After the victory of the October Revolution, red children's organizations, groups and associations arose in various cities. On May 19, 1922, the 2nd All-Russian Conference of the Komsomol adopted a decision on the widespread creation of pioneer detachments.
In the first years of Soviet power, the pioneers helped street children and fought against illiteracy, collected books and set up libraries, studied in technical circles, looked after animals, went on geological trips, on expeditions to study nature, and collected medicinal plants. The pioneers worked on collective farms, in the fields, guarded crops and collective farm property, wrote letters to newspapers or the relevant authorities about violations that they noticed around.
AiF.ru recalls how, in Soviet times, pioneers and who could become a member of the Komsomol were received in October.
What class did you take in October?
Schoolchildren in grades 1-3 became October revolutionaries, united on a voluntary basis in groups at the pioneer squad of the school. The groups were led by counselors from among the pioneers or Komsomol members of the school. In these groups, children were preparing to join the Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization.
When joining the ranks of the Octobrists, children were given a badge - a five-pointed star with a child's portrait of Lenin. The symbol was the red October flag.
In honor of the victory of the October Revolution since 1923, schoolchildren were called "October". The October Revolutions united in asterisks (an analogue of the pioneer link) - 5 October and also the "sickle" and "hammer" - the leader of the stars and his assistant. In an asterisk, an October child could take one of the positions - commander, florist, orderly, librarian or sportsman.
In the last decades of Soviet power, in October, all primary school students were admitted, usually already in the first grade.
Who was accepted as a pioneer?
Schoolchildren aged 9 to 14 were admitted to the pioneer organization. Formally, the admission was carried out on a voluntary basis. The selection of candidates was carried out by open voting at the gathering of the pioneer detachment (usually corresponding to the class) or at the highest - at the school level - the pioneer body: at the Council of the squad.
A student joining a pioneer organization made the Solemn Promise of the pioneer of the Soviet Union at the pioneer lineup (the text of the promise in the 1980s could be seen on the back cover of school notebooks). A communist, Komsomol member, or senior pioneer handed the novice a red pioneer tie and a pioneer badge. The pioneer tie was a symbol of belonging to the pioneer organization, a part of its banner. The three ends of the tie symbolized the indestructible bond of three generations: communists, Komsomol members and pioneers; the pioneer was obliged to take care of his tie and take care of it.
The pioneers were greeted by a salute - a hand raised just above the head showed that the pioneer puts public interests above personal ones. "Be ready!" - the counselor called on the pioneers and heard in response: "Always ready!"
As a rule, they were admitted to the pioneers in a solemn atmosphere during communist holidays in memorable historical and revolutionary places, for example, on April 22 near the monument to V.I.Lenin.
The following punishments were applied to members of the organization who violated the Laws of the Pioneers of the Soviet Union: discussion at the assembly of a link, detachment, squad council; comment; exception warning; as a last resort - expulsion from the pioneer organization. They could be expelled from the pioneers for unsatisfactory behavior and hooliganism.
Collecting scrap metal and waste paper and other types of socially useful work, helping elementary school students, participating in the military-sports "Zarnitsy", classes in circles and, of course, excellent studies - these are what pioneer everyday life was filled with.
How did you become Komsomol members?
Become Komsomol members from the age of 14. The reception was carried out individually. To submit an application, a recommendation from a communist or two Komsomol members with at least 10 months of experience was needed. After that, the application could be accepted for consideration by the school Komsomol organization, or they could not be accepted if they did not consider the submitter a worthy figure.
Those whose application was accepted were assigned an interview with the Komsomol committee (Komsomol council) and a representative of the district committee. To pass the interview, it was necessary to learn the charter of the Komsomol, the names of the key leaders of the Komsomol and the party, important dates and, most importantly, to answer the question: "Why do you want to become a Komsomol member?"
Any of the committee members could ask a tricky question during the trial stage. If the candidate successfully passed the interview, he was handed a Komsomol ticket, in which the payment of contributions was documented. Pupils and students paid 2 kopecks. per month, employed - one percent of the salary.
