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JPRS-UPS-87-038

22 MAY 1987

USSR Report

POLITICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL AFFAIRS

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JPRS-UPS-87-038

22 MAY 1987

USSR REPORT

POLITICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL AFFAIRS

CONTENTS

PARTY AND STATE AFFAIRS

Mironenko Reports to Komsomol Congress

(V. Mironenko; KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA, 16 Apr 87).......... 1

LiSSR To Hold Multicandidate Elections for Local Soviets

(SOVETSKAYA LITVA, 29 Mar 87) 76

Kazakh Conference Stresses Party Members' Responsibility

(KAZAKHSTANSKAYA PRAVDA, 24 Feb 87) 79

CULTURE

Soviet Cinema Must Reflect Restructuring Process

(S. Freylikh; SOVETSKAYA KULTURA, 24 Mar 87) .. ... ..... 90

Scriptwriter Discusses Restructuring in Cinema

(Ye. I. Gabrilovich Interview; MOSKOVSKAYA PRAVDA,

3 Apr 87) 96

Soiree Commemorates Movie Director Tarkovskiy

(IZVESTIYA, 6 Apr 87) ••••.. • 100

SOCIAL ISSUES

Alma-Ata Riots Highlight Flaws in Komsomol Work With Youth

(V. Yevseyev; PRAVDA, 9 Feb 87) > 101

-a -
Weekly Urges Measures To Improve Protection of Children

(Natalya Daryalova; LITERATURNAYA GAZETA, 4 Feb 87) 106

AzSSR: Stronger Campaign Against Opium, Cannabis Urged

(G. Akhundov, N. Babayev; KOMMUNIST, 14 Feb 87) 107

/12223

- b
PARTY AND STATE AFFAIRS

MIRONENKO REPORTS TO KOMSOMOL CONGRESS

PM271825 Moscow KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA in Russian 16 Apr 87 pp 2-7

["Report by the Komsomol Central Committee and the Komsomol's Tasks in the

Further Intensification of the Communist Education of Youth in the Light of

the 27th CPSU Congress Directives. Report by V. Mironenko, First Secretary of

the Komsomol Central Committee" at 15 April 1987 session of the 20th Komsomol

Congress in the Kremlin Palace of Congresses—passages within slantlines

printed in boldface]

[Text] Comrade delegates!

Esteemed guests!

/The 20th Komsomol Congress has convened at a crucial stage of Soviet

society's development./

The ideas of the CPSU Central Committee April (1985) Plenum and the 27th CPSU

Congress are penetrating social awareness increasingly deeply, captivating

people, reviving their social activeness, and turning into a material force.

The attention of progressive mankind is riveted on the Soviet Union. The

cause of October is alive and advancing. The revolutionary transformations

occurring in Soviet society are strengthening the positions of socialism and

the world communist movement.

The CPSU Central Committee January (1987) Plenum gave a powerful impetus to

restructuring. The country has embarked on a new stage. Work that is

unprecedentedly innovative and aimed at the in-depth transformation of

socialist society has been launched on a broad front.

/Young people are getting involved in restructuring, aware that the fate of

restructuring is the fate of the motherland, their own fate./

Speaking at the plenum, M.S. Gorbachev said that "...at crucial times, when

resolving the most difficult and most daring tasks, the party has invariably

called on the Komsomol, young people, their enthusiasm and devotion to the

cause of socialism, their implacability toward stagnation, and their

commitment to things progressive. And so today, when we speak of the need for
democratic changes and the expansion of the people's real participation in

resolving the tasks of restructuring, the question of the younger generation's

stance acquires enormous political importance."

/The 2 years that have passed since the CPSU Central Committee April (1985)

Plenum and the results of the report and election campaign which has just

ended in the Komsomol have confirmed yet again Lenin's idea that young people

are the keenest of all to follow the party of innovators./

Young people supported the party's innovative and revolutionary course, the

decisive break with obsolete forms, the new thinking, the publicity and

democratization, they are in favor of trust in people and youth, of reliance

on their eagerness and initiative.

/The Komsomol is in favor of restructuring and acceleration! This is our firm

position, and we will not abandon it!/

Now it is a matter of ensuring that this position does not remain just a nice

turn of phrase. Let us be frank, things like this have happened in the

Komsomol in the past. What we need are not words about restructuring but

practical deeds aimed at deepening restructuring in all areas of social life,

including the Komsomol. Scope must be given to young people's self-motivated

creativity.

We congress delegates bear great responsibility before the party, the people,

and the millions of our Komsomol comrades who expect an objective analysis of

the state of affairs and bold solutions.

The success of the congress will be guaranteed provided we follow the example

of the atmosphere of Leninist truth, businesslike efficiency, and a

constructive attitude which reigned in this hall during the 27th CPSU

Congress.

/Active participation in the implementation of the party congress decisions

and in the acceleration of the country's socioeconomic development—this is

how the Komsomol perceives its main task./

/The place of the Komsomol and each Komsomol organization is in the vanguard

of young people, in the most difficult and most responsible sectors of

restructuring. I think that you will agree, comrades, that this is the only

fitting place for the Komsomol!/

I. The Komsomol at the Crucial Stage of Soviet Society's Development

Comrades!

/This year will see the 70th anniversary of the Great October Socialist

Revolution./ "Our revolution is the most outstanding event of the 20th

century, which announced the start of a new era in mankind's life. Time has

revealed in depth its abiding importance and highlighted the gigantic
opportunities offered by the socialist social development." ("Jo the Soviet

People." Appeal by the CPSU Central Committee. PRAVDA 14 March 1987.) The

first socialist state has traveled a long path through these years.

Our country has consigned forever to the past the poverty, unemployment,

illiteracy, and social and national oppression which remain the lot of

millions of young people in today's world. Socialism has given young people

the opportunity to obtain education and to choose their work according to

their leanings and abilities, it has given them a confident life worthy of

man.

Socialism has given young people something that capitalism is incapable of

giving them-a goal, a meaning of life. It has inspired them with the great

idea of struggle for freedom and equality, for social justice and social

progress, against oppression, exploitation, and lack of national rights.

/Young people are vitally interested in ensuring that socialist principles are

strengthened in our life, that the people's socialist self-management

develops./

a) The Lessons of the Period Under Review

Comrade delegates! You have information on the Komsomol's activity during the

past 5 years. The Komsomol Central Committee deems it necessary that the

report should dwell on the most important lessons of the period under review,

on the unresolved problems.

The past years, especially the period since the CPSU Central Committee April

(1985) Plenum, have offered us unusually plentiful food for understanding what

Soviet young people are today.

/The revolutionary transformations in society's life have offered new

opportunities for the best qualities of the younger generation to be

displayed./

The majority of Komsomol members, young men and women, have interpreted

restructuring as a call to action. Many Komsomol members and tens of

thousands of Komsomol and youth collectives have greeted the 20th Komsomol

Congress, and are preparing to greet the 70th anniversary of Great October,

with good results in study and labor.

/It is to them, the millions of young people who bear with dignity the title

of Komsomol member and honorably perform their civic duty, that the Komsomol

owes its good name and its prestige./

During the last 5 years there was not a single major national economic or

social task that was resolved without the participation of young people and

the Komsomol: the construction of the Baykal-amur Main Railroad and of longdistance gas pipelines, the opening up of regions in the North, Siberia, and

the Far East, the revival of Russia's Non-charnozem Zone.
As a result of the work done to attract young people to the most important

sectors of the national economy and the stabilization of labor collectives,

the number of Komsomol members increased by 15.4 percent in the coal industry,

by 23.6 percent in the power industry, by 11.8 percent in transport, /and by

17.9 percent in the services sphere. There are 911,000 more Komsomoi members

in rural areas.

More than 400 temporary young people's creative collectives were formed for

the first time, in line with the 19th Komsomol Congress decisions, and they

are resolving specific scientific and technological tasks. A legal base has

been created for developing a public-state system for scientific and

technological creative work by young people.

Economically weak kolkhozes and sovkhozes have become a zone for particular /

attention by the Komsomol. Young people's collectives have been assigned one*

fifth of all reclaimed fields. ' /

The Komsomol is participating more actively in the development of capital

construction. The procedure governing the social drafting of young people has

been legislatively determined, the transition to the detachment form of

volunteer assignment has been completed, and the preliminary training of

volunteers has been organized. The number of all-union Komsomol shock labor

construction pojects has been reduced, and priority has been given to the most

important regions and projects. Komsomol Central Committee staffs have been

set up at all construction projects.

Young people's housing complexes are developing apace. Such complexes are now

under construction in 156 cities.

Integrated Komsomol and young people's shifts and intersector integrated teams

are working in the most important sections of the country's transportation

system under conditions of intensive technology.

A whole range of legislative acts and party and government resolutions aimed

at improving the conditions of young men's and women's labor, study, daily

life, and leisure have been adopted on the Komsomol Central Committee's

initiative.

/Many Komsomol organizations consolidated their prestige during this time, and

quite a few useful deeds stand to their credit./

Unfortunately, this did not halt the buildup of negative trends. The

precongress discussion also brought to light serious problems in youth

education and the Komsomol's work. Profound contradictions developed between

the organization's democratic nature and bureaucratic methods of leadership,

between young people's eagerness for everything that is new and forms of work

that had ossified over the decades.

/Formalism became deep-rooted in many Komsomol organizations./
The most important task of stepping up the Komsomol's influence on the broad

masses of young people was often taken to mean building up the organization s

numerical strength at any cost. Between the late forties and the mid-eighties

the Komsomol twice doubled the strength of its ranks.

Attempts were made to maintain the growth rates come what may. Control

targets were set for recruitment, with their inevitable consequence—a decline

in demandingness toward new entrants. Komsomol committees failed to ensure

the necessary work with new recruits. Internal union discipline slackened.

Each year more than 1 million Komsomol members left their organizations

without being taken off the rolls. The process of looking for them wasted

time on ineffective office work and endless correspondence between Komsomol

committees.

The task set by the 19th Komsomol Congress—to break the trend of covering up

shortcomings in work by figures showing a growth of the ranks—was not fully

accomplished during the period under review.

/Many of the Komsomol's problems were directly attributable to the style of

work of leading Komsomol organs and primarily the Komsomol Central Committee./

The Komsomol has grown and developed. Its tasks and its internal and external

ties have become more complex. Over a 25-year period the number of primary

Komsomol organizations has risen by 140,000, the number of Komsomol

organizations enjoying the rights of primary organizations has trebled, and

there has been a considerable increase in the number of Komsomol groups.

The leadership of such an organization of young people became increasingly

difficult. The impossibility of covering from the center the entire

multlfaceted Komsomol life became obvious. But even so, the emphasis was

placed, like before, on the further centralization of leadership.

Instead of the development of initiative and self-motivation, uniformity took

hold in the Komsomol's life. Organizations started resembling each other like

twins: Identical plans, identical measures, identical meeting agendas, and

even identical shortcomings.

Things which, according to the intentions of desk-bound inventors, should have

brought Komsomol committees closer to grassroot components and actual people

in fact drew them further and further away.

Forcing the pace, a desire to succeed in everything, "initiative mania" and

eagerness for quick victory reports, inability to finalize work that had been

started, and demands for new rights while not making proper use of rights

already granted were infelicitously combined with officiousness, red tape,

and conference mania.

/

"I

I

< •• i
In many places rank and file Komsomol members and primary Komsomol

organizations were in fact excluded from decisionmaking and the distribution

and utilization of the Komsomol's monetary funds.

The apparatus of Komsomol committees frequently supplanted elected organs,

while these organs' members considered their duties honorary rather than real.

Conferences, meetings, and Komsomol committee bureau plenums and sessions

gradually turned into well rehearsed shows.

Mechanisms reflecting democratic norms of internal Komsomol life like

criticism and self-criticism, publicity, monitoring from below, and

collectiveness and collegiality in leadership became atrophied or disappeared

completely.

/Democratic centralism acquired more and more features of "bureaucratic

centralism."/

The statutory right to elect and be elected was in fact restricted to formal

demands vis-a-vis the composition of cadres and the aktiv. In these

circumstances "leaders" who appeared suitable on paper were literally forced

on Komsomol members.

This is why some Komsomol officials and aktiv members felt that they had been

appointed rather than elected, displayed arrogance, and ignored the opinion of

rank and file Komsomol members. Through their lack of principledness they

discredited themselves and tarnished the reputation of genuine Komsomol

officials, who are indubitably in the majority. Let us be blunt, nothing

caused greater damage to the Komsomol's prestige than the degeneration of some

Komsomol cadres.

For these reasons, more than 3,000 Komsomol officials were dismissed from

their office in the past 5 years. Unfortunately, some Central Committee

members were guilty of misdemeanors for which they were expelled from it. A

Central Committee secretary, a number of officials from the "Sputnik"

International Youth Tourism Bureau and the Komsomol Central Committee

Administration of Affairs, the first secretaries of the Mary Turkmen Komsomol

Obkom and the Bukhara Uzbek Komsomol Obkom, and several others were removed

from office either for shortcomings in their work or for having compromised

themselves. The first secretary of the Uralsk Kazakh Komsomol Obkom was

deprived of his delegate's mandate to the 16th Kazakh Komsomol Congress

because of drunkenness, and he was not refused the right to represent the

republic Komsomol at the 20th Komsomol Congress.

/Bureaucracy and formalism dealt their most painful blows at city and rayon

level components. Komsomol gorkoms and raykoms slackened their attention to

primary party organizations./

In these conditions many primary organizations failed to maintain principled

positions in young people's education and started losing their influence among
the young. It was there that the living ties between Komsomol committees and

Komsomol members and young people were broken.

The result of all this was that rush and bustle reigned at the top, while

passiveness and apathy put down roots at the bottom. Rank and file Komsomol

members were losing their faith in leading Komsomol organs. The machinery of

resolutions, plans, and measures was idling for most of the time.

/The Komsomol Central Committee, its Bureau, Central Committee secretaries,

members of elected central organs, and the Komsomol Central Committee

apparatus are responsible for many of the errors of which we are talking

today./ The Central Committee did not always correctly assess the situation

and displayed indecisiveness and inconsistency in its actions.

Many Central Committee members failed to take a firm and principled stance,

often failed to respond to existing errors, and did not strive to eliminate

them. The Central Committee's permanent commissions worked formally and

without initiative, and it was on extremely rare occasions that they made any

constructive suggestions and recommendations to improve the work of Komsomol

organizations.

The Central Committee Bureau and Secretariat often failed to keep an eye on

the long-term questions concerning the development and improvement of the

Komsomol's activity.

Central Committee departments and subsections wasted a lot of time on bustle

within the apparatus and gave inadequate assistance to local Komsomol

organizations, cadres, and aktivs. The work of the Central Committee

apparatus was based on farfetched forms and methods and was detached from real

life.

All this was the subject of exacting and self-critical discussion at the

Komsomol Central Committee's latest, 14th plenum. The main point under

discussion was to learn lessons from the mistakes and prevent them from

recurring in the activity of the new Central Committee.

Following the adoption of the CPSU Central Committee resolution "On the

Further Improvement of Party Leadership of the Komsomol and the Enhancement of

Its Role in the Communist Education of Youth" in July 1984, the 12th Komsomol

Central Committee plenum made attempts to restructure the work of the Central

Committee and the Komsomol committees. A considerable proportion of reportwriting and farfetched forms of work were abolished.

The majority of Komsomol officials and aktiv members were becoming aware that

they could not continue to work in the old fashion. Some Komsomol committees

sought and found ways to reach young people and really involve them in the

resolution of economic, social, and educational tasks. But the style of work

of the Central Committee apparatus and many Komsomol committee remained

basically unchanged; they retained their belief in the omnipotence of their

decisions and the inability of Komsomol organizations to act independently.
Actual work was often replaced by elaboration of schemes and plans for

restructuring.

How can we fail at this point to recall Lenin's advice to go out to the young.

He believed that this is the only salvation, and warned that delays might

otherwise occur and we might find ourselves with "scientific" notes, plans,

blueprints, schemes, and wonderful prescriptions, but without organization or

any actual work.

/The Higher Komsomol School and its Scientific Research Center must be

severely criticized for their work during the period under review./

Due attention was not paid to the development of scientific research. A

scornful attitude toward theory and scientific recommendations took shape

among Komsomol officials. Absorbed into people's awareness in a truncated and

distorted form, theory led to mistakes in practice.

It is also necessary to speak of another cause of the buildup of negative

trends in the Komsomol, which was somewhat disregarded during the precongress

discussion.

/Only an atmosphere of equanimity and indifference in their own organization

by Komsomol members themselves could have made it possible to trample the

rights of primary organizations, to appoint rather than elect their leaders,

and to breach the statutory norms of internal Komsomol life./

Only such an atmosphere made possible the occupation of leadership positions

in the Komsomol by incapable and unworthy people and the promotion of

careerists and bureaucrats who often forced entire organizations to serve

their own ambitions.

/Many people wanted to change everything while basically changing nothing

either in their own thinking or in their own life./ Restructuring is, bluntly

speaking, of no use at all to those who are concerned not so much for the

interests of our common cause as for their own tranquility.

No rights and no guarantees of respect for such rights, no matter how

important they may be in themselves, can replace the readiness and ability to

make use of them, nor can they replace responsibility and civic courage.

/To put it briefly, comrades, many Komsomol organizations and Komsomol

committees found themselves "excluded" from life and detached from the real

problems of young people and their education at a complex period in the

country's life./

Young people were, of course, affected by the decline of the rate of economic

growth, the pretense that shortcomings did not exist, the leftover principle

in allocating funds for social needs, the peculiar ideology and mentality of

stagnation, and the gap between words and deeds.
/Elements of deformation of socialist awareness were manifested more strongly

than before among a section of young men and women./ Passiveness, consumerist

feelings, skepticism and an uncritical attitude toward petty bourgeois

mentality were the consequence of stagnation phenomena in society's life on

the one hand and serious shortcomings in young people's education on the

other.

The violation of the link between the measure of labor and the measure of

consumption, the poor organization of production, and the lack of attention to

young people and their education in many collectives affected young people's

attitude toward labor.

Many komsomol members and young production workers fail to cope with the plan,

tolerate slipshod work, and violate labor and technological discipline.

A stratum of people for whom the purpose of life boils down to nothing but

material prosperity has taken shape among young people.

/The Komsomol must restructure itself in order to participate actively in the

restructuring of society./

The positive processes occurring in all spheres of social life, whose

beginning was marked by the CPSU Central Committee April (1985) Plenum, have

generated rapid growth in young people's social activeness and Komsomol

organizations' initiative.

The most typical features of the last 2 years of the Komsomol's life and the

life of many of its organizations have been the creation of a new moral and

ethical atmosphere, the psychological restructuring of Komsomol cadres and

aktiv and Komsomol members, the decisive break with ossified stereotypes, the

principled and exacting assessment of shortcomings and omissions, and the

sharp turnabout from formalism to actual work.

Well aware that they can no longer work in the old fashion, many Komsomol

committees are seeking new and more effective methods of work and of reviving

internal Komsomol life and are concentrating their attention on the solution

of the most urgent problems—social, economic, and educational. They are

finding their place in the common work. Generally speaking, a creative

approach toward the work in hand and an attitude of questing are being

established, there is stronger monitoring and verification of the execution of

decisions and collectiveness of leadership, and ties with the masses of young

people are strengthening.

Publicity in the activity of elected organs and of their apparatus, cadres,

and aktiv, a self-critical assessment of what has been done, and an urge to

achieve more are becoming the rule for increasing numbers of Komsomol

organizations.
Only in such an atmosphere will Komsomol organizations really become the

assistants of party committees in the implementation of the major

revolutionary transformations now under way in the country.

Komsomol members are joining more actively in the intensification of social

production and modernization of industrial enterprises, mastering advanced

forms of labor organization and economic forms of management, and striving to

ensure that restructuring and acceleration really take place wherever a

Komsomol member mans a work position.

Supporting to the utmost and comprehensively developing young people's labor

and social enthusiasm, Komsomol committees are creating conditions for the

broad dissemination and affirmation of everythiing that is best, for the still

further development of self-motivation among young men and women.

For this purpose, active restructuring is now under way in the activity of

elected organs and Komsomol committees' apparatus to ensure that their work is

as close as possible to the needs of primary party organizations operating in

labor and study collectives.

A number of Komsomol obkoms are conducting an experiment to improve the

structure of their apparatus, while Komsomol raykoms and gorkoms have reviewed

their work procedures and are resolutely abandoning bureaucratic forms of

leadership.

Noticeable changes for the better have occurred in the activity of numerous

republic, kray, and oblast Komsomol organizations. Positive trends are

increasingly tangible in the work of the Rostov, Sverdlovsk, Ulyanovsk, and

many other oblast organizations, the Moscow City Komsomol organization, and a

number of Komsomol committees in Belorussia, the Ukraine, and the Baltic

republics.

It is worth disseminating the Omsk Obkom's experience in mobilizing young men

and women for specific socially important work, the Krasnodar Kraykom's

experience in the development of agriculture, the Penza Obkom's experience in

organizing work with children and adolescents in places of residence, the

Minsk Obkom's experience in improving the keeping of Komsomol membership

records, and the Kuybyshev Obkom's experience in restructuring the style and

methods of Komsomol committees' work.

It is, or course, still early to speak of positive results. The elimination

of conventional schemes and stereotypes and the overcoming of stagnation

phenomena in internal Komsomol life is no easy work. But the 2 years of work

under the new conditions make it possible to draw a very important conclusion.

The bureaucracy and formalism which have grown roots in the Komsomol are

dangerous diseases. But a reliable cure for these diseases does exist—

participation in the resolution of specific socioeconomic tasks and

democratization of internal union life.

10
b) The Restructuring of the Komsomol's Work—An Imperative Demand of the Time

What do we mean by restructuring the Komsomol's work? .,

/Restructuring in the Komsomol means dragging Komsomol organizations out of a

state of inertia and stagnation into the vanguard sectors of the struggle for

accelerating the country's socioeconomic development and shaping the new man,

it means getting down to lively, daily, and painstaking work with young

people./

To effect restructuring means, having objectively and self-critically assessed

the situation, to boldly reject superfluous centralization and everything that

is farfetched and has failed the test of practical work and to encourage

initiative and self-motivation among Komsomol members.

Restructuring must be effected with due consideration for the historical

experience of Komsomol work. Restructuring has nothing to do with wholesale

rejection, fault-finding, or indulging in hare-brained schemes. We must

effect restructuring while relying firmly on Komsomol traditions, on all the

best that has been accomplished by all generations of Komsomol members and

Komsomol officials, on the democratic and self-motivated nature of our

organization, on the already existing experience of work of Komsomol

organizations, Komsomol committees, cadres, and aktivs. There is no room for

haste or bustle under the new conditions, each step must be checked against

practice, and the young people must be consulted.

Exceptional importance attaches today to each Komsomol member's understanding

of our union's underlying foundations. -

/The Komsomol does not and cannot exist without the Marxist-Leninist teaching,

without party leadership of the Komsomol, without conscious discipline./

The most difficult part of restructuring is to change one's mentality, to

change the habit of seeing only executors "below" and only functionaries

"above."

Restructuring in,the Komsomol must begin with oneself. It will not occur

automatically.

/Of course, the main responsibility for clearing away the accumulated

obstacles of bureaucracy and formalism lies with the Komsomol Central

Committee, union republic Komsomol central committees, Komsomol kraykoms,

obkoms, okruzhkoms, gorkoms, and raykoms, cadres, and the aktiv. But it ±a

also a matter for all Komsomol members. We will achieve the necessary result

only by rallying in the struggle against everything that is alien to the young

communist league's nature and ensuring unity in this struggle./

We have no spare time to prepare for restructuring. It must be effected "on

the move," not in individual sectors but along the entire front, and answers

11
to the questions facing us must be sought in life itself rather than in desk

drawers. '

/Why is it that, when speaking of restructuring in thö Komsomol, we emphasize

the need to move Komsomol organizations into the vanguard sectors of the

struggle for acceleration?/ Because communist education is impossible without

involvement in production, in real social relations./ Otherwise the entire

restructuring in the Komsomol will again degenerate/into formalism.

"It is only in labor together with workers and peasants," V. I. Lenin taught,

"that one can become a real communist."

/Where are these vanguard sectors of the struggle for acceleration?/ The

Komsomol Central Committee believes that these are primarily the

intensification Of social production on the basis of scientific and technical

progress, participation in the pursuit of a strong social policy, and the

galvanization of the human factor—uninterrupted education, the shaping of a

Marxist-Leninist world outlook, the enrichment of young people's spiritual

world, and a healthy way of life.

/The front line of the struggle to accelerate socioeconomic development runs

through every work place, through the conscience of each young person./

We must have a clear impression of what we want to achieve, of the goal of

restructuring in the Komsomol.

/We want to ensure that, for each young person, the Komsomol really is a

Leninist school for education, a school for socialist democracy, collectivism,

and participation in the management of state and social affairs.

/Democratization is the main avenue of restructuring. It must affect all

aspects of the Komsomol's life./

Primary organizations and Komsomol committees are entitled, proceeding from

the common tasks, to select for themselves from the entire arsenal of forms

and methods of work the ones they consider most effective.

Higher-ranking Komsomol committees must uphold the right of young people and

primary Komsomol organizations to participate in the resolution of all

questions of a labor collective's life which affect young people's interests.

/The primary organization's responsibility increases to an incalculable extent

under the new conditions of work./ It is responsible for the Komsomol

members' attitude toward labor and study and for their compliance with the

demands of the Komsomol Statute. Not a single Komsomol member must be outside

its field of vision. Not a single misdemeanor must go unnoticed. Greater

obligations and greater rights are the two sides of the same coin.

/The main obligation of each Komsomol organization now is to develop and

support young people's creative initiative to the utmost./

12
/The most important form of direct democracy is the Komsomol meeting./ The

meeting's prestige has obviously declined. The reasons for this include lack

of specificity and urgency in raising questions, hollow rhetoric, resolutions

that are downright impossible to fulfill, and stage management. The Komsomol

meeting must regain its status as a supreme organ in the eyes of Komsomol

members.

Only a general meeting or conference is in a position to evaluate the work of

each Komsomol committee, bureau, or Komsomol group organizer. You recall,

comrades, the extent of absurdity that was reached by Komsomol committees in

their quest for a "universal yardstick" to measure the social activeness of

Komsomol members and the militancy of primary organizations. Here we cannot

have any prescriptions suitable for all eventualities of life. It is a matter

of principledness on the part of all Komsomol members.

It is necessary to significantly strengthen the material base and expand the

financial independence of Komsomol organizations, and to give Komsomol members

an opportunity to earn and spend their financial resources by themselves.

There must be no recurrence of the pursuit of numerical growth or the

substitution of formal actions for painstaking work with each young person.

The Komsomol Central Committee perceives the guarantees for this in: First,

resolute condemnation of forced swelling of the Komsomol's ranks; second,

admission on a strictly voluntary and individual basis, following thorough

training of the candidate and testing of him by specific deeds; third,

empowering primary organizations themselves to make the final decision on

admission to the Komsomol.

In this work it is very important to ensure that each Komsomol organization is

concerned with its numerical and qualitative structure and that it ensures

that each new member is involved in social life, that he has his Komsomol

assignment, and that he bears his share of responsibility for the common cause

from the very first days of his membership in the union.

/Restructuring will require profound changes in the work of elected Komsomol

organs from top to bottom./

The start must be made with their structure. /The primary Komsomol

organization is entitled to decide for itself who will head it./ Leaders are

not elected by force and if they are so elected, they will not be followed.

The Komsomol Statute guarantees the right to nominate any number of candidates

for the office of secretary and to membership of elected organs, to openly

discuss and challenge candidates, and to hold them accountable for their work,

and this right must be ensured in practice.

An important step along the path of democratizing the election system within

the Komsomol could be taken by means of secret ballot when electing

secretaries of the Komsomol Central Committee, union republic Komsomol central

13
committees, and Komsomol kraykoms, obkom, okruzhkoms, gorkoms, and raykoms at

plenums of the corresponding committees provided, of course, their members

deem this necessary.

There must be an end to excessive paperwork. And this must be done

resolutely. It can be done only by stepping up monitoring by elected Komsomol

organs of the activity of the bureaus, secretariats, and apparatus of the

corresponding Komsomol committees. It would evidently be correct to begin

plenums with reports by the bureaus on decisions they have adopted.

