INTERNATIONAL COMMUNISM AND YOUTH: THE CHALLENGE OF THE 1957 MOSCOW FESTIVAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01445R000100050001-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 143
• Document Creation Date: November 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 24, 1998
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: June 6, 1957
• Content Type: REPORT

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N?
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Senior Research Staff on International Communism
6 June 1957
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNISM AND YOUTH:
THE CHALLENGE OF
THE 1957 MOSCOW FESTIVAL
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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Senior Research Staff on International Communism
Z July 1957
TO: Recipients of CIA./SRS-5
Numerous inquiries have been directed to the Senior Research
Staff regarding the release to the public of SRS-5, INTERNATIONAL
COMMUNISM AND YOUTH: THE CHALLENGE OF THE 1957 MOSCOW
FESTIVAL (dated 6 June 1957). Because time does not permit reissuance
of this study in a form appropriate for press and radio use in its entirety
before the opening of the Moscow Festival in late July, a list of sections
which must retain the control OFFICIAL USE ONLY has been prepared.
Material not included in this list may be disseminated at the discretion
of the recipient.
P. 10 Omit Footnote #5.
P. 24 Omit F ootcu )t,.. #10.
P. 35 Omit last sentence on page in parentheses. The
number of delegates expected from India has been
considerably reduced since the publication of this
paper.
PP. 36-37 Omit quotation beginning "Asian Youth is a major
target . . . " It is permissible to release this
information in the following manner: "Reports
have indicated that Asian Youth is a major target
both for local Communist parties and Communist
sponsored international movements . . . "
PP. 48-52 Omit all of Sections b. and c.
PP. 55-56 Omit all of Sections f. and g.
P. 58 Revise sentence beginning "During the week pre-
ceding . . . " to read "During the week preceding
the 1956 revolution anniversary celebrations,
largescale demonstrations were reported in the
Baltic states".
P. 60 Omit Footnote #27
P. 61 Omit paragraph beginning "There was some dissent .
Annex A pr? 'm it quo a eons eon pp: Pt$q",44q~,0gq 0p ~5gQq1-2
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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Senior Research Staff on International Communism
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNISM AND YOUTH:
THE CHALLENGE OF THE 1957 MOSCOW FESTIVAL
CIA/SRS-5
17 May 1957
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
I.
A.
B.
C.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE 1957 WORLD
YOUTH FESTIVAL
Introduction
Nature of the Youth Festivals
The Beclouded Atmosphere of the 1957 Festival
The Propaganda Aims of the Festival
1. To aid stabilization of International
Communism by recouping Soviet prestige
2. To create the impression that the Festival
is open and non-political
3. To support Soviet foreign policy aims
4. To. curb the dissent and spur the efforts
of Soviet youth
iv
5
12
17
II.
A.
STRENGTHS AND VULNERABILITIES OF THE
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNIST YOUTH
MOVEMENT
Strengths
25
1. Ideological appeals
25
2. Singleness of purpose
28
3. Organizational skill
29
4. The incentives of a Communist career
33
5. Fertile ground among Asian and African
youth
6. Communist control or infiltration of
educational systems
40
7. Government support
43
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B. Vulnerabilities 45
1. The disaffection of youth: The realities
of Communism vs. the illusions 45
2. The extent and nature of youth's discontent
in the Soviet Union 46
a. Boredom and apathy toward ideological
indoctrination 47
b. Open questioning of the official line 48
c. Cultural revolt against "Socialist
Realism" 50
d. Report from a Moscow University
student 52
e. "Wall newspapers" and "heresy" 55
f. Demands for greater political freedom 55
g. Objections to maldistribution of income
and class distinction 56
h. Expressions of nationalism 57
3. The revolt of youth within the Satellites 59
a. Hungary 59
b. Poland 60
c. Other Satellites 63
4. Communist China 65
5. Repercussions among Communist Youth
Organizations of the Free World 66
ANNEX I - HISTORY OF THE INTERNATIONAL
COMMUNIST YOUTH ORGANIZATIONS 78
A. Before and During World War I: The Socialist
Youth International 78
