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90-456: It was established in 1961 as a Komsomol project around a paper mill. In post-Soviet times the paper mill was seen as a major source of pollution. Within the framework of administrative divisions , the urban-type settlement (inhabited locality) of Selenginsk is incorporated within Kabansky District as Selenginsk Urban-Type Settlement (an administrative division of the district). As

180-653: A municipal division , Selenginsk Urban-Type Settlement is incorporated within Kabansky Municipal District as Selenginskoye Urban Settlement . Selenginsk stands on the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Trans-Siberian Highway . Komsomol The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League , usually known as Komsomol , was a political youth organization in the Soviet Union . It

270-467: A NEP-period peak of 1,750,000 members: only 6% of the eligible youth population. Only when Stalin came to power and abandoned the NEP in the first Five Year Plan (1928–1933) did membership increase drastically. The youngest youth eligible for Komsomol membership were fourteen years old. The upper age-limit for ordinary personnel was twenty-eight, but Komsomol functionaries could be older. Younger children joined

360-582: A cause of the large-scale famine in the Soviet Union between 1932 and 1933 in which 3.3 to 7.5 million died. These famines were among the worst in history and created scars which would mark the Soviet Union for many years to come and incense a deep hatred of Russians by Ukrainians, Tatars, and many other ethnic groups. This famine led many Russians to relocate to find food, jobs, and shelter outside of their small villages which caused many towns to become overpopulated. Their diet consisted of bread but there

450-513: A chance for social mobility, education, and economic success, were willing to abandon their traditional duties to join. At the end of NEP, the majority of Komsomol members were peasants, while the administration remained largely urban. Both the urban and rural populations had problems with the Komsomol's attempts to unify the two demographics. Rural parents believed that because the League's administration

540-544: A change caused unrest within a community that had already existed prior to this external adjustment, and between 1928 and 1932, Turkmen nomads and peasants made it clear through methods like passive resistance that they did not agree with such policies, the Kirgiziya area also knew guerrilla opposition. Prior to launching the first Soviet five-year plan, the Soviet Union had been facing threats from external sources as well as experiencing an economic and industrial downturn since

630-535: A cultural change in the decline of the Kulak population within the Soviet Union. Members of Agitprop brigands attempted to use the push towards industrialization to isolate peasants from religion and away from the formerly influential Kulak population with performances in which they would deem that issues faced by peasant populations were the faults of the Kulaks. From 1929 through 1931, 3.5 million Kulaks were dispossessed by

720-539: A fifty-percent increase in industrial output. To achieve this massive economic growth, the Soviet Union had to reroute essential resources to meet the needs of heavy industry. 80% of the total investment of the first five-year plan, was focused heavily on the industrial sector. Programs not necessary to heavy industry were cut from the Soviet budget; and because of the redistribution of industrial funding, basic goods, such as food, became scarce. The Soviet Union then decided that

810-402: A problem. The ideology of the new Soviet government under Vladimir Lenin strove to break down societal barriers believed to be harmful to the goal of unity. Specifically, it hoped to elevate women to a level of equality with men. The Komsomol pushed hard to recruit young women and raise them in this new consciousness. In the period of the early 1920s, women primarily stayed at home and performed

900-467: A proper one in favor of preparing them for household duties. The Soviets encouraged women to take an active role in the new system and participate in the same activities and work as their male counterparts. Major conflicts surfaced when the government took these new steps. The Bolshevik Party was not the most popular at the time, and much of the rest of the nation wished to hold onto their patriarchal values. Parents hesitated to allow their daughters to join

990-532: A youth division, but the policy emphasis shifted in the following months. After the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922 ended, the Soviet government under Lenin introduced a semi-capitalist economic policy to stabilize Russia's floundering economy. This reform, the New Economic Policy (NEP), introduced a new social policy of moderation and discipline, especially regarding Soviet youth. Lenin himself stressed

