The Komsomol (All-Union Lenin Committee of the Union of Youth), or simply the Komsomol, was the largest youth political organization in the Soviet Union. He was considered the direct reserve of the Communist Party, preparing for it, including leading cadres. Any action of the Komsomol members was subject to mandatory approval by the "senior comrades." And one party recommendation for joining the Komsomol even equaled two Komsomol members.
How many orders does the Komsomol have?
In Soviet times, it was declared that any interested citizen of the country from 14 to 28 years old can become a member of the Komsomol. In reality, everything was not so simple. In fact, admission to the Komsomol volunteers was carried out only after a very serious check of the candidate for compliance with the high, as it was believed, title of a young communist. The first thing that was required of an applicant for a Komsomol ticket was to write a statement to his organization and justify it with the desire to build a "bright communist future" precisely as part of the Komsomol. An important supplement to the statement was two recommendations from Komsomol members with at least ten months of experience, or one, but from a member of the CPSU.
The next stage of admission was to consider the application in the primary Komsomol organization, for example, in an educational institution or in a company of a military unit. She could either approve of it or reject it for some reason. Those whose statements were eventually approved, and there were a majority of them, especially at the end of the era of socialism, were invited on a certain day to an interview with the Komsomol district committee or the Komsomol committee of the military unit. However, it was not too complicated, and usually consisted of several template questions and assumed equally template and "correct" answers. Future Komsomol members were examined for knowledge of the Komsomol Charter, asked to tell why they want to join the organization. In addition, they were asked to name the number of state awards of the Komsomol (there were six; half of them were orders of Lenin, three more were awarded the Order of the Red Banner, the Red Banner of Labor and the October Revolution), remember the names of the leaders of the country and the Komsomol, as well as the most important Soviet dates.
Two copeck fee
After an interview, a potential Komsomol member usually already knew if he was accepted. And soon he received from the secretary of the committee a brand new red badge with a portrait of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and a Komsomol ticket of the same color with his photo and graphs for notes on the delivery of monthly contributions. Pupils, students, and those called up for military service paid two copecks (the cost of two boxes of matches or a daily newspaper). For those who worked, the contribution was one percent of the salary. The Komsomol of the primary organization collected them, and he set the stamp. Non-payment of contributions was one of the grounds for exclusion from the Komsomol - along with immoral behavior, drunkenness, parasitism, discipline, criminal record and other things, which were called negative phenomena and were deservedly criticized.
By the way, the exclusion from the Komsomol, as well as the refusal to join it, was not so harmless. In the future, it often affected the content of the characteristics for admission to a university or good work. A serious enough sanction for a non-partisan party, that is, it was not a member of the CPSU or the Komsomol, was, for example, the refusal of the commission of the party’s district committee to allow travel abroad. Naturally, a person who had not previously received a Komsomol ticket could not join the only political party in the USSR. And, therefore, and make a good career.