The Berne Conference, 1915 79
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Page
B. Between World Wars I and II: The Young Com-
munist International 82
The Founding Congress, 1919 82
The Issue of Autonomy 83
Lenin's View of Leading Role of Youth 84
Stalin's Doctrinal Changes, 1919-1929 84
From "Revolutionary Vanguard" to
'Preparatory School" 87
The Scope of Young Communist Inter-
national Activities 89
The End of the YCI 91
C. Since the End of World War II: World
Federation of Democratic Youth and
International Union of Students 93
Front Organizations as Communist
Tactical Weapons 93
The Founding of WFDY 96
Communist Direction and Control of
the First Youth Festival 100
The Party Line at the WFDY 1939 Congress 103
The 1955 Warsaw Festival 104
The International Union of Students 113
ANNEX II - OFFICIAL PROGRAM OF THE VIth
WORLD YOUTH AND FRIENDSHIP FESTIVAL
FOR PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP -
MOSCOW 1957
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Abstract
The Sixth World Festival of Youth and Students will
be held in Moscow from 28 July to 11 August of this year.
Such festivals have taken place biennially since the end of
World War II, although this is the first time Moscow has
been the host. Sponsored by the World Federation of Demo-
cratic Youth (WFDY) and the International Union of Students
(IUS), the two major Communist youth fronts, the Festival's
avowed purpose is to rally World Youth in an expression of
solidarity, peace, friendship, and understanding. Under
this banner, the mammoth gathering will serve as a major
vehicle for current Communist propaganda aims, and as a
mechanism for reestablishing control over Soviet and
Satellite youth. Attendance at the Festival is expected to
reach 30, 000-35, 000 from 120 countries and territories.
This year's Festival is taking place in an atmos-
phere of unrest and questioning on the part of young people
in the Communist countries, as a result of de-Stalinization,
the 20th Party Congress of the CPSU and subsequent "liberal-
ization", and, most of all, the events in Poland and Hungary.
The Moscow Youth Festival must be examined against
the broad background of the International Communist youth
movement. Both the strengths and the weaknesses in Com-
munism's efforts to appeal to young minds are inherent in
the design of the Sixth Festival. The often demonstrated
skill in emotional and intellectual exploitation of youth, the
singleness of purpose in furthering the development of Com-
munism, the acknowledged organizational abilities - these
are among the perennial assets of the Communist movement.
Control of infiltration of educational systems provides
another tactical advantage to the Communists in their struggle
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to capture youth. Particular regional slogans, such as
nationalism and racial equality in Asia and Africa, are
utilized in wooing youthful sympathies. The opportunities
for personal advantage and fulfillment in a career as a Com-
munist are among the attractions offered in obtaining re-
cruits among the future leaders of these areas. Vast re-
sources, both financial and operational, are made available
by the USSR and the Satellites, as well as local parties, to
permit the fullest utilization of these strengths in the Fes-
tival.
Extensive discontent and unrest among the youth of
Communist-dominated countries, engendered by disillusion-
ment over the discrepancies between theory and practice of
Communism, constitute a danger to achievement of the over-
all aims of the Festival which its sponsors may be expected
to combat vigorously. Within the Soviet Union, this unrest
has been manifested by students in attitudes of boredom with
ideology, open questioning of the official line, criticism of
'S ocialist Realism", "protest" publications, demands for
greater political freedom, objections to social and financial
inequities, and expressions of nationalistic feelings.
Within the Satellites, the dissatisfaction of youth with
Communism, particularly the Soviet-imposed brand, found
violent and effective outlet in the Polish and Hungarian up-
risings, and evidence of lesser forms of dissidence has been
observed in the other components of the Bloc, including Com-
munist China. Communist Youth in the Free World reacted
strongly to the uprisings, with resulting defections and ques-
tioning of the validity of Communism, causing serious concern
to Party leaders in France, Austria, and other West European
countries.