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1080-577: Is sometimes described as the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), although it was officially independent and referred to as "the helper and the reserve of the CPSU". The Komsomol in its earliest form was established in urban areas in 1918. During the early years, it was a Russian organization, known as the Russian Young Communist League, or RKSM. During 1922, with

1170-632: Is that peasants resisted by killing their farm animals rather than turning them over to the State when their farms were collectivized. The resistance to Stalin's collectivization policies contributed to the famine in Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan as well as areas of the Northern Caucasus . Public machine and tractor stations were set up throughout the USSR, and peasants were allowed to rent these public tractors to farm

1260-554: The Central Committee majority which was controlled by the troika and derided by Stalin at the time. Stalin's version of the five-year plan was implemented in 1928 and took effect until 1932. The Soviet Union entered a series of five-year plans which began in 1928 under the rule of Joseph Stalin . Stalin launched what would later be referred to as a "revolution from above" to improve the Soviet Union's domestic policy. The policies were centered around rapid industrialization and

1350-524: The Twenty-second Congress of the Komsomol in September 1991, the organization was disbanded. The Komsomol's newspaper, Komsomolskaya Pravda , outlived the organization and is still published (as of 2022 ). A number of youth organizations of successor parties to the CPSU continue to use the name Komsomol , as does the youth organization of Ukrainian communists : Komsomol of Ukraine . Not only

1440-605: The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was a list of economic goals, implemented by Communist Party General Secretary Joseph Stalin , based on his policy of socialism in one country . Leon Trotsky had delivered a joint report to the April Plenum of the Central Committee in 1926 which proposed a program for national industrialisation and the replacement of annual plans with five-year plans. His proposals were rejected by

1530-482: The United States , began to boycott goods produced by this form of labor. Although many of the goals set by the plan were not fully met, there were several economic sectors that still saw large increases in their output. Areas like capital goods increased 158%, consumer goods increased by 87%, and total industrial output increased by 118%. In addition, despite the difficulties that agriculture underwent throughout

1620-461: The Urals , and 36,500 were assigned work underground in the coal mines. The goal was to provide an energetic hard-core of Bolshevik activists to influence their coworkers in the factories and mines that were at the center of communist ideology. Active members received privileges and preferences in promotion. For example, Yuri Andropov , CPSU General Secretary (1982–1984), achieved notice through work with

1710-461: The collectivization of agriculture . Stalin desired to remove and replace the mixed-economy policies of the New Economic Policy . Some scholars have argued that the programme of mass industrialisation advocated by Leon Trotsky and the Left Opposition was co-opted after Trotsky's exile to serve as the basis of Stalin's first five-year plan. According to historian Sheila Fitzpatrick ,

1800-709: The unification of the USSR , it was reformed into an all-union agency, the youth division of the All-Union Communist Party. It was the final stage of three youth organizations with members up to age 28, graduated at 14 from the Young Pioneers , and at nine from the Little Octobrists . Before the February Revolution of 1917, the Bolsheviks did not display any interest in establishing or maintaining

1890-500: The "bourgeois NEPman ". By the time of the second Congress, a year later, however, the Bolsheviks had, in effect, acquired control of the organization, and it was soon formally established as the youth division of the Communist party. However, the party was not very successful overall in recruiting Russian youth during the NEP period (1921–1928). This came about because of conflict and disillusionment among Soviet youth who romanticised

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1980-527: The 1920s. One of the most popular campaigns was the Novyi Byt (The New Way of Life). At these assemblies, the leadership of the Komsomol promoted the values they considered to be the most important for the ideal young communist. The New Soviet Man was to be "a lively, active, healthy, disciplined youngster who subordinates himself to the collective and is prepared for and dedicated to learn, study, and work." By establishing strict guidelines to what they expected,

2070-518: The Bolshevik regime. The Party's disapproval of young militants was necessary in order not only to define what was considered proper behavior, but also to maintain social and political control over the masses. However, after Stalin came to power and the NEP was abandoned in favor of the Five-Year Plans, many of the young socialists ideas were absorbed back into the mainstream and they no longer presented

