Reviving the Komsomol

Like all totalitarian regimes, the Soviet Union attempts to seize and shape the minds of its young at an early, formative stage. For the group between the ages of 14 and 28, the instrument to that end is the Communist Youth League, or the Komsomol. Last week, as early snow and biting cold embraced Moscow, thousands of Komsomoltsy marched through the capital to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their organization and to pledge, amid red banners and slogans, unsparing efforts in the struggle for Communism.

The Komsomol boasts a proud heritage. In 1918, when Russia's civil war was at its height, the fledgling youth movement gave the Bolshevik cause some of its most dedicated fighters. Their role earned them Lenin's encomium as the "shock forces" of the revolution. There were 22,000 members then, people drawn from schools, factories and farms. They considered themselves "an active, creative force in society, the party's helper and its reserve, a school of Communism for youth."

Investing a Summer. Today the Komsomol claims 23 million members, busy at activities that span the range of Soviet society. Since 1950, more than 1,800,000 Komsomoltsy have given up summer vacations and sometimes whole school years to work on development projects in Siberia and the Soviet Far East. Komsomoltsy helped build the Bratsk hydroelectric station, are now participating in the construction of the Togliatti auto plant, which is scheduled to produce 600,000 Soviet versions of the Italian Fiat a year. Some of the youngsters go out of ideological zeal, some simply for the adventure of getting away from home. But for most, subtle and highly persuasive pressures are at work, primarily choice job assignments after graduation that can be allotted in part according to a Komsomol pl record. Still others invest a summer | in Siberia in the hope of avoiding more permanent assignment to the boondocks later.

The need for such temporary work in industry is diminishing: an increasingly sophisticated technology has cut down the need for unskilled labor with the result that at projects like the Togliatti plant, Komsomol participation is little more than symbolic. But millions are still needed in the back-breaking work of the annual harvests. Beyond such extracurricular efforts, Komsomoltsy have a voice in their own student affairs and maintain their own job placement service.

Lofty en Garde. Yet despite these wide-ranging activities, there are signs that the Komsomol is losing its appeal for many Soviet youth. There is no war and no revolution to chal lenge the present generation, and many young Russians find indoctrination a bore. The growing dissent and dissatisfaction in Russia doubtlessly have infected the Komsomol, along with other elements of Soviet society. Party Secretary General Leonid Brezhnev underlined the leadership's concern when he told Komsomoltsy in his 50th anniversary speech: "Class enemies disguising themselves as the friends of youth strive to draw politically unstable, inexperienced young people into their nets to blunt their class and revo lutionary vigilance with false arguments of a bourgeois liberal nature." After that lofty en garde, Brezhnev complained about the poor showing of Russian youth in the Olympics.

Komsomol membership has remained virtually stagnant over the past three years, despite the Kremlin's efforts to stir a revival. Recent party decisions make Komsomol membership almost mandatory for acceptance into the party. Even the Komsomol hierarchy, a professional bureaucracy of some 100,000 apparatchiki, has been affected by Moscow's tightening of control. Historically, a top job in the Komsomol hierarchy could lead to adult power: Aleksandr Shelepin, Komsomol first secretary for 5 1/2 years, rose to head the secret police. So did his successor, Vladimir Semichastny.

Virtual Unknown. But last summer Moscow, apparently unhappy with the way in which the Komsomol was being run, launched a massive purge among the leadership, dismissing Sergei Pavlov,. 39, as its first secretary, along with four members of the Komsomol central committee and countless provincial and local cadres. Pavlov's ouster was puzzling: archconservative, harshly orthodox in his view of dissent, he should have been the ideal man to guide a Komsomol revival along party lines.

To replace him, Moscow named a virtual unknown, Evgeny Tyazhelnikov, 40, a history lecturer and college administrator from Chelyabinsk, who has not been in Komsomol work for ten years. His elevation violated the Komsomol constitution, which stipulates that the first secretary be picked from among the members of its own central committee. One widely accepted explanation for Tyazhelnikov's ascendancy is that he is a protege of Brezhnev.

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