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So far the restiveness of Communist Youth has not
directly challenged the tenets of Marxism-Leninism. It has
been confined to manifestations of discontent with Communist
methods rather than. with the system itself. The Bloc regimes
are alert to this unrest and have taken certain steps against it
which may prove effective. Nevertheless, the ferment has
produced a real disturbance in Communist Youth Organizations,
giving rise to vulnerabilities which the Free World should
exploit.
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THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE 1957 WORLD YOUTH
FESTIVAL
The Sixth World Festival of Youth and Students which
will be held in Moscow, 28 July - 11 August 1957, will be an
international political event of major importance for World
Communism. The result of months of elaborate planning by
the Moscow Preparatory Commission for the Festival, it will
bring together the leaders or representatives of a great
variety of Communist-dominated or -influenced youth organ-
izations from all parts of the world to give voice and lend
support to the propaganda aims of International Communism.
Lest these aims appear too evident, the Moscow Festival,
even more than previous ones, is being advertised as a great,
open, non-political rally of world youth, and the theme of
"peace and friendship" is receiving even heavier emphasis.
The variety and elaborateness of the preparations are de-
signed to make the maximum appeal to young people of Asia
and Africa and to youth and student groups with specialized
interests. Events and meetings to satisfy every taste are
included on the program. In short, the Sixth Festival is
being proclaimed by its sponsors as "the greatest ever".
It certainly promises to be the largest international gather-
ing of any kind held in Moscow in recent years.
In light of the damage to Soviet prestige resulting
from the brutal repression of the -ungarian uprising, the
decision to hold the Festival as previously scheduled must
have been regarded by the Kremlin as a calculated risk. It
was clearly an important move in the bold, flexible process
of stabilization which Moscow has been carrying out since
the end of 1956.
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The decision to hold the Festival in spite of adverse
elements in the position of World Communism was probably
made on the basis of an estimate by the Kremlin that such
youth gatherings still have a powerful appeal, particularly in
the unaligned and underdeveloped countries. In these areas,
gains for Communism may, in Moscow's view, offset the
palpable losses which the movement has suffered in the more
advanced sectors of the Free World.
It is the purpose of this paper to provide a background
with respect to Communist youth organizations and activities
which may be useful to readers who are not specialists in
front techniques but who are interested in the Moscow Festival.
The paper gives general information about the 1957 Festival,
Communist objectives in proceeding with the rally, and the
principal strengths and weaknesses of the International Com-
munist Youth Movement. An Annex provides more detailed
information concerning the history of Communist youth organ-
izations.
A. Nature of the Youth Festivals
The biennial youth festivals are designed by the Com-
munists to be among their major international propaganda
vehicles. They are spectacular shows and platforms for
dramatizing and giving reinforced direction to the continuing
efforts of the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY)
and the International Union of Students (IUS) throughout the
world. They provide ' the occasion and the machinery for
maneuvering and manipulating the youth auxiliaries of the
Party which exist within both the Sino-Soviet Bloc and the
Free World. They are thus deserving of special attention,
even though many of the less-publicized youth-front activi-
ties may in fact be more important to the attainment of Com-
munist objectives,
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The Festivals are an intermingling of serious busi-
ness with social activities and entertainment, and have
athletic events as added features. 1 The serious side is
found in the seminars, discussion groups, in large mass
meetings and in hundreds of interdelegation meetings.
Despite Communist disavowals of ulterior motives, these
are designed and manipulated to arrive at political conclu-
sions either explicitly embodying the Communist Partyline
or implicitly giving support to the Party's objectives. The
meetings at this summer's Festival will lay particular stress
on professional groups2 (young industrial workers, farmers,
intellectuals, etc.); and other special groups (such as Festival
participants who are members of Parliament in their own
countries). The "get-togethers" (the Committee's own phrase)
are specialized as well as general. They are broken down into
industrial sub-divisions such as electrical, metallurgical,
textile, railways, etc. There are also "get-togethers" of
artists and hobbyists and, to assure complete coverage this
year, provision is made for meetings of youth and students
of "similar religious faiths".3
Among the more serious items on the Festival agenda
are: a great rally devoted to the "Struggle for Peace and
Friendship Among the Peoples"; a "bonfire of solidarity" with
young people in colonial territories; regional meetings between
"European representatives" and others from Latin America,
Arab countries and Southeast Asia; several meetings "between
students from various countries" (to be programmed by IUS);
1See the detailed program in Annex II.
