The last first secretary of the Central Committee of the Komsomol Vladimir Zyukin: “Now we plow in business. The structure of the Komsomol organization The last secretary of the Central Committee of the Komsomol

Third salary in the country

But those days are gone.

And our conversation - on the eve of the 70th anniversary of Viktor Maksimovich (he celebrates it on May 14) - takes place, as they say, informally, "without fanfare." Two cups of coffee in a modest office at MK, phone calls and thunderous cries over the editorial radio: “Politics department, urgently for layout! You have a tail (the amount of text you want to cut. - Aut.)!».

I can't save myself, if not from awe, then from excitement - in front of me is Mishin himself. Komsomol legend. Leader. Fourteenth First Secretary of the Komsomol Central Committee. Although we have known each other for a long time, as they say, the “levels” were different: when Viktor Maksimovich led the Komsomol, I was the “first” of the Gorky regional committee of the Komsomol (Gorky is now Nizhny Novgorod).

Who would Mishin be if perestroika had not happened? Now you are 70, by the standards of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU - a child's age ...

If perestroika had not happened, Mishin would not have been a great leader.

- Why?

I don't know... Maybe because the brightest, most important things in my life happened, probably, in the Komsomol. As if in spirit - it jars me when some say: "Komsomol mafia." If the "Komsomol mafia" is an honest and friendly family, then yes - we were just such a family. There was no greater solidarity than in the Komsomol - I say this as a person who has worked for more than one day in the trade unions, and in the Central Committee of the CPSU, and in the party apparatus. Our relations in the Komsomol were born not according to the principle "profitable - not profitable", but according to the principle "like - dislike". The only way! We were guided more by emotions than by any rational things.

- Don't you regret that the country turned like this?

In general, no, I do not regret it. Although the Chinese model, I will not hide, is closer to me, and it is more effective. But to be honest, I - both from the point of view of material and from the point of view of inner freedom - now live an order of magnitude better than under Soviet rule. Although at that time he received the third or fourth salary in the country.

- How much is that?

As the first secretary of the Komsomol Central Committee, I received 750 rubles. The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU received 850 rubles, the same amount as the chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. Vice-presidents and ministers of the first category received the same amount as I did. It was a big paycheck.

Yegor Kuzmich hung up

You are too big a person to be smooth, predictable, conflict-free. When was it really difficult for Mishin?

Not everyone remembers this surname now - Ligachev. And Yegor Kuzmich was the second person in the party after the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Gorbachev. And it was with Ligachev that my relationship did not work out. Perhaps the reason for this was his reaction to the decision of the bureau of the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League on the awarding of Lenin Komsomol prizes at the end of October 1984.

On the day of the publication of the list of awardees - a call to ATS-1. Yegor Kuzmich called. And immediately in a raised voice: the Komsomol does not understand the importance of classical art, folk art. I objected: they say, this is not entirely true, the bureau of the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League awarded prizes to Nadezhda Babkina, an ensemble of spoon-carriers and other folk groups. But Yegor Kuzmich sharply expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that the prize was awarded to Valery Leontiev ... He cut me off: "Get ready for a serious conversation in the Central Committee of the CPSU." I will not talk about the epithets expressed about the popular singer. Then I uttered a phrase that I still remember: “Dear Yegor Kuzmich, if the Central Committee of the CPSU considers the collegial decision of the bureau of the Central Committee of the Komsomol to award the prize to Valery Leontiev as erroneous, I am ready to bear personal responsibility ...”. After my statement Yegor Kuzmich hung up.

- Did you find at least three general secretaries of the Central Committee of the CPSU alone?

Wrong word "stopped". I have worked with them. Including the "five-year plan for a magnificent funeral" when Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko died, and then Gorbachev came. Would you like me to tell you how the XII World Festival of Youth and Students was born in Moscow?

I am especially proud of them. The Olympic bear is more often remembered - yes, the Moscow Olympics in 1980 was wonderful, but we also achieved a very powerful representation - delegations from 146 countries came to the festival. I will say more: we did not want to hold the festival - it was assumed that the movement of the communist youth of France would be undertaken, that the festival would be in France - with our support, of course. Suddenly at the last moment - bam! - the French "rake" back. I go to Andropov, he was then the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU: “Yuri Vladimirovich, so and so, friends from the communist youth movement of France are rolling back. If the festival movement is useful for the implementation of the foreign policy of the Soviet Union, then the festival should be held in Moscow.” Andropov thought: “This is the easiest solution. Ask Ponomarev, let him talk with Kadar (Janos Kadar - General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party. - Aut.). I called the Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Ponomarev: “Boris Nikolaevich, we want to consult with you on behalf of Yuri Vladimirovich. He: "Come." I go to him, he calls Kadar in front of me, he spoke Russian well, I hear him answer Ponomarev: “You know, I have to consult with my comrades from the Politburo, weigh all the pros and cons. I immediately called Chaba Hamori (First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Komsomol - Aut.), he is a member of the Politburo at that time, he knows the situation: “Viktor, I am 100 percent sure that Kadar will refuse. The economic situation in the country, despite your help, is extremely difficult.” I go to Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko, tell about the history of the festival - time is running out, I say: either yes, that is, to spend in Moscow, or no. I leave a note to the Central Committee of the CPSU. He promptly paints it by department, in short, it started spinning.