Monitoring the fulfillment of adopted decisions and rendering practical

assistance to Komsomol organizations—these are the most important tasks of

members of the Komsomol Central Committee and other elected Komsomol

organizations. They must set an example to Komsomol members of how Komsomol

duties and social obligations are to be performed.

It is necessary to ensure that all members of elected organs—from the Central

Committee down to raykoms—visit primary organizations, monitor the activity

of apparatus workers, and participate in preparation of decisions.

Working under the new conditions, the Komsomol apparatus must give more

attention to the quest for advanced experience and talented organizers of

young people, thoroughly study the processes occuring among young people, help

define the main avenues of work, and bring together different organizations to

resolve questions they may have in common.

/All Komsomol committees must learn to work under conditions of total

publicity./ Publicity for us is not just a means to correct certain excesses

in work and enhance the responsibility of Komsomol cadres. Publicity is a

natural phenomenon in the Komsomol, a mandatory condition for Komsomol

members' faith in the leading Komsomol organs.

In order to expand publicity, it is necessary to make full use of the Komsomol

press, wall newspapers in primary organizations, and all other media at our

disposal.

At the same time, we cannot fail to take account of the fact that the penchant

for critical remarks among some young people, Komsomol officials, and

journalists at times degenerates into nihilism or "do-nothingness?

["manilovshchina"]. They are always ready to slip in their caustic word or

two, but when it comes to rolling up their sleeves and really getting down to

work, their activeness declines sharply.

In implementing restructuring in the Komsomol it would not be amiss to recall

the words of V. I. Lenin, who wrote: "Anyone who finds this work 'boring,'

'uninteresting,' or 'incomprehensible,' anyone who pulls faces, panics, or

gets carried away by declamations about the lack of the 'former uplift,'

'former enthusiasm,' and so on—would be better 'relieved of duties' and

consigned to the archives to prevent him from causing any damage, because he

14
is either unwilling or unable to perceive the particular features of a given

level or a given stage of the struggle."

/The improvement of work with Komsomol cadres is a key question of

restructuring in the Komsomol.

/The activity of cadres must be constantly monitored from "above" and

especially from "below." The Komsomol must have no officials who are beyond

monitoring and beyond criticism, regardless of the position they may occupy./

For this purpose it is necessary to make use of certification, which is

currently in progress, accountability reports to young people, and reviews of

performance assessments. The main point is that this ought to be done

informally and with broad participation by Komsomol members, in an atmosphere

of complete publicity and freedom of criticism.

The CPSU Central Committee January (1987) Plenum decisions make it incumbent

upon us to wage an uncompromising struggle for the pure and honest image of

the Komsomol official and aktiv member.

/Constant contacts with young people are the sine qua non of the office

occupied by every Komsomol official./ But this alone is not enough. You

cannot cultivate in others any qualities which you yourself lack. Ideological

commitment and moral purity, competence and businesslike efficiency,

simplicity and accessibility, personal modesty, genuine interest in young

people's life, and familiarity with their real problems—all these are needed

by each Komsomol official. There must be no hesitation in getting rid of

those who place no value in young people's trust or are morally lax.

The first thing we must do under the new conditions is to resolutely

restructure the system for the training and retraining of Komsomol cadres, the

work of the Higher Komsomol School under the Komsomol Central Committee, zonal

and republic Komsomol schools, and the "Olimpiyets" Youth Center.

This system must be firmly based on systematic and profound study of the

practical experience of Komsomol work, and must be imbued with everything that

is most valuable, with the most advanced ideas.

Exceptionally great importance attaches to the requirement that, in the

process of instruction, Komsomol cadres should acquire a profound mastery of

Marxist-Leninist theory, turn more often to V. I. Lenin's works and party

documents, and become skilled in transforming knowledge into actions.

/It is the Komsomol members' right to elect their leaders, and it is the

obligation of Komsomol committees to teach them to work./

/Komsomol practice needs new bold ideas based on scientific experimentation./

There is a need for serious research into the Komsomol's history in all its

complexity, without simplifications or omissions, but also without

15
falsifications or sensationalism. The theory of Komsomol building must be

brought as close as possible to the practice of restructuring.

A great role in the solution of these problems has to be played by the

Komsomol Central Committee's Council for Coordination of Scientific Research

into Youth Problems, the USSR Academy of Sciences, the USSR Academy of

Pedagogical Sciences, and the USSR Ministry of Higher and Secondary

Specialized Education. It is time to solve the question of creating a

specialized scientific research institute in the country which would study

youth problems, and of publishing an appropriate scientific journal.

We are entitled to demand of the Higher Komsomol School under the Komsomol

Central Committee and of its Scientific Research Center, which made quite a

few interesting suggestions during the period of preparations for the

congress, to work much more efficiently.

In restructuring the Komsomol's work it is necessary to bear in mind that

this is not an end in itself but a means to solve the pressing problems of

communist education and to advance Komsomol organizations to the vanguard

sectors of the struggle to accelerate the country's socioeconomic development.

/It is necessary to enhance the competence and quality of resolutions adopted

by the Komsomol Central Committee, reduce their number, and ensure their

fulfillment./ Once a resolution has been adopted, it must be implemented in

full. It is time for everyone—both in the Central Committee and at local

level—to abandon the flawed practice of measuring achievements by the number

of resolutions adopted.

Komsomol obkoms are overburdened by instructions and requests from higherranking organs. For example, last year the Zaporozhye Komsomol Obkom received

over 1,000 documents from the Komsomol Central Committee, the republic

Komsomol Central Committee, and the party obkom.

RSFSR Komsomol obkoms received 500-700 documents each year.

II. In the Vanguard Sectors of the Struggle to Accelerate the Country's

Socioeconomic Development

Comrades!

/The acceleration of the country's socioeconomic development offers millions

of young men and women a real opportunity to apply their abilities and

knowledge and claim their place in society./

Restructuring is based on the country's vast economic, scientific, technical,

and cadre potential, on the most educated generation of Soviet people trained

for productive and creative labor.

Young people represent almost one-third of those employed in industry, the

construction industry, the agroindustrial complex, and transport, half of

16

/ /
those employed in the power industry, instrument building, and radio

electronics, and more than 40 percent of those employed in trade and the

services sphere.

The economy's orientation toward extensive development, the slow introduction

of new equipment and technology, and the departure from democratic principles

in the management of production on the one hand, coupled with most serious

shortcomings in young people's labor education on the other—these were the

main causes of the decline of the prestige of labor in the material production

sphere.

Komsomol committees attempted to cultivate a communist attitude toward labor

in isolation from the actual conditions in production, using obviously

obsolete forms of work. Some young

1 people proved to be not geared to

persistent and conscientious labor, questing and creativity, or the overcoming

of the difficulties of professional development.

This, in its turn, had an effect on the ideological, political, and moral

education of young men and women.

a) The Komsomol in Production Under the Conditions of Its Intensification

The acceleration of the country's socioeconomic development primarily means

the utmost intensification of production. The center of gravity in work is

shifting from quantitative indicators to quality and efficiency, from interim

to end results, from the expansion of production funds to their renewal, from

the buildup of fuel and raw materials resources to their thrifty utilization,

to improved labor organization and incentives, to the galvanization of the

human factor.

/The new conditions of economic management demand the shaping among young

people of new economic thinking and a feeling of being stewards of social

production./ This feeling cannot be cultivated by slogans alone. It is

determined by actual economic relations and the opportunity for young people

to influence the organization of labor and the distribution and utilization of

its results.

On what do we need to focus attention here?

/We are gaining a new ally in young people's education—economic

accountability./

Economic accountability and self-capitalizing provide a firm link between

everyone's interests and the end results. Economic accountability means

collective thrift, resourcefulness, fairness in labor remuneration, and

everyone's participation in management.

The principle of distribution according to labor and the practice of relations

of economic accountability allow no one to live at other people's expense and

encourage a more responsible approach toward the choice of vocation and the

17
quality and intensiveness of one's labor. We are essentially talking about

giving priority in economic practice to each young person's personal

responsibility for his own well-being and for the well-being of society as a

whole.

Under the new conditions Komsomol committees are given vast opportunities to

work creatively, to eradicate the faulty practice of at times resolving

economic tasks to the detriment of educational ones and utilizing the

enthusiasm of young men and women to patch up economic deficiencies and

planning errors and to cover up waste.

/We must take a fundamentally new approach to Komsomol committees'

participation in the organization of socialist competition./

Many Komsomol committees duplicate the work of trade union organs and replace

detailed work with the dissemination of farfetched initiatives and ideas.

Support was given to so many of them that there simply was not enough time for

their practical implementation.

When duly appending their signatures to pledges young people often do not konw

with whom they are competing and why. And since they do not know this,

competition is just a matter of form for them. The leveling mentality, which

has grown firm roots in the incentives system, has not promoted a genuine

competitive spirit, either.

/Competitive spirit must be present in all of Komsomol work./ Socialist

competition is a natural condition of well organized production with a

considered labor remuneration system. The experience of the best labor

collectives, like Sumy's M. V. Frunze Machine Building Association, offers

convincing proof of this.

Komsomol committees must show concern for ensuring that each Komsomol member

and each Komsomol and young people's collective in production know the results

of their daily, weekly, and monthly work, can compare them with the results

achieved by others, and enjoy material and moral incentives encouraging them

to produce better items more quickly and for less expenditure.

Publicity plays a great role in competition. Much could be done here by young

people's newspapers following the example set by KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA which,

in honor of the congress, announced a competition of Komsomol and young

people's collectives for the "Challenge Prize."

The winners in this competition, incidentally, were selflessness, magnanimity,

and heartfelt generosity—remarkable features of our young people.

Representatives of the 22 finalist teams decided to make a gift of the

"Challenge Prize"—-a new-model Moskvich car—to a children's home. On behalf

of all congress delegates, the Komsomol Central Committee expresses thanks to

the young workers for both their shock labor and their noble deed.

18
/Many labor collectives devote inexcusably little attention to the retention

of newcomers and the improvement of their vocational skills./

When joining a production facility many young people have only a superficial

idea of the nature and content of the labor that lies ahead.

This is one of the reasons behind the high cadre turnover, which costs society

so dear. On average one young person in three changes jobs during the first

year at work and, as a rule, takes a month to learn the new job. For this

reason alone the country loses about R4 billion each year in industry and

construction.

Komsomol committees must find more efficient forms for /early vocational

orientation of young people and their retention in production./ There are

extremely broad opportunities here for cooperation between Komsomol

organizations in schools, vocational and technical schools, and enterprises in

the national economy.

/The so-called "slogan approach" toward participation in the resolution of

national economic tasks is firmly rooted in Komsomol practice./ Komsomol

organizations sponsor virtually everything. And it has to be admitted that

the tone in this was set by the Komsomol Central Committee. The Komsomol

Central Committee adopted a resolution of its own in response to most

resolutions adopted by the party and the government the economy s development.

Moreover, many of them were of a declarative nature and had no economic backup

at all.

If we look carefully at the tested forms of Komsomol participation in the

resolution of national economic tasks—the Komsomol and young people s

collectives, student detachments, and Komsomol shock construction work~we are

struck by the fact that they bear a deep imprint of the period of extensive

economic development.

Therefore, our main task is, first—and speaking figuratively—to wash off the

"extensificatiott" [ekstensivshchina] and restructure them for work under new

conditions. And second, to seek in life itself new forms for young people s

creative participation in the economy's restructuring.

What specifically can and must be done? /The content of the activity of

Komsomol and young people's collectives must be reviewed./

There are more than 400,000 such collectives in the country. But it is not a

matter of quantity, it is a matter of actual returns. Let each rayon or city

have only a few of them, but let these few be genuinely economically

accountable collectives.

The shock labor by young people's teams today must be based not only on _

enthusiasm but also and primarily on the application of advanced forms of

labor organization and remuneration, modern equipment and technology, and

skill in managing production.

19
/There is a growing economic benefit from the activity of student

detachments./ Over a 25-year period the volume of work done by them has

increased almost 1,000 times and last year amounted to R1.6 billion. The

student detachments have gained lasting labor glory. During the last 5-year

plan period many students were awarded high state prizes. Unfortunately, the

detachments* successes prevented us from perceiving and solving the problems

which have accumulated in this patriotic movement.

The expansion of the scale of activity was not accompanied by improvements in

the management structure. Many economic leaders perceived student detachments

only as so much manpower. Additional detachments numbering more than 100,000

were formed each year under pressure from them. There were quite a few

incidents of industrial injury and financial violations in detachments which .,.-.

were formed in a hurry, without the necessary training. People.who had

"attached" themselves to the movement and whose only goal was to grab more

from the state or the kolkhoz often appeared in the guise of student

detachment.

It is time for the Central Staff for Student Detachments to look into the

purpose of this movement and how it ought to develop. The main point, in the

Central Committee's opinion, is for the movement to regain its primary

principle of voluntariness and initiative and to provide a correct combination

of economic and educational effects.

/New forms of socially beneficial labor by young people in their free time

away from study or their main work have emerged in many Komsomol organizations

during the last few years./

We are talking about creating everywhere year-round labor associations for

work in communications enterprises, health care, children's preschool

institutions, and municipal services. We are talking about young people's

voluntary service bureaus, family workshops, and cooperatives for the

collection and processing of secondary resources and the procurement of

medicinal herbs, berries, and mushrooms. They could also include students'

science and production detachments and detachments of young workers and

employees for work in the agroindustrial complex during harvest time.

This is by no means a complete list of labor initiatives by young men and

women. It is necessary to support them, help them to develop, and aim for the

abolition of the still existing unjustified restriction on young people's and

adolescents' participation in labor activity.

Such young people's associations must function on principles of complete selffinancing and economic accountability.

The Komsomol Central Committee believes that, /utilizing the experience of

student detachments, it is possible to create in the very near future a

unified system for the economic accountability and self-financing of young

people's voluntary labor associations, organizing under the same principles

20
the labor not just of students but also of representatives of young workers

and peasants and young specialists./

We are talking about hundreds of thousands of young people who want to work

well and to earn from their labor during their free time away from their main

job or study. This will also be a weighty contribution by young people to the

resolution of national economic tasks, and a supplement to young families'

budgets.

/The Lenin Komsomol's history is inseparably linked with new construction

projects./ Traditions have developed and forms and methods of sponsorship

have been worked out over decades. Many of them produced tangible results at

certain stages of our development. In particular, the transition to the

detachment form of social draft which was effected in the last few years. At

the same time, the CPSU Central Committee's demand for an end to formalistic

and bureaucratic attitudes toward Komsomol shock labor construction projects

was not met. We must speak frankly about this to the congress delegates.

During the 11th 5-Year Plan period more than 100,000 young men and women were

sent to projects in West Siberia, Krasnoyarsk Kray, and the Far East alone,

but one in every three left his or her job within the very first year.

On the eve of the congress the Komsomol Central Committee and the editorial

offices of young people's newspapers and journals received hundreds of letters

from young construction workers. Here is what Aleksey Pakhomov, a leading

member [boyets] of the detachment named for the 27th CPSU Congress, writes

from Tyumen: "And what did we find here?! We were just not needed by anyone.

We sat around without work for about 1 month.... Entire teams just sit about

and read newspapers.... /In my opinion, if detachments are formed, then they

ought to be sent wherever young people's energy is really needed "/

Young men and women write with anguish and alarm that little has changed at

construction sites under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Power and

Electrification, the Ministry of Construction for Areas of the Urals and

Western Siberia, the USSR Ministry of Construction of Petroleum and Gas

Industry Enterprises, and several other ministries, that the proper concern

for people is still lacking. Just like in the paöt, leaders treat young

people as if they were a commodity, covering up economic mismanagement and

disorganization by attracting additional labor resources. State funds are

wasted, the meaning of Komsomol assignments is lost, and the Komsomol's

prestige is damaged.

Intolerable conditions prevail at construction projects linked with the Kanskachinsk Fuel and Energy Complex, the Gusinoozersk and Kharanor GRES, the

Krasnoyarsk heavy machine building plant, and the opening up of the Yamburg

and Astrakhan gas condensate fields.

Such situations are unfortunately typical for many Komsomol shock labor

construction projects. The Komsomol Central Committee sees this as the result

of a one-sided approach toward such projects. We have turned into suppliers

of young manpower, often limiting ourselves to flag waving and bombastic

21
Slogans. It must be admitted that the Komsomol has failed to find levers to

realize young people's great potential and their desire for self-assertion in

labor at shock labor construction sites. We have failed to develop a

machinery for collaboration with state and public organizations.

Today we must change the nature of our cooperation with ministries and

departments on the development of the national economy's most important

sectors. We offer to embark on an experiment in the construction of modern

enterprises and cities—to give consent to advanced social, economic,

architectural, urban planning, scientific, and technical development options

for Komsomol construction projects.

/In our view, these projects must become projects of really great importance

for ensuring the accelerated development of the country's entire national

economy, primarily in regions of Siberia, the Far East, and Russia's

Non-chernozem Zone.

The further opening up of new regions will require thousands of skilled

workers, reliable guys and girls. It's not going to be volunteers that will

be the problem. The work of Komsomol organizations must be assessed not by

the number of detachments that have been formed or travel vouchers that have

been issued, but by the real state of affairs at shock labor construction

sites and the actual return from each work place.

It is also necessary to aim for a real expansion of the rights of Komsomol

organizations at sponsored construction sites—from the promotion of leaders

to the determination of procedures for financing projects under construction,

with simultaneous enhancement of their responsibility for all affairs at the

shock labor site. The interests of the cause demand that the Komsomol Central

Committee together with the USSR Council of Ministers define the projects for

long-term application of Komsomol forces over the 5-year plan period.

/Participation in the implementation of the party's agrarian policy and the

Food Program is a most important matter for the Lenin Komsomol./

Concentrating their efforts on the involvement of young people in agricultural

production and the creation of proper working and living conditions, Komsomol

organizations have sent each year more than 160,000 young men and women to

work in stockraising, rural construction, and land reclamation. The chroinc

trend of declining numbers of young people in the countryside can and must be

overcome. Positive changes have occurred in this work, including in many

regions of Russia's Non-chernozem Zone, which is sponsored by the Lenin

Komsomol.

/Collective contracts, economic accountability, and intensive technologies are

primarily the key factors for boosting the efficiency of agriculture./ Today

they are utilized by about 34,000 Komsomol and young people's collectives,

representing about one-third of the total. These forms of labor and

production organization make it possible to display to the full the art of

real and, if you like, creative stewards of the land. The training,

education, and retention of such workers and participation in establishing

22
stable labor collectives in the countryside must be perceived by the Komsomol

as one of its most important tasks.

The experience of individual Komsomol organizations shows that these problems

can be solved. In Mordovia, for example, Komsomol committees ensured the

involvement of the majority of school pupils in actual production relations

through economically accountable school pupils' links of machine operators and

stockmen. Integrated detachments consisting of school, VÜZ, and technical

college graduates are sent to farms, Komsomol and young people's collectives

are formed, and efforts are made to get them to assimilate advanced

technologies and forms of labor organization.

/Young people's desire to find an opportunity for creativity in labor is

manifested in the keenness for collective contracts, including family

contracts./ A year ago Mariya Gravirson, a mechanized milking foreman on the

Estonian SSR's "Payuzn" Kolkhoz, and her husband Anatoliy took over a dairy

farm on the basis of a family contract and pledged to obtain 4,250 kg of milk

per cow. Conscientious performance of all technological operations and the

desire to constantly augment their knowledge and improve their skills enabled

them to achieve success. And here are the results: Milk yields are 20

percent higher than planned, labor costs have been reduced by almost onethird, and the prime cost per quintal of milk is 11 percent lower than on the

kolkhoz as a whole. Last year Mariya was the winner of the International

Young Stockmen's Competition in Bulgaria.

/Sponsorship of economically weak farms respresents a specific contribution by

the Komsomol to the implementation of the Food Program./ There are numerous

examples of efficient work by Komsomol organizations in this area. Success is

forthcoming wherever sponsorship is approached in a comprehensive fashion and

young specialists and scientists are involved. They are not only concerned

with sending cadres to sponsored kolkhozes and sovkhozes, but also develop

their production base, aim at introducing advanced experience, and play an

active part in the construction of housing and other projects for social

purposes. It was precisely such an approach toward its sponsored

"Komsomolskiy" Kolkhoz that enabled the Gomel Obköm to get the farm out of the

laggard category within 3 years.

More than 50,000 young men and women responded to KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA's

appeal to participate in the boosting of lagging farms. Just over 1,000

people managed to translate their intention into practice. Many farms are

simply in no position to provide even the elementary conditions they need to

move there and start work. We ask the USSR State Agroindustrial Committee to

help us solve this problem.

A substantial increase in the practical contribution made by the Komsomol and

young people to the intensification of social production and the implementation of the Food, Energy, and other socioeconomic programs will materialize if

the younger generation becomes an active participant in changes and if it is

given scope for the full implementation of its creative potential.

23
b) To Assist the Acceleration of Scientific and Technical Progress

The party is implementing energetic and innovative measures to enhance the

economy's receptiveness to scientific and technical progress.

The intensification of production today involves a struggle between the new

and the old, it involves overcoming the defective practice of only partially

improving equipment. It means a genuinely revolutionary breakthrough to the

highest world standards in science and technology, to high quality and

competitiveness of Soviet products. This is a vast field for the application

of young people's energy, knowledge, and creativity.

/The Komsomol's participation in the acceleration of scientific and technical

progress is the main avenue of its activity in the 12th 5-Year Plan period./

At the same time, we can feel the effect of the persisting gap between young

people's potential and the real opportunities for involving them in the

acceleration of scientific and technical progress.

The temporary young people's creative collectives, set up as autonomous

structural subdivisions, are an effective form for young men and women to

participate in resolving specific production tasks today. We must be bolder

in aiming to ensure that the solution of the most complex scientific and

technical problems is assigned to these collectives, and they must be helped.

For year after year there was no change in our approach toward /young people's

scientific and technical creativity./ There was no growth in the number of

rationalizers and innovators, and exhibitions of young people's scientific and

technical creativity were often just exercises in window dressing. The way

out of this situation lies through fundamental restructuring of all work with

young innovators.

/The party Central Committee backed the Komsomol Central Committee's proposal

to create a unified social-state system for young people's scientific and

technical creativity in the country./

The entire work on attracting young men and women to participate in the

acceleration of scientific and technical progress is being organized on a new

footing. It is necessary, right from the very beginning, to rule out

formalism and unsystematic campaign work, and to coordinate conditions for the

creation of a precise organizational and economic machinery within this

system.

What does the Komsomol Central Committee perceive as the importance of the

system for young people's scientific and technical creativity that is being

developed?

First, young people's intellectual potential is enlisted in "opening out"

bottlenecks in production and creating and assimilating new equipment and

technologies.

24
Second, the initiative of innovators comes to fruition through economically

accountable centers for young people's scientific and technical creativity,

which organize the work of young people's creative collectives on the basis of

contracts with enterprises.

Third, in the long run these centers ought to become experimental and

practical-adoption [vnedrencheskiye] organizations, middlemen between young

people's creative collectives, production, and the scientific community at

large.

Fourth, the system will provide at all levels an organic link between

enterprising public initiative and state backing for it, between selfmotivated questing by young people and the necessary material and technical

base.

It is also important for us as a real attempt to work out approaches which are

fundamentally different from the past toward young people's and the Komsomol s

participation in the resolution of major national economic tasks in organic

conjunction with educational tasks.

It would be appropriate for one of the next few Komsomol Central Committee

plenums to discuss the range of questions concerning the development of the

system of young people's scientific and technical creativity.

/Under the conditions of the present-day scientific and technical revolution

mastery of the fundamentals of computer literacy is becoming a most important

factor in young people's training for life and labor./ In 5-10 years' time

anyone unable to operate computer equipment will be like someone unable to

read or write today.

So far we have not succeeded in launching a mass young people's movement for

mastery of the fundamentals of computers and programming. Many Komsomol

organizations have remained uninvolved in this work. The process of supplying

schools, vocational and technical schools, and VUZ's with personal computers

has been slow and painful. Only 2 percent of schools have information

technology departments. An impermissible delay has developed in the

resolution of questions concerning software supplies. There still are no

author's copyright provisions, and no prices have been fixed for software

products. The shortage of games and educational software results in computers

standing idle.

Be that as it may, however, there is much that can be done right now. Young

scientists and specialists in the city of Gorkiy have organized computer

propaganda tours of schools, young pioneer camps, kolkhozes, and sovkhozes.

Important work has been launched by student detachments in several VUZ's in

Novosibirsk and Sverdlovsk to develop school computer programs. The best

educational and games software, in no way inferior to foreign models, has been

recommended for use in schools and in secondary vocational and technical

schools. Initiatives like these must receive the Komsomol's backing.

25
Young people's computer clubs must become an effective form for Komsomol

committees to participate in this work and must be supplied with the necessary

equipment.

Moscow's "Kompyuter" Children's Club will soon be a year old. It was

established through efforts by enthusiasts with active support from the USSR

State Committee for Physical Culture and Sports, the USSR Academy of Sciences,

the Central Economics and Mathematics Institute, and the Moscow Komsomol

Gorkom. Such an interesting and important initiative can only be welcomed.

/The quality and competitiveness of output constitute a general indicator of

scientific and technical progress and labor organization./ State acceptance

has been introduced in many of the country's enterprises. Komsomol

organizations must channel their efforts toward inculcating in each young

working person a sense of responsibility for his section of work and

observance of technological discipline and a sense of pride in his plant's

brand name. More energetic work must be launched to set up quality control

groups, which must become a comprehensive form of young men's and women's

participation in the improvement of output quality. The movement for topquality multiple-skill teams must be revived. It would be appropriate for

Komsomol and young people's collectives to gradually take over the functions

of young people's quality control groups.

/Scientific and technical progress and the present-day level of production

raise with growing urgency the need for the constant improvement of skills./

Komsomol committees must involve real masters of their job in this work.

This, in our view, is the most important point.

A truly talented person is always on the move and therefore has no fear of

competition from young people. Let us recall the founder of Soviet

cosmonautics Sergey Pavlovich Korolev. Metal worker Vladimir Stepanovich

Chicherov, miner Mikhail Pavlovich Chikh, crop farmer Terentiy Semenovich

Maltsev, and many other eminent working people have become genuine mentors of

young people.

/Komsomol organizations can and must set up a school for vocational skills

around every real master of his job in order to preserve the invaluable

experience and give new impetus to the mentorship movement./

Reliance on young people produces the desired effect only when the necessary

conditions for creativity and vocational growth are created. Here is an

example. The mining equipment, metal rolling machine tools, and most powerful

hydraulic presses manufactured by the "Novokramatorskiy Mashinostroitelnyy

Zavod" Production Association have become famous all over the world. They are

purchased by more than 30 countries. Young people play a most active part in

the development and assimilation of new equipment models. Each year there is

an auction of young people's ideas, and the association has temporary creative

collectives, a plant club for technical creativity, and young rationalizers'

schools. Association Director Yevgeniy Aleksandrovich Matsegora trusts young

people, and they respond to this trust with enterprise work. Good work is

26
being done with young people at the "Rostselmash" Production Association,

Leningrad's "Svetlana," the Kama Truck Plant, and Minsk's "Integral."

Many questions in production today expand from strictly technical into

sociopolitical questions whose solution determines the involvement of young

men and women in the real acceleration of scientific and technical progress.,

/The proportion of nonmechanized labor is still high./ In most cases, the

real conditions at work places match neither the needs nor the abilities of,

young working people. Even if the rate of equipment renewal does treble as

planned, this will enable only a fraction of young production workers to start

working on new machine tools by end of the 5-year plan period. Much can be

done here by making use of own resources. Young people in Leningrad and

Kharkov Oblasts have actively joined in the technical remodeling of

enterprises, switch to two- and three-shift working everywhere, and make more

intensive use of the existing pool of modern machinery.

Komsomol committees, together with specialists, must seriously tackle this and

ponder how young people's labor can be alleviated and improved and what help

can be given in creating the conditions necessary for enterprises to switch

to multi-shift working.

/The implacability of Komsomol members and young people toward squanderers and

idlers, toward grabbers, and toward routine in production must be encouraged.