?-See "Professional Meetings" in Annex II.
3The insincerity of this innovation is apparent in view of the
Komsomol's continued anti-religious campaigns.
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and "Looking into the Future - an Evening of Scientific
Exploration" featuring atomic energy, interplanetary travel,
"The World of Tomorrow", etc.
The social and entertainment activities of the Festival
will include concerts, plays, folk dances, ballets, including
the Bolshoi Theater ballet, performances by winners of
stage and musical. Festival contests, amateur theatricals by
students, dances to jazz music, puppet shows, "an evening
of humor", and a circus procession through the streets of
Moscow, culminating in a "gala circus performance",. In
addition, there will be an "international contest of the arts",
the celebration of "the anniversaries of scientific and cultur-
al personages", an international film festival, an interna-
tional art show, a;khibitions of stamps and photographs, and
exhibits of "international organizations". The sports con-
tests, which are being held separately from the Festival but
which coincide with it (30 July - 9 August), will be given
special prominence. They will include teams and individual
contestants in thirteen major men's and eight women's events.
The social events will wind up with a ball in the Kremlin.
In addition, according to the Moscow press and radio
in April 1957, flower beds are being planted to "turn Moscow
into a garden" for the Festival; a new stadium with a seating
capacity of 100, 000 has been built along the Moscow River to
accommodate mass meetings of the Festival, and a smaller
one with a capacity of 16, 000 for the lesser gatherings. There
is also a huge new swimming pool, and a sports center for
11, 000. The Moscow University skyscraper with 6, 000
rooms will house the visiting athletes.
The entertainments and sports are the gay wrapping
on the deadly serious political tracts offered at the seminars
and discussion sessions. If the packaging is more colorful
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and has a more alluring advertising note than at past
festivals, it is because of the special effort the Soviet
sponsors are expending to make the 1957 Festival their
most successful international youth rally thus far, not
the least aspect of which is the glamor being attached to
its location in the city of Moscow.
B. The Beclouded Atmosphere of the 1957 Festival
Despite the studied attempts to provide an atmos-
phere of sunshine and fraternal cordiality for the Moscow
gathering, the rally will be almost inevitably affected by
the troublous events which have occurred within the Com-
munist world since the 1955 Festival in Warsaw. These
events have shaken the vaunted "monolithic" unity of Com-
munism and have created doubts, confusions and uncertain-
ties in the ranks of all international front organizations,
particularly the WFDY and IUS.
Among the events and developments which have dis-
turbed I-nternational Communist youth, the following have
been most significant:
1. The temper and trend of developments at the 20th
Party Congress of the CPSU (February 1956), notably the
denunciation of Stalin and the "cult of personality". Through-
out the world, Communist youth had been brought up to genu-
flect before the great Stalin and to pay obeisance to the lesser
national deities (e. g. Togliatti in Italy, Thorez in France).
The denigration of Stalin undoubtedly came as a greater shock
to this adulation-imbued youth than to their more hardened
and perhaps cynical elders.
2. The pronouncement by the Kremlin leaders of the
"different roads to socialism" doctrine which has resulted
in at least an outward show of greater independence from
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Moscow among the Communist parties of several countries
(including the Communist Party of the United States). The
national affiliates or "locals" of several International Com-
munist front organizations are likewise being impelled by
dissent among their members to allow freer discussion
and greater flexibility in the adaptation of the policy :Lines
laid down by their Soviet-dominated leaderships. Recent
meetings of the WFDY'and the IUS have for the first time
manifested something less than complete unity and agree-
ment on several major issues. Some of these disagree-
ments may be tactical (i. e. permitted by the Communist
leaders to give an impression of liberalization) but some
are undoubtedly the result of genuine dissent.
