Primary Komsomol Organization

the basic unit of the Komsomol. It is organized at places of work or study of Komsomol members where there are no less than three members of the Ail-Union Lenin Communist Youth League (VLKSM). Within an overall primary Komsomol organization with more than 20 members, Komsomol organizations can be created in production shops and sections. In educational institutions, they can be formed within divisions and departments and among students in the same year of study. Within these groupings, the Komsomol groups are formed on the basis of brigades, shifts, classes, and so forth. Where necessary, a single primary Komsomol organization can be created within several plants that are joined in a production association and usually located in one or several districts of the same city.

The highest organ of the primary Komsomol organization is the Komsomol meeting. A Komsomol committee is elected for a term of one year to carry on work between meetings. Depending on its size and production characteristics, the organization, in keeping with rulings of the Central Committee of the VLKSM, may be granted the rights of a Komsomol raion committee with respect to acceptance into the VLKSM, keeping records on the members of the VLKSM, and examining the personal charges of the Komsomol members. In primary Komsomol organizations with these rights, committees are elected for two-year terms. The primary organizations are united in raion or citywide organizations. The respective raion or citywide committees direct the primary Komsomol organizations and their work and oversee the execution of decisions made by the higher Komsomol organs. The primary Komsomol organizations act under the direction and supervision of the relevant party organizations. The process of elections and formation of all controlling organs of the VLKSM originates with the primary organizations.

The Rules of the VLKSM define the most important tasks of the primary Komsomol organizations, which include admitting members to the VLKSM and working directly among young people and rallying them around the CPSU. Other tasks involve developing initiative and activity in the Komsomol members and drawing them into social action, linking the Komsomol to the broad masses of young people, and organizing Komsomol members and all young people to fulfill the plans for the building of communism (see the Rules of the VLKSM, arts. 43–51, Moscow, 1974). At the beginning of 1974, there were 431,336 primary Komsomol organizations in the VLKSM.