, which was more favorable to young peasant women, and cooperated with them to achieve better results.

The Komsomol needed full-time commitment, and peasant youths, who saw it as a chance for social mobility, education, and economic success, were willing to abandon their traditional duties to join.

Komsomol adopted meritocratic, supposedly class-blind membership policies in 1935, but the result was a decline in working-class youth members, and a dominance by the better educated youth.