The "Komsomol Searchlight" system has a most important task to perform in this

respect./

We must breathe new life into it. We must restore its initial militancy and

uncompromising attitude. The "Komsomol Searchlight" is a form of young

people's participation in monitoring from "below." The role of the "Komsomol

Searchlight" must be significantly enhanced in ensuring precise work by the

entire chain of production, in inculcating responsibility to production

partners, and in upholding young people's interests in the sphere of labor,

daily life, and leisure. Komsomol members and young people must know and

believe that the "Komsomol Searchlight" and the Komsomol organization will

help obtain justice in any matter but will also call to account any violators

of discipline and slipshod workers.

/Young scientists and specialists must play a special role in the acceleration

of scientific and technical progress in production./

To date far from full use is being made of their potential in this work. ; Young specialists themselves often lack initiative, give up in the face of

difficulties, cannot lead the collective, and do not learn to do so.

On the other hand, Komsomol committees have simply failed to give serious

support to young scientists and specialists. Many of their valuable

suggestions are not utilized in production. Even developments awarded the

Lenin Komsomol Prize find to difficult to overcome departmental barriers.

27
Everyone knows the problems of vegetable bases. In Moscow alone more than

7,000 people are daily diverted to work there. Some 4 years ago young

scientists from the Potato Farming Scientific Research Institute and the

Moscow Institute of Agricultural Production Engineers developed an automated

quality control and sorting unit for fruit and vegetables. The suggested

technology makes it possible to fully eliminate manual labor in potato

sorting, ensuring high quality and preventing damage to the potatoes. Some 10

such units should have been working in Moscow's fruit and vegetable

enterprises by this year, but not a single one is yet operational. The

Ministry of Tractor and Agricultural Machine Building and the USSR State

Agroindustrial Committee have still shown no interest in the broad

introduction of the young people's achievement.

The councils of young scientists and specialists have totally lost their

former prestige as organizers of young enthusiasts and their collaboration

with production. And yet it is they who should be concerned with ensuring

that the natural difficulties of professional growth do not become

insurmountable obstacles for some young specialists.

They must focus young people's efforts on the priority sectors of retooling,

using for this purpose targeted competitions, contracts for scientific and

technical collaboration, creative associations, and the elaboration of

specific targets for young people for the improvement of production and the

introduction of new equiment and technology.

We appeal to the leaders of ministries and departments, the leaders of

enterprises: Place more trust in young people, give them an opportunity to

display their initiative, to compete, to implement useful and interesting

initiatives, and you'll see—they will completely change the old ideas about

their attitude toward labor.

c) To Constantly Master Modern Knowledge

/Our society's urgent need for knowledge in the period of restructuring is

comparable only to the need the country experienced, in the first difficult

years of Soviet power./

Let us recall how V. I. Lenin formulated the question: "...A communist

society cannot be built in a country of illiterates. It is not enough for

Soviet power to order, or for the party to issue a certain slogan, or to

assign a proportion of the best workers to this work. What is needed is for

the younger generation itself to tackle this work."

A reform of education is being implemented in the country. It affects the

fundamental interests of the training and education of millions of young men

and women. This is why, as far as the Komsomol is concerned, this is one of

the most advanced and most important sectors of the struggle for the renewal

of society.

28
The school reform has been under way for 3 years now, progressing slowly and

with difficulty. But many Komsomol committees still seem to be waiting for

something. They are waiting for instructions from "above," they are waiting

for school pupils' attitudes toward study to change, they are waiting for an

atmosphere of cooperation between teachers and pupils to be established in

schools.

Yet we must act, and act without any delay. /It must be said bluntly that the

reform's demand for a fundamental improvement in the work of Komsomol and

young pioneer organizations and the development of their initiative and selfmotivation is not being met./

The forms of quality control of knowledge, order, and discipline applied by

teachers have also become forms of Komsomol committees' work. While Komsomol

meetings, reviews, and competitions are part of the school curriculum.

There has been no effective collaboration between Komsomol organizations in

schools in the same rayon. Even in the same school teachers' and pupils*

organizations have often failed to find a common language.

It is primarily Komsomol-member pupils and Komsomol-member teachers who must

become aware of the need to act. It is up to them to display initiative,

independence, and responsibility.

/This detachment of the Komsomol demands a solicitous attitude from Komsomol

raykoms and gdrkoms./ It is they that must show concern for the practical

training of teachers for joint work with pupils' Komsomol organizations.

We have to establish permanent and lively contacts between school pupils and

working young people, Soviet Army servicemen, and students, and literally

"enfold" them in Komsomol life at large.

/The acquisition of knowledge means hard work. But school pupils and students

continue to labor under the impression that the period of learning is only a

time for climbing the foothills of labor, that this is not yet real life but

only preparation for it./

The stereotypes of school life, isolation from reality, and the lack of

conflicts in school courses have given many children a rosy impression of

society, labor, and their future. An obvious gap has developed between formal

education, the knowledge acquired by pupils, and their social maturity.

Closing this gap means making education lead the way rather than bringing up

the rear.

Komsomol committees must cultivate among school pupils and students a

conscientious and creative attitude toward the acquisition of knowledge, the

application of knowledge in real life, technical and artistic creativity, and

productive labor and encourage self-education.

29
/Comrades, let us get down to a job that is new to us—the quest for talent./

After all, talent is a priceless asset of society. Let us set up under the

Central Committee new adolescents' clubs for children with clearly visible

creative abilities. Like, for example, clubs for young research workers,

programs, or cosmonauts. And many more besides, but they must all be

definitely headed by a recognized authority in the relevant sphere. Each such

club could have its own permanent camp, summer schools, and competition

system. Every Komsomol committee publication for children, teenagers, and

young people must have a creative association for gifted children

corresponding with its specific field.

/It is socially dangerous to retain the currently prevailing stereotyped

attitude toward vocational education./

Just like in the past, children are threatened—by teachers at school and by

parents at home—that they will be sent to vocational and technical school as

punishment for disobedience or poor performance. Just like in the past, rural

schools are unpopular among young people. One in every five has no school

farm, while one in three lacks elementary conditions for study. The schools

mainly have obsolete equipment. Essentially often only a handful of workers

are trained to operate new equipment and agricultural machinery.

Each year about 50,000 pupils of rural vocational and technical schools

abandon their studies, and one graduate in three leaves the farm without

completing even a year's work. Apart from any moral damage, this causes

enormous material damage to the state. The problems of rural vocational and

technical schools go far beyond the framework of shortcomings in vocational

training. They involve questions of the cultural standard and social maturity

of the next generation of the working class and kolkhoz peasantry. And here

we are already talking about a political issue.

The main shortcoming here lies in the fact that Komsomol organizations in

schools, rural vocational and technical schools, sovkhozes and kolkhozes, and

industrial enterprises have not managed to pool their efforts and consequently

have failed to exert any serious influence on the solution of these problems.

Of course, it is beyond the Komsomol's powers to eliminate all shortcomings on

its own, but it must not stand aside, either.

The main element in these Komsomol committees' joint work consists not of

giving assurances of Komsomol sponsorship or issuing Komsomol assignments in

their hundreds of thousands but of displaying daily concern for the

ideological and moral education of pupils in rural vocational and technical

schools and the conditions of their study, daily life, and leisure and also

solicitude for their adaptation to production work.

/Young students have shown keen interest in the restructuring of the system of

higher and secondary specialized education./

For many years the growth of the number of specialists with higher education

overshadowed the quality of their training. Education for education's sake

30
resulted in the emergence of a specialist who is not prepared to solve complex

problems independently and up to the requirements of modern standards and

unable to work hard and be an effective leader of the collective.

Unskilled teachers, lawyers, physicians, and scientists cause incalculable ^

economic and moral damage. We now have a whole army of engineers and "urban

agronomists and veterinary technicians who are not working in their

specialized field.

The Komsomol must help talented, capable, and determined people to enter the

universities, put an end to elitist admission to "prestigious VUZ's, ensure

social justice for university entrants from among workers and kolkhoz members,

and guide young people toward teacher training institutes.

We need honest competition based on children's abilities and knowledge rather

than on their parents' ability to pull strings. Here, too, Komsomol

organizations must take an uncompromising stance.

"From the work place to the university lecture hall!"—this movement won the

support of young people in Ulyanovsk Oblast. We are familiar with Poltava s

"School—teacher Training VUZ—SCHOOL" experiment. Future specialists are

selected at schools for young physicists, chemists, and designers under

Moscow's Engineering and Physics Institute and Kazan's Chemical Technology

Institute. This approach merits support.

Social justice must be observed not only in the context of VUZ entry. ^

Students joke: It is easier to get into an institute than to "soar upward'

out of it. Komsomol-member students themselves know better than any dean s

office who is really studying and who is extending his carefree childhood.

Komsomol organizations must display principledness and an uncompromising

attitude here.

/The restructuring of higher and secondary specialized schools which is under

way offers VUZ and technical college Komsomol committees the opportunity to

resolutely restructure their own work on the principles of self-motivation and

initiative./

In order to resolve the tasks of restructuring on a broad democratic basis

young people must acquire economic and managerial knowledge.

But what sort of knowledge can we talk about if students and school pupils

continue, as before, to obtain it only from textbooks?

/In order for young people to understand the essence of terms like "economic

accountability," "self-financing," or "prime costs" they must participate in

real production relations. Wherever this is possible, and the earlier the

better./

Some 18 months ago the "Yunost" School Plant in the Rostov Oblast City of

Kamensk-shakhtinskiy started producing industrial output—centrifugal pumps,

31
consumer goods, special clothing. But this is not the only important aspect.

The 600 school pupils, while mastering their vocations, are real masters of

the enterprise and sense their responsibility for the fulfillmwnt of plan

indicators and the organization of production.

But school or student plants and production associations or school farms are

still unique phenomena, even though they first appeared more than 2 decades

ago.

The Komsomol Central Committee should have long ago displayed initiative in

studying this experience and in laying organizational and legal foundations

for its dissemination. Unfortunately, we did not do this. But we do have an

opportunity to set matters right. /We are faced with the natural and

justified question of expanding the sphere of activity of school pupils' labor

associations and creating a system for their management, as a number of union

republics have already done./ This must be done in the very near future.

/School and student self-management is essentially the first and therefore the

most important lesson in democracy./

But the Komsomol's participation in the management of educational

establishments' affairs today is restricted and confined not to matters of

essence but to matters of form like, for example, drawing up monitor duty

rosters and ensuring the observance of sanitation and hygiene rules, or—in

students' collectives—to the organization of leisure, hostel life, and selfservice facilities, and that not everywhere, either.

But when it comes to the main questions of the organization of the teaching

and education process the message is: It's nothing to do with you. How will

students and school pupils assess this, what and how will they be taught?

The Komsomol Central Committee is convinced that the habit of perceiving

pupils as just objects of pedagogical influence will not make it possible to

attain the goals set by the restructuring of education.

The USSR Ministry of Education spent 3 years drafting a Schools Statute but it

simply failed to make any provision for self-management. This is evidently

why the leaders of public education limited themselves to a purely

professional discussion, without school pupils themselves. As if these

questions did not affect everyone.

/School pupils' self-management is a key question for school Komsomol

organizations./ It is important to give pupils real rights in their own

school, including complete responsibility for its safekeeping; it is important

for them to learn to understand the budget, to show concern for supplementing

it, and to expend any state funds saved or earned by them.

School pupils' collectives must play a real part in the planning and

organization of the teaching and education process, and must express their

opinion of teachers' labor and their own comrades' behavior and diligence.

32
It is understandable that this will require a certain restructuring of the

mentality of children themselves, but this will not be achieved without

changing the mentality of adults.

In presenting the question in this fashion, the Komsomol Central Committee

proceeds from the actual experience of schools and vocational and technical

schools and presupposes a considered and pedagogically literate approach,

mandatory experimentation, and scientific interpretation.

/It is necessary to restore one of the best traditions of our higher schoolsstudents' self-management. The questions on which neither the rector's office

nor the professorial and tutorial staff are allowed to make decisions without

students' agreement must be defined./

It would be appropriate for the USSR Council of Ministers, the AUCCTU, and the

Komsomol Central Committee, following a broad discussion, to adopt a normative

document defining the rights and obligations of student collectives.

/The Komsomol Central Committee has received quite a few suggestions to

convene an all-Union students' forum and to establish, under the Komsomol s

leadership, student councils headed by a USSR Students' Council./ These

proposals must be carefully studied. An all-Union students' forum could

discuss the progress of the implementation of measures envisaged by the

restructuring of higher and secondary specialized schools and questions of the

VUZ Komsomol's work.

/Noticeable success in school pupils' self-management can be achieved provided

there is a real expansion of teachers' rights, of questing and creativity in

organizing the tuition and education process, provided we succeed in putting

an end to petty regulations governing the life of educational collectives./

"I have seen many things and I have been through a lot in my life as a

teacher, but I have never before come across anything like what I am going to

describe," a teacher from the Moscow region wrote to the Komsomol Central

Committee.

"The collected orders issue No 13, May 1986, contained a 'Letter of

Instructions for Compiling a Unified Timetable of Tuition and Extracurricular

Work with Pupils in General Education Schools' isused by the RSFSR Ministry of

Education for practical use in school work. According to this letter, class

teachers must compile an 'Individual Assignments Record» for each pupil in

their class. After this, having compiled 40-45 such records (depending on the

number of pupils in the class), the class teacher must compile a 'Unified

Assignments Records for /Pupils of the Whole Class/." On the basis of the

/records/ collected from all classes, the organizer of extracurricular

activities must compile a reference record of /each school pupil's

assignments./ To put it simply, it could not have been worse! When a school

has 800-900 pupils, the reference 'record' will require 6-7 sheets of Whatman

paper. And what about schools with 1,500-2,000 pupils?... So much for ^

savings in paper, let alone any moral damage caused by such 'Sisyphean labor.

33
"And how many 'letters of instructions' like this descend on our schools! How

much paper is wasted to no purpose, how many useless reports are compiled, how

many study and 'creative' plans are drawn up!"

It must be admitted that both the Komsomol Central Committee and other

Komsomol committees are authors or co-authors of numerous instructions and

directives, of countless "long-play" actions and measures. Just before the

congress the Central Committee Bureau adopted a resolution on regularizing

measures involving pupils in schools and secondary vocational and technical

schools, granting Komsomol and young pioneer organizations independence in the

selection of forms and means of their activity.

But a unilateral "moratorium" on form determination from "above" is not

enough. This is why we are insistently asking the ministries, departments,

and organizations concerned to follow our example.

/Teachers are our main allies, and it is incumbent upon the Komsomol to uphold

their right to quest, to save their time, and to support their efforts aimed

at developing school pupils' initiative and self-r-motivation,/

/Modern education is impossible without the development of science and

reproduction of scientific cadres. This demands that talented young people,

the natural successor of scientific generations, be broadly involved in

scientific activity./

Unfortunately, this process was violated during the last few years. The

problem of aging scientific cadres emerged. They have an average age of

approaching 50. The position and role of young people in scientific

institutions and in science as a whole are declining. In the last 4 years the

number of Komsomol members among scientific associates, VUZ lecturers, and

postgraduate students fell by almost 23,000. The proportion of young people

among senior scientific associates today is lower than ever before. There are

virtually no young people among section, sector, or laboratory chiefs.

Competition in specialized technical, physics, and mathematical fields is

declining, and the ranks of postgraduate students are short of outstanding

talent. About 15-20 percent of postgraudate students defend their

dissertations on schedule. But even these alarming figures do not reflect the

entire depth of the problems concealed here.

Under modern conditions, a loss of responsibility to science essentially means

a loss of responsibility to society. The year that has just passed clearly

showed the damage that can be inflicted on the country by the most complex

equipment when it is entrusted to negligent and incompetent people. But there

is also a different kind of irresponsibility. It occurs when some specialist

indifferently asserts that our country lags in terms of some important

indicator of scientific and technical progress. It occurs when a young

scientist participates in the development of dubious projects which are

actively condemned by the public.

34
To judge by everything, the ideology and mentality of stagnation have even

penetrated deep inside a dynamic sphere like science. A technocratic type of

young scientist has developed whose thinking is on such a "global" scale that

his circle of interests often excludes terms like honesty, daring, morals, and

patriotism.

/The problems of training scientific replacements are very acute, and radical

measures are needed to solve them./

We know that the USSR Academy of Sciences Presidium is making efforts to

overcome the stagnation in scientific cadres, and we sincerely welcome these

efforts. There will be movement along the entire chain, which will enable

talented young people to get into real science.

We recently agreed with the leadership of the Academy of Sciences on specific

organizational and economic measures aimed at creating conditions for the

professional and creative growth of young scientists and the objective

assessment of their labor. We think that joint coordinated steps in this

direction will help to enhance young people's contribution to science.

The Komsomol shares with schools, VUZ's, and academy science responsibility

for educating the new individual and shaping the new man. /On the threshold

of the new millennium the readiness of young people to continuously master

modern knowledge and the ability to utilize it are one of the most important

conditions for society's political and economic viability. Today there is a

topical and impassioned sound to Lenin's appeal to learn./

d) To Participate Actively in the Implementation of the Party's Social Policy

Comrades!

The Komsomol can and must participate eagerly and actively in the

implementation of the party's social policy as elaborated by the 27th CPSU

Congress. This is a new and almost untouched sector of work for us.

/Exceptionally great importance for the education of young people attaches to

overcoming the leftover principle in appropriating funds for social needs.

/For rather a long time the Komsomol Central Committee and Komsomol committees

held a position of noninterference./

While reproaching—not without reason—young men and women for a consumerist

attitude to life, we shut our eyes to the consumerist attitude toward young

people's enthusiasm.

For example, school pupils work two and three shifts on most ail-Union

Komsomol shock labor construction sites, while thousands of young mothers do

not work through the lack of children's preschool institutions. The

availability of social, cultural, and consumer services facilities in new

economic regions that are being opened up is considerably below the all-union

35
average. This situation has developed because the USSR Gosplan and the

ministries, when planning the construction of industrial projects, left

housing and social, cultural, and consumer services facilities "for later."

The social infrastructure developed without taking into account the influx of

young people, the growing number of young families, and the rising birth rate.

This is how Valeriy Peshkov describes the "concern" for young people's daily

life at the Berezovka No 1 GRES shock labor construction site in Krasnoyarsk

Kray: "The GRES and the city itself have been under construction for over 10

years, but living conditions here are still unsatisfactory. The temperature

in young people's hostels rarely rises above 5-6 degrees in winter, and the

walls are covered by frost like a refrigerator's freezer compartment. People

often have to sleep in their felt boots, padded jackets, and hats. The

streets are not properly laid and neglected. Food in the dining rooms is,

first, expensive and, second, very bad."

Production giants with a dwarf-like social base have been erected in Siberia

and the Far East. Even though this approach is condemned today, the force of

inertia is still great.

Construction work started in 1986 on a new city on the Amur River in

Khabarovsk Kray. Following a Komsomol appeal, a 700-strong all-Union

detachment was sent there. The construction project is new, but the attitude

toward young people is the same as ever.

The city's development is taking place without a master plan, and rto account

has been taken of the effect of future production units on the highly

vulnerable local environment. The Komsomol Central Committee has requested

the USSR Council of Ministers to show greater interest in the fate of this

young city. But it is impossible to adopt special resolutions on all young

cities. What is needed is a new and modern approach to questions of

comprehensive planning, to the planning and construction of these cities.

There is no other way to avoid educational defects resulting from unconsidered

economic activity.

This is also what happened On the Baykal-amur Main Railroad. For the majority

of construction workers the "temporary" lack of facilities has already

stretched over more than 10 years. There is an acute shortage of housing,

kindergartens and creches, and projects for cultural and consumer services

purposes.

The Komsomol Central Committee feels that it bears direct guilt to the

volunteers who went off to join in the construction of the Baykal-amur Main

Railroad on Komsomol travel passes. The Baykal-amur Main Railroad is the key

to regions which we will be populating in the years to come. It is a matter

of honor for the Lenin Komsomol to finalize its sponsorship of the

construction and development of this project.

/Komsomol officials and the aktiv must learn to understand the economics and

purpose of the structure of social consumption funds./ It is necessary to

36
learn to influence the compilation of plans for socioeconomic development and

to aim for more active assistance by society for the categories of young

people and young families most in need of such assistance.

/Housing is the most acute social problem for young people./ It takes an

average of 10-15 years for a young family to acquire an apartment, and the

results of labor have virtually no effect on the improvement of housing

conditions.

There is no room for illusions here. It is impossible to solve this problem

only for young people, without taking other categories of working people into

account. This is a problem of the whole state and the whole people, and it

must be solved by society as a whole.

/It is possible to accelerate its' solution for some young people who have the

greatest need and have distinguished themselves in labor. A real opportunity

to achieve this is offered by young people's housing complexes./

The principle applied in them—providing housing in accordance with each

person's personal labor contribution—is a socialist principle. It is liked

by the majority of young working people.

Thousands of young families live in young people's housing complexes, and

tomorrow there will be 10 times as many. The ministries are allocating

considerable funds for their construction. Is it right, however, to build

young people's housing complexes only in accordance with set plans? In our

view, this approach is outdated. It is possible to achieve a considerable

increase in the commissioning of housing and social, cultural, and consumer

service projects with the help of young people's initiative merely by building

young people's complexes over and above the existing targets. The most

realistic way to achieve this goal is to help bring enterprises in the

construction industry up to their planned capacity. A new stage in this work

could begin by creating, on the basis of young people's housing complex

collectives, independent economically accountable young people's construction

organizations, as is happening now in Leningrad and Nakhodka and is planned

for Moscow, Riga, and other cities. The USSR Gosstroy backed the Komsomol

Central Committee's suggestion about the creation of young people's construction organizations to build young people's housing complexes. We are

convinced that, given the acute shortage of cadres, such construction

organizations with a rotating complement of workers, who are vitally

interested in both the pace and the quality of work, can make a major

contribution to the solution of the country's housing problem.

/Young people's housing complexes do not provide only housing. They are a new

form of socialist communal life, which develops relations of friendship,

comradeship, and mutual assistance./ This is furthered to a considerable

extent by the fact that the best young people's housing complexes have their

own solid material base of social, cultural, and consumer service facilities,

a base which, incidentally, has been built by the young people themselves.

37
It is the task of Komsomol committees to prevent the bureaueratization of live

work and to prevent any exploitation of this most acute problem and the

placing of young people in opposition to the elder generation.

/There are at present more than 10 million people living in hostels./ By no

means all of them have created Conditions for study and leisure. Often they

are simply in short supply. A large number of hostels are sited in unadapted

buildings that have not been repaired for a long time. Some three-fourths of

hostels have no snack bars or dining rooms, and about half have not been

supplied with furniture and fittings according to norms.

/The role of each Komsomol organization in this regard must be to aim for the

allocation of the necessary funds, to create satisfactory daily life and

housing conditions, to participate in the selection and training of educators,

to boost the prestige of self-management organs, and, if it becomes necessary,

to take in its own hands the imposition of order in every hostel./

The problems of small family accommodation is particularly acute. Only 15

percent of the need for such accommodation has been satisfied. It is young

families that suffer the most from this. Quoting all sorts of circulars and

prohibitions, zealous administrators—frequently with the tacit agreement of

Komsomol committees—simply evict newly married Couples and refuse to issue

them with residence permits. Meanwhile in Yerevan, for example, some hostels

have only a 40-50 percent rate of occupancy. Despite this, thousands of

families squeeze in private accommodation and pay considerable sums for it.

In many places it is possible right now to resolve the question of temporary

housing for young families in hostels, boost the construction of family

hostels, and improve their material facilities. This question was examined in

1985 at a session of the Commission for Holding International Youth Year in

the USSR. In accordance with its recommendations, a draft resolution on

hostels was elaborated and submitted to the USSR Council of Ministers, but 18

months have already passed and the document has simply not been adopted.

Meanwhile the situation in many hostels is deteriorating. In our view, the

problem of hostels demands a particularly keen examination and corresponding

decision by the government.

/Young people feel particularly acutely the substantial social, cultural, and

consumer service differences existing between city and countryside./

The road network and consumer service and trade facilities are extremely

underdeveloped in the countryside. Cities are several times superior to the

countryside in terms of the availability of water supplies and central heating

in population centers. And even the conditions of labor are, let us be blunt,

different.

There will be a significant increase in the volume of funds channeled into the

social modernization of the countryside in the current 5-year plan period. It

is important for us to find areas for the application of young people's energy

in making use of them.

38
Many Komsomol committees have become organizers of rural young people s

housing construction cooperatives with municipal services up to urban

standards. Plans for rural young people's housing complexes have been

elaborated in Kirov, Omsk, Irkutsk, and Sverdlovsk Oblasts.

/Rural construction workers are faced with a difficult task—completing the

construction in the current 5-year plan period of clubs and houses of culture

in all population centers and rayon centers./

The funds allocated for this purpose are double the amount in the previous

5-year plan period. These funds were not fully utilized last year. Komsomol

organizations must also participate in the construction of rural clubs and in

determining the content of their work regardless of their departmental

subordination.

/It is simply obligatory for Komsomol committees to finally tackle the

strengthening of young families./ There are many problems here: Housing and

consumer services conditions, material and other daily life difficulties,

growing numbers of divorces. This is not the first time we have mentioned

them.

The problem of young families was singled out in particular at the 27th CPSU

Congress. It must be frankly said that the Komsomol Central Committee and

other Komsomol committees simply did not get down seriously to this important

work and failed to give attention to inculcating in young men and women a

sense of responsibility for the creation and safeguarding of families and the

education of children.

We believe that the problem of young families is a state problem demanding

immediate and most serious measures.

/We are particularly alarmed about children raised in children's homes and

boarding schools./ Children's homes are becoming "warmer" and children's

living conditions are improving. The Komsomol has played its part in this.

Many of them, however, still show little human interest in the fate Of

children deprived of parental love. There are serious shortcomings in the

work done in this sphere by Komsomol committees in Turkmenia and in

Arkhangelsk, Irkutsk, and Novosibirsk Oblasts. The fact that the secretaries

of the Perm Komsomol Obkom and the oblast's Komsomol gorkoms and raykoms have

not visited the oblast's children's homes and boarding schools for years is

attributable only to official callousness and bureaucratic attitudes. And

these homes and schools frequently suffer from cold and damp conditions in

their premises, bad food, and acute shortage of books and games. Even the

funds and books allocated by the Komsomol Central Committee do not always

reach them.

The Komsomol Central Committee is participating in a social experiment

launched in Kirov Oblast—the establishment of a children's home under the

Lepse Plant. The labor collective has taken over the role of the family,

guaranteeing jobs and housing for the home's residents in the future. We

39
believe that this example could be followed by many other labor collectives

and their Komsomol organizations.

It has somehow happened, comrades, that /the greatest attention is paid to two

categories of Komsomol members—adolescents and young people "on their way

out" of the Komsomol./

The situation must be corrected. On the whole, more attention must be devoted

to the most important and crucial times in each young person's life. These

are graduation from school, coming of age, army service and the start of

independent labor activity, the creation of a family, and the birth of a

child. There is not and there cannot be any education, there cannot be any

Komsomol without attention to man.

/Important government decisions on young people's tourism were adopted by the

government during the period under review. Even so tourism in the country is

developing extremely slowly and with great difficulties./

There is enormous interest in tourist travel among young men and women, but

the opportunities are extremely limited. Today only one-tenth of the demand

for such services is met by the "Sputnik" youth camps. This is due to the

underdevelopment of "Sputnik's" own tourism base, the lack of attention

devoted to it by several union republic councils of ministers, and lack of

initiative on the part of many Komsomol committees and "Sputnik" offices.

Travel costs are frequently rather high for young people. Now, under the new

conditions of economic management, it is important to prevent them getting

even higher. If need be, trade union and economic organs should be asked to

help. We think that they will not refuse to help such a cause.

/There is a pressing need to change the procedures in the planning,

production, and marketing of commodities in demand by young people./ Such

products represent 6-7 percent in the production program of the USSR Ministry

of Light Industry and are due to reach only 15-20 percent by 1990. Light

industry and trade still operate on the notion of the "average buyer," meaning

ageless people with identical tastes. A considerable number of young people

satisfy their consumer demands by buying imported goods and often making use

of the services of speculators.

The country has some interesting experience in solving these problems. The

slogan "Goods for the young—from the hands of the young" is already a reality

for many enterprises and Komsomol committees in Belorussian, Latvia, and the

Ukraine. There is a need to pool the efforts of all interested ministries and

departments and to create specialized industrial-trading firms and commercial

associations.