One can be proud of many things done in the Komsomol. You can’t tell everything in one interview, but you can’t help but remember BAM. I am proud that I was directly involved in the formation of the first detachment of volunteers named after the XVII Congress of the Komsomol! More than once I flew in a helicopter around BAM, rode in the first train at the opening of through traffic along the highway - even before the completion of the construction of the Severomuysky tunnel. Today, BAM operates at full capacity, exceeding the design capacity, and the importance of the highway is growing every day!

- About Mikhail Gorbachev - what does he mean in your biography? After all, you left the Komsomol with him, right?

A difficult question for me, and not only for me. At first I thought that a progressive leader had come, but how we perceived him - ours, a member of the Komsomol, almost from collective farmers, with an indestructible South Russian dialect ... In fact, when you talk to him, it feels like there is glass between us. You see him, hear him, and he is, as it were, behind glass.

Once he received me, we were talking about current problems, and he suddenly - I still can’t forget this phrase: “Yes, the topic is important, so Raisa Maksimovna repeatedly emphasized that we need to work more actively with student youth.” At first I did not orient myself - whom is he quoting? I know Ushinsky, I know Makarenko, I know Krupskaya, after all. Who is Raisa Maksimovna? Only then I realized, I'm not joking.

Yes, he is an unfortunate man, he feels sorry for Raisa Maksimovna. Only Raisa Maksimovna. And the fact that he ruined the country, how many people died, how many friends - is it not a pity? Nikolai Efimovich Kruchina (managing director of the Central Committee of the CPSU, committed suicide on August 26, 1991. - Aut.) passed away exclusively, in my deep conviction, because of his betrayal. Couldn't bear.

The protest slipped somewhere

- Do you like how modern Russia lives, its social and political realities?

I will tell you this, Sergey, you are still a little younger. Every morning I inject myself with indifference, let's say softer, in order to withstand these, as you said, Russian realities.

Look at the same rallies on Bolotnaya and Sakharov. I think it was a natural protest, people did not come for money - they were burned out. And the authorities caught this protest: some gestures began - both in parties and in elections. But now, due to I don’t know what circumstances - either the Kremlin somehow cunningly began to work with the “non-systemic” opposition, or some kind of “tacks” went on, but the situation has changed. The protest slipped somewhere.

- This year the Komsomol celebrates its 95th anniversary. Everyone knows that you, as always, have the main work of preparation?

I explain: we - I mean the three co-chairs of the organizing committee, Tyazhelnikov, Pastukhov and Mishin - are also growing up along with the Komsomol. If objectively, seventy-year-olds and those who are younger are the most capable layer. But we are preparing together, of course, by October 29 - no matter how difficult it is now. Do you remember how powerful the Komsomol concerts were staged in our time? Now who can you count on? To make a concert in the State Kremlin Palace, you need five million - in rubles, of course. In general, the 95th anniversary is an occasion to talk not only about anniversary events - the Kremlin should finally start creating a single all-Russian youth organization! We had such an offer.

- As far as I know, Komsomol veterans headed by you have repeatedly addressed Vladimir Putin with letters?

Yes. And he seems to have said: yes, we need an organization - powerful, youth. We are ready to help with advice and deeds. But for now, silence. And what they do at Seliger is complete nonsense, and the so-called personnel reserves are essentially a sham. Why was the Komsomol great? The fact that it was a natural training school.

- Did the former first secretary of the Komsomol Central Committee personally communicate with President Putin?

No. Never communicated.

- Last question. Do you consider yourself a happy person?

Certainly. He grew up in a working-class family, without "shaggy paws" he climbed the serious ladder of life, he was not the last person in the Komsomol. The family believes that I am an “intellectual in the first generation” - I am the first of the Mishins who received a higher education. My mother and father are from the Don, from the village of Olkhovets. Father is a hard worker, after the war he remained alive, although he fought as a commander of a machine-gun squad. Mom is a housewife, she had three of us: two tomboys and a daughter. They lived hard, like many then. One of the strongest impressions: the elder sister Valentina joins the Komsomol in the 7th grade, but there is no money for a photograph - and she cuts out her photo from the school collective card to take it to the district committee. And mom! I learned to read and write on my own, not at school. But she was terribly proud that she gave us a higher education.

- What does your wife do?