2160-484: The Civil War, students in provincial towns, and workers fleeing the poverty of the cities established the first rural Komsomol cells in 1918. Most administrators, who wanted to retain the "proletarian character" of the organization, did not initially welcome peasants into the Komsomol. However, it soon became obvious that peasants were too large a part of the population (80%) to ignore. Also, peasants, who were benefiting from

2250-474: The Five-Year Plan found that much of the military production capacities in the Soviet Union lay in the country's war threatened Western provinces and notably the city of Leningrad. In 1931 evacuation plans for military production facilities into deeper Soviet territories were drafted beginning a policy that would accelerate and relocate deeper within the Soviet Union during World War II. Between 1929 and 1936

2340-474: The Komsomol harmed only itself, as this type of campaign further distanced the organization from their target audience. The Komsomol also launched campaigns of an anti-religious nature. The new communist regime wished to dismantle the already limited control the Orthodox church had on society, and the young were generally more interested in seeing the upheaval of old traditions than their elders who had lived under

2430-513: The Komsomol jointly introduced Centers for Scientific and Technical Creativity for Youth (1987). At the same time, many Komsomol managers joined and directed the Russian Regional and State Anti-Monopoly Committees. 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 reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev , perestroika and glasnost , finally revealed that

2520-423: The Komsomol organization of Karelia in 1940–1944. At its largest, during the 1970s, the Komsomol had tens of millions of members. During the early phases of perestroika in the mid-1980s, when the Soviet authorities began cautiously introducing private enterprise, the Komsomol received privileges with respect to initiating businesses, with the motivation of giving youth a better chance. The government, unions and

2610-407: The Komsomol was able to denounce the traits and habits they saw as being harmful to the youth. It condemned sexual promiscuity , drinking, smoking and general mischievous behavior, as it posed moral danger to the organization's young members. The majority of the youth did not take this well, as unsavory activities were enticing to them. At a time when membership was at its lowest (1.7 million in 1925),

2700-459: The NEP's compromise with small producers, were in a better position to join than workers, who struggled with unemployment and other economic problems and thus had less interest in joining. Older peasants reacted negatively to the growth of the Komsomol in rural areas. They saw the administrators as intruders who prevented their children from fulfilling their family obligations. The Komsomol needed full-time commitment, and peasant youths, who saw it as

2790-741: The Party and the capitalism fostered by NEP confused many young people. They rebelled against the Party's ideals in two opposite ways: radicals gave up everything that had any Western or capitalist connotations, while the majority of Russian youths felt drawn to the Western-style popular culture of entertainment and fashion. As a result, there was a major slump in interest and membership in the Party-oriented Komsomol. By 1925, Komsomol had 1 million members, and many others were in theater groups for younger children. In March 1926, Komsomol membership reached

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2880-542: The Russians. In his work, Revolution Betrayed , Trotsky argued that the excessive authoritarianism under Stalin had undermined the implementation of the First five-year plan. He noted that several engineers and economists who had created the plan were themselves later put on trial as " conscious wreckers who had acted on the instructions of a foreign power". A number of streets and squares in major Russian cities are named after

2970-559: The Soviet Union and left with no choice but relocation to cities. As a result of the First Five Year Plan, state investment volume increased from 15% in 1928 to 44% in 1932 due to the rise in industry. The First Five Year Plan resulted in the easy access of staple foods bread, potatoes and cabbage across the Soviet Union. Severe drops in agriculture did however result in famine and inflation as agricultural output and livestock numbers in general dropped. Soviet reports from before

3060-427: The Soviet Union began being sentenced to forced labor, even when they committed small offenses, or committed no crime at all. Many of the prisoners used for labor were peasants who had resisted indoctrination. This was an attempt by the Soviet Union to acquire free labor for the rapid industrialization; however, it led to the incarceration of many innocent people in the Soviet Union. Eventually Western nations, such as