The Komsomol Central Committee submitted these proposals to the government 18

months ago, but the situation has remained virtually unchanged since then.

Let us recall the rise of singer-songwriters and the lack of guitars for sale,

of numerous vocal and instrumental groups and the poor quality of equipment

40
and instruments, of hang gliding and the primitive methods used to manufacture

the equipment, of the "skateboard" passion and the absence of wheeled boards.

Now we have a new problem—video equipment. In order to counteract backroom

video clubs with their—mildly speaking—dubious repertory, we need primarily

top-quality and inexpensive Soviet-made equipment and absorbing and meaningful

video programs. Their production is being organized. But while they are

still in short supply, preferential rights to acquire them must be given to

Komsomol organizations, young clubs, cafes, and hostels.

The CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers adopted a

resolution on the organization of the production of video equipment. It is

our immediate task to ensure most direct and eager participation in its

implementation. This applies primarily to Komsomol organizations at base

enterprises—the video equipment manufacturers in Voronezh, Novgorod, and

Leningrad. A competition could even be organized among young people's

creative collectives for the best model of a Soviet-made videotape recorder.

/Unfortunately, the country's toy design and production is lagging./ Children

and adolescents today need not only plush mice and inflatable rabbits, but

also modern toys—electronic toys which develop cognitive activeness.

It is here that young specialists, students, and Komsomol organizations in the

appropriate enterprises must apply their imagination and inventiveness. And

the Komsomol can display its initiative here—it could announce an all-Union

competition and organize an exhibition of the best prototypes of educational

games and toys.

Comrades!

/Young people themselves must eject from our common home such disgusting

phenomena as drunkenness, drug addiction, and hooliganism./

You all know the public response to many central and local newspapers*

coverage of these subjects. Much of what people previously preferred to keep

silent about has come to light in the atmosphere of publicity. We have raised

these problems with sufficient urgency, now they must be solved, now we must

act.

The steps taken by the party and the government to combat drunkenness and

alcoholism and cut back the production and sale of alcoholic beverages are

perhaps the most resolute educational measure in the last few decades. This

is a bold and exceptionally important step.

/All Komsomol organizations must consider it one of their most important jobs

to help bring to an end the struggle against drunkenness and moonshining.

Drunkenness is incompatible with Komsomol membership.

/Drug addiction poses a serious threat to the physical and moral health of the

growing generation./ We cannot take consolation from the fact that there are

millions of drug addicts in the West and only thousands of them in our

41
country. This social evil must not spread in our country. Apart from

anything else, drug addiction, like drunkenness, is a breeding ground for

crime. According to the results of social studies, two-thirds of the drug

addicts polled in Georiga, for example, spend between R100 and R3,000 a month

on the poisonous venom. Of course, such sums can be obtained only by criminal

means. According to experts' estimates, underground drug dealers in this

republic earn tens of millions of rubles each year. But the highest price for

this is paid by our society. Unless this phenomenon is countered by the force

of the law, by public opinion, by medical assistance for those in need of

treatment, and by Komsomol organizations' work, the infection will spread.

The Komsomol Central Committee understands how great is the danger of

drunkenness and drug addiction for young people, and intends to act by pooling

the efforts of all organizations. It is necessary to conduct persistent and

skilled preventive work among young people in every organization and to ensure

that children are engaged in interesting work.

/Young people react with anguish to the fact that in our society there are

people who cynically trample the norms of socialist morals and Soviet laws./

You have learned from the press, comrades, that some young people have decided

to struggle against them in groups or individually. We can only welcome this

pure and noble initiative, but we cannot approve the methods of struggle which

are frequently applied in such instances.

It is incumbent upon the congress to call on all young people, who are not

indifferent to the fact that swindlers and scoundrels rub shoulders with

honest working people, to unite in operational Komsomol detachments and groups

to combat embezzlement of socialist property, drunkenness, drug addiction, and

hooliganism so that, together with the militia, they may strike a real blow

against these ugly phenomena.

/There is another major and exceptionally interesting and complex task which

we must resolve—to affirm a healthy way of life among young people. Sport is

our main ally in this work./

Adolescents and young people are eager to engage in physical culture and

sports. But much formalism has built up in this lively and interesting work.

Komsomol committees must share the blame for the fact that aValanches of

figures and events in many places have simply swamped live mass sports work.

Even in today's popular running clubs and fitness groups the majority of

members are middle-aged and elderly people. Young people are to be

encountered much less frequently along tourist tracks. The "Ready for Labor

and Defense" badge can be acquired simply by participating in a single sports

festival, while joining the millions-strong army of physical culture

enthusiasts is just a matter of getting a 30-kopek membership stamp.

The last few years have seen a widening of the gap between top competitive

sports and mass and generally accessible sports and physical culture. While

42
showing the respect due to our outstanding sportsmen, we must effect a

turnabout toward mass sports and physical culture.

The problem of sports facilities has already become the talk of the town.

They are in short supply, and those that do exist are often deserted.

Yes, we need new sports palaces, swimming pools, and stadiums. These

construction projects are exactly suitable for the Komsomol. But order must

be imposed in all existing fields and halls, they must be supplied with

trainers, and their intensive utilization must be organized. All this often

requires not so much material resources as enthusiasm, inventiveness, and a

kind of organizational chance-taking, the demolition of departmental barriers.

There is abundant proof of the resourcefulness of physical culture enthusiasts

and Komsomol organizations. One example is the mass "Motor City Winter Ball

Game" tournament in the city of Tolyatti.

Largely thanks to the efforts of Komsomol committees, recognition has been

given to the "Hopeful Starts" children's sports games in Omsk and Tomsk

Oblasts, which are mass summer and winter rural games; to basketball in the

Baltic republics; and to mass mini-soccer tournaments in Georgia.

Competitions for the Komsomol Central Committee's "Leather Ball," "Golden

Puck," and "White Rook" club prizes are popular virtually everywhere.

Not announcing more and more monthly events, but looking for people who are

dedicated and capable of arousing young people's interest in sports, and

helping them morally and materially—this is the only possible way to promote

mass sports and, at the same time, cultivate a healthy way of life. The

ail-Union students' games for the prize of the "Molodaya Gvardlya" Komsomol

Central Committee Publishing House, which will be inaugurated this year, are

called upon to fully serve this purpose.

In our view, the practical organization of mass physical culture work in young

people's and adolescents' places of residence and leisure could become the

main sphere for the application of the Komsomol's energy in the next 5 years.

We believe that housing management committees must become the centers for the

organization of this work, by creating under them a widespread network of most

diverse physical culture and sports sections, study circles, children's,

adolescents* and young people's clubs, and amateur associations, including on

the principles of self-financing.

Another important area will involve establishing new Komsomol Central

Committee clubs modeled on existing ones, expanding the age limits and

structure of their membership, and involving in them "difficult" adolescents

and young people of predraft and draft age.

The successes of outstanding Soviet sportsmen Sergey Bubko, Vyacheslav

Yekimov, Anatoliy Karpov, Garri Kasparov, Yuriy Korolev, Arvidas Sabonis, Maya

43
Chiburdanidze, and Robert Emmiyan are a wonderful example of emulation, for

the cultivation of will power, industry, and courage.

The civic and moral stance of masters of sports are highly important in this

respect. Komsomol committees should not reduce their role in work with them

to just organizing festive celebrations. Komsomol organizations are called

upon to show concern to ensure that each young person, while scaling the

heights of strength and agility, affirms the best traditions of Soviet sports

and, by means of his personal example, propagandizes the healthy way of life

in constant contacts with young people.

The entire complex of young people's social problems, by no means all of which

have been mentioned here, must remain within Komsomol committees' field of

vision. Help in the solution of many of them can be provided by giving

Komsomol members themselves an opportunity to display initiative. This will

be a contribution toward the implementation of the party's social policy, as

well as a most important prerequisite for enhancing the Komsomol's prestige.

III. To Form a Marxist-Leninist World Philosophy, to Enrich Young People's

Spiritual World

Comrades!

/The time of revolutionary renewal has confirmed Lenin's well known idea: In

terms of people's political development, a year in such periods is equal to

decades./

Under the influence of the 27th CPSU Congress ideas, under the influence of

the changes occuring in Soviet society, new impressions about socialism and

its potential are taking shape in young men's and women's consciousness.

Young people are becoming more firmly convinced that our ideals and principles

of social justice are victorious both in theory and in life.

This was the vein in which the precongress discussion took place. Heated

debates were conducted at Komsomol conferences at Moscow University, the Volga

Motor Vehicles Plant, the Likhachev Motor Vehicle Plants, and many other

organizations. Our task is to support young people's desire to investigate

today's complex and contradictory world and the developments occurring in the

country's economic and sociopolitical life and to help them do so from

positions of Marxism-^Leninism, the positions of the 27th CPSU Congress.

The sharp arguments about the Statute, the Komsomol's goals and tasks, and

young people's place in restructuring which flared in many organizations and

in the press not only do not give grounds for doubting the world philosophical

positions of those participating in them but, on the contrary, convincingly

prove that in young people's minds there is no alternative to socialism.

/The time of renewal has generated among many people a need to turn afresh to

Lenin and to Lenin's teaching./

44
Young people lean toward living and creative Marxism-Leninism and do not

tolerate dogmatism, scholasticism, and political phrasemongering. The answer

to many questions about the place of young people and the Komsomol are still

to be found in Lenin's speech at the Third Russian Communist Youth Union

Congress and its central idea that the Young Union's main task is to learn

communism.

/The precongress discussion became a test of the effectiveness of our

political education work. And let us say frankly: Many of its conventional

forms and methods failed to pass this test./

Komsomol and ideological workers often prove totally unprepared to show

respect for a different opinion or a different position. This is manifested

primarily in people's desire to authoritatively call others to order, to

impose their will and their taste, and to rigorously regulate the framework of

what is allowed.

Each time, young people inevitably reinterpret the experience of preceding

generations. This objective process cannot be replaced, let alone abolished.

V. I. Lenin said that young people "...are forced by necessity to approach

socialism /differently,/ not in /the same/ way, /not in the same form, and not

in the same/ situation as their fathers." Not to fear young people's

criticism or possible mistakes, to place more trust in them without

compromising our principles—this means to help the constant renewal of

thinking and to cultivate interest in and creative approach toward

revolutionary theory.

Let anyone who is in the wrong be convinced by sound arguments that his

position has not been accepted. This can only make young people's communist

beliefs stronger and deeper.

/The prohibitions still applied by many young people's educators and Komsomol

committees can achieve nothing but a transformation of healthy criticism into

fault-finding, of firm beliefs into double standards in life./

"I lead a double life," one of the letters received by KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA

begins. "While at school I am a model girl and member of the Komsomol

committee. After school I am a currency speculator. My friends know this and

consider it normal. I myself have gotten used to it. The reason I am writing

to you is that I have everything except happiness."

Such "split personalities" are the result of formalism in ideological

education work, of lack of interest in specific young people and their way of

thinking and way of life.

During the period under review many Komsomol committees, while meticulously

compiling reports on political instruction and lecture propaganda, on the allUnion march and "Ready for Labor and Defense" competitions, essentially failed

to receive the essence of the ideological education process. The result of

isolation from life, scholasticism, and repetition of truisms is that the

45
forms of this work no longer attract but repulse young people. The Komsomol

Central Committee failed to make a prompt and principled assessment of these

trends, and often limited itself to halfhearted measures.

Today it is clear that we all must learn afresh, abandon many stereotypes in

the Komsomol's ideological work, and be bolder in seeking modern and effective

forms and methods for the class, ideological, and moral tempering of young

people.

We must be guided in practice by the well known stipulation that the shaping

of world outlook is impossible without a person's active involvement in the

creative transformation of reality. Komsomol committees will have to

consistently create and develop organizational, political, legal, and economic

conditions for the manifestation of young people's activeness and for making

it constructive.

It is necessary to overcome monotony in ideological education work with young

people both in content and in form. The social, professional, age group, and

national detachments of our union are diverse. To take into consideration the

entire variety of abilities, needs, and collective and individual interests is

an important condition for improving the Komsomol's activity in shaping young

people's world philosophy.

We must take a fresh look at the role of individual work in political,

ideological, and moral education. The main point in this work is to perceive

young people in everything, to be able to listen to them and understand them,

to help them reveal their potential, and to develop and consolidate the best

human qualities.

We must consign to the archives the method of forcing people to attend

Komsomol events, get away from didacticism, and establish an open dialogue in

contacts with young people.

The work on the restructuring of ideological work is only just beginning. It

demands much initiative and creativity.

Today, when a struggle is under way between the old and the new, when opinions

and positions are in conflict, it is necessary to study and be familiar with

public opinion, the mood of different categories of young people, and their

attitude toward the processes which are occurring. And not only to be

familiar with it, but also to actively shape it. Experience in such work has

been accumulated by Komsomol organizations in Leningrad, Georgia, Lithuania,

and Estonia. But this experience has not yet been widely disseminated.

Inadequate use is made even of the existing potential of feedback. Young

people's letters and statements and their questions to propagandists,

lecturers, and speakers are an accurate barometer of public opinion and a

valuable source of suggestions and proposals, and it must be used more

efficiently.

46
/Profound and substantial restructuring of political education lies ahead,/

and the Komsomol Central Committee and Komsomol committees have embarked on

it. Its main purpose is to substantially renew the content of instruction,

combine political knowledge with the life of specific collectives and specific

people, and encourage self-education. We can no longer tolerate the fact that

young men and women know more about events occurring at the other end of the

world than about affairs in their own rayon or city.

The Komsomol Central Committee has supported the practice of Komsomol

organizations in Ulyanovsk, Kuybyshev, and Kiev of setting up sociopolitical

clubs. Such clubs also exist in other cities. Both global problems and

questions pertaining to their collective's life are discussed there on young

people's initiative. Debates, business games, and meetings with leaders of

production and study collectives help the young men and women understand

their role in acceleration and study the principles and machinery of socialist

democracy and self-management. Television linkups with foreign countries have

resurrected the political polemics [politboy] and political discussions

[politdiskusiya]—in other words, forms of active cognitive activity—which

were very popular among young people in the past.

But there is still a fear of such discussions, excessive caution, and

inability to conduct them. Komsomol committees must always support young

people's inherent leaning toward arguments, independent quest for truth, and

political action.

It is particularly necessary to see to it that young people always have with

them tactful and authoritative adviser and interlocutor—teacher, Komsomol

leader, lecturer, or propaganda worker—and every leader and every Communist

must live up to this requirement. And the most important point is that this

person must set an example of serving the ideals which he promotes among young

people. And of course, we must be bolder in assigning young people, those

whom young people themselves have promoted and whose words they trust, to

propaganda work. Propaganda workers must help /in the qualitative renewal of

the technical base of mass political work./ The Komsomol Central Committee

plans to establish a central video lecture library and develop a network of

such libraries at local level.

/Man must always be in the center of the Komsomol's work, and he must not be

allowed to face the problems of his life in isolation from people./

Corrosion of consciousness occurs gradually, unnoticeably, and, as a rule,

whenever a young man or woman is deprived of the sympathy of the comrades in

the Youth Union. This is when sympathy for their fate is often shown by

clergymen or members of various sectors who lead them astray.

This is one of the reasons behind the tenacity of medieval customs and

traditions in a number of regions in the country. How can a modern young

person perceive instances of self-immolation by young girls, "abduction" of

brides, and fabulous sums of "bride-money" as anything but savagery.

47
Komsomol committees must return to an assertive stance in the confrontation

with the religious world outlook. Today it is more important than ever before

to overcome narrow-minded neutral attitudes toward religion, snobbish ;

affectation for mysticism, and indifference to atheism, the spiritual asset of

socialism.

The Komsomol aktiv's work must be based on competence in questions of religion

and atheism, knowledge of the specific nature of young people's mentality,

systematic atheistic work organically combined with young people's vital

interests, and respect for their dignity. Only a highly moral and spiritual

rich person can become a genuine atheist.

/The Komsomol was born as a union of internationalists and has remained one

throughout its history./ Frankly speaking, however, in the last few years we

have reduced our patriotic and international work to the assertion of

successes in nationalities policy and to slogans and ostentatious events.

There are numerous factors in real life which breed national conceit and

narrow-mindedness. There have been sharp manifestations of this in Alma-ata

and Yakutia, Frunze, the North Caucasus, and several other regions.

Internationalism cannot be inculcated by words alone. What is needed is

active participation by Komsomol committees in boosting the numbers of young

workers from the indigenous nationality in the national economy of a number of

union and autonomous republics and in forming multinational production and

study collectives and young people's hostels. It is necessary to step up the

struggle against all phenomena of nationalism, chauvinism, parochialism, and

national narrow-mindedness.

/Restructuring can be implemented only by people who sincerely and ardently

love their multinational socialist motherland./ It is exceptionally important

at this time to cultivate among young people a sense of personal

responsibility for the progress and outcome of restructuring and to devote

greater attention to the patriotic aspects of young men's and women's labor

and social activity.

The history of the Land of the Soviets, the Communist Party, and the Lenin

Komsomol is not just a matter of the glorious past /but also a part of living

current affairs. Komsomol committees must display a very solicitous attitude

toward everything that determines young people's historical awareness./

It is impermissible for young men and women to be ignorant of the history of

their native city, settlement, village, or street, for veteran neighbors to be

forgotten, or for historical or cultural monuments to be destroyed.

The Komsomol Central Committee supports the young people from Arkhangelsk,

Yerevan, Moscow, Penza, Tomsk, and Leningrad who have undertaken the

restoration of cultural monuments and the architectural and historical

restoration of their cities.

48
In the course of the preparations for the congress proposals were received to

build in different regions of the country cities and settlements of the future

like, for example, Pereslavl-zalesskiy, Yelabuga, and many others. These

proposals include interesting projects deserving attention.

But our foremost task must be to ensure that, with young people's active

participation, the features of the future and outlines of projects that are

modern in terms of amenities and architecture become increasingly actively a

part of the appearance of our cities and villages today.

It is necessary to develop the experience of setting up young people^s

architectural planning workshops on principles of economic accountability,

Komsomol\restoration and construction teams operating on the method of

people's construction sites, and student detachments.

In this ntajor and multifaceted work the Komsomol has an urgent need for

assistance and support from writers, scientists, and masters of the arts. We

still produce extremely few vivid and talented books and movies on our

fatherland's history. Young viewers ardently welcomed the television series

on M. V. Lomonosov, and it is a pity that works in such a patriotic tone are

still rare.

Today, more than ever before, /our ideological adversaries try to play on

difficult periods in our history and hope that Soviet young people will lose

their revolutionary' spirit, optimism, and readiness for struggle./ They seek

an imaginary opposition in the young people's ranks. They want to identify

the struggle between the new and the old with a conflict between generations.

Our young people are highly interested in their country's history. They look

at the past years with pride and respect, and at some periods even with pain.

We believe in the path we have chosen—this is the main factor uniting all

generations of Soviet people. We share a common responsibility for the fate

of our motherland, the fate of the great cause initiated in October 1917.

What organic links exist between the October Revolution's ideas and today's

transformations of all aspects of Soviet society's life, which are

revolutionary by nature! Awareness of this generates in young people a desire

to strengthen the country's might through their labor and participation.

/There must be no slackening of attention to the training of our motherland's

defenders—a most important sector of work with young people./

During the ^ast 5 years 75 servicemen were awarded the title Hero of the

Soviet Union for courage and heroism in performing their international duty.

Among them are our congress delegates Ruslan Aushev and Viktor Kapshuk, Sergey

Filipchenkov, Igor Chmuro, Vladimir Kucherenko.

Internationalist servicemen Nikolay Chepik and Valeriy Arsenov and herofiremen Vladimir Pravik and Viktor Kibenok, our Komsomol comrades who

performed the ultimate duty to the motherland, will remain forever in the

Komsomol's ranks.

49
The volitional and moral qualities and great skills of soldiers and officers

are needed today in order to ensure that no one is tempted to solve political

questions from positions of strength. Military patriotic work must be

developed and its content and forms must be brought into line with the new

realities and up to the modern standards of the technical equipment supplied

to the Army and Navy.

Komsomol committees must help each future servicemen to train well, both

morally and physically, for service.

In the last few years military patriotic work gradually lost its questing

nature and became ostentatious and frequently simply boring.

It is necessary to give scope to initiative from "below" also in this work,

while retaining the viable forms accumulated within the framework of the allUnion march, military sports games, young men's military patriotic schools and

clubs, and Komsomol and Young Pioneer honor guards at the Flame of Eternal

Glory. In this work, following the example of Belorussia, Altay and Stavropol

Krays, and the cities of Novorossiysk and Engels, it is necessary to step up

collaboration with servicemen's units, DOSAAF organizations, trade unions,

culture, and public and vocational and technical education.

/Veterans are of great help to the Komsomol in military patriotic education.

The Komsomol welcomes the establishment of the All-Union Organization of War

and Labor Veterans, and perceives the main task of joint work as being to

sacredly cherish the unbreakable thread of continuity of revolutionary ideals

linking all generations of Soviet people./

We address words of sincere and profound gratitude to party, war, and labor

veterans and Komsomol veterans for their great work on educating the growing

generation. We wish you, dear comrades, good health, good spirits, and energy

in anticipation of your assistance in restructuring the Komsomol's activity!

Komsomol organizations in the Armed Forces must aim for the honest performance

of the serviceman's duty by every Komsomol member, readiness to accomplish

feats and, if need be, readiness for self-sacrifice, and must assist

commanders, political workers, and party organizations in the militarytechnical, political, and moral training of the fatherland's soldiers.

Particular alarm is caused by instances of nonregulation mutual relations

between servicemen. This disgraceful phenomenon in the Army and the Navy must

be countered by energetic work to establish in each subunit an atmosphere of

servicemen's comradeship and brotherhood and respect for a person's honor and

dignity.

Great importance attaches to the involvement of servicemen from the reserve in

military patriotic work among adolescents. They have a natural desire to

maintain the combat brotherhood after discharge from the ranks of the Armed

Forces, set up their own clubs and associations, and serve the common and

50
necessary cause. They are entitled to count on all-around support from

Komsomol committees in this work.

There is a pressing need to fundamentally eradicate formalism from the Lenin

Komsomol's sponsorship of the Navy, Air Force, and Border Guards and give it a

specific content.

Comrades!

/A new moral climate is being asserted in our society./ Young people see this

in the form of actual examples on a daily basis.

Over the past years we often forgot that genuine morals do not exist in

isolation from behavior, that behavior is indeed the sign of the presence of

absence of a moral stance.

Young people are increasingly actively joining the open struggle for the

interests of society, for our communist morals. Such people will never ask

why they need the Komsomol. They need the Komsomol to struggle for our

communist morals. Wars cannot be won single-handed.

/It is important for us to reveal the unity of the interests of the

individual, the collective, and society./ Under the new social conditions, in

an atmosphere when the principles of economic activity are changing, we cannot

allow any erosion of collectivism, comradeship, and mutual assistance, nor can

we allow individual groups to withdraw into the narrow world of strictly

material interests. It is necessary to overcome the trend of seeking culprits

only at ministerial level; to learn to speak the truth face to face with our

work colleague, Youth Union comrade, or immediate leader, to speak about such

alarming phenomena in young people's and adolescents' behavior as consumerism,

selfishness, foul language, and disrespect for women and their elders. Every

Komsomol member must actively counter this.

A feeling for the native land and responsibility for its future are indicators

of the civic maturity and morals of each and every one who lives and works in

it.

Under contemporary conditions, young people's education is impossible without

ecological knowledge, a solicitous attitude toward nature, and harmony with

it. Unfortunately, quite a few problems have built up in this respect. Many

active environmentalists and champions of this noble cause have failed to

obtain any support from Komsomol committees.

It is necessary to switch from bombastic slogans to actual work, making wide

use of existing experience. There are examples of such work: Chuvash young

people have played an active part in the restoration of forests in the last

few years; people are familiar with the initiatives of young people in

Voronezh, Tambov, and Smolensk Oblasts to preserve small rivers, in Bryansk

Oblast to struggle against ravine formation, in Donetsk Oblast to green

slagheaps, and others.

51
Komsomol committees must actively support the ecological movement enthusiasts

and help them unite. It is necessary to further develop the movement of

"green" and "blue" patrols, school forest areas, and student companies for

environmental protection.

We are all responsible for the Siberian taiga and Lak Baykal, for the lands of

Central Asia and the northern rivers, for the beloved native field and the

groves of our childhood. There is no room for indifference here. Young

people's ecological education must be based not on fear of the future but on

responsibility for it, on our sound attitude toward nature, on our moral

stance.

/The mass news media are a most powerful weapon in the Komsomol's hands in

the struggle for restructuring and for an active stance in life on the part of

young people./

The Komsomol has 3 publishing houses, about 250 young people's and children's

newspapers and journals, and active editorial offices for young people's and

children's radio and television programs. They reach an audience of tens of

millions of young people. KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA is the flagship of the youth

press. Its print run almost doubled in the period under review. Journalists

have done and are doing very much to resolutely cleanse the Komsomol of

everything that is alien to the Youth Union's nature and to affirm publicity

and democracy. We are convinced that they will continue to wage the struggle

for restructuring with unflagging passion and daring.

Young people's mass news media address a reading and viewing public that is

unique in receptiveness and size. It is therefore even more impermissible

when an urgent letter becomes the subject of verbose generalizations, or a

human misfortune the subject of sensationalist reporting. Komsomol

journalists are evidently still short of persistence, and at times even of

professionalism, in their quest for and coverage of advanced experience in

work with young people.

/More followup of new developments, more support for things which makes young

people's life truly meaningful and pure./

Comrades!

There is perhaps no other sphere than culture where the originality of young

people's interests is expressed so distinctly or causes such polarization of

opinions and such heated passions.

Many young men and women, joining in the fatherland's cultural traditions,

have persistently expanded their spiritual horizons. Their moral health,

civic awareness, and effective patriotism all strengthened.

/But in the last few years there developed an increasingly tangible

contradiction between, on the one hand, the growth of young people's

52
educational standards and knowledge and, on the other hand, manifestations of

lack of spirituality and consumerist moods./

Unfortunately we come increasingly often across young people who have narrowed

their window on the world down to the size of a fashionable phonograph disk.

The public perceives with alarm the growing consumption of cheap art

substitutes by young people and the loss of their cultural immunity. The

ideological adversary—at times even successfully—insinuates mass bourgeois

culture among young people. We can perceive a decline in the influence of the

classical heritage and folklore and noisy success for a number of cheap

hackwork products.

/It must be said bluntly that, during the period under review, the task of

shaping and satisfying young people's cultural demands was not given the

proper attention by Komsomol committees./ Their participation in cultural

building was mainly assessed in terms of gross indicators. Calculations were

based on the numbers of events and participants in amateur artistic

activities. Priority was often given to mass celebrations and concerts at

which the absolute majority of young people provided a passive audience. It

is hard to describe as keen the attitude of many Komsomol committees toward

the holding of the second All-Union Festival of Folk Art. It is no secret

that it has become accepted practice to take credit for all mass cultural work

among young people while shifting responsibility for shortcomings to trade

unions and cultural organs. And the result is that the Komsomol Central

Committee and Komsomol organizations often brought up the rear in the ranking

of young people's attractions or adopted a position of wait-and-see. And the

ultimate result was they did not always perform their function of protecting

young people's spiritual interests at both state and local level.

But we cannot accept the reproach leveled against us by those leading

officials, or rather cultural administrators, who seek in the Komsomol the

main and only culprit for the flaws in the younger generation's aesthetic and

moral education.

In our view, the solution of the problems of young people's cultural

development is obstructed by superficial assessments of these problems and the

widespread stereotypes rooted in public awareness.

In the first place, there is the wholesale underrating of the level of young

people's spiritual demands, the hackneyed view that their cultural needs are

primitive and one-sided. When the segment with undeveloped tastes is held out

as representative of all young people. When references to an imaginary large

audience allegedly demanding plain entertainment are used as the basis of the

repertory policy of movie distribution and television and the activity of

publishing houses, concert organizations, houses of culture, and—to be selfcritical—Komsomol committees.

A closer look also shows the gap separating reality from conventional ideas

about open paths to cultural treasures and the greatest spiritual riches.