Galina Vladimirovna worked at MISI, as an assistant professor, and recently retired. Son - Maxim, 74th year of birth. He works at Crocus-Expo as a deputy head of the department, graduated from two institutes. He has his own Viktor Maksimovich Mishin - my grandson and full namesake. There are also grandchildren - Daria and Timofey.

- To be honest, your indefatigable energy has always fascinated us!

Seryozha, I will give a simple recipe to all my friends, I stick to it - I go to the pool three times a week, for forty-six years now I have been riding a horse, doing equestrian physical education - every Sunday, when in Moscow, at fifteen minutes to nine I am on Planernaya. The horse is a massage of the “second heart” of a man, as you know. And psychologically very relieves. Well, and a bathhouse, of course - with friends, we have been going to the Olimpiysky for twenty-five years with one team. Move, guys, move.

- Happy birthday, Viktor Maksimovich!

The interview used materials from Viktor Mishin's just published book "Where the Motherland Begins" and the book "Salute, Festival!".

FROM THE DOSIER "MK"

Mishin Viktor Maksimovich Born May 14, 1943 in Moscow. He graduated from an industrial technical school, worked as a foreman at a factory of reinforced concrete products. He graduated from MISI with a degree in civil engineering. There he worked as a senior engineer in the research sector.

From 1968 to 1971 - II Secretary of the Moskvoretsky District Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, I Secretary of the Soviet District Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League of Moscow. From 1971 to 1976 - Secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the Komsomol (MGK), head. Department of working youth of the Central Committee of the Komsomol. From 1976 to 1979 - First Secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League. From 1978 to 1982 - Secretary of the Central Committee of the Komsomol. From December 1982 to June 1986 - First Secretary of the Komsomol Central Committee.

After leaving the Komsomol, Viktor Mishin: Secretary of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions (1986-1991), 1st Deputy. manager of affairs of the Central Committee of the CPSU (January-August 1991), deputy. General Director of the Ecoprom consortium (1991–1994), General Director of the Olympic Lottery enterprise (1994–1995), Vice President of the Reform International Fund (1995–1996). Since 1996 - Chairman of the Board of Commercial Bank Crocus Bank.

July 2011

Boris Bazhanov, Stalin's personal secretary who fled to the West, wrote in his memoirs that Lazar Shatskin was the founder of the Komsomol. He was a very intelligent, cultured and capable young man from a wealthy Jewish family. Shatskin invented the Komsomol, was its creator and organizer.

