Komsomol
(All-Union Leninist Communist League of Youth,
Russian Всесоюзный Ленинский Коммунистический Союз Молодёжи (ВЛКСМ), Коммунисти́ческий сою́з молодёжи)
Youth organisation of the Communist Party
The predecessor of Komsomol was the Russian Communist League of Youth founded in 1918 as a reserve of the Communist Party. Between 1924 and 1926 it was called the Russian Leninist Communist League of Youth, and from 1926, the All-Union Leninist Communist League of Youth. Structurally, it imitated the CP of the Soviet Union and gathered young people between the ages of 14 and 28. The main task was to spread communist ideas and Party propaganda among young people. Joining the organisation was voluntary, although not joining could become an obstacle in acquiring education (getting into secondary school and university), as well as in finding a job in one’s professional field.
The Estonian Leninist Communist League of Youth was founded as a territorial organisation of the All-Union League in 1940 after the Soviet regime was established in Estonia.
The All-Union League was terminated in September 1991, when Boris Yeltsin, President of the Russian Federation, banned the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, along with its youth organisation.