3. Liberalizing developments in Poland. There
have been a number of significant changes in the Polish
Communist youth organization, which has been able, under
Gomulka, to speak out, not only against Stalinism, but also
against rigid domination by Moscow.
4. The unexpected, spontaneous and violent revolt
in Hungary in which students and other "proletarian " youth
played a leading part. Many of these youths were merciless-
ly shot down by Soviet troops and others were deported to
slave camps. These facts could hardly be kept from the
youth organizations outside of Hungary; their impact is
still being felt.
5. The evidence of student restiveness, questioning
and dissent within the USSR itself and of the Soviet re time's
sensitivity to such manifestations. Among the signs of such
sensitivity was the sharp Soviet reaction to Mr. Allen Dulles's
recent speech at Princeton University4 suggesting that student
4"The Challenge of Soviet Industrial Growth" by Allen W.
Dulles, Director of Central Intelligence, at Princeton Univer-
sity, 12 December 1956.
-6-
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dissidence exists. Mr. Dulles speculated that
", . . in introducing mass education the troubled
Soviet leaders have loosed forces dangerous to them-
selves . . . there is growing in Russia today . . . a
race of human beings inquisitive about the fundamental
principles that make it possible for men to live to-
gether in political societies. In particular, there are
well-substantiated reports that the students are becom-
ing restive, inquisitive and outspoken in their demands
for a critical examination of the infallibility of a system
which produced the abuses of Stalin . . . the leaven of
education has begun its work; the men in the Kremlin
have a hard task ahead to hold this process in check.
A large amount of space in the Soviet press (both the
general and the youth press) and a considerable amount of
broadcasting time were given to denunciations of Mr. Dulles
by stooge Moscow student "leaders". "Answers" to the ques-
tions raised by him were delivered in an "open letter" for
world broadcast. In this statement the Moscow students re-
iterated their absolute loyalty to the Party. They admitted,
however, that some of their comrades were "dedicating too
much time to the present discussions" and intimated that
student questionings were playing into the hands of American
intelligence services. It is apparent from the vigor and tone
of the protests that the Director of Central Intelligence must
have touched a tender spot. (Mr. Dulles's speech was never
reproduced in the USSR, but referred to only in the "open
letter").
In the light of these and other unsettling events, the
Soviet sponsors of the Moscow Festival will probably find it
difficult, if not impossible, to stage-manage and manipulate
all the sessions and activities so as to achieve the ti ght dis-
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cipline displayed at their past world youth gatherings and to
suppress all expressions of protest or dissent. Presumably
the Soviet managers are fully aware of this danger but feel
that it is a calculated risk in which the advantages of hold-
ing the Festival outweigh the embarrassments which may be
caused by questioners or dissidents among the attending
youth.
C. The Propaganda Aims of the Festival
The major purpose of International Communism and
of the Soviet Union in organizing and directing the youth Fes-
tivals has been, from the outset, to use such occasionsL. as
world-wide propaganda vehicles for the achievement of both
short and longer range objectives. A comparison of the
programs and conclusions of past Festivals and the existing
Communist Party :Line discloses the closest correlation.
This is true not only with regard to the substance of Com-
munist policies and directives but, with rare exceptions,
to the terminology of the slogans, declarations, and mani-
festoes, prepared by the V7FDY and the IUS for these meet-
ings.
1. To Aid Stabilization of International Communism
by Recouping Soviet Prestige
The overriding propaganda intention behind the Mos-
cow rally now appears to be the exploitation of the occasion
as a part of the many-fronted campaign to stabilize and
strengthen the Soviet Union's hegemony over the Communist
world which suffered in Hungary the most severe challenge
it has ever received. The Festival is intended to help in the
re-establishment of Soviet prestige, by a demonstration of
collaboration and enthusiasm among the youth of the world
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for "oeace and friendship". The willingness of youth from
non-Communist countries and organizations to come to Mos-
cow will be proclaimed as a proof of fraternal purpose.
