No Komsomol-Like Organization Now Exists to Unite and Provide a Social Lift for Its Members, Shpunt Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 27 – In Soviet times and even in the first post-Soviet decade, political parties and youth groups like the Komsomol played important roles a social lifts and that was a major reason they attracted members who viewed them as such, but now no political party or youth group plays such a role, according to Aleksandr Shpunt.

            The Higher School of Economics political scientist says that at present “nothing remains” of the role that the Komsomol played in Soviet times and the absence of any institution performing that function will further complicate the life of the Russian political system in the future (club-rf.ru/detail/7470).

            When people talk about the Komsomol, they focus on its “ideological functions,” often forget that it represented “a colossal vertical lift and a model for the formation of a Soviet elite, not only political but economic.” Now, no institution is playing that unifying political role or helping those interested in politics to rise, although certainly United Russia could do that.

            As a result of the absence of a Komsomol equivalent, Shpunt says, all the state asks of young people is that they obey the law. But “this is a very funny construction, which doesn’t exist even in China where a large number of things have been preserved from the model of a single political party.”

            Young Russians are an extremely diverse lot, he continues; and something like the Komsomol with its single political ideology needs to come into existence to hold the country together. Otherwise the various component parts will spin off in their own directions and weaken the country.

            There have been various attempts to define a new state ideology and to come up with a way to transmitting it to young people, the political scientist says. Much remains uncertain but there are some elements that should be obvious and thus included if that ideology is to play the role needed.

            “For example,” Shpunt says, “national self-respect means much more than it does for most Europeans. In Europe, an individual can calmly accept that his country doesn’t play a major or even any role in the international arena and is happy with the fact that he has a house, a garden and a car.”

            “In Russia,” in contrast, “that is impossible.”