3150-410: The Soviet Union from October 1928 to December 1932, which was thought to be the most crucial time for Russian industrialization. Lenin himself before the time of his death, knew the importance of building a transitional state to communism and was quoted saying "Modern industry is the key to this transformation, the time has come to construct our fatherland anew with the hands of machines". Rapid growth

3240-527: The Soviet Union in 1933. The first five-year plan also began to prepare the Soviet Union to win in the Second World War. Without the initial five-year plan, and the ones that followed, the Soviet Union would not have been prepared for the German invasion in 1941. Due to the rapid industrialization of the plan, as well as the strategic construction of arms manufacturers in areas less vulnerable to future warfare,

3330-469: The Soviet Union was partially able to build the weapons it needed to defeat the Germans in 1945. The first plan saw unrealistic quotas set for industrialization that, in reality, would not be met for decades to come. The great push for industrialization caused quotas to consistently be looked at and adjusted. Quotas expecting to reach 235.9 percent output and labor to increase by 110 percent were unrealistic in

3420-414: The Soviet government changed their rhetoric directed towards the youth from a revolutionary, militaristic tone to one with emphasis on philosophical education through book-learning and stability of the state by peaceful means. The young communists were uninterested in these new principles, and mass culture campaigns became the most important tool used by the Komsomol as an attempt to retain membership during

3510-490: The Soviet leaders sought to decrease the number of prisoners in the Soviet Union so that those resources could be rerouted to the five-year plan. This legislation led to many dangerous prisoners being released from prison into labor camps. Early in the plan, however, the Communist leaders realized the necessity and the benefit of prisoner labor to complete the five-year plan. At this time the Soviet leaders attempted to orchestrate an increase in prison population. The people of

3600-603: The West left the Soviets feeling a need for rapid industrialization to increase Soviet war-making potential, and to compete with the Western powers. At the same time as the War Scare of 1927, dissatisfaction grew among the peasantry of the Soviet Union. This dissatisfaction arose from the famine of the early 1920s , as well as from increasing mistreatment of the peasants . Also during this time

3690-548: The allied Vladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization . While membership was nominally voluntary, those who failed to join had no access to officially sponsored holidays and found it very difficult (if not impossible) to pursue higher education. The 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

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3780-464: The early 1930s by Stalin. His plan was to make it a one-industry town. The city would become the largest steel producer in Russia and was meant to rival production that was being seen in the U.S. at the same time. During this era of Soviet history, heavy industry was supposed to experience a 350% increase in output. The Soviet Union's achievements were tremendous during the first five-year plan, which yielded

3870-419: The end of the NEP, and the end of the brief influx of Western culture in the Soviet Union before Stalin's ascendancy. Militant young Communists were a threat to the older Bolsheviks because they had the potential to undermine the new, NEP-based society. The shift from destruction of an old state to creation of a new one, mirrored by the shift from War Communism to the NEP, was necessary to maintain and stabilise

3960-526: The end of the plan in 1932. The Soviet Union promoted shock work during the First Five-Year Plan period in an effort to increase productivity through human effort in the absence of more developed machinery. Agricultural collectivisation , within Russia, had its origins under Lenin during the New Economic Policy. One reason for the collectivization of Soviet agriculture was to increase

4050-498: The expedited transformation of Soviet social relations, nature, and economy. The plan's greatest supporters viewed it as the means to change the Soviet Union economically and socially. This change was visibly seen in the role of women in the industrial workplace where rudimentary figures show they comprised 30 percent of the workforce. The prevalence of women within the industrial workplace saw International Women's Day rise in significance in Soviet culture. The Five-Year Plans also saw

4140-482: The failure to implement equality in the Komsomol was evident to young rural women , society still perceiving them to be inferior both because they were women and because they came from the peasant class. Various women's organizations criticized the Komsomol for these failures. Chiefly, the Women's Bureau of the Communist Party , known as Zhenotdel, openly criticized the youth organization. Komsomol women were provided little in