The fact that the gathering is to be held in Moscow in
the 40th anniversary year of the Bolshevik revolution is cal-
culated to add lustre to the occasion and to obscure the blood-
ied, grim picture of a Communist hegemony maintained by
the might of Soviet tanks.
The stabilization and prestige-reviving aim is evident
not only in inferences derived generally from the tone and
content of the Festival preparations but specifically in some
of'the franker statements of its organizers. The Permanent
Commission of the International Preparatory Committee after
its meeting in Moscow 10-20 January 1957, issued a state-
ment explaining the purposes of the Festival and justifying
the decision to go ahead with plans for it. The Commission
said:
". . . In view of the recent aggravation cf the
international situation, such an international gather-
ing as the Festival is more valuable and necessary
than ever before. The youth of all countries regard-
less of their convictions and differences, can consider
their participation in the Festival as an important
contribution to the preservation of peace, the estab-
lishment of friendly understanding among young people
and the consolidation of friendship and trust among all
nations. Today it is more than ever necessary that
young people become aware of the necessity of peace-
ful coexistence and cooperation. This is exactly the
purpose to be served by the Sixth World Festival. The
Festival is an opportunity of establishing sincere friend-
ship and cooperation in a spirit of respect for each
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other's beliefs; it is an exchange of opinions and
experience in the fields of social, cultural, and
sports activities of the youth of different countries.
The Festival should be an affirmation of optimism
and accord of our young generation. "
The permanent Commission has decided
to make greater efforts with a view to ensuring still
larger preparations for the Festival. "
Festival , in its February 1957 issue reporting the
International Preparatory Committee's statement, acknowl-
edged that there were some questions raised about the advis-
ability of holding the meeting in Moscow this year:5
"Since the events which took the world by storm
last October, there have been some doubts expressed
as to the possible success of the Sixth World Youth
Festival.
"However, this doubt was quickly subdued by the
optimistic tone which permeated the recent meeting
of the Permanent Commission of the International
Preparatory Committee. Coming together in Moscow
from January 8-10, this commission of representatives
from severa:L countries noted the effect that the increase
in international tension had had on the Festival. But
more important, they emphasized the preparations for
the Festival which are taking place in many countries
of the world. "
5There are indications that during a WFDY meeting held in
Prague earlier in January 1957, a Soviet Komsomol represent-
ative announced that invitations to convene the 1957 Festival had
been cancelled in favor of a date in 1958.
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Notable in the appeals, articles, news stories and
letters-to-the editor in the official journals of the Festival
and in the Soviet press is the virtually complete silence about
Hungary. Achieving forgetfulness by ignoring the situation
on the one hand and by diverting attention to a host of other
matters, on the other, is clearly a technique for mentally
blacking-out Hungary at the Festival.
Some such treatment will be necessary if the Festival
is to succeed in its propaganda purposes. Recently there have
been a number of tacit admissions by the WFDY that the shock
waves from Hungary have caused splits in the International
Communist youth movement. To be sure, these equivocal
statements have wound up with optimistic professions of sup-
port for Kadar-sponsored "new" (i.e. anti-rebel) youth organ-
izations, and appeals have been made for financial and other
aid for the "reconstruction" of Hungary. Typical is the state-
ment of the Secretariat of the WFDY published in the New
Year, 1957, issue of World Youth:
"Tragic events have hit hard into the life of the
youth and people of Hungary. We are aware that
different opinions exist among the youth and their
organizations as to the causes and character of these
unfortunate facts. We are all unanimous, however,
our Federation included, in deploring the bloodshed
and immense material losses . . .
