Since 1991, Komsomol Day is not a public holiday. It is celebrated by those who associate their youth with this former largest youth organization in the world and are nostalgic for the Soviet past.
There is such a story about an elderly man who was asked when it was better, now or under Stalin. “Of course, under Stalin!” - answered the old man. And he explained that then, several decades ago, he had all his teeth, his head grew thick hair, and women loved him very much. Now what? One disgrace!
How Komsomol was created
The need for a youth communist organization arose almost immediately after the October Revolution, and it was framed at the height of the Civil War in 1918. October 29 (November 4 according to the Julian calendar) was proclaimed the creation of a socialist youth union, soon renamed the communist (KSM). The next 72 years on this day and it was customary to celebrate Komsomol Day. The date is conditional, since the organization was repeatedly renamed, and the Bolsheviks had minor assistants before.
On the badge, which appeared in 1922, nevertheless stood the abbreviation "KIM", which stands for "communist youth international." According to the official version, the author of the idea of creating a young vanguard and some preliminary stage of future members of the Bolshevik party was V.I. Ulyanov (Lenin). This version is confirmed by the fact of a theoretical study of the issue, confirmed by the work "Tasks of Youth Unions", published in 1920. However, this happened already at the III Congress of the KCM, which took place in the same year.
Boris Bazhanov, Stalin’s secretary who fled abroad (1928), insisted that the opportunity to celebrate Komsomol Day was owed to his members by Lazar Shatskin, a prominent Bolshevik party leader who was shot, like so many others like him, in 1937.
Why did they bring up a new generation of Leninists
Be that as it may, membership in the Komsomol, (after the death of Lenin the letter “L” was added, and the union became Leninist) 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 food surplus policy, and at the forefront of the class struggle were poorly trained, often illiterate, representatives of rural or young people sent from the city, who were plundered by the robbed rural population, sometimes very cruelly.
Actually, the KSM has never been an independent organization; its tasks included carrying out the party line on all the fronts it announced. On Komsomol Day, it was customary to honor the memory of all young Leninists who died during collectivization and in all wars in which they had to participate.
Particular attention was paid to the participation of members in children's education. The system of ideological suggestion in the USSR had four levels. Children born in the Land of Soviets became October Revolutionaries in the elementary grades, then they were accepted into 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 our fellow citizens celebrate Lenin Komsomol Day today are different. For some, these are nostalgic memories of a carefree youth that passed in calm and prosperous years, others still believe in the bright ideals of communism, while others may have really been very well arranged under different district committee-regional committee-city committees. In addition to labor and military feats, there were special buffets and distributors common with party structures. And in conjunction with youth, how not to miss such benefits?
What can be adopted
Nevertheless, there is a rational grain in the idea of reaching young people with some useful activities. Despite many unrighteous actions, the country's leadership ensured that children were engaged in circles, sections at pioneer palaces and sports societies, and completely free of charge. Perhaps on Komsomol Day many people also remember this, looking at how painfully the present young generation is looking for its way.