4230-484: The famine. Death rates are estimated between 6–7 million. Stalin's second wife Nadezhda Alliluyeva, committed suicide due to the atrocities of collectivization, particularly the famine. By the end of the FYP, agricultural collectivization showed minimal growth in production as well as profits. To meet the goals of the first five-year plan the Soviet Union began using the labor of its growing prisoner population. Initially

4320-452: The home if all the young women left home to join the Komsomol. Women, generally, were also unprepared for the realities of the workforce. The ancient structure of female subordination allowed for little in terms of work experience. Men had been given better education and were traditionally raised to take part in military and industry. Therefore, they had a much wider range of opportunity than women whose only role had been caretaking. Here lies

4410-460: The importance of political education of young Soviet citizens in building a new society. The first Komsomol Congress met in 1918 under the patronage of the Bolshevik Party, despite the two organizations' not entirely coincident membership or beliefs. Party intervention in 1922–1923 proved marginally successful in recruiting members by presenting the ideal Komsomolets (Komsomol youth) as a foil to

4500-418: The improvement of society, such as volunteer work, sports, and political and drama clubs. These efforts proved largely unsuccessful, since the Bolshevik Party and the Komsomol were not in touch with Soviet youth's desires and thus were unable to address them. Soviet youth remained relatively politically unaware or uninterested during the NEP period. In 1922, with the establishment of the New Economic Policy ,

4590-498: The introduction of Bolshevik rule. The first war threat emerged from the East in 1924. A war scare arose in 1927 when multiple Western states, like Great Britain , began cutting off diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union . This created fear among the Soviets that the West was preparing to attack the Soviet Union again; during the Russian Civil War , foreign powers had occupied portions of Russian territory . The fear of invasion from

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4680-429: The irony of the government's efforts: the Komsomol tried desperately to empower young women to achieve equality, yet women's perceptions of themselves worsened because they were now being directly compared to their much more prepared counterparts. Even though the Communist Party preached and demanded equality, men dominated both the governing body and the Komsomol's leadership. Upward mobility, contrary to initial belief,

4770-418: The land, with the intention to increase the food output per peasant. Peasants were allowed to sell any surplus food from the land. However, the government planners failed to take notice of local situations. In 1932, grain production was 32% below average; to add to this problem, procurement of food increased by 44%. Agricultural production was so disrupted that famine broke out in several districts. Because of

4860-412: The majority of housework. Membership of the Komsomol seemed to offer a doorway into public life at a level previously unseen by women of the time. Young women enthusiastically joined as they were finally given a chance to detach themselves from the traditional patriarchal structure. Moreover, they were drawn to the Komsomol because it promised them an education during a time when young girls were deprived of

4950-606: The most industrialized nations in the world. The rapid industrialization would inhibit fears of being left unprotected if War between the Soviets and the West were to occur. To meet the needs of a possible war, the Soviet leaders set unrealistic quotas for production. To meet those unrealistic needs, the facilities had to be constructed quickly to facilitate material production before goods could be produced. During this period 1928–1932, massive industrial centers emerged in areas that were highly isolated before. These factories were not only for war production, but to produce tractors to meet

5040-412: The needs of mechanized agriculture. The Stalingrad Tractor Plant was built with the help of western allies and was meant to play a major factor in the rapid industrialization of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. These isolated areas included Magnitogorsk , Dnieper , and Nizhny Novgorod . Magnitogorsk, the largest of the rapid industrialized areas of Russia, was founded in 1743, but became more prevalent in

5130-473: The number of industrial workers for the new factories. Soviet officials also believed that collectivization would increase crop yields and help fund other programs. The Soviets enacted a land decree in 1917 that eliminated private ownership of land. Vladimir Lenin tried to establish removal of grain from wealthier peasants after the initial failure of state farms, but this was also unsuccessful. Peasants were mainly concerned for their own wellbeing and felt that

