Raised under Stalin

Working-Class Youth in the Vanguard: Youth Surveys and their Implications

“…In March 1935, Stalin announced a new crime -aggravated hooliganism -which included more serious offenses such as armed robbery and assault. How hooliganism was seen by the highest ranks of the party also shifted: before 1935, hooliganism was considered to be the result of boredom, but from 1935 on, acts of hooliganism came to be seen as political and anti-Soviet behavior 57 . A. Kosarev, the First Secretary of the Komsomol, proclaimed that among hooligans there was "an active organizing core of class enemies… for whom hooliganism is a form of political activity" 58 .…”

“…The Komsomol purge targeted passive cadres, hooligans, and "Trotskyist degenerates" -drunks, philanderers, and reprobates, who used their positions to corrupt the youth 79 . Given the level of drinking among the Komsomol leadership, there was no shortage of enemies; even Kosarev -a notorious drinker -issued a self-critique entitled "On my drinking bouts" 80 .…”

“…Komsomol purges and expulsions disproportionately targeted older Komsomol members, or "pererostki," (overgrown members). Due to a moratorium on party membership from 1933 onwards, the average age of Komsomol members increased from 19.36 in 1933 to 21.75 in 1936 87 . Aging membership restricted young members' advancement within the Komsomol as well: whereas 42.7 percent of those with voting rights at the 1931 9 th Komsomol Congress were younger than 23, only 14.5 percent with voting rights at the 1936 10 th Komsomol Congress were younger than 23 88 .…”

“…Younger workers' interest in the Komsomol also waned: "The problem" one Sormovo Komsomol member claimed "is that the youth do not consider the Komsomol to be an organization that works in their interests" 89 . To combat initiative stifling bureaucratism, the purges disproportionately targeted pererostki: whereas those over 24 years of age made up 30 percent of Komsomol membership, they made up 50 percent of Komsomol members who were purged 90 . An examination of attendees at the 5 th , 6 th , and 7 th Gorky Oblast Komsomol Conferences illustrates the purge's impact on older high-ranking members in the Komsomol, and the opportunities the purges created for Komsomol youth, who had previously found their advancement stymied by older cadres (Tab.…”

“…Whereas 12 percent of youth between 15 and 24 years of age were in the Komsomol in 1936, 30 percent were in the Komsomol by 1940. Komsomol membership broadened as well; in 1933 workers had the largest representation in the Komsomol, but by 1940 students, kolkhoz workers, and white-collar workers all enjoyed greater representation than workers 93 . Workers' GTE scores rose significantly as well: 45.61 percent of Gorky workers failed the GTEs in 1936, but only 4.1 percent did so in 1939 94 .…”