53
Some two-thirds of young people point to constant difficulties in acquiring

works of fiction. Senior school pupils, students, and young workers have no

opportunity to do any work in the largest of our famous libraries.

The forms of museum work are also behind the times. Tremendous artistic and

historical riches remain, lifeless, in basements, excluded from spiritual

circulation.

At a reader's request, a newspaper printed a photograph of a ticket to the

Bolshoy Theater to show what it looks like. This jocular act contained a

large proportion of bitter truth. And how can you cultivate an attraction

for the theater among young audiences when, on average, a child in the country

goes to a children's show only once ever 5 years?

The thesis that genuine art needs no advertising proved to be convenient for

many people.

How can you speak of propagandizing classical music among Moscow's young

people when, for example, posters for the Conservatory's Great Hall are

handwritten in a single copy. Preparations for guest appearances by leading

masters with many local philharmonic orchestras are conducted at exactly the

same level.

There are also problems with declining movie theater audiences in many cities

in the country, not to mention rural areas or regions that are being opened

up.

Cultural services are becoming to a large extent a prestigious commodity to be

consumed by an elite. It is well known that students at Moscow VUZ's have

developed an entire system for collective acquisition of tickets to the best

theaters by organizing all-night lines. Whenever there is shortage, even the

attraction of something beautiful proves capable of giving rise to phenomena

like speculation and bribery.

To put it briefly, /the guarantees of young people's access to spiritual

riches, gained in the course of the building of socialism, are far from always

ensured by specific work by cultural institutions./ Nor are Komsomol

committees over-concerned about this fact.

/I would like to address the leading masters of literature and art from the

Komsomol congress rostrum: Spare neither energy nor time to take yet another

step in the direction of young people./ Just like Svyatoslav Rikhter did,

when he preferred to meet residents in 50 towns and settlements in Siberia

rather than play the best concert halls in the world. You must believe that

the reception given to him in the Tayshet House of Culture was as enthusiastic

as that at the "December Evenings" in the A. S. Pushkin Museum.

Incidentally, last February's Pushkin Evening dedicated to the great poet's

memory left an indelible impression on millions of young television viewers.

Surprising aspects of the familiar image came to light, and the depth of

54
thinking and height of feeling of an enormous personality who is still in his

people's ranks were disclosed. If Yegor Isayev, Boris Oleynik, Chingiz

Aytmatov, Irakliy Abashidze, Georgiy Sviridov, Kirill Lavrov, and other

figures from literature and art, who spoke so wonderfully on that occasion,

were to address young people more often and with equal passion and enthusiam,

how much richer their spiritual life would be!

The time that has passed since the CPSU Central Committee April (1985) Plenum

has proved that young people correctly perceive and appraise the complexity of

our culture's present and its contradictory history. Under these conditions,

we must get rid of the "barrier mentality" in work with young people, whose

effect was that various movies, paintings, or books were put away in special

foundations or storage facilities. Socialist democracy's inherent atmosphere

of trust is artistically more fruitful and ideologically healthier than the

atmosphere of prohibitions.

The delusion that ambiguous phenomena in cultural life can be tackled only by

administrative measures is already obvious today.

Amateur song clubs, which attracted audiences in thousands, fought for

survival for over 3 decades. While cultural organs, trade unions, and the

Komsomol held sessions and tried to determine their attitude toward them. The

First All-Union Festival proved that this mass movement had embraced young

people with an active civic stance and had created real artistic riches.

Many a lance has been broken over rock music. The latest fashions in idols,

styles, likes, and dislikes have been changing as if in a kaleidoscope. The

only things that have not changed are the scornful attitude of musical

criticism and the composers union toward these problems and the timid attitude

displayed toward them by cultural organs and the Komsomol. Is it surprising

that adolescents and young men and women at times cannot tell the difference

between forgery and original, between high standards of performance and

helpless cacophony? Young people's press media, television, and radio are not

giving young people enough help in discovering which values are genuine and

which new developments are fashionable but only of transitory value.

/The result is that some young people take as their guiding lights in life not

the masterpieces of our own and world art, but the standards of commercial

bourgeois products and crude commonplace popular songs. Of course, the

ensembles and groups that are popular among young people must not be ignored,

but there is no need to go to the other extreme—to reduce publicity to the

one-sided opening of "popular music dams" to the detriment of the comprehensive development of young people's aesthetic tastes./

We are talking about the need to mobilize socialism's vast spiritual resources

in the struggle for the young people.

It is well known that the party has condemned the leftover principle in

allocating funds for the needs of the cultural sphere.

55
Recently the CPSU Central Committee adopted several resolutions on th§

development of the material base of culture and oh the improvement of '

theatrical work and exhibition and concert work. There will be a significant

improvement in the conditions for creative unions' activity.

The Komsomol will have to channel its organizational and material potential

toward the implementation of the party's cultural policy. The field for

activity is really enormous. There must be more daring experiments to

disseminate publications for young people through Komsomol organizations,

retail outlets of young people's publishing houses, and targeted subscription

for book series in individual regions of the country. It is necessary to

cooperate more closely with television, the "Melodiya" firm, and concert

organizations to develop programs for young people and to participate in

organizing the All-Union Society of Movie Lovers.

The Komsomol's attention is especially needed by theaters catering for young

audiences, puppet theaters, young people's studios, and theaters bearing the

lofty name of the Lenin Komsomol.

It is necessary to strive to make the cultural assets at our disposal really

accessible, transform museums, exhibition halls, libraries, and movie theaters

into centers for lively contacts between young people, and introduce the best

examples of literature, art, and folklore into their enviroment.

A branch of an art museum has taken over one of Irkutsk's cathedrals. An

amateur chamber choir gives remarkable performances of classical Russian music

in the hall with wonderful acoustics on Sunday evenings. The audience's

enthusiasm is boundless. Thanks are expressed to the singers in different

languages. In different languages, except Russian, because the tickets are

bought by "Inturist." People in the city itself cannot determine whether

tickets can be sold to residents of Irkutsk and whether in that case

regulations would be breached.

The 27th party congress stressed that the state of Soviet multinational art

largely determines society's moral health.

At the same time, the congresses of creative unions spoke in a principled

fashion about the flood of dull and ideologically inferior works, a flood that

has grown stronger in the last few years. There was also impartial talk about

the causes of this phenomenon: Hierarchical structures and unwritten rules of

corporate solidarity had an incresingly noticeable effect. Artistic criticism

at times played the role of patron of servility and sycophancy.

Today we must say with concern from this rostrum that, unfortunately,, some

esteemed figures of literature and art have recently been offering young

people not so much lessons of principled struggle against selfish interests

and personal ambitions, but examples of gross violation of ethical norms and

cliquishness.

56
This atmosphere hinders the professional development of the next generation of

creative workers and has an effect on their social attitudes.

In order to enable their works to reach the public, young people often have to

sacrifice their originality and make compromises. Even before they have made

a real name for themselves they find themselves attached to various clans and

groupings. Preference is frequently given not to talents from deep within the

people, but to those who are within the field of vision of people who

determine cadre and artistic policies. The well known rebellion by some young

poets, painters and musicians, and the demonstrative challenge to established

traditions were largely conditioned by phenomena of stagnation in the work of

creative unions, publishing houses, and concert organizations.

/We support the resoluteness of the creative unions' shift toward tackling the

problems of establishing the generation which will replace them./ We hope

that this turnabout will be felt not only by the unions' leadership but also

by young people themselves, having been given an opportunity to determine the

measure of their talent and popularity in an open and honest argument.

/The only important point is to ensure that the main argument centers not on

the author's youth but on the maturity of his work, that the wave of renewal

does not bring organized dullness to the top./

Following—if you will pardon the expression—the example of some of their

elders, some groups of creative young people have started uniting not on the

basis of shared artistic principles but on the basis of the pursuit of

undeserved social benefits. You may treat this as a joke but, among the

numerous proposals for restructuring, we also received a suggestion to

establish a House for Creative Youth Veterans.

/The Komsomol Central Committee most resolutely condemns the time-servers and

careerists who undermine the prestige of the young creative intelligentsia./

At the same time, the social activeness and the acute social sense inherent in

the best representatives of creative youth pose the question of hew forms of

their association. The Creative Youth Councils that have been set up

everywhere are justifiably criticized for the fact that they have turned into

a bureaucratic offshoot of the Komsomol apparatus and failed to exert any real

influence on the development of creative careers.

The Komsomol Central Committee, together with the creative unions, the USSR

Ministry of Culture, and the Soviet Culture Foundation, will offer the

broadest possible opportunities for actively involving the abilities, energy,

and enthusiasm of the young generation of the creative intelligentsia in

artistic and social life.

/The Komsomol has now taken new steps in capturing the leisure sphere as a

field for young people's social activity./ Union-wide fame has been acquired

by the experience of setting up the Association of Young People's Clubs in

Odessa, young people's cafes in Minsk and Belgorod, rural culture and sports

57
complexes in Omsk and Gorkiy Oblasts, and young people's culture centers in

Saratov and Dnepropetrovsk. 1

/It is necessary to pool the efforts of the Komsomol, cultural organs, and

other public organizations in improving the utilization of the material and

technical base of culture and leisure and developing it./ Komsomol members

can achieve much by emulating the initiative of young workers at the Volga

Motor Vehicles Plant. We have the workforce, we also have the right to

allocate Komsomol funds to the construction of culture and sports projects.

These opportunities must be actively utilized in every rayon, be it rural or

urban.

There is increasingly great awareness of the need to further develop young

people's self-motivation, initiative, and socially important creativity in the

leisure sphere.

/Komsomol committees, like cultural organs and trade unions, can and must

support the young people's amateur activity associations which further the

spiritual elevation of personality and serve the social interests./ They must

be supported both organizationally and materially by introducing more boldly

the principles of economic accountability, self-capitalizing, and selffinancing.

Practice in the last few years has brought to life youth initiative

foundations in Novosibirsk, Moscow, Tallinn, and other cities. Many Komsomol

obkoms, gorkoms, and raykoms have set up various organizations enjoying the

rights of legal entities. They conduct an interesting and at times

complicated quest for their place in the common work. It is important not to

stop there and to expand the conventional framework of the Komsomol's

influence on young people's leisure and artistic creativity and on young men's

and women's social activeness.

Recently we have been encountering increasingly often in the press the term

"informal groups," used to describe both associations to promote young

people's initiative, which pursue noble goals, and casually formed street

companies of adolescents. The Komsomol Central Committee calls on journalists

and Komsomol officials, without making any fuss about various catch labels, to

determine their attitude toward such groups according to the motives and

results of their activity rather than according to their dress fashion or

outward appearance. Let us not indulge in sarcasm from rostrums, in the

press, or in lobbies, but conduct a specific dialogue with young people,

encouraging healthy initiatives and eliminating defective phenomena which are

alien to the socialist way of life.

One thing must be clear: Self-motivated associations are not an alternative

to the Komsomol, they are not "firms" competing with it but a form of

satisfying young people's multifaceted social needs.

/Thus, comrades, we are facing a complex and extremely protracted

restructuring of young people's consciousness and spiritual world./

58
This restructuring presupposes the demolition of all dogmas and false values,

of all simplistic and simplified impressions of the building of communism; it

presupposes the affirmation of a new thinking based on the creative

application of Marxism-Leninism to the realities of the present.

IV. With the Planet's Young People—For a Nuclear-Free World, for Mankind's

Survival and Social Progress

Comrades!

/The development of Soviet young people's international ties has always been

an important part of the Lenin Komsomol's activity. But in our days the

importance of this work is particularly great. It merges with the struggle

waged by all democratic youth for a world without nuclear weapons, for

mankind's survival./

The contemporary world is full of contradictions, and young people cannot

remain impartial in the face of these contradictions. An exhaustive analysis

of these contradictions was provided by the CPSU Central Committee Political

Report to the 27th party congress. An immediate solution is required for

global problems which affect the foundations of mankind's existence and

directly concern the prospects for the development of civilization and

everyone's present and future.

There is a commonplace sound to the phrase: The future belongs to youth!

Young people bear a heavy burden of responsibility, because the question today

is: Will there be any future at all? Of course, this also has an impact on

all aspects of the Komsomol's activity in the international youth movement.

/Participation in the struggle for a world without nuclear weapons and for

mankind's survival and in the implementation of the program for creating an

all-bracing security system will determine the content of the Komsomol's

international activity in the future./

The ideas of the new political thinking are making increasingly tangible

headway in the international youth movement.

The impressive program for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons by the

start of the 3d millennium put forward by our country, the bold steps aimed at

reducing the nuclear threat, and the profound awareness of the danger lying in

the nuclear arms race have activated the most diverse political forces and

nonpolitical associations in the international youth community.

Growing numbers of young people's organizations, far removed from our

ideological views—liberals, radicals, centrists, "greens," young women's and

young people's religious organizations—feel the need to develop cooperation

for the sake of the common goal or averting the nuclear danger. /Today we are

witnessing the incipient formation of a kind of coalition for nuclear

disarmament within the youth movement./

59
The circle of Soviet youth organizations' partners and of ties established

over the decades expanded considerably in the period of preparations for and

holding of the 12th World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow. But we

can no longer rest content with them in the light of the tasks facing us. It

is necessary to advance to a higher level in the sphere of international

contacts. We need to be really prepared for broad cooperation with national

and international organizations, with small groups and mass movements, with

all who make their contribution to the common efforts aimed at building more

humane international relations and ensuring every person's right to live under

conditions of peace, freedom, and respect for human dignity.

We intend to build contacts on the basis of trust, to help establish in

international relations a dialogue between equal partners willing to listen to

one another, and to concentrate more on the things which unite rather than the

things which divide young people holding different political views and

beliefs. Such an approach offers prospects for the more active development of

joint and parallel actions.

/The Lenin Komsomol is guided in its international activity by the principles

of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian socialist internationalism./

/The Komsomol attaches paramount importance to the development of friendship

and all-around cooperation with young people in the socialist community states

and their sociopolitical organizations./ We are united by a common ideology,

a common world outlook, and common tasks concerning the renewal of socialism

and by a sense of responsibility for socialism's historical destiny and the

future of socialist civilization in the 21st century. The world in which we

will have to live, work, and create is taking shape now, with our own

participation.

/The new tasks pose the question of developing a new type of collaboration

between fraternal countries' youth organizations./ We still have not managed

to fully materialize the potential of our international ties with fraternal

organizations. The new type of ties primarily presupposes a respectful

attitude toward the fraternal countries' experience, creative quests, and

established traditions, toward everything useful and interesting in their work

that could be utilized under our conditions. Our guiding star along the path

to achieving this goal is the activity of the CPSU, which builds the entire

system of political relations between socialist countries on the basis of

equality and mutual responsibility and places the exchange of experience in

socialist building and its joint generalization in the center of all our

cooperation.

This approach was reflected in the "Community" Program, adopted in April

1986, which pooled the efforts of young people in CEMA countries in resolving

the tasks of socialist, economic, scientific, and technical integration. It

is on this basis that we must advance to a qualitatively new level in our

cooperation.

60
We will continue to comprehensively develop the traditional relations of

friendship with young people from all socialist countries. To actively

support the youth organizations in Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia building

the hew life under complex conditions and upholding their independence; the

DPRK young people struggling for the unification of the motherland on a

peaceful democratic basis; and to strive to expand contacts with young

people's organizations in Yugoslavia. Our young people perceive with

gratification the steps toward improving relations between the USSR and the

PRC. We are in favor of mutual understanding and the restoration of friendly

ties between Soviet and Chinese young people.

/The exacerbation of contradictions under capitalism has an effect on young

people's situation./ The curtailment of their rights in the capitalist world

and primarily of the basic right, the right to live, is one of the true

indicators of capitalism's social decrepitude. Capitalism is incapable of

finding a use for young people in key spheres of social life and in material

and spiritual production. Unemployment among young people has reached an

unprecedented scale. Those who are lucky are forced to take any job on any

terms that may be dictated.

Young people's right to education is being increasingly curtailed. The

content of education is being impoverished and reduced to narrow vocational

training. Education fees are rising. Higher education is becoming elitist

and inaccessible to increasingly broad strata of the population.

/The situation of young people in many Asian, African, and Latin American

countries is tragic./ As a result of the rapacious policy pursued by

imperialism for many years youth unemployment, super-exploitation of young

working people by transnational corporations and local oligarchies, hunger,

poverty, disease, and illiteracy have reached threatening dimensions and,

essentially deny the right of millions of young people to survive.

/The offensive against young people's rights is an organic component of the

policy of imperialism/ aimed at discrediting universal human values and

humanitarian ideals and subordinating young people ideologically, politically,

and spiritually. Technocratic sentiments, individualism, and indifference to

politics are cultivated among them, and the cult of violence is being forced

upon them. The struggle against the antihuman ideology of modern capitalism

is a struggle for young people's moral health and one of the conditions for

mankind's progress.

/The activity of communist youth leagues in capitalist countries calls forth

profound respect among Soviet young people./ They are waging a consistent

struggle against the world of capital, violence and profits, unbridled

militarism, and the omnipotence of monopolies and the military-industrial

complex, a struggle for the younger generation's rights and interests. The

forms and methods of their work are largely determined by specific conditions

in different countries. We are prepared to frankly discuss differences in

views and assessments should they arise, and to carefully coordinate our

points of view on fundamental questions.

61
The Lenin Komsomol feels sincere admiration for the selfless struggle by our

comrades, the young communists, who display boundless devotion to the bright

ideals of communism under the most difficult conditions of repression,

victimization, and persecution.

/We resolutely demand that all prisoners of imperialism and reaction be set

free!/

The Komsomol again declares its invariable solidarity with the struggle waged

by the peoples and young people of Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Southern Africa, El

Salvador, Chile, Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine and by other peoples acting

against imperialism and reaction, against colonialism and neocolonialism,

against facism, Zionism, racism, and apartheid.

/Our solidarity with young fighters for national and social liberation—both

political and material—must be more effective and more specific./ The

sending of teams of young physicians, teachers, and construction workers and

the work of voluntary labor detachments are as important to our comrades in

arms as the rallies in their support. Nor must we forget that, for Soviet

young people, participation in the solidarity movement is a powerful means of

international education and a school for civic development and political

maturity.

/We will continue to expand fraternal help and all-around support for

revolutionary-democratic youth unions in countries of socialist orientation

and to render assistance in their formation and development./

An increasingly noticeable contribution to the development of the

international youth movement is being made by youth organizations from

liberated states and young people from countries in the nonaligned movement.

Together with them, we are prepared to actively cooperate in solving problems

of development and the establishment of a new international economic order.

/The WFDY and the International Union of Students have embarked on a quest for

better forms and methods of work,/ bringing their activity into line with the

demands of the times, which dictate the need for new and nonstandard

approaches. This involves attention to global problems, differentiated work

with different social strata of young people, concern for expanding their

ranks and ensuring the financing of their activities, and much else besides.

Soviet young people's organizations resolutely support these efforts and will

do everything to ensure the strengthening of the prestige and influence of the

WFDY and the International Union of Students within the international youth

movement.

During the last few years Soviet young people's organizations have succeeded

in establishing greater trust and mutual understanding with organizations of

young socialists and social democrats and elaborating a number of joint

approaches toward questions of preserving peace and preventing the nuclear

threat, toward individual aspects of the development of the international

62
solidarity movement. There is no doubt that communists and social democrats

are following the same path in this struggle. Existing ideological and

political differences ought not to be obstacles to the establishment of

relations of genuine partnership or to the quest for new spheres of

cooperation.

Despite the attempts by the adversaries of detente to undermine all-European

youth cooperation and to plant the seeds of mistrust and confrontation in it,

positive processes remain dominant here. Proof of this can be seen in the

resumption of active work by the All-European Structure of Young People's and

Students' Cooperation and the expansion of the circle of problems being

discussed within its framework. There are tangible manifestations of the

trend toward stepping up mass youth exchanges with many West European

countries. Today this offers a real opportunity to boost the contribution

made by young people to the development of positive trends in the continent of

Europe and to confirm by specific actions the commitment to the Helsinki

agreements.

/In our view, favorable conditions are developing for deepening and expanding

young people's cooperation in the Asia and Pacific region./ It will deepen as

military-political conflicts are eliminated and a solution is found to the

questions of transforming Asia and the Pacific into a zone of peace and

cooperation. Thought must also be given to setting up a machinery for joint

participation by the younger generation in the struggle for the triumph of

these ideas.

/The world youth and students festival movement has acquired broader scope in

the last few years. The Komsomol and Soviet young men and women support the

idea of holding the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students in Pyongyang in

1989./ We will do everything within our power to ensure that the next young

people's forum becomes a new stage in the cause of strengthening the

solidarity of young people in the world, in the struggle against the threat of

war, and in the further expansion of the circle of its participants.

/The collaboration of Soviet young people's organizations with the United

Nations and UNESCO has strengthened in the last few years./ We highly value

the attention devoted by the United Nations, which proclaimed 1985 to be

International Youth Year, to the solution of the younger generation's

problems. At the same time, the United Nations and its specialized

institutions have plenty of opportunities to further expand activity aimed at

disseminating the ideals of peace, cooperation, and mutual understanding among

young people. For our part, we are prepared to participate actively in this

work in the future. \

Comrades!

The qualitatively new level of Soviet young people's international ties also

demands a new level of coordination in the work of the Komsomol Central

Committee, the USSR Committee of Youth Organizations, the "Sputnik"

International Youth Tourism Bureau, ministries and departments, and public

63
organizations like the Soviet Committee for the Defense of Peace, the

All-Union Council of War and Labor Veterans, the Soviet Peace Foundation, and

the Union of Soviet Societies for Friendship and Cultural Ties with Foreign

Countries. It is only through joint efforts that we-can ensure the

intensification of international contacts and create the conditions necessary

for mass youth exchanges.

Another specific feature of the present stage is the fact that International

activity can no longer remain the sole preserve of central Komsomol organs;

all Komsomol organizations must participate in it. This presupposes their

greater independence and initiative, including on questions of developing

direct bilateral ties and contacts, youth and student tourism, and exchanges

not involving foreign currency. But the improvement of organizational forms

alone is not enough to implement this activity. Their development also

requires the corresponding financial expenditure. It would seem appropriate

to allow Komsomol organizations to use for this purpose any funds that may

have raised.

The role of the press, radio, and television is exceptionally great in

international contacts. We are entitled to ask our young people's mass news

media: Have they done everything to ensure that people abroad know and

understand the essence of the changes occurring in our country and perceive

the specific contribution made by Soviet young men and women toward their

implementation? To what extent are the specific characteristics of young

audiences taken into account in this work?

We must at long last get some movement on the question of publishing in

foreign languages a vivid illustrated journal about young people with its own

image, organizing the exchange of youth television and movie programs, and

effecting a fundamental turnabout in the production of modern youth

information and propaganda materials, especially video materials. This is

necessary in order to make our work in the international youth movement

assertive and to widely disseminate objective information about our country

and about Soviet young people's life.

The development of Soviet society and our foreign policy initiatives reflect

our awareness of universal human values. The active support for them

indicates that we are on the right path.

We must proceed from the basic task—to assist in implementing the party's

international strategy of ensuring for the Soviet people, all peoples on the

planet, and therefore young people, an opportunity to live, work, and study

under conditions of peace, freedom, and social progress.

V. The Further Democratization of Soviet Society and the Komsomol

Comrades!

The decisions of the 27th party congress and the CPSU Central Committee

January (1987) Plenum provided an expanded program for the deepening of

64
socialist democracy and the development of the people's self-management. It

was emphasized at the party Central Committee plenum: "Our advance in

production, science, technology, literature, culture, art, and all spheres of

social life is possible only through consistent development of the democratic

forms inherent in socialism and the expansion of self-management. Only this

approach ensures conscientious discipline. Restructuring itself is possible

only through democracy and thanks to democracy."

/The Komsomol, as an integral component of the political system of Soviet

society, is called upon to actively participate in the management of state and

social affairs and the solution of political, economic, social, and cultural

questions./

One of the Komsomol's specific features is the fact that it is an organization

of the young people themselves, and it must simultaneously shape, express, and

uphold young men's and women's interests and their education and development.

The Communist Party creates all the conditions necessary for this and steadily

and consistently enhances the Komsomol's role in society's life and the

education of the growing generation.

/Leadership by the party is the source of the Komsomol's strength and

staunchness and the main condition for success in the fundamental

restructuring of its work. The Lenin Komsomol sees the entire meaning of its

activity in the implementation of the CPSU Program. The party's program is

our program and the party's policy is our policy because it expresses the

fundamental interests of all Soviet young people./

In implementing leadership of Komsomol organizations, party committees display

demanding attention for their activity, transfer to Komsomol cadres and aktivs

their experiepce of organizational and political work among the masses, and

offer broad scope for self-motivation and initiative.

We would like party committees to constantly help Komsomol organizations in

the determination and implementation of socially important work, to show

greater trust in Komsomol committees in the solution of young people's

problems, and to be more exacting toward economic leaders in terms of the

creation of the conditions necessary for the highly productive labor,

continuous education, proper living conditions, and meaningful leisure of

young men and women.

The trust of party organizations and the measures taken by them to really

involve young people in the solution of questions concerning production and

social life will help in further boosting the social activeness of young men

and women and in ensuring their active participation in the renewal of all

aspects of society's life.

/The V. I. Lenin Ail-Union Young Pioneers Organization, whose ranks unite

about 20 million children and adolescents, occupies a special position in the

country's social life./ It rears young fighters for the party cause, involves

65
them in the practice of communist building, and trains fitting replacements

for the Komsomol.

The party has entrusted the Lenin Komsomol with the leadership of the Young

Pioneer organization's activity, and this is one of its most important

functions in Soviet society.

It has to be admitted that, as far as the leadership of the V. I. Lenin

All-union Young Pioneers Organization is concerned, the Komsomol limited

itself for many years to just setting general tasks without penetrating deep

inside the essence of the problems of Young Pioneers' life.

If it was a matter of a program it was for the country as a whole. If it was

a matter of training leaders it was in their thousands. If it was a matter of

an action it was also on a global scale. The abundance of bombastic slogans

and attractive names given to events created an illusion that the Young

Pioneers were involved in practically useful activity.

Many Komsomol committees lost their ties with Young Pioneers' collectives and

their responsibility for the processes occurring within them.

The structure of senior Young Pioneer leaders deteriorated. Production

sponsors were replaced by teacher training detachments, and the majority of

Young Pioneer detachments simply lacked permanent leaders. Komsomol school

organizations, the ones nearest to the Young Pioneers, were in practice very

distant.

While recognizing that the principle of collaboration with Young Pioneer

organizations was of decisive importance for education, in practice schools

frequently ignored it.

/For the first time in history the Komsomol's role in improving the Young

Pioneer organization's work was raised by the 27th CPSU Congress to the level

of the party program's demands./

It is necessary for us all, comrades, to clearly realize that no other

educational institution is capable of shaping the political backbone of young

individuals in such a targeted and definite fashion as the Young Pioneer

organization. It was created for this purpose, and it is for this purpose

that it exists.

The education of Young Pioneers and Young Octobrists is complex work demanding

largess of soul and heart, a strong character, and pedagogical skill.

/The strengthening of Young Pioneer collectives with leaders must be perceived

as a paramount task./ It is necessary to create a new system for the

selection, training, retraining, and retention of such cadres. It is

necessary to institute a V. I. Lenin All-Union Young Pioneers Organization

scholarship for the best school pupils and students in teacher training

establishments. It is necessary to conduct an experiment to test the

66
usefulness of transferring senior leaders to the staffs of Komsomol

committees. It is necessary to assign cadres to strengthen city and rayon

Young Pioneer organization councils.

The Komsomol Central Committee and the All-Union Young Pioneers Organization

Central Council will have to renew the content of Young Pioneers' work with

participation by Young Pioneers themselves.

It is necessary to restructure the life of Young Pioneer organizations on

democratic principles, develop genuine self-motivation, and give them back

their games, romanticism, imagination, and fantasy. Unfortunately, games

depart from children's lives long before labor becomes part of them. We must

find a place for Young Pioneers in our major and minor Komsomol affairs.

Not only Komsomol but also state decisions are required to improve the work of

the All-Union Young Pioneers Organization. This includes the creation of a

standard system for the production and distribution of Young Pioneers'

uniforms and appurtenances. It also includes the consolidation of the

material base and the building of new Young Pioneer camps and extramural

institutions.