5220-438: The organization. Many youths were drawn to "hooliganism" and the Western culture of entertainment, which included cinema and fashion magazines. It is no coincidence that these youths were primarily from the peasantry or working class. They saw Western culture as a way to elevate or distinguish themselves from their humble beginnings. The Soviet authorities eventually made their own films with ideologically "pure" messages, but it

5310-409: The party behavior became uncontrolled and manic when the party began to requisition food from the countryside. Kulaks were executed, exiled or deported, based on their level of resistance to collectivization. The kulaks who were considered "counter-revolutionary" were executed or exiled, those who opposed collectivization were deported to remote regions and the rest were resettled to non-arable land in

5400-508: The plan was fulfilled in four years and three months instead of five years. The plan was also lauded by some members of the Western media, and although much of his reporting was later disputed, New York Times reporter Walter Duranty received the 1932 Pulitzer Prize for Correspondence for his coverage of the first five-year plan. Duranty's coverage of the five-year plan's many successes led directly to Franklin Roosevelt officially recognizing

5490-473: The plan's reliance on rapid industrialization, major cultural changes had to occur in tandem. As this new social structure arose, conflicts occurred among some of the majority of the populations. In Turkmenistan , for example, the Soviet policy of collectivization shifted their production from cotton to food products; Russian settlers were given the best land, and Kazakh and Kyrgyz nomads were forced to settle down on soil without agricultural potential. Such

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5580-710: The plan, including the First Five-Year Plan Street in Chelyabinsk and Volgograd , and First Five-Year Plan Square in Yekaterinburg . The First Five-Year Plan saw Soviet cities sharply rise in population. At least 23 million Soviet peasants moved into cities, with Moscow's population rising by nearly 60 percent. A large portion of the Soviet Union's urbanization was due to the deportation of peasants from villages. From 1929 through 1931, 1.4 million peasants were deported into cities. The Five-Year Plan saw

5670-431: The plan, the Soviets recruited more than 70,000 volunteers from the cities to help collectivize and work on farms in the rural areas. The largest success of the first five-year plan, however, was the Soviet Union beginning its journey to become an economic and industrial superpower. Stalin declared the plan a success at the beginning of 1933, noting the creation of several heavy industries where none had existed, and that

5760-404: The possibility of facing severe consequences for failure to do so. In 1929, Stalin edited the plan to include the creation of kolkhoz collective farming systems that stretched over thousands of acres of land and had hundreds of thousands of peasants working on them. The creation of collective farms essentially destroyed the kulaks as a class ( dekulakization ). Another consequence of this

5850-524: The quality of Komsomol management was bad. The Komsomol, long associated with conservatism and bureaucracy, had always largely lacked political power. The radical Twentieth Congress of the Komsomol (April 1987) altered the rules of the organization to represent a market orientation . However, the reforms of the Twentieth Congress eventually destroyed the Komsomol, with lack of purpose and the waning of interest, membership, and quality of membership. At

5940-577: The result was a decline in working-class youth members, and a dominance by the better educated youth. The Komsomol received three Orders of Lenin , one Order of the Red Banner , one Order of the Red Banner of Labour , and one Order of the October Revolution . The asteroid 1283 Komsomolia is named after the Komsomol, as is Komsomolets Island in the Arctic Ocean. The Komsomolets armored tractor

6030-429: The same region. In the years following the agricultural collectivization, the reforms would disrupt the Soviet food supply. In turn, this disruption would eventually lead to famines for the many years following the first five-year plan, with 6–7 million dying from starvation in 1933. Although Stalin reported in 1930 that collectivization was aiding the country, this was the era of exaggeration. Collectivization

6120-546: The scholarly consensus was that Stalin appropriated the position of the Left Opposition on such matters as industrialisation and collectivisation . The plan, overall, was to transition the Soviet Union from a weak, poorly organized agricultural economy, into an industrial powerhouse. Its grand and idealistic vision, enforced through Stalin's various ministries , saw planners and builders often disregarding practical constraints as they worked to meet demanding schedules, with