They could be expelled from the Komsomol for slovenliness, attending church, for non-payment of membership fees, for family troubles. The expulsion from the organization threatened with the lack of a good perspective and career in the future. The former Komsomol member did not have the right to join the party, go abroad, in some cases he was threatened with dismissal from his job.
On the one hand, even in the last years of the existence of the Soviet Komsomol, it was still the first "school of life" for many prominent politicians and businessmen of modern Russia. On the other hand, it can be explained that there was simply nothing else where in the 1970s-1980s a young man could realize his talents and start building a career: the one-party system did not imply any competition in the ideological field. Komsomol members of the last years of the existence of the USSR recall that era and the crisis of their organization.
Exactly 20 years ago, on September 27, 1991, the XXII Extraordinary Congress of the Komsomol began, which had on the agenda a single question "On the fate of the Komsomol." At the end of its work, the congress declared the historical role of this organization exhausted, and itself dissolved. At the end of the work of the congress (and I’m not joking) the delegates sang standing up: “I will not part with the Komsomol, I will be forever young” and began to “carve-up” the property of this non-poor organization.
Well, God bless them - unfortunately they didn’t allow us to this “raid”, so let us remember each of our Komsomol (who had it, of course).
The stages in the development of the social life of any Soviet schoolchild resembled the stages in the development of insects. But if in invertebrates arthropods they proceeded in the order: egg -> larva -> pupa -> imago, then in vertebrate Soviet schoolchildren they passed in the following sequence: first-graders became october, october - pioneers, and pioneers, upon reaching the age of 14, automatically turned into Komsomol members and it was not discussed.
The rules for admission to the Komsomol were as follows: it was necessary to collect recommendations of either 1 communist or 2 experienced Komsomol members; fill out the form for admission to the Komsomol; submit two photos 3 × 4; get a characterization and learn the answers to the following questions:
Who is the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee?
Who is the first secretary of the Komsomol Central Committee?
What is your favorite Komsomol hero?
How many orders does the Komsomol have?
And what is "democratic centralism"?
(Ideally, of course, it would be desirable to read the Charter of the Komsomol - but this is not for everybody).
The admission to the Komsomol of our class took place in two stages - in the spring and in the fall. In the spring, the Komsomol accepted the "best" (excellent and good students), in the fall the "worst" - (C grade and sloven, as well as those who were born in the summer). Naturally, I was accepted in the fall. And then my life hadn’t yet "broken off" and I loved to show off - when everyone brought recommendations from high school Komsomol members, I brought a recommendation from a friend of the Communist Hero of the Soviet Union.
After a public discussion of the candidates at the school Komsomol meeting, a reception took place in the district / city committee of the Komsomol with the presentation of tickets and badges (sometimes the reception was replaced by a simple presentation of a Komsomol ticket in the "Pioneer Room").
After this action, the Soviet schoolchild received every right:
b) pay monthly Komsomol contributions in the amount of 2 kopecks;
c) get bored at the Komsomol meetings;
d) go to college after school.
You will say - there were those who refused to join the Komsomol: they believed in God, or the Rolling Stones listened. There were, of course, those. But then usually in their life there was the Soviet Army, and there they wanted to spit on what you believe in or what you listen to. They also spat there on the rules of admission to the Komsomol established "in civilian life" and the soldier's ignorance of the answers to the above questions. There, one fine day, at the morning formation, they simply announced: “Private Pupkin, get out of line! We congratulate you on joining the glorious ranks of the All-Union Leninist Communist Youth Union! Get in line! " The warrior shouted: "I serve the Soviet Union!" and got up in the multimillion-dollar system of Soviet Komsomol members.
And I, here, in the army refused to stand in a single Komsomol formation. I hated to be a part of this rotten, formalized organization in which they drove all in a crowd in pursuit of interest and accounting. I was sick of these false slogans and of the Komsomol functionaries who themselves did not believe what they said from the high rostrum. From their show, careerism and hypocrisy ...
