Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T05:28:17.488Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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.

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

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).

2. For the centrality of “class issues” in factional struggles see Sheila, Fitzpatrick, The Cultural Front : Power and Culture in Revolutionary Russia (Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 1992), 26.Google Scholar

3. Danilov, Viktor Petrovich, Rural Russia under the New Regime, trans. O. Figes (Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1988), 42 Google Scholar; Moshe, Lewin, Russian Peasants and Soviet Power, trans. I. Nove (Evanston : Northwestern University Press, 1968), 21.Google Scholar

4. Carr, Edward H., Socialism in One Country, 1924-1926 (New York : Macmillan, 1960), II : 88–107 Google Scholar; Fisher, Ralph T., Pattern for Soviet Youth : A Study of the Congresses of the Komsomol, 1918-1954 (New York : Columbia University Press, 1959), 112–22Google Scholar. Slavic Review 52, no. 3 (Fall 1993)

5. I am borrowing the word used by Daniel Orlovsky in his reply to Sheila Fitzpatrick in “Social History and its Categories, ” Slavic Review 47 (1988) : 621.Google Scholar

6. Most of them joined with the expectation that they would thus gain access to party membership or, at the very least, to positions in local government.

7. Such groups as the veterans of the civil war have received attention for their intransigent class politics. See Sheila, Fitzpatrick, “The Legacy of the Civil War,” Party, State, and Society in the Russian Civil War : Explorations in Social History, ed. Diane Koenker et al., (Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1989), 394.Google Scholar

8. L. Shatskin, “O proidennom, ” lunyi proletarii (hereafter, IUP), no. 2 (1925) : 48.

9. O. Skar [Ryvkin], “Nashi etapy, ” lunyi kommunist (hereafter, IUK), no. 10 (1923) :

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).

11. K novoi rabote. Itogi Vserossiiskoi Konferentsii RKSM 15-go maia 1922 g. (Moscow, 1922) : 5.

12. Tsentr khraneniia dokumentov molodezhnykh organizatsii (TsKhDMO), formerly TsA VLKSM, f. 1, op. 3, d. 3, 8 July 1922.

13. A. M. Selivanov, Sotsialno-politicheskoe razvitie sovetskoi derevni posle perekhoda k nepu. Derevenskii komsomol v 1921-1925 gg. (Iaroslavl' : Iaroslavskii gosudarstvennyi universitet, 1983), 20.

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

15. TsKhDMO, f. 6, op. 5, d. 32, 1922; Selivanov, Sotsial'no-politicheskoe razvitie, 14-16.

16. Little has been written about the kul'turki's activities. Risnovich, , “Bor'ba s kul'turnikami,” Smena, no. 5 (1921) : 2 Google Scholar; Shatskin, , “O proidennom,” IUP 2 (1925) : 48 Google Scholar; Pravdin, , “Zakrepit’ i ispol'zovat', '’ IUK, no. 3 (1924) : 42 Google Scholar; ” Prekratit’ razgovory o kul'turke, ” IUK, no. 3 (1923) : 16.

17. Domrachev, M. V., Shel parnishke v tu poru… (Moscow : Molodaia gvardiia, 1965), 74.c Google Scholar

18. M. Pravdin, “Zakrepit’ i ispolzovat', ” 42.

19. Osinskii's May 1921 memo to the Central Committee in Jan M. Meijer, ed., The Trotsky Papers, 1917-1922 (The Hague : Mouton, 1964), 453-57.

20. Ibid., 455.

21. Shokhi, A.n, Komsomol'skaia derevnia (Moscow : Molodaia gvardiia, 1923), 11.Google Scholar

22. Peter, Kenez, The Birth of the Propaganda State : Soviet Methods of Mass Mobilization, (New York : Cambridge University Press, 1985 Google Scholar, ch. 4; Trishin, N, “Nasha derevnia. Voronezhskie nabroski,” UK, no. 3 (1923) : 24.Google Scholar

23. TsKhDMO, f.], op. 3, d. 3, 243-44.

24. Ershov, , “Komsomolets v sem'e,” Komsomol v derevne (Moscow-Leningrad : Molodaia gvardiia, 1925), 119.Google Scholar

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

29. Chaplin, Ocherednye zadachi, 20.

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

100. Danilov, V. P., “Bukharinskaia al'ternativa,” Bukharin : chelovek, politik, uchenyi (Moscow : Izdatel'stvo politicheskoi literatury, 1990), 93–94, 99Google Scholar; Moshe, Lewin, Political Undercurrents in Soviet Economic Debates : From Bukharin to the Modern Reformers (Princeton : Princeton University Press, 1974), 42.Google Scholar

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.