6210-468: The secret police (the OGPU ) had begun rounding up political dissenters in the Soviet Union. All these tensions had the potential to destroy the young Soviet Union and forced Joseph Stalin to introduce rapid industrialization of heavy industry so that the Soviet Union could address external and internal threats if needed. The central aspect of the first Soviet five-year plan was the rapid industrialization of

6300-430: The serednyak and bednyak joining collectivization they were also joining a kolkhoz. The kulaks did not support mass collectivization, as their land was being taken from them as well as their animals. At the end of 1929 the Soviets asserted themselves to forming collectivized peasant agriculture, but the "kulaks" had to be "liquidated as a class," because of their resistance to fixed agricultural prices. Resulting from this,

6390-410: The spontaneity and destruction characteristic of War Communism (1918–1921) and the Civil War period. They saw it as their duty, and the duty of the Communist Party itself, to eliminate all elements of Western culture from society. However, the NEP had the opposite effect: after it started, many aspects of Western social behavior began to reemerge. The contrast between the "Good Communist" extolled by

6480-441: The state had nothing of necessity to offer for the grain. This stockpiling of grain by the peasantry left millions of people in the city hungry, leading Lenin to establish his New Economic Policy to keep the economy from crashing. NEP was based more on capitalism and not socialism, which is the direction the government wanted to head toward. By 1928, with the rapid industrialisation , and mass urbanization that followed, consumption

6570-504: The target demographic. Sewing and knitting classes became popular during the 1920s for rural Komsomol women. Additionally, educational classes, such as health and feminine hygiene were used to both draw more female members and alleviate concerns of rural parents. Peasant families were more inclined to allow their daughters to join the Komsomol since they knew they would be participating in beneficial programs rather than mischievous behaviors such as drinking and dancing. Soldiers returning from

6660-444: The time frame they allotted for. The goals for the plans were not set and those that were, were constantly changed. Each time one quota was met, it was revised and made larger. Unions were being shut down which meant workers were no longer allowed to strike and were not protected from being fired or dismissed from work for reasons such as being late or just missing a day. Secondly, many western historians point to collectivization as

6750-431: The tsar's rule. The Komsomol rallied members to march in the streets, declaring their independence from religion. Problems came when the enthusiastic youth took this passion too far. Open harassment of church members sprang up, and earned the Komsomol a negative image in the minds of older generations. When the League made attempts to draw back on their anti-religious rhetoric, Soviet youth became increasingly disinterested in

6840-553: The values of the CPSU to the younger generation. The Komsomol also served as a mobile pool of labor and political activism, with the ability to relocate to areas of high-priority at short notice. In the 1920s the Kremlin assigned Komsomol major responsibilities for promoting industrialization at the factory level. In 1929, 7,000 Komsomol cadets were building the tractor factory in Stalingrad (now Volgograd ), 57,000 others built factories in

6930-494: The way of programs that might encourage their involvement. Annual conferences, where organization leaders gathered to discuss topics of interest to female members, were in fact the only activities in which early Komsomol women took part. The Youth League therefore made concerted efforts to resolve these issues and raise membership amongst peasant women. Representatives were sent to the countryside to reveal to potential recruits that they were being oppressed by male dominance, and that

7020-457: The workers necessary for further industrialization should be given most of the available food. From this rapid industrialization a new working class emerged in the Soviet Union. This new society was to be an industrial working class, which could be considered much of the population with the purpose of becoming a technologically advanced industry. During this time the industrial workforce rose from 3.12 million in 1928 to 6.01 million at

7110-461: The youth organization provided them with an opportunity to recreate themselves as independent women. However, women did not rally to the League in the numbers that the organization hoped for. The Komsomol turned to the Zhenotdel , which was more favorable to young peasant women, and cooperated with them to achieve better results. Another strategy was the addition of activities suited to the interests of