Bazhanov thought so and had every reason to do so. During the Great Terror, Shatskin was among the first to be repressed. His name was forgotten. And even after the 20th Congress of the CPSU, after its rehabilitation, the leaders of the Komsomol and their senior mentors from the Central Committee of the CPSU did not want to remember that the founder of the Komsomol was the Jew Shatskin. And maybe not one, but even three Jews, because Oscar Ryvkin and Efim Tsetlin, together with Lazar, created the Komsomol, and in the first years of its existence were the first secretaries of the Central Committee of the Komsomol.
It was only during the period of Gorbachev's perestroika that interesting publications appeared about the first organizers of the Komsomol in the oldest youth magazine, Smena.
Alexander Galagan and Anatoly Zinoviev published in this magazine (No. 1460, March 1988) an essay about Lazar Shatskin. The authors emphasize that this was the youngest leader in the history of the Komsomol - he headed the Central Committee when he was only eighteen years old. Lazar spent three years in this post, but his contribution to the formation of the Komsomol was significant. His contribution to the creation of the Communist Youth International was also significant. Shatskin was one of the first theorists of the history of the Komsomol, the author of many books and pamphlets. His work is still interesting to this day. We will not sin against the truth if we call Lazar Shatskin the most popular figure in the communist youth movement of the 1920s.
What kind of person was Lazar Shatskin, who became one of the organizers and leaders of the Komsomol? Lazar Shatskin lived a disappointingly short life, but surprisingly rich in significant deeds and events. Fate gave him only 35 years of life, while all the accomplishments associated with the Komsomol and the international youth movement were carried out by him long before his thirtieth birthday.
Shatskin was born in 1902 in Suwalki on the territory of present-day Poland in a very wealthy family of a merchant of the 1st guild. His father was the owner of a chain of shops. His parents gave him a good education. He even learned to play the piano and violin, and from childhood he showed exceptional talent in literally everything, and wide prospects opened up in any field, be it commerce, science or art. But the young man, almost a boy, chose a different path for himself. Lazar Shatskin was only fifteen when he joined the Bolshevik Party in May 1917. Then he became one of the organizers of the Komsomol, was elected secretary, and then first secretary of the Central Committee of the RKSM.
From October 29 to November 4, 1918, the First All-Russian Congress of Workers' and Peasants' Youth was held in Moscow, which proclaimed the creation of the Komsomol - the Russian Communist Youth Union. 176 delegates attended. They represented 22,100 members of youth organizations. Lazar at the congress was the main speaker on the Program of the Komsomol, which he himself wrote. At the congress he was elected secretary of the Central Committee of the Komsomol.
If there were sometimes doubts about the creation of the Komsomol - whether Shatskin alone proposed this idea, or Shatskin, Ryvkin and Tsetlin together, then there are no doubts and cannot be on the issue of creating the Communist Youth International. This idea was proposed and implemented by Lazar Shatskin. In the Great Soviet Encyclopedia it is written that the idea of creating a Communist Youth International belongs to Lenin. But it's not. In fact, this idea was expressed by Lazar Shatskin. He presented it to Lenin - Vladimir Ilyich approved. And he proposed, without delay, to expand the preparatory work on the creation of KIM. Lazar headed the delegation of the RKSM at the First Constituent Congress of the CIM, which took place in Berlin on November 20-26, 1919. Representatives of youth organizations from 13 countries were present - Russia, Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Switzerland, etc. The Congress elected Shatskin as a secretary and a member of the executive committee of the Communist Youth International.
The word "KIM" has become firmly established in everyday life. And now you can often meet people over the age of 70 who bear the name Kim or Kim. It was once the parents-Komsomol so they were named in honor of the Communist Youth International. And now in the Tula region there is the city of Kimovsk and the Kimovsky district.
Lazar repeatedly met with V.I. Lenin. Largely thanks to Shatskin, V.I. Lenin's speech at the III Congress of the RKSM took place. Vladimir Ilyich delivered a speech on "The Tasks of Youth Unions." He put forward then the task - to study, study, study communism. Delegated from the Central Committee of the Komsomol to Vladimir Ilyich. Lazar informed him about the situation in the Youth Union and secured his consent to speak at the congress; he also chaired the meeting of the Komsomol forum on the evening of October 2, 1920, opening the congress with a fiery introductory speech. Then he gave the floor to Lenin.
As you can see, even a simple list (by no means complete, we note) of Shatskin's main deeds shows that they would be more than enough to decorate the revolutionary biography of a good dozen of his peers. Take, for example, meetings with V.I. Lenin. Strictly speaking, these were not just meetings, but businesslike, working conversations on the problems of the youth movement that were topical for that time. So it was, for example, in May 1919, when V.I. Lenin received the secretary of the Central Committee of the RKSM Lazar Shatskin and the young German communist Alfred Kurella to discuss the nature of the Communist International of Youth - KIM. This time it was not only about the political aspects of the planned action, but about purely technical issues, in particular conspiracy. After all, the envoy of the Komsomol had to illegally get to Europe through a country engulfed in a ring of fronts of civil war and external counter-revolution. At the end of the conversation, V.I. Lenin personally wrote a document certifying that “Comrade. Shatskin is traveling on a party assignment and his belongings are not subject to any inspection or search. I ask all Soviet authorities to assist him. V.I. Lenin.
The young messenger brilliantly coped with the party assignment. His initiative, intelligence and determination largely contributed to the creation of KIM, an international organization of young communists that operated for almost a quarter of a century.
In 1925, the Komsomol accompanied Lazar to study at the Institute of Red Professors. In 1928-1929. Shatskin is a member of the editorial board of the Pravda newspaper. On July 18, 1929, Lazar published an article in Pravda entitled “Down with the Party Workers”. In it, he criticized the party bureaucrats, the soulless arrogant attitude towards people. Stalin did not like the article very much. At his command, articles condemning Shatskin appeared in the central press. The Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League even adopted a resolution “On gross mistakes of comrade. Shatskin".