Union republic Komsomol central committees must aim more persistently at

setting up year-round Young Pioneers' Sanatoriums. Children in every union

republic can and must have their own "Artek," while children and adolescents

in every city and rayon of the country can and must have their own Young

Pioneers' house.

The Young Pioneers prepared for the 20th congress like we adults did. We

thank them for their good deeds. For the letters and the gifts the children

made for the delegates.

The Ninth Al1-Union Young Pioneer Rally lies ahead. It will have to discuss

how the Young Pioneers themselves ought to strive to fulfill /the main

task—to learn to be real young Leninists, fighters for the cause of the

Communist Party./ It is our Komsomol duty to help them in this.

Comrades!

In our political system young people's interests and specific needs are

represented through the Komsomol, which has been given the right to initiate

legislation, through the trade unions, through labor collectives, and through

young Soviet deputies, many of whom are Komsomol members.

/During the period under review, the opportunities for young people's

participation in the management of state and social affairs were not fully

utilized./

It is necessary to seek more effective forms of joint work by the Komsomol and

the commissions for youth affairs set up at Soviets of people's deputies.

This is a real opportunity for Komsomol committees at all levels to acquire a

67
kind of right to initiate legislation within the framework of local Soviets'

powers. It is necessary to learn to make efficient use of the right of

Komsomol-member deputies to ask deputies' questions relating to the solution

of young people's problems.

/Komsomol committees must actively assist the Soviets in the further

development of Soviet democracy.

/Ministries and departments have great reserves to improve Work among young

people./ In the last few years their collaboration with the Komsomol has

somewhat improved, but mainly took the form of adopting joint resolutions.

Several hundred of them have been adopted in the last 5 years.

Let us say it bluntly, there Was hardly any return from many of them, but they

did provide a kind of a shield for some sector leaders: There you are, we do

work with young people.

Could this be why the leftover principle of attention to young people's

problems in their sectors grew deep roots in many ministries over the last few

years. The Komsomol Central Committee pretended not to see and was reluctant

to quarrel with ministers whom it often had to approach for assistance.

The signs of fusion, so to speak, between "Komsomol bureaucracy" and

"ministerial and departmental bureaucracy" to the detriment of young people's

education are particularly alarming. This could be seen in the growth of the

number of joint decisions and in the excesses in the development of students

detachments, school pupil labor associations, and Komsomol shock labor

construction work. To put it briefly, while "peace and love" reigned at the

top, matters looked somewhat different from below.

Plans for socioeconomic development and collective contracts take virtually no

account of young people's specific problems.

/Much more fruitful work could be done by the commissions: for work with young

people/ set up in 29 ministries and departments.

Economic and trade union organs have the right to dispose of funds and

resources. The Komsomol can only submit suggestions for their distribution.

In practice Komsomol officials and aktiv members are forced to constantly beg

enterprise administrations and trade union committees to support young

people's initiatives. And the solution of questions often depends not on the

contribution made by the Komsomol to the results of the collective's labor

activity, not on social needs, but on the personal disposition of various

leaders.

Young people's position and rights in all spheres of social life are

guaranteed by almost 2,000 legislative acts arid government resolutions. The

volume of current legislation is augmented annually by many new normative

acts. But these laws and acts are often unfulfilled.

68
/The defense of young peopleVs rights and the interests of their communist

education is still implemented extremely poorly by the Komsomol./

The Komsomol Central Committee deems it necessary, in the process of

finalizing the USSR Law "On the State Enterprise (Association)," to make

provision for machinery under which questions concerning young people are

resolved only jointly with Komsomol organizations.

The 27th CPSU Congress deemed it expedient to expand the range of questions

which state organs can resolve only with participation or preliminary consent

from appropriate public organizations, including Komsomol organizations, and

to give them the right to block the implementation of management decisions in

a number of cases. In our view it is necessary to accelerate the elaboration

of a USSR law on this question.

On behalf of the 20th Komsomol Congress we would also ask the appropriate

organs to support the numerous proposals by Komsomol organizations, Komsomol

members, and young people regarding the elaboration and adoption of a USSR Law

on Young People, which ought to legislatively define the multifaceted nature

of collaboration between the Komsomol, as a sociopolitical organization of

Soviet young people, and state organs, trade unions, and public organizations

in the communist education of young people and the implementation of practical

questions of organizing their labor, study, daily life, and leisure.

A nationwide discussion of the draft law in question would make it possible to

elaborate a specific system of measures to boost young people's role and

responsibility in resolving the tasks of improving socialism in our country

and accelerating its socioeconomic development.

/There is a broad range of young people's problems which cannot be solved

without strengthening the collaboration of Komsomol and trade union

organizations./

A considerable role has to be played here by trade union committee young

people's commissions. Elected trade union organs include 4.3 million young

people, and many trade union committees are headed by Komsomol members. There

are Komsomol representatives in the leadership of sector trade unions and on

the AUCCTU Presidium.

At the Komsomol's request, the Statute of Trade Unions included stipulations

making it possible to take a great step forward in cooperation between

Komsomol and trade union organizations within labor collectives. We must

utilize these new opportunities.

The 18th USSR Trade Union Congress devoted much attention to the questions of

educating the next generation of the working class, the kolkhoz peasantry, and

the Soviet intelligentsia. The Komsomol is ready for the broadest and most

active cooperation with trade unions in educational work.

69
/The innovative nature of the tasks which the Komsomol will have to resolve in

its work on young people's communist education demands the stepping up of its

collaboration with creative unions and voluntary societies and associations./

/The women's movement in the country is going through a new stage./ The

Komsomol's task is to find forms for cooperating with women's organizations at

local level. The historical experience of the Komsomol's work with young

women in the twenties and thrities would be particularly suitable in this

respect. It is necesary to inculcate profound respect for girls, women, and

mothers.

Together with women's organizations, the Komsomol could do much to strengthen

young families, sponsor children's homes and creches, and safeguard motherhood

and childhood.

The CPSU Program notes that the education of the growing generation is a

matter for the entire party and the entire people. The future democratization

of Soviet society and the democratization of the Komsomol itself will create

new opportunities for the manifestation of young men's and women's initiative

and creativity in all spheres of state and social life. And the Komsomol's

most important task is to give utmost support to young people's desire to be

active participants in the major transformations being implemented by the

party at the present stage.

VI. Results of the Discussion of the Komsomol Statute

Comrades!

/The precongress report and elections campaign and the discussion of the draft

amendments to the Komsomol Statute played a most important role in determining

the specific ways to boost the efficiency of Komsomol organizations' work to

fulfill the 27th CPSU Congress decisions./

A distinctive feature of the meetings and conferences was that they were held

more democratically, with great activeness on the part of Komsomol members.

The creation of an atmosphere of publicity, frankness, criticism, and selfcriticism was helped by the advanced familiarization of Komsomol members with

the main features of the accountability reports and by the opportunity for a

free exchange of opinions. Many Komsomol organizations made active use of

"free microphones" or organized discussion clubs and "direct line" conversations with party, soviet, Komsomol, and economic officials. .;

/More than 2.5 million Komsomol members spoke at primary organization meetings

and conferences alone./

Now it is extremely important to consolidate and develop all the best elements

which emerged in the course of the report and election campaign. Not a single

practical idea, not a single constructive suggestion must be ignored. The

exacting conversation about the prospects of the Komsomol's development and

the elimination of existing errors which took place at meetings and

70
Conferences must now be translated into specific practical deeds in every

Komsomol organization.

To a significant extent the restructuring of the entire activity of the Lenin

Komsomol and each Komsomol organization will be helped by the amendments and

additions proposed to be incorporated in the Komsomol Statute./ The

principles and norms being enshrined in it provide the basis of the union's

internal life and ensure purposeful work by all Komsomol components in the

struggle to fulfill the Communist Party's program tasks.

/The Komsomol Central Committee attaches fundamental importance to the

ensuring of continuity in statutory provisions./ The draft statute submitted

for examination by the congress delegates reta.'ns unaltered the fundamental

principles of our union's life and activity which have withstood the test of

time.

But the current statute was adopted by the 14th Komsomol Congress in 1962.

Significant changes have occurred within the Komsomol in these years. It was

necessary to reflect these changes in the draft statute.

/A collective consultation with all Komsomol organizations in the country and

the broad masses of Komsomol members and young people was extremely necessary

on these issues./ In first publishing the draft statute for a broad

discussion, the Komsomol Central Committee was convinced that the experience

and suggestions of Komsomol members, party and Komsomol veterans, and young

people's mentors would make it possible to take a more accurate and

substantitated approach toward the introduction of amendments to the

fundamental law of Komsomol life.

This was convincingly Confirmed by the widespread precongress discussion of

the draft statute. The Komsomol Central Committee alone received more than

235,000 responses, suggestions, and remarks. Most of them were constructive

and provided the basis for introducing more than 100 fundamental additions to

the draft, making it possible to be more precise in formulating and editing

the statutory provisions.

/Consequently, the millions of Komsomol members who took part in the

discussion can justifiably be described as creators and authors of the draft

statute submitted for examination by the congress./

They focused their attention on problems of Komsomol membership, stepping up

the struggle for the purity of Komsomol ranks, and enhancing demandingness

toward Komsomol members who fail to fulfill their statutory duties.

/The draft statute enshrines norms which help the further deepening of

internal Komsomol democracy./ In this context fundamental importance

attaches to the additional provision introduced into the draft that unity in

the implementation of the Komsomol's general line and tasks presupposes broad

self-motivation of all Komsomol organizations and independence in the choice

of forms and methods for their implementation.

71
/Substantial amendments were made to the statutory provisions on the holding

of elections for Komsomol organs./ Their chief essence lies in the

considerable democratization of this entire process.

/Greater demands are also made of members of elected Komsomol organs./ It was

quite rightly said in the course of the discussion of the draft that if a

Komsomol committee member does not justify the Komsomol members' trust he

cannot remain on the committee. This is why we deem it necessary to enshrine

in the statute the right of Komsomol organizations—without waiting for the

next report and election campaign—to recall their candidates from leading

Komsomol organs and to recommend their replacement by other Komsomol members

who have proved themselves by specific actions and enjoy the requisite

prestige among young people.

At the same time, it would be correct to lay down the principle that the

structure of an elected organ cannot be renewed by more than one-third. Such

a procedure will make it possible to retain the basic nucleus of collective

leadership organs elected by congresses, conferences, and meetings.

On the whole, many fundamental additions were made to the draft statute. It

has been distributed to all congress delegates, and therefore there is no need

for any detailed comment on their content. I would only like to stress that

the proposed new edition of the statute is not just another improvement. The

fundamental law of Komsomol life has not undergone such changes ever before in

its history.

/At the same time, we deem it necessary to inform delegates that, when

elaborating the draft, the Komsomol Central Committee proceed from the premise

that the making of amendments to the statute should not be approached

lightly./

For example, some comrades proposed that the size of primary organizations

which can set up Komsomol organizations with the rights of primary

organizations be raised from 20 to 50 Komsomol members. Had this proposal

been implemented, the effect would have been to reform about 500,000

organizations with the rights of primary organizations into mere Komsomol

groups.

As a result of this, they would have lost the right to admit Komsomol members,

to recommend Komsomol members for party membership, and to review there

personal records of Komsomol members. Furthermore, the Komsomol would have

suffered a reduction in its elected aktiv of approximately 1 million. Would

this have been right? Of course not.

All amendments and additions had to be approached with proper responsibility,

and their possible consequences had to be envisaged. It was important to

prevent the introduction of excessive details in the statute, let alone the

inclusion of farfetched innovations.

72
/The course of the discussion of the draft saw the submission of numerous

proposals which must indisputably be taken into account in the Komsomol

Central Committee's practical work or normative documents./ For example,

these problems included the improvement of the system of paying Komsomol

membership dues and the expansion of primary organizations' financial

independence.

The Komsomol Central Committee's stance on this is as follows: At enterprises

where the necessary conditions and opportunities exist, following a decision

by the organizations themselves, and subject to strict observance of the

voluntary nature of Komsomol membership, the payment of membership dues can be

made by means of direct transfer.

The Komsomol Central Committee adopted a decision and is now conducting in 56

major primary Komsomol organizations an experiment whereby current accounts

are opened with Gosbank branches for the independent expenditure of funds

raised. Provided it produces positive results, this will be extended to other

primary organizations. Amendments have also been made to the Instructions of

Funds Raised, and now they will be expended by the decision of primary

organizations themselves, without corresponding Komsomol gorkom or raykom

resolutions.

It is finally necessary to solve the acute problem of creating conditions for

Komsomol organizations to acquire everything they need in the trade network.

After all, in fact membership dues and subbotnik funds represent cash in hand

contributed by Komsomol members for the development of their organization.

Komsomol members and Komsomol officials and aktiv members are logically

asking: Why is it that, when paid into raykom accounts, this money loses its

purchasing power?" The USSR Ministry of Finance should have given an

exhaustive reply to this question a long time ago.

/On the whole, the amendments made to the statute will require a fundamental

revision of the Komsomol Central Committee instructions./ It is necessary

to make them more flexible and ensure that they do not fetter the selfmotivation of Komsomol organizations.

Taking into account the experience of preparing the draft statute, it would be

appropriate to conduct within the Komsomol a discussion on draft Central

Committee instructions affecting the interests of the majority of Komsomol

organizations and, with due consideration for the remarks made, have them

approved by a Komsomol Central Committee plenum. This procedure for the

preparation of instructions ought to be written into the statute. This will

guarantee the protection of statutory provisions from all possible

distortions.

/At the same time, comrades, it is not sufficient to only amend the statute./

It is important to ensure through joint efforts, both in the Komsomol Central

Committee and in all Komsomol components, that statutory provisions really

become a law for all Komsomol members, Komsomol officials, and aktiv members.

73
Each and every one of us must be;firmly guided in his activity by the

collectively elaborated and collective adopted statute.

/Thus, a draft Komsomol Statute, prepared on a broad democratic basis, has

been submitted for examination by our congress,/ and in the Komsomol Central

Committee's opinion it is in line with the demands of the time and the period

through which the Komsomol is living and creates the conditions necessary for

the fundamental restructuring of the Komsomol's entire activity.

We are convinced that the discussion of the draft by congress delegates and

your proposals and remarks, comrades, will enable us to make our Komsomol

Statute even more constructive and bring it fully into line with the Lenin

Komsomol's tasks at the present stage of our country's development.

Esteemed comrades!

/This is how the Central Committee sees the results of its work since the 19th

Komsomol Congress, the situation prevailing in the Komsomol today, and its

most important tasks in educating a generation of people capable of ensuring

the acceleration of the country's socioeconomic development./

We are striving to ensure that assessments are objective and dialogue is

frank, excluding any hushing up or verbal evasion.

We are striving to ensure that the main avenues of our future work with young

people are clearly defined and that after the congress discussion we will know

what we need to restructure and how and along which avenues to advance.

Some people may think: This is not the first time we have heard this. It

happened before, the truth was "boldly spoken" but later the whole charge of

frankness and the entire bubbling energy of plans and intentions disappeared

somewhere, and things remained as they were. So, where is the guarantee that

this time things will be different, the way our congress will plan them?

The guarantee lies in the changes taking place within our society, in the

party's firm course of the renewal of society, the party's trust in young

people and the Komsomol, and their boundless devotion to the party's cause.

The guarantee will also lie in the fact that each one of us—from the first

secretary of the Komsomol Central Committee to the Komsomol group organizer—

has taken on the entire responsibility for ensuring that each line of the

congress' decisions is translated everywhere into specific practical deeds.

/In other words, the main guarantee lies in ourselves, in each Komsomol

member's readiness to fight for restructuring./ When Komsomol members in

their millions understand this and get actively involved in work, the changes

in the Komsomol will become irreversible.

/This is our own union, and it is up to us to impose order in it./ The Lenin

Komsomol has a glorious history and rich traditions. It has always served the

74
party and the people with honor and we have nothing to be ashamed of. We are

boldly looking into the past and into the future.

/We will never allow anyone to besmirch the Lenin Komsomol's good name!/

But it is not just a matter of being proud of the Komsomol's traditions, they

must also be developed. Those who are born this year will join the Komsomol

in the year 2000. It is up to us to ensure that they also can be proud of

their motherland and their communist union.

/Under the leadership of Lenin's party, together with the whole Soviet people,

we are continuing the great cause of October./ We are restructuring our life

so that it may be more joyful, brighter, and purer, so that honest working

people can breathe easily, so that broad scope is given to creative labor, and

so that the really free development of each is a condition of the free

development of all.

/In the relay of the generations it is our turn to take over the banner of the

revolution. This is a great responsibility but also a great honor. Let us

prove worthy of it, dear comrades!/

[prolonged applause]

/9599

CSO: 1800/557

75
PARTY AND STATE AFFAIRS

LiSSR TO HOLD MULTICANDIDATE ELECTIONS FOR LOCAL SOVIETS

Vilnius SOVETSKAYA LITVA in Russian 29 Mar 87 pp 1-3

[Unattributed report: "In the Presidium of the Lithuanian SSR Supreme Soviet]

[Text] On the instructions of the 27th CPSU Congress regarding improvement in

voting procedures, the Presidium of the Lithuanian SSR Supreme Soviet passed

a decree to conduct elections, on an experimental basis, during the forthcoming

1987 elections to local Soviets of People's Deputies for rayon, city, settlement, and apilinka [LiSSR rural administrative unit] Soviets of People's

Deputies,in the territory of Kaunasskiy Rayon, in multicandidate voting

districts.

The elections are being conducted in accordance with the Law of the Lithuanian

SSR "On Elections in Local Soviets of People's Deputies of the Lithuanian SSR"

as well as the present decree.

For the elections to the rayon Soviet of People's Deputies, 29 voting districts

are being formed; within them, 12S deputies will be elected. The number of

voting districts for elections to city, settlement and apilinka Soviets of

People's Deputies and the total number of deputies for each soviet is established by the executive committee of the Kaunasskiy Rayon Soviet of People's

Deputies.

Multicandidate voting districts are formed by joining existing districts so

that no fewer than three deputies are chosen from each of them. They are

formed by the executive committees of the appropriate Soviets of People's

Deputies for all soviet territories following, a procedure provided for in

Article 13 of the Law of the Lithuanian SSR "On Elections of Local Soviets

of People's Deputies of the Lithuanian SSR." These districts may be formed

at the boundaries of independent settlements, in microrayons, blocks, streets,

and other component parts of populated areas.

The executive committees of the appropriate Soviets of People's Deputies,

within the limits of the total number of deputies to be elected to a

soviet, establish the number of deputies to be elected in each multicandidate

district, taking into account the size of the population in the district.

The number of candidates proposed for deputies in multicandidate voting

districts should, as a rule, exceed the number of votes authorized [mändaty]

for the voting district.

76
Upon the nomination of candidates for a multicandidate voting district by

the various bodies of public organizations, by labor collectives, by

general meetings and by gatherings of citizens at their places of residence,

district preelection conferences are held. Conference representatives are

selected at the same time that candidates are nominated. A district preelection Conference is convened by rayon representative bodies of public

organizations. In district elections to city, settlement, and apilinka

Soviets of People's Deputies, preelection conferences are convened by the

leading public organizations.

The district preelection conference discusses the proposed nominations and

passes a resolution in support of them or, if necessary, makes changes in

the list of proposed candidates with the concurrence of the organization

that nominated them. Subsequently, the district preelection conference

approves the list and presents it to the district election committee for

registration of the candidates for deputy. At the same time an official

public record of candidates nominated for deputy is submitted.

In the event that all candidates for deputy in an election district are

nominated by a single representative body of a public organization, labor

collective, general meeting or gathering of citizens at their place of

residence, a district preelection conference will not be held.

Candidates for deputy, having been nominated in accordance with the

Law of the Lithuanian SSR "On Elections of Local Soviets of People's Deputies"

and the present decree, are registered by the appropriate district election

committee upon presentation by the district preelection conference or

by the representative body of a public organization, labor collective,

general meeting or gathering of citizens at their place of residence.

the registration of candidates for deputy is carried out through documentation

provided for by the Law of the Lithuanian SSR "On Elections of Local Soviets

of People's Deputies" and by public record of the district preelection

conference, except in cases when no such conference is held.

For the registration of candidates for deputy in multicandidate election

districts a single record is compiled, listing all candidates for deputy

registered in election districts according to alphabetical order.

The district election committee adopts a resolution approving the text of

the ballot.

A list of candidates registered in each election district is published in

the established order.

The voting is Conducted for all candidates for deputy who have been registered and Included on the ballot. In filling out the ballot the voter

strikes Out the names of all candidates that he is voting against and leaves

the names of the rest. Ballots not filled out in the manner prescribed are

voided.

Candidates for deputy receiving more than half the votes of listed voters

in the district win election to a multicandidate election district.

77
If as a result of the election the number of elected deputies exceeds the

number of votes authorized, deputies receiving fewer votes are considered

to be reserve deputies of the corresponding Soviet of People s Deputies.

A certificate of their status as reserve deputies is issued.

In the event of a tie in the voting, preventing a determination of deputies

elected, the appropriate rayon, city, settlement or apilinka election

committee will instruct the district election committee to carry out within

a two-week period a run-off vote in the district for the candidates

for deputy in question.

Upon removal of a deputy from the roster of a Soviet of People's Deputies,

his authorized vote is transferred to the reserve deputy who has received

the largest number of votes by comparison with the other reserve deputies

in a given district. The authority of this reserve deputy as deputy of the

soviet is recognized by that soviet upon presentation of the authorized

voting mandate to the Soviet's credentials committee.

Reserve deputies participate in the work of the Soviet of People's Deputies

with the right of a deliberative vote; they enjoy the right of deputy

inviolability and guarantees to the protection of labor rights provided for

by legislation for deputies of Soviets of People's Deputies.

The regulations of this decree are being introduced on an experimental basis

and will remain in effect during the period that the newly elected Soviet of

People's Deputies in Kaunasskiy Rayon remains in office.

12889

CSO: 1800/513

78
PARTY AND STATE AFFAIRS

KAZAKH CONFERENCE STRESSES PARTY MEMBERS» RESPONSIBILITY

Alma-Ata KAZAKHSTANSKAYA PRAVDA in Russian 24 Feb 87 pp 1, 3

[KazTAG report on conference»seminar at Kazakh CP Central Committee: "Confirming the Leninist Work Style"]

[Excerpts] A conference-seminar of executives of the republic was held on

21 February in the Kazakh Communist Party Central Committee.

The Central Committee Büro report "The Increased Personal Responsibility of

Kazakh CP Central Authorities and Central Committee Executives for Fulfillment

of the Requirements of the CPSU Central Committee January (1987) Plenum" was

delivered by G, V, Kolbin, first secretary of the Kazakh CP Central Committee.

The following Central Committee members participated in the discussion of the

report: Ye. N. Auyelbekov, first secretary of the Kzyl-Orda Obkom; T. K.

Volodina, presser from Petropavlovsk; B, K. Asatov, first secretary of Kustanay

Oblast's Rudnenskiy Gorkom; A, M. Mashurov, first secretary of Taldy-Kurgan

Oblast's Alakulskiy Raykomj and A. V. Basov, leader of a tractor-cropping

brigade of Kokchetav Oblast's "Chekhovskiy" Sovkhoz.

The question should be raised here: what has been the role of the Kazakh CP

Central Committee machinery and its officials? Unfortunately, tin dealing with

cadre problems] there is no doubt that the machinery party organization has not

displayed sufficient exactingness toward party members and attention to the

formation of dependable, stable ideological-political qualities of the communists. Many CPSU members who held executive office proved to be beyond

supervision and criticism. There were people in the Central Committee machinery with worthless attributes,

Selfish group interests and permissiveness, egptism and conceit combined with

servile subservience, an arrogant attitude toward one's juniors in position and

age, and inordinate love of gain are nothing other than the outcome of an extreme individualism demeaning and deforming the personality of the party worker, from which his personality of communist suffers and, at times, is lost

completely,

Former Central Committee Administrator A, G. Statenin was expelled from the

party for abuse of office for mercenary ends expressed in the group embezzlement of imported furniture and also the establishment of protectionism and on

79
this basis the squandering of housing and the exemption from liability of

subordinates who had compromised themselves.

For participation in the group embezzlement of imported furniture and also a

financial violation expressed in illegal monetary transactions pertaining to

payment for the furniture I, T. Shukumov, former accountant of the Central

Committee Administration of Affairs, was expelled from the party.

A critical evaluation of the State of affairs and high mutual stringency and

exactingness in the Central Committee machinery have been developed to an

increasingly great extent recently. However, it is still too early to speak

about this with complete confidence.

Some leaders of Central Committee departments are failing to secure and due

end results. It is sufficient to say that the rate of growth of industrial

production in January was far from that which we had planned.

Many enterprises and the industry of the republic as a whole operated in January considerably below their potential. The increase in the commodity product

constituted only 3.7 percent compared with the 4,5 percent established for the

year. Eleven out of the 33 union-republic and republic ministries and departments failed to cope with the quotas for the rate of increase in production.

The product sales plan with regard to supply commitments was fulfilled only

96,5 percent. The shortfall in the supply pf products amounted to $71 million,

which was 2.6 times more than in the corresponding period last year.

The plan for the manufacture of products of the top quality category was not

fulfilled (99.4 percent). The proportion thereof remained in fact at last

year's level (11.9 percent).

Labor productivity fell compared with the level achieved last year. The plan

with respect to this indicator was not fulfilled by 304 enterprises or almost

40 percent more than in January 1986. It is a long time since the republic has

had such a flop for January.

The Heavy Industry Department in the Central Committee machinery has long been

headed by I, B, Yedilbayev, member of the republic Communist Party Central Committee. He is an experienced official. And it is even more Important to

emphasize that in the period of reconstruction it is not telephone lectures

which are needed but specific actions and organizing work and practical assistance with an indication of specific approaches to achieve end results from a

territorial and sectoral angle.

The state of affairs in capital construction is causing serious concern. As

before, the commissioning of fixed capital in January constituted only 2 percent of the annual plan, Given the plan for the first quarter, it is not commissioned by the Aktyubinsk, Alma-Ata, Guryev, Dzhezkazgan, Kzyl-Orda, Semipalatinsk, and Uralsk oblispolkoms and at enterprises in the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Services. Of the 38 production facilities which were to

have been commissioned back in 1986, capacity was introduced at only 2, The

plan for the assimilation of state capital investments in January was fulfilled

only 76,9 percent, and construction-installation work, 91,5 percent,

80
Like last year, the annual quota of capital investments channeled into housing

construction was assimilated only 5 percent.

In contrast to last year, the plan for labor productivity growth in construe

tion was not fulfilled. Given a decline of 5,1 percent compared with January

of last year, the construction workers' average monthly wage fell only 1.3

percent»

This sector is headed by N, F. Krasnoselskiy, member of the republic party

organization Auditing Commission. And it needs to be said plainly that the

construction workers are not yet struggling in the best way to achieve the

scheduled goals and accomplish the complex fundamental tasks determined by

the "Accommodation-91" program.

Questions of trade and consumer service, which are in the hands of N, P.

Smolkov, member of the Auditing Commission, also demand closer attention.

Fulfillment of the plan for a total commodity turnover of R56.5 million (4.3

percent) was not secured this January, A specially big lag was permitted in

Aktyubinsk and Uralsk oblasts, where there was a decline in the amount of

commodity turnover compared with last year. There was a shortfall in fulfillment of the commodity turnover plan in public catering of R600,000 in the republic as a whole.

The quotas pertaining to consumer service were not fulfilled. Republic Ministry of Consumer Services enterprises failed to cope with the service plans.

The thwarting of the plans in the trade and consumer service system prevented

a normalization of monetary circulation. The cash plan was underfulfilled.

Reconstruction in the republic is being conducted not for reconstruction's

sake but in order for us to cope better and more efficiently with the plans

and accelerate progress. But how to secure acceleration if some are slackening their pace? How can we understand that executives of the Central Committee

are not assuming responsibility and not striving for a tangible change for the

better in the sectors which they lead? It is time to adopt a more selfcritical attitude toward our own practice.