7200-480: The youth organization, because "the Komsomol seemed like an immoral organization, for it removed young girls from adult control, and then required them to attend meetings held at night." Soviet citizens felt that if they released their hold on their children, they would be corrupted by the Komsomol's influence. They also worried that if their daughters became independent and promiscuous, then no man would want to marry them. Moreover, parents wondered who would take care of

7290-503: Was a major decrease in the amount of meat and dairy they were receiving if any at all. Aside from the three to four million people dying because of starvation or even freezing to death because of waiting in line for rations, people were not wanting or unable to have children which assisted in the decrease of the population. Hitler claimed the supposed disregard of human life by Russians toward non-Russians as one of his reasons to conduct Operation Barbarossa and gain initial victories over

7380-418: Was a model used during the Second World War, while the first Soviet nuclear submarine was K-3 Leninsky Komsomol ; a later submarine was called K-278 Komsomolets . There are also several towns and cities named Komsomolsky , Komsomolets or Komsomolsk . Notes Citations First five-year plan (Soviet Union) The first five-year plan ( Russian : I пятилетний план , первая пятилетка ) of

7470-530: Was city-centered, their children would be negatively influenced by city dwellers. In addition, land-owning peasants were much more affected by the government's revocation of private ownership, and many were uninterested in allowing their children to participate. For its part, the urban population viewed itself as superior to the peasants. They saw the rural members as backward and uneducated, and were angered by their swelling numbers. Komsomol adopted meritocratic, supposedly class-blind membership policies in 1935, but

7560-405: Was facilitated starting in 1928 and continued to accelerate because of the building of heavy industry, which in turn raised living standards for peasants escaping the countryside. The Bolsheviks ' need for rapid industrialization was once again out of the fear of impending war from the West. If war were to break out between the Soviet Union and the West, the Soviets would be fighting against some of

7650-445: Was incredibly hard for women to achieve. In addition, the organization openly encouraged its female members to pursue positions of teaching and nurturing of young Soviets. The Komsomol also found it difficult to recruit and motivate young women amongst the rural populations. During NEP, this demographic represented only 8% of the organization. Poor membership numbers from rural areas were the result of several different factors. By 1925,

7740-404: Was not the same. Soviet pictures, which were often informational or political, lacked the draw of Westerns or romances from Hollywood . Both the authorities and the youths themselves blamed the NEP for corrupting Soviet youth culture. Because the Komsomol was simply not as attractive to these young men and women, the government began to limit their cultural and entertainment options. This signalled

7830-467: Was the ideal Communist youth an asset to his or her organization, but (s)he also "lived correctly". This meant that every aspect of a Komsomolets's life was to be in accordance with Party doctrine. Smoking, drinking, religion, and any other activity the Bolsheviks saw as threatening were discouraged as " hooliganism ". The Komsomol sought to provide its members with alternative leisure activities that promoted

7920-419: Was through intimidation and coercion. Mass agricultural collectivization was largely supported by the middle and poor peasantry As the peasant class itself was divided into three groups: kulaks, wealthy; serednyak, middle; bednyak, poor. The middle and lower class supported collectivization, because it took private land from individual kulaks, and distributed it among the serednyak and bednyak's villages. With

8010-479: Was to increase rapidly as well. Need for urban dwellers to be fed, the FYP increased collectivization, leading to its recognition be largely associated with Stalin . Beginning in 1929 under the FYP, mass collectivization was communal farms being assigned an amount of agricultural output with government coercion. Villages had to agree to collectivization: some collectivization planners would hold endless meetings that would not end until villages joined; another tactic

8100-527: Was under-planned; a lack of instructions, and unrealistic quotas were the reality. Lacking a foundation, collectivization led to the Kazakh famine of 1931–1933 , in a region that had been a major grain producer. Farmers of Kazakhstan rejected collectivization, and protested, while Stalin raised quotas, meaning peasants would not be able to eat and would psychologically break them. Those who did not give up their grain were considered breaking Soviet law, which caused

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