Lazar Shatskin spoke on a number of important issues together with the secretary of the Transcaucasian regional committee of the party, Lominadze. They actively supported the candidate member of the Politburo, the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Federation, Sergei Syrtsov, who attempted to remove Stalin. The attempt was unsuccessful. On November 4, 1930, a joint meeting of the Politburo and the Central Control Commission (CCC) was held, at which G. Ordzhonikidze made a report. The question “On the factional work of vols. Syrtsov, Lominadze, Shatskin and others. Shatskin was expelled from the Central Control Commission - the Central Control Commission of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the editorial boards of Pravda and Komsomolskaya Pravda. In 1931 he worked in the Tsentrosoyuz. The following year, he was sent to Tashkent as deputy chairman of the Central Asian Bureau of the State Planning Commission. Then he was director of the Institute for Economic Research of the State Planning Committee of the USSR.
On January 10, 1935, Lazar Shatskin was arrested, imprisoned for two years, and shot in 1937. He was then only 35 years old. In March 1963 he was rehabilitated.
* * *
Oscar Ryvkin was also one of the founders of the Russian Communist Youth Union (RKSM). He was born in 1899 into a Jewish family of an employee in St. Petersburg. He worked as an apprentice in a printing house, then in a pharmacy. In March 1917 he joined the Bolshevik Party. He was the commander of the combat detachment he created during the October Revolution. In December 1917-April 1918, he participated in battles with counter-revolutionary units near Petrograd. He actively supported the idea of creating a communist youth union and participated in the preparation and holding of the first congress of the Komsomol, was elected first secretary of the Central Committee of the RKSM. Until 1924 he worked in the Komsomol, was a member of the Bureau of the Central Committee of the RKSM. Since 1924, in the party work. In 1927-1934. member of the Central Control Commission of the CPSU (b). Since 1934 - Secretary of the Krasnodar City Party Committee.
In 1937 he was arrested. Sentenced to death. Posthumously rehabilitated.
* * *
Efim Viktorovich Tsetlin was born in 1898. Active participant in the October Revolution in Petrograd. He invested a lot of effort and energy in the preparation of the First Congress of the Komsomol. He was elected secretary of the Central Committee of the RKSM.
In 1920 - Secretary of the Central Committee of the RKSM and the Moscow Committee of the Komsomol. In 1922 he was elected a member of the executive committee of the Communist Youth International. Sent to conduct Bolshevik agitation in Germany. However, it did not take long to campaign. He was arrested and sent back to the USSR. In 1925-1926. in party work in Leningrad, then worked in the executive committee of the Comintern, in the editorial office of Pravda, and was in charge of Bukharin's secretariat. In 1930 he went to work in the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry and at the same time was Bukharin's secretary.
Yefim Tsetlin was on friendly terms with Alexander Slepkov, who in 1925 became the first editor of the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, which then began to appear. Then Slepkov worked in the party apparatus. Opposed Stalin's line. The Slepkov case arose, in which Efim Tsetlin was also involved. In February 1933, he was arrested by the OGPU and placed in the Vladimir Central. Bukharin stood up for Yefim, who turned to Stalin with a request. Tsetlin is removed from the stage and returned to Moscow. However, his relationship with Bukharin still went wrong. They disagree on many issues.
Yefim leaves for Sverdlovsk. Here he worked at Uralmash, head of the technical information bureau. In 1936 Yefim Tsetlin was arrested. In 1937 he was convicted and shot.
* * *
Three young men, three Jews - Shatskin, Tsetlin, Ryvkin. They founded the Komsomol. In the first years of its existence, they were its leaders, succeeded each other as the first secretary of the Central Committee of the RKSM. All three were executed during the Great Terror in 1937. After them, the first secretaries of the Central Committee of the Komsomol were Smorodin and Chaplin, who suffered the same fate. Then the head of the Komsomol was Milchakov. He was lucky - he got off with 15 years in the camps. The next first secretary of the Komsomol Central Committee, Alexander Kosarev, was Stalin's nominee. He scolded Shatskin and other founders of the Komsomol in every possible way, tried to erase them from the history of the Komsomol. However, he somehow did not please the leader and, as a result, he was also shot.
Very soon, the Komsomol remained the only political youth organization in the USSR. Through the structures of this organization, the ideological education of young people was carried out. The VLKSM positioned itself as an assistant and reserve of the Communist Party.
Initially, the children of workers and the poorest peasants were accepted into the Komsomol. In the future, the social base of the Komsomol expanded, and all students of the senior classes of general education schools and technical schools were accepted into the Komsomol. Membership in the Komsomol was actually a necessary attribute for the successful promotion of young people up the social ladder. Even when entering a university, if the applicant was not a member of the Komsomol, additional questions arose, they might not have been accepted for this reason.
At the same time, one cannot but say that many students of the Komsomol proved themselves as heroes on the fronts of the civil and especially the Great Patriotic Wars.
The Komsomol was actively involved in the CPSU for large-scale actions. During the years of the five-year plans, shock construction projects, the development of virgin lands, the construction of the BAM, and many other objects were labored by Komsomol members. In the early 1980s, about 40 million young men and women were members of the Komsomol.
However, over time, especially in the last years of Soviet power, the Komsomol finally turned into a bureaucratic system, fully consistent with the bureaucratic system that permeated the party and the entire apparatus of government in the USSR.
Many Soviet leaders began their careers in the Komsomol. Two Komsomol leaders Yuri Andropov and Mikhail Gorbachev reached the top of the pyramid - they headed the CPSU and the Soviet state.
* * *
Three Jews - Shatskin, Tsetlin and Ryvkin - one after another led the Komsomol in the early years. After them, there were no Jews in the post of first secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League. And when anti-Semitic campaigns like the “fight against cosmopolitanism” began, there were no Jews left among the secretaries of even the most seedy district committees. They also disappeared from the apparatus of Komsomol committees at all levels - city committees, district committees, regional committees. Although Jews were accepted into the Komsomol and there were quite a lot of them. The Komsomol became a forge of bureaucrats, who then went to work in party bodies and other structures.
* * *
In September 1991, the XXII Extraordinary Congress of the Komsomol was held. He declared the historical role of the Komsomol exhausted and decided to dissolve the organization.
In the youth organizations of modern Russia, Jews are not seen either in the role of leaders, or even just activists. Well, thank God. In general, these organizations are small and not very authoritative. Young people don't go there. The state of these organizations reflects the general protracted crisis of transition in Russia and in many ex-republics of the former USSR.

