Overview
During the revolution, the Bolsheviks did not display any interest in establishing or maintaining a youth division. However, by 1918 the first Komsomol Congress met with the patronage of the Bolshevik Party, despite the two organisations having not entirely coincident membership or beliefs. By the time of the second Congress, a year later, however, the Bolsheviks had, in effect, acquired control of the organisation, and it was soon formally established as the youth division of the Communist party.
The youngest people eligible for Komsomol were fourteen years old. The older limit of age for ordinary personnel was twenty-eight, but Komsomol functionaries could be older. Younger children joined the allied Young Pioneer organization of the Soviet Union. While membership was nominally voluntary, those who didn't join lost access to officially sponsored holidays and found it very difficult to pursue higher education.
Komsomol had little direct influence on the Communist Party or the government of the Soviet Union, but it played an important role as a mechanism for teaching the values of the CPSU to youngsters. 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. Active members received privileges and preferences in promotion. For example, Yuri Andropov, CPSU General Secretary for a brief time following Leonid Brezhnev, achieved political importance by means of the Komsomol organisation of Karelia. At its largest, during the 1970s, Komsomol had tens of millions of members; about two-thirds of the present adult population of Russia is believed to have once been a member.
During the early phases of perestroika, when private enterprise was introduced cautiously, Komsomol was given privileges with respect to initiating businesses, with the motivation of giving youth a better chance. The Centers for Scientific and Technical Creativity for Youth were also established. At the same time, many Komsomol managers joined and directed the Russian Regional and State Anti-Monopoly Committees. Folklore was quick to develop a motto: "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 the quality of Komsomol management was bad. Komsomol had long been characterised by conservatism and bureaucracy, and had always been largely powerless politically. At the radical Twentieth Congress of the Komsomol, the rules of the organisation were altered 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 the Twentysecond Congress of the Komsomol in 1991, the organisation disbanded. The organ of the Komsomol, the Komsomolskaya Pravda, survived the organisation and still exists (2012).
A number of youth organisations of successor parties to the CPSU are still called Komsomol, as well as the youth organisation of Ukrainian communists.
Read more about this topic: Komsomol