Of course, many Central Committee officials are to an increasingly great extent

mastering the subtleties of party political work. They are proving to be in

the forward positions and able to encompass a wide range of issues, separate

the essential from the inessential, the principal from the secondary and the

general from the particular, see what is new and actively oppose what is outdated and worthless and passiveness and conservatism. But it is necessary in

this direction to perform much more work and foster higher professional and

party^political qualities of the staff workers. This can and should be done by

means of worker certification. It is not a question of using it to expel people

from the staff. No. It is aquestion of evokingby such approaches the need

in people for the greater and more in-depth study of Marxist-Leninist science

and the theory and practice of party building and realizing without inordinate

preparation the demands of the CPSU Central Committee January (1987) Plenum

pertaining to questions of reconstruction, a rise in the level of work with the

81
personnel, a change in the forms and methods of work and a renunciation of administrative and technocratic methods.

Very often the cause suffers from the fact that workers of the Central Committee machinery are more preoccupied with business correspondence and the preparation of reports and making decisions official, whereas work should be organized in accordance with the current requirements of the party Central Committee j leading and controlling work by people and for people.

After all, economic development in industry, construction and the agro-industrial complex, the growth of national income—all this is essential for the

good of man. And how ashamed we should be in front of people if the large

appropriations for housing, the development of health care and other social

questions have not been assimilated by the 5-year plan for decades. Even

given the slow rate of development of the republic's economy, full use has

not been made of the appropriations for the solution of social questions and

an Improvement in the housing conditions of the working masses. Nor have the

specific culprits, who should present themselves to the people and repent of

their incapacity, been named.

In accordance with the decisions öf the CPSÜ Central Committee January Plenum,

it is essential to establish as a rule of life executives' reports to subordinates, to the workforce. And to give these reports positive and negative

marks so that the executives may feel that the people under their jurisdiction

are suffering from what they are costing in work and that they can no longer

put up with this.

The development of democracy means according the workforce the right to choose

its leaderT~from the brigade leader through the director. It means new approaches, under the conditions of which particular concern must be displayed

for the training of a personnel reserve for promotion. It is necessary to

end the practive of having the number of candidates for an office correspond

exactly to the number of replacement positions. It is essential to prepare

for presentation to people not one or two persons but more in order for there

to be an opportunity to judge and compared who is better, who is worse, and

submit one's own proposals. It means a new form of work, for which today many

people are not prepared even morally. But time will not wait; for it is this

that is an active and effective form of the development of democratic principles, the growth of people's social assertiveness, a concerned proprietary

attitude toward the development of one's enterprise, an increase in one's

material well-being and satisfaction of other requirements.

As far as the question of the promotion of nonparty people to executive work

in all authorities, soviet, labor union and economic, people's control authorities and others, is concerned, there are not even approximate reserves here

because Leninist requirements have simply not operated and have ceased to be

observed in this field.

Yet Lenin gave constant reminders of the need for concern to be displayed for

nonparty personnel and recalled constantly that it was ridiculous to even

think of building communism merely with a small handful of people consisting

of communists alone, All of society and all its members must be included in

82
this vast creative work. And now also these Leninist demands have been duly

developed at the Central Committee January Plenum. Even today, following the

plenum, some comrades simply cannot grasp how a nonparty person can be recommended as chairman, for example, or a rayon soviet, how a nonparty person may

be elected chairman of a people's control committee. Not only may but must

since the party stratum among workers is not even in excess of 10 percent.

Consequently, 90 percent of specialists of various profiles are absent from

the ranks of those being trained for promotion for executive work, yet there

are many gifted people and capable organizers among the working people.

The workers of the Central Committee machinery need themselves also to reorganize in this respect and make this reorganization comprehensive: from the

Communist Party Central Committee through the primary party organization. A

great deal of organizing work has to be done.

The old approaches and cliches in work and communication and in interpersonal

relations set the teeth on edge. The advice of wise and skillful mentors who

said that beginning any job and preparing for a meeting or plenu, do it as if

you were doing it from scratch, for the first time, read, interpret, determine,

"make, invent, test," is practically forgotten.

It is necessary to create the conditions for the rejection out of hand of

intolerable institutional boredom and all manifestations of bureaucratism.

The new situation demands new behavior, new action. And for this it is neces«.

sary to work more on oneself in the search for the optimum ways of tackling

a task.

It is difficult to wean people away from former approaches and former evaluations of their activity. For example, the specific question of milk production. Everyone counts from the previous starting point in terms of yield per

forage cow in the past 24 hours. If more milk has been obtained, then, it

would seem, good, If less, not that good. But the calculation of the milk

yield needs to be performed differently and the following approach taken as

the rule: how much milk per day is needed for the complete satisfaction of

requirements and how much is produced. The difference here is the result of

personal work deficiency, the result of insufficiently active measures to

achieve this end, necessary result. As yet, however, the end result is frequently determined in the form which is easier to obtain and not in which

people's requirements would be fully satisfied.

Each area in work needs to be approached intelligently, whether it be an improvement in the supply of food to the population or economics. It is necessary to be exacting and completely honest in the selection of the criteria of

the evaluation of the activity of this body, group and specific person or the

other. It is with good reason that folk say that "if a brood hen gets down to

work skillfully, a chicken will be hatched from the swill." But it is necessary precisely to get down to work and get down to work skillfully! It is

necessary to organize people, but how is this done at times?

A decision on this question or the other is adopted, and it contains a list

of points to be enacted which frequently (even if all are fulfilled from

83
beginning to end) do not alter the state of affairs and dp not ensure; the end

result because party officials are highly skilled at writing standard documents. The words "incumbent,""expand," "extend" and "emphatically put a

stop to" may be glimpsed in them, but subsequently such documents are rewritten in their own key by lower party authorities. Strict order heeds to

be brought to bear here also. There is apparently reason to call attention to

an enhancement of the authority of the party decision. And it would obviously

be correct for the draft decisions submitted to the Central Committee Büro

or Secretariat for examination to be defended by the appropriate departments.

And if they show that the planned measures would really secure the proper result and persuade people that following the adoption of the decision it will

not be a question of dotting the "i's" but that systemic and intelligent work

to achieve the necessary end result will he organized, only then may the document acquire the force of a party decision. ;

I have been convinced)repeatedly that the reconstruction is gathering pace ,

more rapidly where the rayköms and gorkoms are operating more energetically,

in the new way. And this is understandable, they are closest to the primary

party organizations and the workforce and, consequently, to the leading edge

of the struggle for an acceleration of the country's socioeconomic development ,,•..

At the same time there are still many party committees and workers who are

continuing to live in the past and operate in the old way and who remain on

the sidelines of the reconstruction, as it were, Criticism may also be boldly

leveled at members of the Kazakh CP Central Committee and obkom first secre- : taries, but primarily at Central Committee staff workers. After all, how

Often does it happen that a Central Committee official arrives in an oblast or

rayon, chats with the party committee, familiarizes himself through the executive's words with the plan fulfillment figures, visits one or two farms-, where

he once again chats with the leaders, at best, takes a look around the farm,

stands at the edge of a field, makes some observations to the effect, for

example, that it is necessary to cart out the manure from the livestock section

in good time and not delay with the grass cutting.... And with these "guiding"

observations he considers his visit to the rayon to have been successfully completed. It would seem that the local managers had only been waiting for the

Central Committee official to arrive to learn from him that the manure needed

to be carted out from the livestock sections. Of course, he must see this

also, but the main thing is that he is called upon to discern behind the individual fact and phenomenon a trend, determine in the small shoots of what

is hew an experiment and its usefulness or, on the contrary, pointlessness

anc contrived nature and be able to evaluate as a whole. How a region is

developing and what is needed to ensure that this development proceed in a

vertical channel, toward the outlined end result.

It is not obvious to every manager, even a not very competent one, that the

production of agricultural products must be greater than the amount of their

sale to the state? If things are managed otherwise, the economy of the sector

could be fundamentally undermined, and we could ultimately reach a situation

where procurement plans are thwarted and the supply of foodstuffs to the population deteriorates.

84
Why, then, is the policy of a high rate of growth of the surrender of meat to

the state not being supported by a higher rate of increase in the production

thereof? Because the staff of the party Central Committee and its departments

and party officials locally have grown accustomed to the lag and have hot

held executives* duly accountable for an intensification of the meat shop and

are continuing to operate according to the stereotype.

Currently many obkoms are at their own initiative engaged in enterprising

activity for an increase in the production of animal husbandry products. In

the past livestock wintering period many oblasts have been obtaining a pronounced addition in meat over last year's level for an improvement in local

supplies.

However, it is still too early to flatter ourselves with what has been

achieved, Stftte purchases of meat declined in this period in 11 oblasts,

particularly in Alma-Ataj Guryev, Kokchetav and Chimkent oblasts. It is evi-;

dently necessary once again tomremind obkom first secretaries M. S, Mendybayev,

A. A. Kulibayev, M. R, Sagdiyev and R, Myrzashev, members of the Central Committee, of their personal responsibility for an improvement in food supply to

the population, '.

Livestock tuberculosis and brucellosis are, as before, a serious problem in

animal husbandry. An extremely inauspicious situation has taken shape in this

respect in North Kazakhstan Oblast, when the diseases have encompassed many

farms; The situation Kustanay, Tselinograd, Pavlodar, and Turgay oblasts

remains tense, And here also the most serious complaints have to be levelled

at obkom first secretaries V. T, Stepanov, V. P. Demidenko, A, G, Braun, P. I.

Yerpilov arid 0. S. Kuanyshev for the failure to adopt decisive and efficient

measures to bring order to bear here.

Or the question of organization of the brigade contract in agricultural

production and introduction of such a progressive approach in the economy as

the "standard monetary system;" Why has this experience not become widespread

in the republic? Of the 112 farms in Karagana Oblast, for example, even the

customary checking system is eployed only in two, and in Guryev, Dzhezkazgan

and Mangyshlak oblasts the party committees have practically completely ignored

this effective anti-expenditure management mechanism.

Yet the party authorities'main tasks consist of developing the positive and

"replanting" it extensively and ubiquitously as a strong seedling from one farm

in another and literally hunting for progressive experience,

It is correctly said that the Central Committee members and its staff officials

must set the tone in work, but it should he borne in mind that the strength of

influence on people and their deeds and behavior depend not only on the position and office occupied by this executive or the other.' Reliance solely on

the authority of the office does not permit the hope that people, having

listened to the executive's observations and instructions, will carry them out

as required. The response depends primarily on personal authority. Arid personal authority is formed from many attributes, primarily from the extent to

which the executive is competent, morally pure, sincerely firm in his beliefs

and just toward people.

85
Unfortunately, it is frequently the case in practice that a communist is

elected to a party committee, and he believes that respect is due him inasmuch

as he holds a certain executive position. He performs some function or other

in work to the extent of his capabilities and desires, but as committee member, he does not overburden himself with work—he meticulously sits through a

plenum or aktiv meeting and at times, if required, he speaks, votes for a

resolution and with this considers his duties as one elected to a party body

at an end. It is as if the credit of trust given by election to a party committee is understood by the communist merely as supplementary credit to his

personal authority. Why is the party committee nonchalant or even indifferent

to such an attitude? Because in creating authority for some official and electing him to a party body it does not concern itself with ensuring that this authority be used not for personal well-being But for the interests of the party,

the state and society.

There are still officials who perceive criticism as an unforeseen misfortune

of office and give it a hostile reception. Others, on the other hand, have

made it a rule simply to "flirt" with it. Both are bad. It is necessary to

take criticism seriously and, what is most important, draw conclusions from it

for if it is fair, it teaches a person to rid himself of shortcomings, The

light of criticism and general openness help illuminate secret aspects of life

which are frequently concealed from the public, contribute to the triumph of

justice and openly show who is who«

Thus D, Bekezhanov, who had for more than 20 years worked as assistant to the

former Kazakh CP Central Committee first secretary, abused his office, engaged

in protectionism, unfoundedly interfered in personnel selection and assignment

and promoted relatives and persons close to him to executive positions.

He was expelled from the?party for the abuses.

Some comrades continue to be somewhat afraid of Bekezhanov and those like him

because they have seen the consequences of their unlawful doings and have suffered a good deal from them. There is today no need to fear those who have

abused or continue to abuse their authority and office and their stooges. Let

them fear openness and the general resolve in the struggle for justice and

think well before continuing to abuse, revive cliquishness and operate outside

of the framework of Soviet laws and public morality.

The Kazakh CP Central Committee knows of instances of some of its members,

including creative workers, having ended up at the police station in an exceedingly unseemly, unsightly form which is demeaning to human dignity. Out

of respect for the possessor of high party credentials the police officers, as

they sometimes have done previously also, let the detainee go in peace, without

a strict punishment. But can a blemished reputation subsequently be cleaned

with a procured medical certificate and labored explanations to one's work

comrades and party comrades? Such instances demand the strictest and most

scrupulous assessment.

The following important question is the need for a more specific determination

of what functions, what duties specifically should be performed by the Kazakh

86
CP Central Committee and obkom members and candidates who do not hold executive

office but who are ordinary workers representing various strata of society.

One may very often hear in conversation with them the following answer? "But

in actual fact what should I be doing? I attend plenums, listen to the

speeches and speak myself periodically, what else?" In actual fact, what

else?'

Far from every member of an elective body from the ranks of the so-called rank

and file answers this question intelligently, nor can each official of the

party committee machinery provide sufficiently full clarification.

The whole point is that neither the Central Committee machinery nor the party

authorities locally have yet displayed -concern to ensure that the elected

communists be taught forms and methods of work in the masses. And it turns

out as a result that a comrade who is conscientious, modest and an excellent

specialist in his field is not equipped for the active sphere of party activity. Yet this ordinary Central Committee member, enjoying authority in the

worker masses, a communist, could move mountains in the sense of agitation

and the organization of work not only in his own but in other outfits of the

region. But he has hot been taught. He has not been helped find his place in

party, organizing work.

Another matter is the inadequate assertiveness of Communist Party Central Committee members from the ranks of enterprise, administration and organization

executives, and it is time to adopt a stricter approach here to an evaluation

of their actions. Much has been entrusted to the executive, and there is a

manifold increase in his accountability. After all, he is responsible not

only for himself but also for others, and the end result of his work is manifested in the results of the activity of tens, hundreds and, at times,

thousands of people. The responsibility is even greater if communists show

their trust in an executive by electing him to the party Central Committee.

In this case the executive bears the burden of party political leadership,

and not only in his own outfit but on a republic scale. And since all comrades elected to the Central Committee have been given a certain credit of

trust, they must make a constant self-analysis and upgrade their practical,

professional attributes.

The moral character of the executive-communist was delat with at the CPSU

Central Committee January Plenum. For the sake of the purity thereof individual work with people by means of reports in the primary party organizations and

an updating of officials' references and certification has been intensified,

There has appeared in the republic party organization such a worthless

phenomenon as protectionism, the establishment of the "you play ball with

me,,," principle and a solicitous attitude toward family and relatives at the

expense of society. The people see this injustice and are emphatically demanding the eradication of this socially dangerous evil. When worker and

kolkhoz member dynasties arise, this is a positive phenomenon because it is

progressive and corresponds to the collective spirit and content of material

production and the socialist lifestyle. But the appearance of family

"dynasties" of executives is contrary to the very essence of the Soviet system

and the standards of party morals.

87
There are such negative phenomena also in the leadership of the VUZ's, where

at every step family ties secretly, but firmly bind the deans. And it would

be all right if each of them corresponded to the spirit and demands of the

times and was an example of high personal merits, genuine authority, professional attributes and the necessary level of political culture. Unfortunately, the majority of them lacks high sociopolitical and moral qualities.

Protectionism and subservience are flourishing on their party, however, and

high party mindedness is lacking,

Executives now can be and must be elected, and the masses have the right to

express no confidence in those who are not today justifying trust and revealing inadequate professional, political qualities and make their recommendations for a new executive. And, furthermore, the candidates for a vacant

executive position are being chosen by way of competition instead of the

former practice of direct appointment. The competitive method must not become a nutrient medium for manipulation and the use of personal connections.

And the family approach, kinship, nepotism, and national preference and

protectionism in questions of the promotion of executives infringe the right

accorded members of the workforce to choose their leader and damage the reconstruction and communist building. Instances of family preference, protectionism, and patronage in the selection and activity of this executive or the

other must be completely precluded.

It has been mentioned that not all membersorif the party Central Committee

are providing for the proper and results in the area of work entrusted to

them. Does Central Committee member A, A. Dergachev, for example, always

know what his deputies and the managers of the enterprises of the

"Mangyshlakneft" Association which he heads are up to if he attempts to decide all questions himself, individually? This incorrect style contains the

reasons for the diminished responsibility of many local officials, the lack

of a purposeful search for ways« to raise the oil yield of the beds and make

efficient use of oil-producing capacity and the inadequate attention to the

creation of the proper work and recreation conditions for the oilmen.

Nor, evidently, is S. P, Kurzhey, member of the Central Committee and general director of the "Ekibastuzugol" Association, always thinking about the

needs of the people he leads if, with multimillion-ruble profits, he is inadequately developing the social sphere.

The plan for the introduction of housing and health care facilities was

thwarted here last year. Kindergarten provision in the association constitutes

only 63 percent, and of the 15,000 workers, there are 4,200 on the housing

list. It is not surprising that personnel turnover constitutes an annual

13-15 percent.

The actions and behavior of some executives raise the question of whether

they are not adopting a formal attitude toward their election to the Central

Committee, After all, the following Central Committee members have been

punished along party lines by the appropriate obkomsj S. L, Mamontov, first

secretary of the Glubokovskiy Raykom of East Kazakhstan Oblast, for a supervicial approach to an examination of complaints and V, P. Osipenko, first

88
secretary of the Tselinograd Gorkom, for lack of jbectivity in the evaluation

of the antisocial and amoral actions of a projectionist of the oblast television studio. Ye, Gabdullin, candidate of the Central Committee and senior

horse herd of the Sovkhoz imeni T, Masin, was strictly reprimanded by Uralsk

Oblast's'Urdinskiy Raykom, this being entered in his record, for concealment

from the accounts of personal livestock and its keep in the public herd.

And do the actions of Z, K, Nurkadilov, chairman of the Alma-Ata Gorispolkom,

who was punished by the obkom for personal Immodesty when deciding housing

questions, whereas thousands of Alma-Ata residents have been on the apartment

list for1 dozens of years, correspond to the high demands made of a member of

the Central Committee?

While critically evaluating the state of affairs pertaining to an enhancement

of the fruitfulness of the work of the party Central Committee and its elective aktiv and the executive staff, it nonetheless has to be observed that a

reorganization for the better has been observed in the style of work. And at

the same time it needs to be admitted that this reorganization has not affected

the style of work of the soviet, union, and Komsomol authorities. When it is

a question of an improvement in the style of party work, it should be borne in

mind that it takes shape from the style and methods of work of each individual

member of the party Central Committee, After all, in the social plane style

means the individual's method of personal action, the individual himself.

Therefore reorganizing the style of our work means reorganizing and improving

ourselves, This is not always easy and is a painful process at times. It is

necessary to abandon evolved habits and some traditions. It is also sometimes

necessary to infringe some of one's own interests. But this has to be done.

The recovery of the moral-psychological climate in the whole party organization -and an improvement in all activity will depend on this.

The times demand that we give ourselves and others clear, specific answers to

many complex questions, ",,,It is necessary to speak plainly," V, 14. Lenin

taught, "This is of interest and importance not only from the viewpoint of

theoretical truth but also from the practical aspect. We cannot learn to

tackle our tasks with new methods today if yesterday's experience has not

opened our eyes to the erroneousness of the old methods,"

N. F, Mishchenko, head of a section of the CPSU Central Committee Organizational*Party Work Department, took part in the conference-seminar.

8850/9274

CSO; 1830/355

89
CULTURE

SOVIET CINEMA MUST REFLECT RESTRUCTURING PROCESS

PM021051 Moscow SOVETSKAYA KULTURA in Russian 24 Mar 87 p 4

[Article by Doctor of Art Studies S. Freylikh, honored artist of the RSFSR:

"Irreversibility"]

[Text] No matter how many reefs may obstruct the path of restructuring in

cinematography, the very idea of implementing this restructuring has excited

the public's awareness. Cinematography workers have gained faith in the

likelihood of changes, passions boil over in the course of arguments, people

whose voices we have never heard are rushing to the rostrums. This has been

lacking in our cinematography for a long time, perhaps ever since the twenties.

The restructuring of cinematography, just like the restructuring of society

as a whole, cannot be decisive without the chief protagonist—the people. It

is now—again by way of a parallel with the twenties—that the question of

establishing a Society of Movie Lovers has been raised at the fifth congress

of the country's cinematography workers. In this way, restructuring also

involves those for whom art exists, in other words the viewing public.

But the very fact that questions have started to be decided at public meetings

[soborno] causes irrigation among people who have gotten used to the closed

environment [bezglasnost]. In the course of the past decades we have gotten

out of the habit of democracy and come to accept that the most important

problems were resolved behind closed doors [neglasno], in the silence of

offices, while various ideas occurring to people who were frequently incompetent were dressed up as resolutions addressed to the masses for unconditional

implementation.

How many critical situations developed in the history of cinematography because

decisions as to what was good and what was bad were made in precisely this

subjective and bureaucratic fashion. Modern thinking is historical thinking;

it cannot be formed on the basis of evaluations of the current moment alone.

It is necessary to know one's past, not to forget the achievements, and to

be aware of why it was that innovative works suffered beneath the blows of

fate. Like, for example, "Bezha's Meadow" [Bezhin Lug] in the thirties,

"Ivan the Terrible" [Ivan Groznyy] in the forties, and "The Ilich Border Post

[Zastava Ilicha] (this was the actual conceptual title of the movie "I Am

20 Years Old" [Mne Dvadtsat Let], and "Andrey Rublev" in the sixties. The

improper treatment of those movies was not only a drama for their makers but

90
it also held back the development of cinematographic practice and distorted

the idea of the purposefulness of the moviemaking process.

I anticipate examples of reassessment of values, when movies which for unknown

reasons were awarded all sorts of prizes are being exposed in their inconsistency,

while other movies, which gathered dust on the shelves for years, are now

appearing on the screen and are treated as masterpieces? Yes, I am well aware

of the latest facts, and not just through the press but also as member of the

Cinematography Workers Union disputes commission, which has already signed

several dozen protocols applying for the release of previously banned movies.

A rehabilitation of primary truths is underway. Ostozhenka Street has regained

its original name. Kira Muratova has regained the dignity of a Soviet artist.

But these facts should not, by themselves, bring about any sense of complacency

within us. It is necessary to create conditions for making the process

irreversible. It is the lessons of the past, the facts which I addressed

earlier in this article, that teach us that the point is not to simply change

various leaders—be it in the State Committee for Cinematography, the Cinematography Workers Union, or the studio. The science of management attaches

great importance to the leader's competence and personal qualities, but

it does not Idealize this aspect.

Have we learned lessons from what has happened—and this is necessary—so as to

render the process irreversible? It is necessary to rule out any chance of one

group of untouchable directors' being replaced by another such group. Ultimately,

the creation of idols bodes nothing good for the idols themselves. As soon as

circumstances change, they are immediately deposed and consigned to oblivion.

Thinking is nurtured through perception of complex and contradictory phenomena.

We, however, preferred not to talk about complex phenomena, as if they did not

exist. Now might be the right time to write a monograph on Mikhail Edisherovich

Chiaureli. It is possible to see in this talented director's movies how time

is fractured and reputation declines when an artist dedicates himself to the

portrayal of a false idea. Chiaureli's movies from the last period were an

extreme expression of the style of an epoch which we still obscurely describe

as "the personality cult period." Leaf through any journal, newspaper, or

book of that time, and you will inevitably come across Chiaureli's name in

each case. The-All-Union State Institute for Cinematography programs listed

the director as a leading master. But his hero departed this life, and people

suddenly stopped even mentioning Chiaureli, as if he had never existed in the

history of cinematography.

Meanwhile, his real merit cannot be overlooked, and what I mean are movies of

the twenties and thirties like "The Flask" [Saba], "Khabarda" [meaning

unknown], "The Last Masquerade" [Posledniy Maskarad], and "Arsen" [a man's

name]. At the same time, his deviations from realism are also instructive—the

movies "The Fall of Berlin" [Padeniye Berlina] and "The Vow" [Klyatva] are

perfect examples of a style which could be fairly described as pseudoclassicism.

We cannot understand an artist if we take him only as an object of glorification

91
or study. It is instructive to examine how Academician Grabar wrote his

history of art. He highly valued Repin, but he entitled the last chapter

of the monograph on Repin "Downhill." In our time, when a painter goes

downhill we discard him, we love people who are "upwardly mobile." But is

life itself not driven by contradictions, and is the actual historical

situation prevailing in our society today not based on a contradiction on a

universal scale? This contradiction is echoed in the movie "Go and See'

[Idi i Smotri] and in the movie "Repentance" [Pokayanlye].

But how rare are such successes! It has been established that 80 percent of

movies released each year fail to even recoup the money spent on making them.

It is reasonable to ask: Given such a mass production of shoddy output, why

has there been no case of a movie studio's going bankrupt? While making dull

movies, the studios even manage to win prizes. This means that their sins are

covered up by the state, in other words the taxpayer, and therefore the viewer.

The press has repeatedly sounded the alarm in this context, and I remember

an article which was actually titled "The Technology of Dull Movies." But

alas, no articles by critics, no directives or resolutions can halt the output

of dull movies once dullness establishes itself in production. It has

become clear: Dullness is suitable for officials and ungifted moviemakers.

It is suitable for editors who, with frenzied zeal, distort the intentions of

script writers and directors, haughtily lecturing them on how to write scripts

and make movies. Now a historian of cinematography cannot ignore A. Lipkov s

article "Inspection...on the Highways" in NOVYY MIR (No 2, 1987). A movie

which was banned as "harmful" in 1971 was described by movie critics as the

best movie of the year" 15 years later. This example can tell us much about

the meaning of the changes occurring in our cinematography. But the fact

that the movie was finally released, and that specific persons guilty of

causing the movie's dramatic fate were named, still cannot be itself guarantee

that the mistakes of the past will not be repeated.

It is necessary to change the thinking which developed within the production

system, where creativity was subordinated to the machinery of a moviemaking

factory. The new model of the management of cinematographic production gives

scope not just to creative workers. The reorganization tending toward the

independence of creative links in the cinematography system will free state_

organs from petty daily routine, from bureaucratic befuddlement, from offxcxous

supervision of every step taken by studios, from the pointless and mindboggling reading of each and every script written in all 15 republics. Under

the new conditions state apparatus officials will be able to look beyond their

office desk, take an overall view of the situation, and evaluate the trend

of movement in order to coordinate collaboration between subdivisions and

forecast the cinematographic process. This is precisely the way an experienced

conductor acts—without substituting for anyone else in the orchestra he is

nonetheless necessary to each individual player and to the orchestra as a

whole—and an equally inspired conductor is needed by the orchestra which goes

by the name of "Soviet cinematography."

The experience of the experimental studio which emerged under "Mosfilm" in the

mid-sixties remains an instructive lesson for us. The memory of it was

appropriately revived right before the cinematography workers congress, when

92
people were groping for ways to improve cinematography work» But here is the

only point that was not brought up. The very idea of financial autonomy

placed administrators and artists in a state of correct human relations. The

task which faced the studio demanded not only a talented artistic leader

(Grigoriy Chukhray) but also talented chiefs (Vladimir Pozner and Leonid Mursa).

The studio's dramatic end is also instructive. The more successful its work

became, the more ill will it created» and in the end it was closed down by

administrative order. This end to an innovative idea resulted in years of

disbelief in any chance of fundamental changes in cinematography. And was only

cinematography affected? The First Television Program has already broadcast

twice a show based on Fedor Burlatskiy's play "Two Views From One Office"

[Dva Vzglyada iz Odnogo Kabineta]. This very topic—the likelihood of change—

is the subject of an argument between two characters seated in a party obkom

office: One of them, figuratively speaking, is a "skeptic" (P. Velyaminov),

the other is an "optimist" (A. Boltnev). It seems as if we are not watching

a play at all, since the characters are only mouthpieces of certain ideas,

but these ideas are so vitally important and the actors are so fascinating that

we listen to them, careful not to utter a single word, because they are arguing

about something of which we are thinking all the time, about which we argue with

one another and at times even with our own selves.

So why was the experimental studio's experience not developed? The studio was the

work of a small group of enthusiasts, and it ran contrary to the thinking of

the time.