Iosif TELMAN, columnist for the weekly "Secret"
especially for the "Jewish Observer"

Congratulations to Komsomol members of all generations on the 95th anniversary of the Komsomol

October 29, 2013 marks the 95th anniversary of the Komsomol

Komsomol (short for Communist Youth Union), full name - All-Union Leninist Communist Youth Union (VLKSM) - a political youth organization in the USSR. The Russian Communist Youth Union (RKSM) was established on October 29, 1918, in 1924 the RKSM was named after V.I. was renamed the All-Union Leninist Communist Youth Union (VLKSM). In 1977, more than 36 million Soviet citizens aged 14-28 were members of the Komsomol. Today in Russia the legal successor of the Komsomol is the Komsomol of the Russian Federation.

My Komsomol youth...
We are with you forever.
You are the fate of my major milestones,
Home, work, friends and family.

You rang the victorious blade
You burned with a five-year-old fire,
Fought, worked, sang,
In the battle with the routine you went ahead.

My Komsomol youth...
I threw a lot over the bumps.
She scolded me, then caressed me.
School of life from A to Z.

Life is moving fast forward
Our heads turned gray
But at heart we are all young,
In the heart of youth, as before, lives

My Komsomol youth...
The smoke of a fire, the sun is a ray in bad weather,
You seethed, boiled with happiness,
Throwing up her wings, she called for the seas.

Virgin land, starry space, Earth.
BAM and Tynda, expanses of the universe,
You, as before, in the ranks, unchanged.
My Komsomol youth.