No, I refused to participate in all this and became a candidate for membership in the CPSU in the army.
First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Komsomol (1986-1990). Special Adviser to the President of the USSR M. Gorbachev. Historian, candidate of historical sciences ...
The Komsomol did not fall apart. His time has passed. Note - as soon as our country began to become what it should be, it collapsed and ceased to exist. This is where you need to reflect and ask yourself: what happened? We need to figure out what happened to our country in the twentieth century? What began in 1905 and ended, I hope, in 91? What was it? From a historical point of view, it is simply impossible to understand the jumble of myths that are shrouded in the entire twentieth century. We live in a completely false coordinate system. We live in a completely mythologized historical space. It turns out that we had the first Russian revolution in 1905. Then, it turns out, there was the February bourgeois-democratic revolution. Then, six months later, a socialist revolution takes place. And what can you call the revolution that took place in 1991? Capitalist, it turns out? From my point of view, as a candidate of historical sciences, this is complete nonsense.
A bourgeois-democratic revolution began in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century. But it was very different from those that took place before - from English, French, North American. They were all in a completely different historical period. Our revolution is late, like everything else with us. It began at a time when the processes of globalization began to manifest themselves. Our revolution differs from all the others in that, oddly enough, it turned out to be a revolution not so much for our country as a revolution for the rest of the world. All other revolutions also influenced the surrounding world, but this was an indirect effect. Our revolution has had a tremendous impact on the entire world. The whole world has changed. John Reed was wrong when he called the book "The Ten Days That Shook the World." They changed the world ...
- Viktor Ivanovich, after you left your post, you lost not only your job, but also your privileges.
What are the privileges? What are you talking about? Sometimes today my wife pokes her finger around me and asks: "What privileges did you have?"
I was the head of an organization that had two billion dollars in a bank account alone. I received five hundred rubles, I had a Volga car and they also gave me coupons for a special store. Yes, there was also a clinic, from which I was immediately expelled. Now I feel fine in the district clinic. But I never even went to the Central Committee's polyclinic, because I was young and healthy.
- Excuse me, but what happened to those two billion dollars that you mentioned?
Do not know. I left them safe where they were ...
In the comments, I remembered that I worked in the city committee of the Komsomol. They asked me to tell you how it was.
Alas, there will be no dirty details in the style of the film "Regional Emergency". There were no drunks in saunas in our city committee, ********, theft and other things that were attributed then, in the era of perestroika, to party and Komsomol functionaries. There was a routine job of organizing life and leisure in a small area - the Slobodsky District of the Kirov Region.
We had four offices - the office of the First Secretary, the Second and the accounting department with an organizational department. And I worked as the acting third secretary - the position of working with student youth. In the same office as the Second. There were two tables in the office, a Yatran typewriter, I think, a dozen chairs, a wardrobe and a bookcase. A! There was also a rotator - this is such a crap for printing leaflets.
There was a car - either a "five" or a "Muscovite" - I don't remember. But definitely not the Volga. This miracle broke once a week, so they often went on business trips around the area by regular buses. The salary was 250 rubles. Soviet. True, in 1990-1991 there was not much to buy. I personally subscribed newspapers home - dozens of them. From “Soviet Russia” to “Literaturka” and “Football-Hockey”. For lunch, about a ruble was spent in the dining room. The dining room, by the way, was common for the city party committee, the Komsomol, the district executive committee, the city executive committee and other councils.
The entrance to the dining room was free for everyone. No passes, no policemen at the entrance. And there were no pineapples in the champagne either. And there was no black caviar either. In my opinion, the food was tastier in the factory and factory canteens. There were also subsidiary farms. Something like a collective farm at the factory. There weren't any special privileges, extra rations, summer cottages with swimming pools. The only "privilege" that I took advantage of was that I took a vacation twice at my own expense, went on a ski trip around the region in February and on foot in the Crimea. Your expenses). Everything. After working there for a year, I probably became an anti-Soviet for ten years.
