The Activities of Youth Communist Organizations in Upbringing the Younger Generation of the City of Krasnoyarsk in the Post-War Years (1946–1956)

The subject of the research is the content, forms, and methods of activity of the Krasnoyarsk city organization of the Komsomol and the subordinate All-Union Pioneer Organization named after V.I. Lenin in the communist upbringing of the younger generation in the first post-war decades. The object of the research is the youth communist organizations of the city of Krasnoyarsk as socio-political institutions that functioned during the late Stalinist and early post-Stalinist periods. The author examines in detail the dynamics of the size and socio-demographic composition of the Komsomol organization, including the growth in the number of students and the decline in the share of workers. Special attention is paid to the gender predominance of girls in the city Komsomol and pioneer organizations, while leadership positions remained in the hands of the male minority, the organization of the political education system, organizational problems in the functioning of youth organizations, and their participation in production campaigns. The research methodology is based on the theories of historical materialism, Antonio Gramsci's cultural hegemony, and N.M. Churinov's dual typology of society. The author used general scientific and special historical methods, as well as statistical data analysis methods. The researcher comes to the following conclusions. The decline in the share of workers in the Komsomol (from 46% to 27%) was a delayed consequence of the 1938 cadre revolution, which led to an increase in the share of students and employees. During these years, persistent gender imbalances were observed: women made up to 66.5%, but men held leadership positions. The Komsomol and pioneers were female in composition, but the male community controlled governance. This organizational imbalance was eliminated by 1950 thanks to directives from the Krasnoyarsk city Komsomol committee. A notable phenomenon in the intra-union life of the city Komsomol organization was the change in the paradigm of work at the junction of eras. If in 1946–1952 the main task was education in the spirit of Soviet patriotism, then from 1953 the inclusion of youth in solving production tasks came to the fore. This caused cadre purges, as the governing bodies were unable to restructure in a timely manner. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that all these processes have been identified for the first time using regional material characterizing the activities of the Krasnoyarsk city Komsomol organization.