Tatyana Lavrova

PIONEERS OF THE KOMSOMOL

During the Great Terror, Shatskin was among the first to be repressed. His name was forgotten. And even after the 20th Congress of the CPSU, after its rehabilitation, the leaders of the Komsomol and their senior mentors from the Central Committee of the CPSU did not want to remember that the founder of the Komsomol was the Jew Shatskin. And maybe not one, but even three Jews, because Oscar Ryvkin and Efim Tsetlin, together with Lazar, created the Komsomol, and in the first years of its existence were the first secretaries of the Central Committee of the Komsomol.
It was only during the period of Gorbachev's perestroika that interesting publications appeared about the first organizers of the Komsomol in the oldest youth magazine, Smena.
Alexander Galagan and Anatoly Zinoviev published in this magazine (No. 1460, March 1988) an essay about Lazar Shatskin. The authors emphasize that this was the youngest leader in the history of the Komsomol - he headed the Central Committee when he was only eighteen years old. Lazar spent three years in this post, but his contribution to the formation of the Komsomol was significant. His contribution to the creation of the Communist Youth International was also significant. Shatskin was one of the first theorists of the history of the Komsomol, the author of many books and pamphlets. His work is still interesting to this day. We will not sin against the truth if we call Lazar Shatskin the most popular figure in the communist youth movement of the 1920s.
What kind of person was Lazar Shatskin, who became one of the organizers and leaders of the Komsomol? Lazar Shatskin lived a disappointingly short life, but surprisingly rich in significant deeds and events. Fate gave him only 35 years of life, while all the accomplishments associated with the Komsomol and the international youth movement were carried out by him long before his thirtieth birthday.
Shatskin was born in 1902 in Suwalki on the territory of present-day Poland in a very wealthy family of a merchant of the 1st guild. His father was the owner of a chain of shops. His parents gave him a good education. He even learned to play the piano and violin, and from childhood he showed exceptional talent in literally everything, and wide prospects opened up in any field, be it commerce, science or art. But the young man, almost a boy, chose a different path for himself. Lazar Shatskin was only fifteen when he joined the Bolshevik Party in May 1917. Then he became one of the organizers of the Komsomol, was elected secretary, and then first secretary of the Central Committee of the RKSM.
From October 29 to November 4, 1918, the First All-Russian Congress of Workers' and Peasants' Youth was held in Moscow, which proclaimed the creation of the Komsomol - the Russian Communist Youth Union. 176 delegates attended. They represented 22,100 members of youth organizations. Lazar at the congress was the main speaker on the Program of the Komsomol, which he himself wrote. At the congress he was elected secretary of the Central Committee of the Komsomol.
If there were sometimes doubts about the creation of the Komsomol - whether Shatskin alone proposed this idea, or Shatskin, Ryvkin and Tsetlin jointly, then there are no and cannot be doubts about the creation of the Young Communist International. This idea was proposed and implemented by Lazar Shatskin. In the Great Soviet Encyclopedia it is written that the idea of creating a Communist Youth International belongs to Lenin. But it's not. In fact, this idea was expressed by Lazar Shatskin. He presented it to Lenin - Vladimir Ilyich approved. And he proposed, without delay, to expand the preparatory work on the creation of KIM. Lazar headed the delegation of the RKSM at the First Constituent Congress of the CIM, which took place in Berlin on November 20-26, 1919. Representatives of youth organizations from 13 countries were present - Russia, Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Switzerland, and others. The Congress elected Shatskin as secretary and member of the executive committee of the Communist Youth International.
The word "KIM" has become firmly established in everyday life. And now you can often meet people over the age of 70 who bear the name Kim or Kim. It was once the parents-Komsomol so they were named in honor of the Communist Youth International. And now in the Tula region there is the city of Kimovsk and the Kimovsky district.
Lazar repeatedly met with V.I. Lenin. Largely thanks to Shatskin, V.I. Lenin's speech at the III Congress of the RKSM took place. Vladimir Ilyich delivered a speech on "The Tasks of Youth Unions." He put forward then the task of studying, studying, studying communism. Delegated from the Central Committee of the Komsomol to Vladimir Ilyich. Lazar informed him about the situation in the Youth Union and secured his consent to speak at the congress; he also chaired the meeting of the Komsomol forum on the evening of October 2, 1920, opening the congress with a fiery introductory speech. Then he gave the floor to Lenin.
As you can see, even a simple list (by no means complete, we note) of Shatskin's main deeds shows that they would be more than enough to decorate the revolutionary biography of a good dozen of his peers. Take, for example, meetings with V.I. Lenin. Strictly speaking, these were not just meetings, but businesslike, working conversations on the problems of the youth movement that were topical for that time. So it was, for example, in May 1919, when V.I. Lenin received the secretary of the Central Committee of the RKSM, Lazar Shatskin, and the young German communist Alfred Kurella to discuss the nature of the Communist Youth International, the KIM, that was being created. This time it was not only about the political aspects of the planned action, but about purely technical issues, in particular conspiracy. After all, the envoy of the Komsomol had to illegally get to Europe through a country engulfed in a ring of fronts of civil war and external counter-revolution. At the end of the conversation, V.I. Lenin personally wrote a document certifying that “Comrade. Shatskin is traveling on a party assignment and his belongings are not subject to any inspection or search. I ask all Soviet authorities to assist him. V.I. Lenin.
The young messenger brilliantly coped with the party assignment. His initiative, intelligence and determination largely contributed to the creation of KIM, an international organization of young communists that operated for almost a quarter of a century.
In 1925, the Komsomol accompanied Lazar to study at the Institute of Red Professors. In 1928-1929. Shatskin is a member of the editorial board of the Pravda newspaper. On July 18, 1929, Lazar published an article in Pravda entitled “Down with the Party Workers”. In it, he criticized the party bureaucrats, the soulless arrogant attitude towards people. Stalin did not like the article very much. At his command, articles condemning Shatskin appeared in the central press. The Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League even adopted a resolution “On gross mistakes of comrade. Shatskin".
Lazar Shatskin spoke on a number of important issues together with the secretary of the Transcaucasian regional committee of the party, Lominadze. They actively supported the candidate member of the Politburo, the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Federation, Sergei Syrtsov, who attempted to remove Stalin. The attempt was unsuccessful. On November 4, 1930, a joint meeting of the Politburo and the Central Control Commission (CCC) was held, at which G. Ordzhonikidze made a report. The question “On the factional work of vols. Syrtsov, Lominadze, Shatskin and others. Shatskin was expelled from the Central Control Commission - the Central Control Commission of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the editorial boards of Pravda and Komsomolskaya Pravda. In 1931 he worked in the Tsentrosoyuz. The following year, he was sent to Tashkent as deputy chairman of the Central Asian Bureau of the State Planning Commission. Then he was director of the Institute for Economic Research of the State Planning Committee of the USSR.
On January 10, 1935, Lazar Shatskin was arrested, imprisoned for two years, and shot in 1937. He was then only 35 years old. In March 1963 he was rehabilitated.

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Oscar Ryvkin was also one of the founders of the Russian Communist Youth Union (RKSM). He was born in 1899 into a Jewish family of an employee in St. Petersburg. He worked as an apprentice in a printing house, then in a pharmacy. In March 1917 he joined the Bolshevik Party. He was the commander of the combat detachment he created during the October Revolution. In December 1917-April 1918, he participated in battles with counter-revolutionary units near Petrograd. He actively supported the idea of creating a communist youth union and participated in the preparation and holding of the first congress of the Komsomol, was elected first secretary of the Central Committee of the RKSM. Until 1924 he worked in the Komsomol, was a member of the Bureau of the Central Committee of the RKSM. Since 1924, in the party work. In 1927-1934. member of the Central Control Commission of the CPSU (b). Since 1934 - Secretary of the Krasnodar City Party Committee.
In 1937 he was arrested. Sentenced to death. Posthumously rehabilitated.