Because a boy at seventeen needs a feat - overcoming himself. Previously, the Komsomol members had a struggle against devastation, Budyonnovka, OSOAVIAKHIM, war, restoration, virgin lands, BAM ... We had a city KVN competition and reporting and election conferences. By the way, since then I can’t stand KVNs. Grimaces with strained humor and a huge superiority complex. How was the festival organized?
Very simple.
You write a statement on two pages - KVN theme, jury, prizes. You print on a rotator, smeared with black paint. You call the secretaries of the school committees of the Komsomol. You give them a position and an instruction so that there will be a command by such and such a date. Then you go to the House of Culture - we had a recreation center named after. Gorky - you agree on the provision of a stage and a hall for such and such a date. No money, everything is free. You buy prizes at a sporting goods store, prepare letterheads. You persuade important people to sit on the jury. Again for free. Calling the secretaries for a month - how are they doing with the preparation of the team?
That's all. And where is the feat?
And permanent reports to the regional committee - monthly, quarterly, annual. The main part of the report is how many new members of the Komsomol were accepted. In April, the reporting and election conference. So many events were held: then they liked to call collective and creative affairs - KTD. How many members are accepted. A plan for the river was lowered from above - 90% should be covered and that's it. Well, and the indispensable Gorbachev incantations - democratic centralism, glasnost, the brake on perestroika. Boredom.
By the way, I don't remember high-profile exits from the party and the Komsomol. Komsomol tickets were not burned. There were no punks and metalheads in large numbers. And who was - those, at times, were Komsomol organizers. It seems that there was also a Komsomol rock club. I even thought about opening a Komsomol video salon, where after watching the film there would be a mandatory discussion. Did not have time.
In the summer, the organization of the regional camp of the activists, sending a delegation to the regional camp of the Komsomol activist "Rapid" and the camp of the regional pioneer activists "Zvezdny". The super-purpose of all these KTDs, asset camps, reports and elections was not there.
Everything rolled by inertia into the abyss. But we didn’t notice it. It seemed that everything was about to end. The Komsomol and the USSR are about to come out of the crisis refreshed.
Now, of course, it is good to assert from the height of years - they say, it was necessary to do this or that. Even if you gallop naked on Revolution Square in Slobodskoye, everything was decided not in the regional centers, but in the Kremlin and on the Old Square. It was there that the Supergoal and Supertasks disappeared. And without them the USSR is impossible. Ask, maybe you missed what?
By the time I graduated from school, the Komsomol almost collapsed ... At the annual meeting of the school, we gave the work of the Komsomol organization an unsatisfactory mark, it was bold! But, we consoled ourselves with adherence to principles and courage, not knowing that we were kicking a corpse. The Komsomol ceased to exist a year later. To everyone who remembers, the pioneer and the Komsomol, I recommend to revise this film - "State of emergency on a regional scale."
Also, this film is about what a person really is, namely a man. Dedicated to all men leading double lives, making deals with their conscience for the sake of a career. The most interesting thing is when men do unseemly acts, but, at the same time, hide behind lofty words: I am doing this for the sake of the family. Komsomol members, volunteers ...
And in due time I was on this nomenklatura career ladder: "pioneer-Komsomol", dad did not let me in! He hated party privileges, and believed that the only real privilege of a party member was to stand up and lead the platoon into the attack. Dad was upset that the council of the school's squad was going to the New Year's holiday separately from the rest of the school students. He screamed and was angry. Thanks to him, and the Kingdom of Heaven! He got it right.
From the comments.
IMHO in the Komsomol (not in the militarized, but in the usual one) there is a positive side - young men are left without elders and themselves, independently take up some business (for example, hold cell meetings), take responsibility themselves. Such a difference between people that one person is a Komsomol organizer, and the other person is just a Komsomol member, structures society. Structures. And thus contributes to its understanding.
The Komsomol helps to remain without elders, and to do something without elders.