The 27th party congress marked the beginning of a new chapter in Soviet society's

history and, by theoretically substantiating the renewal of socialism as a social

system, the congress defined the levers for the implementation of an objectively

irreversible process.

And it is incumbent on us cinematography workers to substantiate theoretically

and with an equal measure of responsibility the need for changes in all our

cinematography work. The Fifth Cinematography Workers Congress cleared the

obstructions out of the way of Soviet cinematography. The Cinematography

Workers January (1987) Plenum discussed the questions of a new organization of

movie production and distribution.

Born out of fierce arguments and painful deliberations, the model of the new

cinematography meets the requirements of the present historical situation,

whose specific feature is the fact that it is not just a matter of the "top"

restructuring the "bottom": The entire system is being renewed, and the party

describes these renewals as revolutionary. But the practical organization must

be based on theory. Of course it is good that, 20 years after it was made,

Abuladze's outstanding movie "Supplication" [Molba], which was ranked in the

third (!) category, was literally a few days ago regraded in the top category.

But this was more than just a mistake by administrators. We did, after all,

read articles by theoreticians raising suspicions as regards the use of

parables in Georgian cinematography, but "Supplication" was made in the form of

a parable and now it, together with the "Tree of Desire" [Drevo zhelankiya] and

"Repentance," makes up a famous trilogy.

93
And once again: Why go back to the dramatic history of some movie: It has

been released, justice has triumphed; why rub salt in the wound? As a rule,

these ideas originate from people who played an unseemly role in the dramatic

fate of various movies; restructuring and democratization are dangerous for

them, and under conditions in which openness and information are lacking

their personal mistakes, at times verging on crimes, are easily shifted onto

the shoulders of history, society, and Soviet power. We revert to mistakes

of the past not for the sake of exacting revenge but in order to discover

their essence, because without this the process may prove reversible. Each

document banning one movie or another was backed by a program, unpublicized

but harsh and imperative. Have we in fact revealed the positions from which

"The Topic [Tema], for example was banned? Now that it is reaping success

both on Soviet screens and abroad (top "Golden Bear" prize at the 1987

Berlin festival), it is annoying to think of the time it spent gathering dust,

when movies like it advance art and help to demolish the stereotypes of old

views of what art is allowed to do, what is typical, and what is modern.

And how about the "inspection on the Highways?" People who banned this movie

were convinced that they were upholding the heroic traditions of "Chapanev '

in cinematography. But how blind they proved to have been. New art does not

make copies of old masterpieces but is a continuation of them. The correlation of classical and modern is the most acute problem in practice. The style

of many current movies so obviously has much in common with the quest of the

twenties. This is an objective process, and it deserves the most careful

attention in our theory. It is true that there were occasions when people

engaged directly in practice were heard to say: We do not read your books or

articles. Naive people, they are the makers of practice but, by not reading

books and articles, they are captives of predominant aesthetic concepts and

at times of dubious stereotypes. For example, the terms "highbrow" and^

"escapist," dilettantish with overtones of cynicism, are firmly rooted in

studios as definitions of the, so to speak, serious and mass-appeal genres.

The metaphysical division between the serious and the entertaining is the

scourge of contemporary cinematography, and yet they can collaborate both

within the limits of art as a whole and within the parameters of one single ^

work. Is this not what the great Russian literature teaches us! Dostoyevskxy s

philosophical novel "The Brothers Karamazov" has levels of perception. But

these levels do not exist in isolation. With the help of melodrama (the motif

of cruel love) and thriller methods (the murder investigation), the author

seems to delve deep into ordinary people's primary feelings. So? Does

he amuse us in this way, does he offer us, so to speak, relaxation from serious

deliberations? No. Passions and experiences sustain the upper stratum of the

novel, rendering its intellectual stratum not abstract-philosophical but

captivating in its humanity. These traditions are also alive in classic Soviet

cinematography. Take the overtones of an urban romance away from the "Maxim

Trilogy" (Trilogiya o Maksime), take away the young hero's guitar, and^you

will transform a wonderful movie about the revolution into a "highbrow work.

Restructuring humanizes relations in society. It is progressing slowly and

painfully in cinematography, and we can see how the past has merged with the

new and how difficult it is at times to separate them. The old concepts are

94
still tenacious, but the effect of new criteria can already be felt. Dull

movies continue to be made using scripts written earlier, but "Repentance" is

already in being, and next to it we have Aleksandr Tvardovskiy's poem "The

Right to Remember" [Po Pravu Pamyati] which has finally been published—these

phenomena in art and literature speak of the dramatic and profound causes of

the present changes, for which our society has literally paid through its

suffering.

The events occurring in our country are attracting world public attention.

In a conversation with M.S. Gorbachev, Amintore Fanfani, president of the

Italian Senate, said that success in what has started in the Soviet Union

will be of enormous importance for the whole world. Failure would be a tragedy

for mankind.

Thus, world importance is assumed by an event whose scale has not yet been

discerned by our cinematography because it is too close to it. Writings on

current affairs are more effective and sharper. Newspapers are more popular

than thrillers, and this is typical of society's mental attitude. It deserves

movies examining in depth the struggles and dramas of our time. The scheme of

internal restructuring echoes the idea of relations among the earth's

inhabitants in the nuclear age, threatening the destruction of mankind—this

idea was put forward by the party and accepted in the world as the "new

philosophy." This is the modern thinking, which is linked with the belief that

the interests of humanity as a whole are above the interests of any class.

This idea does not contradict our history but stems from the ultimate meaning

of our struggle. Let me recall Nikolay Shengelay's words: "I came to cinematography to praise the meaning of the October Revolution for all mankind."

/8309

CSO: 1800/497

95
CULTURE

SCRIPTWRITER DISCUSSES RESTRUCTURING IN CINEMA

PM161405 Moscow MOSKOVSKAYA PRAVDA in Russian 3 Apr 87 p 3

[Interview with Ye. I. Gabrilovich by Ye. Petrova under the rubric "Encounter":

"Frankness Is a Hard Science. We Talk With Ye.I. Gabrilovich, One of Soviet

Cinematography's Most Senior Scriptwriters"--first paragraph is a MOSKOVSKAYA

PRAVDA introduction]

[Text] The movies "Mashenka," "Communist," "Lenin in Paris," and "Declaration

of Love," made from his scripts over the years, have one thing in common—the

artist's desire to approach as closely as possible to the truth, to historical,

psychological, and artistic truth. This was not always easy, these movies did

not always encounter immediate success or understanding on the part of viewers.

The scriptwriter's commitment to his chosen path is that much more valuable.

[Petrova] Yevginey Iosifovich, what is the meaning of contemporary cinematography today?

[Gabrilovich] I think that being contemporary—be it yesterday, today, or

tomorrow—primarily means raising problems and producing arguments. What I

value in art is not just a narrative of events, not a photographic record of

life, but the ability to reflect the profound dialectical processes in social

and personal relations. Contemporary cinematography owes a debt to restructuring. We are still busy flagellating ourselves for past shortcomings. We tell

ourselves: Things were difficult in the past, but no sooner have we cast off

the burden of heavy sins than the outlines of the bright future will emerge

on the horizon. If art were to indulge in such placidity today, the road we

are following may prove to be a dead end. The actual process of restructuring,

with its internal conflicts and dramatic situations, is still outside any

serious analysis.

[Petrova] What are the conflicts which you personally perceive within restructuring?

[Gabrilovich] Recently I, together with the young scriptwriter Yu. Polyakov,

finished work on the script "Everything Will Be Fine" [Vse Budet Khorosho] for

director L. Vtoroy. It is the story of a young girl, a Communist and ardent

supporter of restructuring. She is energetic, full of hopes for the future,

96
eager to build the new. People around her also verbally acclaim restructuring.

But only verbally. The result is that the main heroine finds herself rejected.

In my view, this is a perfectly realistic story line. It is also a realistic

fact that words about renewal often cover settlement of personal scores or

reprisals for criticism, claiming that the critic hinders restructuring. There

are more than enough conflicts. But it is the writer himself, the scriptwriter, who today must restructure himself in order to enable cinematography

to speak of all this in a well-argued and convincing fashion, in depth. It

would seem that there is nothing simpler than to say what you think. It does

appear, however, that for many years on end you have had a built-in strict

censor who constantly prompts: It is still too early to speak about this,

tread a bit more softly here in case you offend someone, it is still better

not to say this directly, paraphrase it.

Nothing disappears without a trace in history. For years on end we were taught

to live by directives, resolutions, instructions. We came to accept that

mistakes in the set course are impossible. We got used to giving "unconditional

support" and voting only "for." Look what happens. Today we criticize past

shortcomings actively and fairly. But does it not also happen that people

who only yesterday spoke out in "ardent support" of everything that was being

done are now indignant at what happened yesterday. Someone who has gotten

accustomed to thinking according to orders from above can switch from one

position to another without any special effort.

I recently had an opportunity to observe an interesting scene. A little girl

returned home from the kindergarten with tears in her eyes. "I'm not going there

any more. The supervisor is nasty, the food is tasteless, the kids fight."

Guests arrived a few minutes later and asked her: "Well, how do you like the

kindergarten?" She answered: "Very well!" You see? There she is, a tiny

human being, almost genetically conditioned,: "I think one thing and I say

something else." There it is, the beginning of duplicity which later leads to

false statements at meetings, on radio and television, in movies and literature.

Nor should anyone think that as soon as a directive condemning this phenomenon

is issued, everybody will immediately start speaking frankly. The restructuring of mentality means prolonged, painstaking, and daily labor.

[Petrova] In your opinion, is there anything else apart from restructuring

that contemporary cinematography ought to cover?

[Gabrilovich] I think that speaking the language of the time does not mean

talking about things taking place at the moment. Cinematography owes a great

debt to our fatherland's history. Numerous movies have been made about the

war and the revolution but, as a rule, they are decorative and do not reflect

history either in sufficient depth or always truthfully. Little has been said

so far by party-minded cinematography about the negative phenomena which

occurred during the war.

[Petrova] How do you interpret the term "party-minded cinematography?"

97
[Gabrilovich] Party-minded cinematography is by no means obliged to classify

everything or to draw dogmatic conclusions: This is approved, this is not

approved. It is necessary to be wary of the former desire to present on screen

whatever party offices have already decided. The artist's task is to conduct

a daily and profound analysis of history and the present so as to help the

party along its future path.

I think that we still have to turn back to the years of collectivization and

postwar construction work. These topics are awaiting their authors. But the

main topic which ought to be covered are the real victories and complexities

of Soviet man. Our screen gradually established the typical features of the

positive hero: Straightforward and unbending, even if he did have any shortcomings, he quickly eradicated them. The hero has disappeared over the last

few years, to be replaced by the antihero: Rogue, dodger, petty thief who,

as a rule, was swiftly re-educated and repented his sins within the 90 minutes

of screen time. I cannot give a precise prescription for the hero of our time.

The main point is truth and depth in depicting him. Less dogmatism, fewer

magic cures which drive cinematography into feebleness and boredom.

[Petrova] How, in your view, is it possible to halt the stream of dull and

uniform movies, of which much is said today?

[Gabrilovich] Dullness, in my view, is very often a manifestation of unprofessionalism. We teach students at the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography everything and nothing. Superficial erudition to the detriment of

professional knowledge. Even someone talented could be doomed to making dull

and uninteresting movies unless he knows the secrets of the art. We must^

learn anew to make absorbing and interesting movies, we still have to revive

the lost professionalism, and we must learn to write sharp dialogues, funny

comedies, and absorbing stories. I would say that the last few years have

seen a powerful politicization of art. The subject has become all-important

for us. The question of whether viewers will see the movie or^not is well

down the list of priorities. It seems to me that young people's current

fascination with rock music and incredible clothes and hairstyles goes deeper

than purely musical passions or a desire to stand out. In my view, this is a

sign of internal protest against the formalism of meetings, the uniformity

and stagnation of life, boring and inexpressive art.

[Petrova] Talented cinematography is a matter for talented people, and we don't

have all that many of them.

[Gabrilovich] But not all that few, either. I know this as someone who has

taught at the Ail-Union State Institute of Cinematography for many years. It

is a different matter that not only talented works but also people creatively

"perished" in the last few years. It may seem easy from the outside: One

script was rejected, I'll write another one. The creative rejection of

someone's work generates lack of belief in his forces, disappointment. I _

know of talented graduates of the Ail-Union State Institute of Cinematography

becoming store directors....

98
[Petrova] Major changes are occurring in cinematography today. What is

your opinion of the new model of financially autonomous movie studios?

[Gabrilovich] The changes in cinematography are indeed major ,and gratifying.

But we should not indulge in infinite admiration. There are more than enough

problems. As for the new model, I am no economist. From the creative

viewpoint, I can say that I am not a champion of plentiful artistic councils

which are now acquiring great powers. I do not think that the collective

discussion of works at art is a panacea. I personally sit on all sorts of

councils and know what they are. It is very difficult, within some 90 minutes,

to penetrate the depth of intention or get fired by ideas. And the result is

as Tvardovskiy put it: "Here he slips in his own words, there he deletes other

people's words." Ultimately, the author alone is responsible for all corrections

and amendments. The council member is an outsider. He came and went without

bearing any responsibility.

[Petrova] The action in your latest script take place against the background

of building a symbolic monument to the future. Does this mean that, as someone

who has lived through a lot, you still believe that today we are laying the

foundations of such a monument?

[Gabrilovich] Frankly speaking, there were times when we were promised: Wait

a little longer, and the golden age will dawn. But I do believe in the future.

The only important point is to understand that we will not.get there as easily

as cinematography likes to show. There will be failures, defeats, and possibly

quite deep ones. Bearing this in mind, let us forget for the time being the

tunes of victory marches. Enormous and hard work lies ahead in restructuring

art and, first and foremost, ourselves.

/8309

CSO: 1800/497

99
/

/

/

'/ / CULTURE

/ /'

SOIREE COMMEMORATES MOVIE DIRECTOR TARKOVSKIY

PM080959 Moscow IZVESTIYA in Russian 6 Apr 87 Morning Edition p 4

[TASS report: "In Memory of a Master"]

[Text]/ A soiree devoted to the work of People's Artist of the RSFSR

Andrey Tarkovskiy was held 4 April in Moscow at the Central House of Cinematographers. On this day the well-known cinema artist would have been 55 years

old.

At the soiree it was noted that the director's talent flowered on his native

soil and his films "Ivan's Childhood," "Andrey Rublev," "Solaris," "The Mirror,

and "Stalker," have rightly gone down in the history Of Soviet cinematic art.

These wide-scale innovatory works are marked by their high level of skill and

unique creative individuality. They are imbued with philosophical reflections

about the fate of the world and the desire to consider the experience and lessons

of history and to study the source of the national character's roots among the

people.

The artist spent the last years of his life beyond the motherland's borders,

which caused his friends and colleagues pain and grief to think about. He made

two movies abroad. The title of the first—"Nostalgia"—speaks for itself.

The second, "The Sacrifice,"—a profoundly tragic work about human loneliness

and alienation—was made by Tarkovskiy not long before his premature death.

The memory of the innovatory artist is close to Soviet cinema figures. His^

life and Work are described by a photographic documentary exhibition mounted

at the Central House of Cinematographers. A retrospective of the master s

movies has also been held here.

/8309

CSO: 1800/497

100
SOCIAL ISSUES

ALMA-ATA RIOTS HIGHLIGHT FLAWS IN KOMSOMOL WORK WITH YOUTH

Moscow PRAVDA in Russian 9 Feb 87 p 3

[Article by V. Yevseyev under the rubric "Youth and Time":"Where Are We

Supposed to Go?"; first paragraph is source introduction]

[Text] There are quite a large number of letters in the editorial office mail

where readers, each in his own way, examine the problem: how does it happen

that in our country, where there are hundreds of theaters and thousands of

clubs, libraries, and stadiums, we are more and more often seeing teenagers

who do not know Where to go; they loiter aimlessly in the streets or set up in

entryways and staircases. At times their "idleness" is manifested in ways

that are by no means inoffensive, the letters say, and bring people who are

juät beginning to live to the brink of the precipice.

^Who is to blame for a young person getting into trouble? Is there not

something in qur daily life that helps form a vacuum and spiritual emptiness

which is filled up by bad things—both "ours," which are from the realm of

remnants of ttie past, and, even more tenacious, the propaganda of the Western

way of life /which penetrates to us in various ways, beginning with insignias

on T-shirts/and jeans?" D. Mazin, a veteran of the war and labor reflects.

This letter7also draws attention because it came from Alma-Ata.

'" '.,/"; '"'. :

The Alma-Ata events of the past year when instigators managed to bring some of

the young pupils out onto the city's streets by ensnaring them with demogogic

arguments on wounded national dignity showed our general errors and

shortcomings in work with youth. That vacuum which D. Mazin writes about was

created gradually when eyes were closed to certain unfavorable phenomena and

bravura reports on Komsomol successes were substituted for actual work with

different categories of youth.

How can the situation which has taken shape be corrected? There are quite a

few opinions on that account. We even received the following suggestion:

introduce a special form for active Komsomol members, create revolutionary

detachments for introducing the socialist way of life, and fight relentlessly

against all vices, including rock music, which is now popular among youth.

Questions regarding music and clothes—the most striking external signs of

different generations—are heard in many letters. Some of the authors believe

101
that »bans» on Western music and Western fashion would put everything in

order. Let us be frank, there are plenty of reasons for such categorical

conclusions.

... On the table in front of me is a whole collection of surprising exhibits.

Handmade bracelets with spikes, earrings with rivets and cut off ^W^s,

necklaces made of metal dog collars, all kinds of large and small <*ains,

badges and emblems with dishevelled heads and sinister skulls... All tnese

are" unique distinguishing marks of today's »hippies,» - -heavy £*!»£." .

«breakdancers,» »new wavers," and the like. Who are they and what do they

want?

Georsiy Z., born 1970, secondary student: »I consider myself a heavy

medalist; I'm mad about music. In general heavy metalists don't have an

ideology, in my opinion, only love for music."

Sersev P., born 1965, student at a tekhnikum: »I believe in the Orthodox

Sgion. ' I listen to'western radio stations. I'm enrolled at a narcotics

clinic! I love hard rock. Andrey K. and I wanted to form a group but we

weren't allowed to... "

Dmitriy D., born 1968, testing mechanic: »I regard myself_as a hippie. I

started being a hippie as an expression of protest against New Wave and

breakdancing. I'm not joining the Komsomol because I don't see anything to

Kain from it and I don't think there's any reason to just pay membership fees.

I have a music education and my comrade and I appealed to the plant Komsomol

committee for a place to play and musical equipment, but they rejected us.

I'm called 'Monk' among my friends."

For the uninitiated, I should probably explain that «heavy metal," newwaveband "breakdancing" are all varieties of modern rock music schools. However,

the "confessions" cited above were not recorded at a debate but at^ the

headquarters of the Moscow Komsomol operational detachment of_ voluntary

people's patrols where guys and girls come not for musical entertainment but

?or specific violations of public order. They have, of course, ^hildish

b?avado--they say, look how unusual we are; we're not afraid of anything and

nothing means anything to us. But even the most "inoffensive" of them, who,

Uke"he Jupil Georgia Z., make a declaration of love »only» for «^

to be by no means angels when we check up on them. This same Georgiy was

arrested in the company of drug addicts. It is true, he had not yet become

o"ne oflhem; in hi/own words, he refused to enjoy the »swamp blossom xn the

vaseline jar» because of the danger that he »might be caught.« Today he

refused. But tomorrow?

No, there can be and there should be no compromises in our position when the

sublect comes to worship of musicians in fascist uniforms, when musical

«addiction» turns into drug addiction, or when the attributes of "heavy^metal

rock» are cold weapons. But in declaring an uncompromising struggle against

everything that is really alien to us and against everything which we cannot

IT reconciled to in any form, we must nonetheless not evade the question:

„here does all this begin? And how did it come about that music and love for

102
it began to be accompanied by political apathy, drug addiction, and violations

of the law?

Let us think on the words: "we wanted to form a group but we weren't allowed

to," and "appealed to the Komsomol committee but they refused us"... Could it

be it started with that? It is precisely indiscriminate refusals that lead to

the counteractions that frighten us.

So does that mean permissiveness? Should we let them listen to what they

want? I will cite lines on this account from yet another letter. "My son and

I work at a plant," writes engineer A. Poltavtsev from Voronezh. "In our free

time we make tapes. I love the music of past years and my son loves modern

groups. But we don't have any disagreements on this. I believe in letting

him record what he likes—rock music, disco; after all, in our youth we

weren't just mad about folk melodies either; every generation has its own

music. My son and I often argue about it bu*- without any mutual accusations;

we compare "his" and "my" music. I'm sure, for example, that in time the

fascination with new fashionable trends will pass and a passion for real,

melodic song will win out."

Such trust of a father and his faith in his son, it seems, can accomplish much

more than cutting off kids' particular passions. Unconditionally refusing to

recognize and cutting off teenagers' passions, we thereby, over trifles (to us

but not 'to them!), deprive them of the right to independent thinking and

independent choice. Today many social organizations have turned their

attention to those people who were simply not noticed before—to those socalled unofficial associations of young people, among which are various

types—both those which are easily adapted to public principles and those

which demand serious indoctrinational and reindoctrinational work. But the

fact that we have stopped closing our eyes to their very existence is also

good and important. The only thing for us to guard against is not to turn

yesterday's "alienated" into today's "chosen" ones. Because any "hippies" and

people like them are only a drop in the sea of youth. And although this drop

is also ours and we must be properly concerned about it, still we must not

forget about the sea itself. About its ecological problems.

... I dropped in at a vocational-technical school chosen absolutely randomly.

Vocational-Technical School No 152 is on the outskirts of Moscow. Repairmen,

fitters, cookery specialists, cooks, clerks, and secretary-stenographers for

fishing industry enterprises are trained there. It is a new building with

modern study rooms, an assembly hall, a sports hall, rooms for activity group

work, and its own shooting range...

I asked several pupils what they did in their leisure time. At first there

was suspicion and distrust: from a newspaper? But why did he come to us?

What have we done?" Then the apparently ineradicable desire to uphold "the

honor of the uniform": "Everything in our school is fine, the activity groups

are working and the sections and discotheques meet every month." ''And in the

evening after school, what then?" "And in the evening we watch the program

'Vremya' and go to bed."... And only after making certain that this

conversation would not turn into prohibitions did the kids warm up to the

subject. They interrupted each other and each one wanted to have his say.

103
But the general opinion was perhaps expressed most precisely by a girl who

literally flew into the room after hearing of the »correspondent who had

arrived."

■■Why don't people think about youth at all now?» she fired from the threshold.

As was explained, this girl and her friends had recently been at the reception

office of the deputy of the rayon Soviet. They had come with the question of

where they were supposed to spend their leisure time, but from the response

understood nothing except that "some work is being done in that direction.

Multiply that result by the young people's raaximalism and the conclusion is

that no one thinks of youth.

There is probably no need to prove that this is in fact not so. But there is

also no reason to doubt that there is simply nowhere for many kids to go in

the evenings. Scientists consider the opportunity for informal contact with

peers a very important social need for young people. However, this is where

things are particularly bad. Really, where can kids simply talk among

themselves for a while? Palaces and houses of culture are not adapted to

this—many of them have become ordinary movie theaters. As a rule young

people are not permitted to go to their own schools or institutions in the

evening. So teenagers have only entryways...

Wait, what about cultural-mass work at the domicile? I addressed this

question to the head of Building Operations Directorate No 27, on whose

territory many students of the vocational-technical school live. V. Zykov

told about the hockey boxes built, the activity groups and art studios, and

the opportunity to learn to play the bayan [accordion]... But he himself

admitted that not everyone was attracted to these things. The kids had to be

given the possibility of independent contact. A suitable place could be

found. Only who could organize their leisure time for them? There was one

pedagogue-organizer on staff schedule at the building operation directorate,

but the position was not filled—the salary was only 85 rubles. They tried

leaving the kids without supervision—they began to behave like hooligans,

they broke things... That was banned. So they hang out in entryways. But

that is not half the trouble. They break into cellars and attics.

Any healthy teenager is like Vesuvius. In the sense that there is energy

melting away in him. Where it goes depends in many respects on us.

However the sitution continues to be paradoxical: cellars and attics are

broken into but the places adapted for leisure time which are in all schools

and institutions and at building operation directorates are empty.

«Do you think we don't understand that the kids can't squeeze in anywhere in

the evening?" says the director of Vocational-Technical School No 152,

V. Korotayev, who has spent almost 20 years working with teenagers. "But at

our institution where there are places and the necessary equipment~we only

have a discotheque once a month. Why? Because at conferences for a year I'll

keep hearing about any "incident" at this discotheque. The conclusion?

Arrange discotheques less often—there will be fewer opportunities for an

incident.

104
About 10 people will be sitting right on the stairs between the second and

third floors. The lights of their cigarettes glow in the semidarkness. I do

not refrain from saying: "So, fellows, you couldn't find another place?" In

response a mocking warning: "Move along, old man, move along." Or the usual

question: "And where are we supposed to go?"

It is easiest of all to answer with reproaches and exhortations. But that

does not help solve the problem. The need to get rid of the edifying and

admonishing tone in work with young people was again emphasized at the January

Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee. Organizing leisure time is an important

part of the process of molding the civic posture of the younger generation.

Of course, it would be a simplification to believe that everyone we talked

about at the beginning of these comments had taken a liking to being a

"hippie," to narcotics, to unthinking love of music, and so on and so forth

merely as a result of poorly organized free time; but the fact that all of

them grew up from the entryway "stairs" is beyond question. And it will not

do to take the position of an ostrich. The question of where young people can

go in the evenings is not a made up one, but one that must be solved together

with the young people themselves. Above all the Komsomol, that organization

which for the most part absorbs the best and healthiest forces of youth and is

supposed to attract the entire mass of young people and which is doing a great

deal now but must accomplish even more tomorrow, must try to solve the

question. And already now this organization must at the least do everything

it can to bring teenagers up from the cellars and entryways to the light of

real, full-value life.

12424

CSO: 1800/344

105
SOCIAL ISSUES

WEEKLY URGES MEASURES TO IMPROVE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN

[Editorial Report] Moscow LITERATURNAYA GAZETA in Russian on 4 February 1987

carries on page 13 a 1,900-word report by special correspondent Natalya

Daryalova on child neglect caused by alcoholism. The report focuses on the

story of five children who burned to death when they were left alone m an

apartment. According to neighbors, two families (a total of nine people)

lived in the one-room apartment. The three adults were heavy drinkers, and

were frequently unemployed. The father of four of the children had been

arrested for parasitism on more than one occasion. Neighbors contended that

the children were often left alone and were not cared for. An investigation

of the incident determined that the fire had been caused by a burst lightbulb,

and that no one could be held responsible for the five deaths. The author

maintains that while child care and upbringing are parental responsibilities,

the state also has a role. There are legal provisions for the protection of

schoolage children, she writes, but "apparently we do not have a single organization which as part of its professional duties undertakes the guardianship

and protection of the citizens' and human rights of infants." She urges that

an organization be formed to protect such children by ensuring that their

parents care for them properly.

/9365

CSO: 1830/461

106
SOCIAL ISSUES

AzSSR: STRONGER CAMPAIGN AGAINST OPIUM, CANNABIS URGED

[Editorial Report] Baku KOMMUNIST in Azeri on 14 February 1987 carries on

page 4a 900-word article by G. Akhundov,.Doctor of Biological Sciences,

and N. Babayev, Candidate in Biological Sciences, headlined "Very Poisonous

Plants," on the cultivation of opium and cannabis in Azerbaijan. They note

that "at the end of last year it was revealed that narcotic poppy and hemp

plants were still being cultivated by certain citizens on lands in

Mingachevir, Zagatala, Salyan, and Nasimi Rayons. These facts show that

the struggle against this woe, more precisely crime, must be definitively

strengthened." They add that "in the struggle against the cultivation of

very dangerous plants a greater responsibility falls on workers in the Plant

Quarantine Administration of the Republic Agroindustrial Committee. They must

not be satisfied by only forbidding the cultivation of the plants which we have

named but must also significantly increase controls over completely stopping

the cultivation of such plants in conjunction with the public and law enforcement organs."

/8309

CSO: 1831/408 - END -

107