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Efim Viktorovich Tsetlin was born in 1898. Active participant in the October Revolution in Petrograd. He invested a lot of effort and energy in the preparation of the First Congress of the Komsomol. He was elected secretary of the Central Committee of the RKSM.
In 1920 - Secretary of the Central Committee of the RKSM and the Moscow Committee of the Komsomol. In 1922 he was elected a member of the executive committee of the Communist Youth International. Sent to conduct Bolshevik agitation in Germany. However, it did not take long to campaign. He was arrested and sent back to the USSR. In 1925-1926. in party work in Leningrad, then worked in the executive committee of the Comintern, in the editorial office of Pravda, and was in charge of Bukharin's secretariat. In 1930 he went to work in the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry and at the same time was Bukharin's secretary.
Yefim Tsetlin was on friendly terms with Alexander Slepkov, who in 1925 became the first editor of the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, which then began to appear. Then Slepkov worked in the party apparatus. Opposed Stalin's line. The Slepkov case arose, in which Efim Tsetlin was also involved. In February 1933, he was arrested by the OGPU and placed in the Vladimir Central. Bukharin stood up for Yefim, who turned to Stalin with a request. Tsetlin is removed from the stage and returned to Moscow. However, his relationship with Bukharin still went wrong. They disagree on many issues.
Yefim leaves for Sverdlovsk. Here he worked at Uralmash, head of the technical information bureau. In 1936 Yefim Tsetlin was arrested. In 1937 he was convicted and shot.

Evgeny Mikhailovich (b. 7.I.1928), owl. part. and Komsomol activist. Member of the Komsomol since 1943, member of the CPSU since 1951. Rod. in the village of Verkhnyaya Sanarka, Plastsky district, Chelyabinsk region. in a peasant family. In 1950 he graduated from the Chelyabinsk State. pedagogical in-t; until 1952 he worked as an assistant at the department of Marxism-Leninism and at the same time was the secretary of the VLKSM institute. In 1952-54, deputy. head Department of Propaganda and Agitation of the Chelyabinsk Regional Committee of the Komsomol. In 1957 he completed postgraduate studies at the Chelyabinsk Pedagogical Institute. in-those; cand. historical Sciences (1960), Associate Professor (1962). Until 1961 he taught the history of the CPSU and at the same time worked as a secretary of the party committee of the institute. In 1961-64 the rector of the Chelyabinsk Pedagogical in-ta. From 1964 Secretary of the Chelyabinsk Regional Committee of the CPSU. In 1968, at the plenum of the Central Committee of the Komsomol, he was elected first secretary of the Central Committee of the Komsomol. Author of works on the history of the party and the Komsomol, on communist issues. education of youth. Headed the delegation of owls. youth and Komsomol at the IX World Festival of Youth and Students in Sofia (1968), at a number of international. conferences and meetings of progressive youth organizations. In 1977–82 head. the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the CPSU; in 1983–90 USSR ambassador to Romania, assistant Min-va foreign. affairs. Elected people. dep. Top. Council of the USSR of the 7th-10th convocations. Delegate of the 23rd-27th Congresses of the CPSU and the 19th All-Union. conferences of the CPSU. Member Central Committee of the CPSU (1971–90). Has the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary; honorary member Komsomol. Worked as an adviser. apparatus of the State Duma on Youth Policy, prof. Youth Academy. Led the team of authors for the publication of a 2-volume book "The Glorious Path of the Leninist Komsomol". .Awarded an order. Work. Cr. Banner (1966), Oct. Rev-tion (1976), Lenin (1971, 1988), Friendship of Peoples (1980) and other orders. and medals of the USSR and a number of countries. .Delegate of the XXIII - XXIV Party Congresses, at the XXIV was elected a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Grandfather. Top. Council of the USSR of the 7th and 8th convocations. .Honorary Professor of Moscow State University, Honorary Member of the Komsomol.

Cit.: 50 years of the All-Union Leninist Communist Youth Union, M., 1968; Speech by V. I. Lenin at the III All-Russian Congress of the RKSM and its significance for the communist education of youth in modern conditions, M., 1970; Soviet youth and scientific and technological progress, Kommunist, 1971, No 16; On the tasks of the Komsomol arising from the decisions of the December (1972) Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the report of L. I. Brezhnev "On the 50th Anniversary of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics", in the book. Documents and materials of the VIII plenum of the Central Committee of the Komsomol, M., 1973. (link TSB)

. Ed. E. M. Zhukova. 1973-1982 .

Pastukhov Boris Nikolaevich - First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Komsomol (1977-1982)

Mishin Viktor Maksimovich - First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Komsomol (1982-1986)

Mironenko Viktor Ivanovich - First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Komsomol (1986-1990)

TYAZHELNIKOV

Soviet historical encyclopedia. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. Ed. E. M. Zhukova. 1973-1982 .