I was born in 1984 and I think that my childhood and youth are very badly spoiled by the absence of a universal, widespread organization like the Komsomol.
Recently I saw the film "Emergency on a regional scale" (a perestroika film about how bad the Komsomol is and how much hypocrisy and lies in it). I liked the movie. The Soviet Union is bad. The Komsomol is bad. But it is better to let the false Komsomol than none! He, for all his deceit, gives the experience of independence, gives the experience of life without dependence on elders!
Well, not in deceit - the positive side of the Komsomol, but in the fact that it would make it possible to hold events without the participation of elders. By yourself, by yourself. And in my generation, no one thought about the fact that someone was entrusted with being "responsible" for what was happening in the classroom (as a Komsomol organizer is responsible). It is not the teacher who takes responsibility (as in our generation), and not the father, and not the mother - but someone from the young.
And the Komsomol pointed to moral values (which are written in the charter) - truthfulness, mutual assistance, etc. In our generation, no one said: “you must be truthful, because you are members of such and such an organization, and the members of this organization must correspond to a high moral level ". We were told about morality - but it was vague, indistinct. There was no argument - "BECAUSE YOU ARE MEMBERS OF THE ORGANIZATION." This argument could be more convincing. And special. We were not given tickets, we did not pay dues. The presence of a ticket in your pocket and some paraphernalia could REMIND your moral duty. And without paraphernalia it is easy to forget it.
Anyway, in the Komsomol Charter there are ideas that are closer to pacifism than to militarism:
Everyone's concern for the preservation and enhancement of the public domain;
High awareness of public duty, intolerance of violations of public interests;
Collectivism and comradely mutual assistance: each for all, all for one;
Humane relations and mutual respect between people: man to man is a friend, comrade and brother;
Honesty and truthfulness, moral purity, simplicity and modesty in public and private life;
Mutual respect in the family, care for the upbringing of children;
Intransigence to injustice, parasitism, dishonesty, careerism, money-grubbing;
Friendship and brotherhood of all the peoples of the USSR, intolerance of national and racial hostility;
Intransigence to the enemies of communism, the cause of peace and freedom of peoples;
Fraternal solidarity with the working people of all countries, with all peoples.
When a person is told about all this, it can help develop critical thinking. And today’s young people simply don’t talk about it! And they are not charged with the responsibility that "you must be of a high moral standard." There is another anti-Soviet film - "Tomorrow was the war." But the Komsomol members from this film were to some extent inspired by the Komsomol ideology. And this is justified in the film. They were able to think - Spark, for example, could change her views under the influence of some arguments. And the Komsomol noodles on the ears did not prevent this. Rather, on the contrary, the Komsomol ideology contributed to this.
October 29, 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Komsomol. The Komsomol is a mass patriotic organization of Soviet youth. There are no other examples of a youth movement in history that, over the years of its existence, would have embraced more than 160 million people and could boast of real achievements.
Civil war, five-year labor plans, heroism during the Great Patriotic War, virgin lands, Komsomol shock construction projects - all this is the Komsomol. The birth of the Komsomol is not an act imposed from above, it is the unification of the energy and heat of the hearts of young people who dream of being useful to their Motherland.
Background
Lenin was the initiator and ideologist of the organizational completion of attempts to create numerous youth groups. And they were created even before the revolution. At first, youth primary organizations were formed within the party and united workers and students. It was the student body that was the most revolutionary class of that time.
During the period of the Dual Power (February-October 1917), when history could turn both towards the bourgeois and towards the socialist system, N.K.Krupskaya and V.I. Lenin developed a program of revolutionary youth associations.
In large cities, organizations were created that became the basis for creating a structure of an all-Russian scale. For example, the SSRM (Union of Socialist Working Youth) in Petrograd, which is bringing the Komsomol's birthday closer.
