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The Komsomol and Young Peasants: The Dilemma of Rural Expansion, 1921-1925

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Isabel A. Tirado
Isabel A. Tirado*
Affiliation:
Department of History, William Patterson College of New Jersey
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Extract

The Communist Youth League (Komsomol) was founded in 1917-1918 in urban centers. Its leadership's perception of the peasantry and its quest to maintain a respectable proportion of workers in the membership impeded expansion in rural areas: in the name of “proletarian purity,” many leaders and activists opposed the blanket admission of all but the poorest peasants into their midst. But demographic realities made the Komsomol's outreach to young peasants imperative: peasants made up eighty percent of the Russian population; their children nineteen years of age or younger accounted for half of the rural population in the mid-1920s. More important, the state and the Party had reduced their rural personnel at the end of the civil war and the Komsomol found itself pressured to fill the gap.

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Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 52 , Issue 3 , Fall 1993 , pp. 460 - 476
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1993

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References

1. The research for this article was made possible by an IREX and Fulbright-Hays grant which sponsored a semester at the Academy of Sciences. The National Council for Soviet and East European Research supported the writing of this article, which is part of a larger work in progress on the rural Komsomol. It is based on research done in the Komsomol's Central Archive (now the Tsentr khraneniia dokumentov molodezhnykh organizatsii), in particular on materials from the Central Committee plenary sessions and its rural commission, including stenographic accounts of bureau plenaries and komsomol conferences and meetings, letters to the secretariat, weekly and monthly reports by local organizations, and drafts of articles, theses and other official pronouncements. It also draws on local reports by provincial and regional organizations in the Central Party Archive (now the Rossiiskii tsentr khraneniia i izucheniia dokumentov noveishei istorii).

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10. The strike waves in early 1921 forced Komsomol leaders to admit that they did not know, let alone represent, the economic and political interests of young industrial workers (Tuzhilkin, “Na perevale, ” IUP, no. 5-7 [1921] : 5).

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14. TsKhDMO, f. 6, op. 5, d. 32, 6-7.

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20. Ibid., 455.

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25. Ibid., 114; A. Gagarin, Khoziaistvo, zhizn’ i nastroeniia derevni (Moscow-Leningrad : Gosudarstvennoe izdatel'stvo, 1925), 39.

26. Shokhin, Komsomol'skaia derevnia, 11.

27. Chaplin, Ocherednye zadachi komsomola (Kharkov : Iunosheskii sektor izd-va “Proletarii, ” 1925), 18; S. Stebnitskii, “Novgorodskaia vol'nitsa, ” Komsomol v derevne, 61.

28. S. Makar'ev, “Komsomol Prionezh'ia, ” Komsomol v derevne, 102 ; Iaskevich, M, “Nashi bol'shie iz” iany, ” IUK, no. 9 (1923) : 27–28.Google Scholar

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30. M. Zorkii, “Soiuz rastet, ” Komsomol'skaia nedelia (1 February 1923) : 2; Selivanov, Sotsial'no-politicheskoe razvitie, 21-22.

31. Chaplin, “Chego my zhdem ot XIII s ” ezda?” IUK, no. 5 (1924) : 98; Selivanov, Sotsial'no-politicheskoe razvitie, 24, 28.

32. Zorkii, “Soiuz rastet, ” 2; MK, RLKSM, Rabota komsomola v derevne. Stenograficheskii otchet soveshchaniia sekretarei (Moscow : MK RLKSM, 1925), 5 Google Scholar; Biriulin, , “Usilit’ rabochee iadro! (po Kurskoi gub.),” IUK, no. 3 (1923) : 26 Google Scholar; Troitskii, , “O ‘kitakh, ’ byvshikh i budushchikh,” IUK, no. 4 (1923) : 13 Google Scholar; “Na grani novogo goda, ” IUK, no. 8 (1924) : 279.

33. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 23, d. 1329.

34. Zinov'ev, “K piatiletiu komsomola, ” IUK, no. 10 (1923) : 1; Selivanov, Sotsial'nopoliticheskoe razvitie, 27.

35. “Vekhi na god, ” IUK, no. 5 (1923) : 2.

36. The phenomenon was called raskrest'ianivanie. The term was used by von Hagen, Mark in Soldiers in the Proletarian Dictatorship : The Red Army and the Soviet Socialist State, 1917-1930 (Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 1990), 235–37, 264Google Scholar. See also Isaac, Deutscher, The Prophet Unarmed : Trotsky, 1921-1929 (New York : Oxford University Press, 1959), 228–33.Google Scholar

37. Zorkii, , “Soiuz rastet,” 2; la. Altaev, “Nuzhno posporit', ” IUK, no. 3 (1923) : 15.Google Scholar

38. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 3, d. 11; f. 1, op. 2, d. 9; Zinov'ev, “Soiuz, kotoryi dolzhen vospitat’ lenintsev, ” in N. I. Bukharin et al., Partiia i vospitanie smeny (Leningrad : Go sudarstvennoe izdatel'stvo, 1924), 22.

39. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 3, d. 11, 230, 235-37; “Soveshchanie po voprosam raboty sredi molodezhi pri TsK RKP, ” IUK, no. 4 (1924) : 54-60.

40. Zinov'ev, “Soiuz, kotoryi dolzhen vospitat', ” 30.

41. Zinov'ev, “My—'klassovye massoviki, '” IUK, no. 5 (1924) : 101-2.

42. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 3, d. 6, 78, 87-89; IV Vsesoiuznaia Konferentsiia RLKSM (Moscow-Leningrad : TsK RLKSM, 1925) 4 : 4; Rabota komsomola v derevne, 18.

43. Tarkhanov, “Za 20 mesiatsev, ” Molodaia guardiia (May 1924) : 185-86.

44. The remaining were students and white collar workers (Chaplin, “Chego my zhdem ot XIII s ” ezda, ” 98); the Leningrad membership was 42% worker and 29% peasant ( “Otchet Gubkoma, ” Smena [21 June 1924]).

45. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 3, d. 11, 213-214 (March 1924).

46. “Soveshchanie po voprosam raboty sredi molodezhi pri TsK RKP, ” IUK, no. 4 (1924) : 58.

47. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 2, d. 15, 138; f. 1, op. 2, d. 9, 9; f. 6, op. 6, d. 38, 1; Bubnov's criticism in von Hagen, Soldiers, 235.

48. Chaplin, “Na sluzhbu soiuzu, ” IUK, no. 13-14 (1922) : 5-6.

49. Shatskin, “Strategiia i taktika Komsomola, ” Molodaia gvardiia (May 1924) : 174; Chaplin, “Chego my zhdem ot XIII s ” ezda, ” 98-100.

50. Bukharin, , “O rabote sredi molodezhi,” IUK, no. 5 (1924) : 108.Google Scholar

51. “O rabote sredi molodezhi, ” IUK, no. 6 (1924) : 190.

52. Slepnev, “Leninskii nabor v komsomol i partiiu, ” IUK, no. 6 (1924) : 178; Selivanov, Sotsial'no-politicheshoe razvitie, 34.

53. First-hand accounts by city activists (TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 23, d. 273, 21-35).

54. Moshe Lewin, Russian Peasants and Soviet Power, 66.

55. Selivanov, Sotsial'no-politicheskoe razvitie, 35.

56. Desiatyi Gubernskii S “ezd Leningradkoi organizatsii RKSM (Leningrad : Priboi, 1924), 120; Bukharin's speech, Trinadtsatyi S ” ezd RKP (bol'shevikov) (Moscow : Krasnaia nov', 1924), 548.

57. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 5, d. 4, 70-71; Biriulin, “Usilif rabochee iadro!” 26.

58. “Nedel'naia svodka, ” TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 23, d. 314, 12.

59. Tret'ia Vserossiiskaia konferentsiia RKSM (Moscow-Leningrad : Izd-vo TsK VLKSM, 1929), 90-91.

60. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 23, d. 313, 11.

61. Rabota komsomola, 4-5; Selivanov, Sotsial'no-politicheskoe razvitie, 31-34; “Rost v derevne, ” Komsomol v derevne, 57, Chaplin, “Rabota RLKSM v derevne, ” 134; Faivilovich, “Dal'neishie perspektivy rosta komsomola, ” IUK, no. 13 (1924) : 487.

62. Katalynov's comments in Desiatyi Gubernskii S “ezd, 67.

63. A. K., “Velikii komsomol'skii pokhod v derevniu, ” Komsomol v derevne. Sbornik, 22; Kalmakov, “Ocherednye zadachi raboty komsomola, ” 36.

64. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 2, d. 9, 1924, 272.

65. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 5, d. 4, 95; f. 1, op. 23, d. 438, 81-85; f. 1, op. 23, d. 440, 69; f. 1, op. 23, d. 309, 65-66.

66. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 23, d. 303, 40-41, 45-46 and f. 1, op. 23, d. 303, 79; TsPA, f. 17, op. 67, d. 136.

67. “Raionnye konferentsii krest'ianskoi molodezhi, ” 1UK, no. 15 (1924) : 18.

68. Chetvertaia Vsesoiuznaia Konferentsiia RLKSM, 172.

69. Ibid., 223; Desiatyi Gubernskii S “ezd, 68; Bukharin, ” Partiia i vospitanie smeny, ” IUK, no. 6 (1924) : 155. Selivanov, Sotsial'no-politicheskoe razvitie, 69-70.

70. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 23, d. 488, 38-39; komsomol v derevne. Sbornik, 41; Chaplin, “O roli i zadachakh komsomola v derevne, ” IUK, no. 14 (1924) : 535.

71. Rabota komsomola v derevne, 92-93; IV Vsesoiuznaia Konferentsiia (rezoliutsii), 10; Chaplin, “Komsomol v sel'sovetakh, ” Komsomol v derevne, 34, 41, 133.

72. Rabota komsomola v derevne. Stenograficheskii otchet (1924), 3.

73. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 23, d. 313, 63.

74. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 23, d. 440.

75. Chetvertaia Konferentsiia RLKSM, 193.

76. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 23, d. 313.

77. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 23, d. 433, 24-25.

78. The Leningrad opposition included Gessen, Rogov, Minaev, Faivilovich, Fedorov, Katalynov, Kolmakov, Tarkhanov, Tarasov, Teremiakina and Tseitlin.

79. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 2, d. 11, 71; IV Konferentsiia RLKSM, 117-19; Faivilovich, “Rost v derevne, ” IUK, no. 14 (1924) : 536; I. Chernia, “Chto dal'she?” IUK, no. 16 (1924) : 2-3.

80. Chetvertaia Konferentsiia RLKSM, 211, 220.

81. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 2, d. 15, 16-17 (March 1925).

82. TsKhDMO, f. 37, op. 2, d. 5, 118.

83. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 2, d. 10 (25-27 January 1925). Carr attributed the Leningraders’ move to their campaign to expel Trotsky from the Party. See Socialism in One Country, II : 54.

84. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 2, d. 11, 50-53 (January 1925).

85. TskhDMO, f. 1, op. 2, d. 10, 53-61. The Ukrainian leadership, much of which consisted of urban Russians and Jews, was decidedly anti-peasant.

86. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 2, d. 11, 59.

87. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 2, d. 11, 91-92. See Tirado, “The Revolution, Young Peasants, and the Komsomol's Antireligious Campaigns (1920-1928), ” Canadian-American Slavic Studies 26, no. 1-3 (1992) : 97-117.

88. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 2, d. 10, 89-90.

89. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 2, d. 11, 97-98.

90. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 2, d. 15, 2, 9, 16-17.

91. Chetvertaia Konferentsiia RLKSM, 19-22.

92. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 2, d. 15, 18 and 22-23.

93. Chetvertaia Konferentsiia RLKSM, 5.

94. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 2, d. 25, 37.

95. Chaplin, “Komsomol i vnutripartiinaia diskussiia, ” Otvet na klevetu : fakty i tsifry protiv oppozitsionnykh izmyshlenii o komsomole (Moscow : Molodaia gvardiia, 1928), 4, 15, 18.

96. Selivanov, Sotsial'no-politicheskoe razvitie, 27; VLKSM, Statisticheskii Podotdel, Komsomol v derevne (Moscow : TsK VLKSM, 1926), 10 : 7; Carr, Socialism in One Country, II : 102.

97. Ibid., 15; Komsomol v derevne, 10 : 7; Carr, Socialism in One Country, II : 99.

98. “Derevenskii komsomol rastet, ” Zhurnal krest'ianskoi molodezhi, no. 19 (1926) : 13.

99. For the long-term impact of “peasantization” on the party elite, see Evan, Mawdsley, “Portrait of a Changing Elite : CPSU Central Committee Full Members 1939-1990,” in New Directions in Soviet History, ed. Stephen White (New York : Cambridge University Press, 1992), 203.Google Scholar

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101. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 2, d. 20, 56.

102. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 23, d. 314, 16, 20-21; d. 313, 26.

103. At the Fourth Conference a delegate accused those who attacked the Leningraders of acting like a gang of bullies, and he was applauded (Chetvertaia Konferentsiia RLKSM, 100).

104. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 23, d. 503, 55 and 100, d. 507, 53-54; Rossiiskii tsentr khraneniia i izucheniia dokumentov noveishei istorii (formerly TsPA), f. 17, op. 67, d. 143.

105. TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 2, d. 29, 10, 18.

106. Fisher, Pattern for Soviet Youth, 120.

107. Von Hagen, Soldiers in the Proletarian Dictatorship, 238.

108. Lewin, Political Undercurrents, 43.