Congress of Workers 'and Peasants' Youth
At the height of the Civil War (1918), the first congress of delegates from scattered youth organizations across the country took place in Moscow. 176 people came from everywhere: from the territories captured by the White Guards, as well as by the German army (Ukraine, Poland); from the breakaway Finland and the self-proclaimed Baltic republics, as well as from Vladivostok occupied by Japan. They were united by the desire to create a new power based on the principles of justice. The opening day of the congress (October 29) will go down in history as the birthday of the Komsomol, which brought together more than 22 thousand people.
The adopted charter and program of the All-Russian organization stated that it was independent, but that it was acting under the leadership of the Communist Party, which determined its ideological orientation. The main speaker was Lazar Abramovich Shatskin, the author of the program. His name is little known in the country, because during the years of Stalinist repressions he would be shot for accusations of Trotskyism. Like many other first secretaries of the Central Committee, who headed the organization until 1938.
RKSM symbols
The lists of delegates to the first congress have not been preserved even in the archives. In the future, the task arose of identifying belonging to an organization that bore the name of the RKSM (Russian Communist Youth Union). Since 1919, Komsomol tickets have appeared.
In the conditions of the civil war, during which the Central Committee announced three mobilizations, they were kept and protected at the cost of their lives. The first badges appeared a little later. Their release, at first in insufficient numbers, was handled by the Komsomol itself. The birth of the Komsomol was immortalized with four letters of the RKSM against the background of a flag with a star. The badges were awarded to the foremost workers and the best representatives of the organization.
Since 1922, a new uniform form was approved with the abbreviation KIM, meaning Communist Youth International. The shape will change even in 1947, acquiring its final form only in 1956. It will already be presented to everyone joining the organization along with a Komsomol card.
The tasks of the Komsomol
In 1920, the Civil War was still going on, but it became clear that the Red Army was winning. This posed serious tasks for the Bolshevik Party to restore the destroyed economy, create the country's energy base and build a new society. The state needed competent personnel, therefore 2.10. 1920 at the next (III) Congress of the Komsomol V.I. Lenin, who defined the mission of the newly created organization: to learn communism. It already numbered 482 thousand people.
In the year of the birth of the Komsomol, it was important to win, but now it was necessary to form the generation that was to live in different social conditions. The military front was to be replaced by the labor front. The grandiose accomplishments in the pre-war years became possible thanks to the participation of young workers in collectivization, Komsomol construction projects, patronage over universal education, the movement of thousands of people (who fulfilled the plan by 1000%) and obtaining higher professional education (workers' faculties). Many Western analysts believed that the success of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War became possible thanks to the education of a person of a new formation, who put the interests of the country above personal, in which the Komsomol succeeded.
The birth of the Komsomol: the name of V.I. Lenin
In January 1924, the country was shocked by the news of the death of V. I. Lenin, the leader of the world proletariat and the leader of the country. In the summer of the same year, a congress (VI) of the RKSM took place, at which the question of assigning the name of V.I. Lenin to the Komsomol was decided. The address spoke of a firm determination to live, fight and work in Lenin's way. His little book "The tasks of youth unions" became a table for every member of the Komsomol.
The birthday of the Leninist Komsomol (12.07) added the letter “L” to the abbreviation of the organization's name, and over the next two years it was referred to as the RLKSM.
The status of the all-union organization
The date of the formation of the USSR is 12/30/1922, when four republics became part of the union state: the RSFSR, the Byelorussian SSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Transcaucasian SFSR. The status of the all-Union Komsomol organization received in 1926 at the VII Congress. The birthday of the Komsomol of the USSR is March 11, while the Komsomol of all union republics was preserved.
This structure existed until the Komsomol was alive. The birth of the Komsomol in 1918 ended with its self-dissolution in September 1991, which is associated with the collapse of the Union. Despite the emergence of organizations that consider themselves the successors of the Komsomol - the Komsomol of the Russian Federation, the RKSM, the RKSM (b), there is no longer such a mass structure in the history of the country. In 1977, its members were 36 million people, almost the entire population of the country from 14 to 28 years old.