The WFDY expresses its sympathy for the vic-
tims and supports the urgent work of peaceful recon-
struction . . . The WFDY hopes that the new organ-
izations now being built by the Hungarian youth will
better uncle r stand. the desires of the young workers,
peasants and students to work for a better life in a
democratic independent country, in friendship with
the youth of other countries. The Secretariat-of the
WFDY hopes that the question of withdrawing Soviet
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troops will be solved on the basis of agreement
between the Hungarian and Soviet governments,
assuring the independence of the Hungarian people
and world peace. "
This statement is, of course, completely in accord
with the official Communist line and with Soviet government-
al statements. Apparently the WFDY did not deem it wise,
however, to go so far as the official line which describes the
Hungarian rebellion. as the work of "counter-revolutionaries"
and "fascists".
The WFDY's Information Service report in Decem-
ber, 1957, made the following innocuous statement:
"In addition to the statement about Hungary
briefly reported in 'International Organizations'
No. 70, under Stop Press, the WFDY Secretariat
issued an appeal on December I to its member organ-
izations to collect funds, food, medicaments and
clothing for Hungarian youth. It announced that the
WFDY had launched a camp aign to assist Hungarian
youth in the reconstruction of their country with an
initial gift to the value of 10, 000 dollars.
"In a 'spirit of solidarity' the WFDY declared
itself ready to confer with all organizations for a
common effort to facilitate the most effective aid. "
2. To Create the Impression that the Festival is
Open and Non-Political.
From the first decision to hold the Sixth Festival in
Moscow, which was taken in Warsaw at the end of the Fifth
Festival in 1955, exceptional efforts have been made to make
the 1957 version appear genuinely non-political (i. e. non-
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Communist-dominated) and open to all shades of political
belief as well as to all classes, races and creeds.
This motif was already evident at the 1953 gathering
and has been played more loudly since, but it has not always
been so. At Festivals and other WFDY international meet-
ints in the Stalin days, many of the very non-Communist
organizations now being invited to Moscow were denounced
as "enemies" of youth. ' For example, Mikhailov, the Soviet
delegate to the WFDY Congress in Budapest in 1949, des-
cribed as "splitters" the International Union of Socialist
Youth (IUSY) and the newly formed World Assembly of Touth
(WAY). These two organizations, as well as other non-
Communist ones, have recently been urged by the WFDY to
attend the Moscow Festival. This is part of the present
tactical line laid down by the Communist Party of the Soviet
Union for the broadest "united front".
The first WFDY Council resolution for the Sixth
World Festival (August 18, 1955) appealed to
all organizations to do all in their power to
make known the convocation of the Sixth Festival,
to spread its ideals, to call upon all organized youth
to develop thousands of new events . . . with a view
to making the Moscow Festival the result of common
work and of the brotherly cooperation of all those
who are interested in ensuring a better life for the
younger generation and in safeguarding friendship
and peace among the peoples forever".
Thus, some six months before the 20th Party Con-
gress and the notable events in the Communist world which
have flowed from it, the International Communist front youth
organizations had already been instructed to espouse the
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broadest, most flexible "collaboration" line. At the 20th
Party Congress, Aleksandr Shelepin, a perennial youth front
leader and vice-president of the WFDY as well as secretary
of the Central Committee of the Soviet Komsomol? announced:
"In the summer of 1957, a World Youth Festival
will be organized in Moscow which will be attended
by over 30, 000 representatives of youth from various
countries. We are inviting to this Festival youth of
different political convictions and religions, Catho-
lics, Protestants, Mohammedans, socialists, com-
munists and radicals. We are inviting youth from
America, Great Britain, France, West Germany,
from all countries in the world. It is abundantly
clear that talk of an Iron Curtain in the Soviet Union
is unfounded and idle talk, not warranted by facts. "
(February 20, 1956).
By August 1956, the external Communist appeals were
laying great stress -upon the non-political character of the
1957 Festival. On August 18, the Preparatory Committee
stated that "greater mutual understanding, confidence and
friendship are being; established" and emphasized that
"The festival is open to all youth, irrespective
of its convictions, race, religious beliefs, or nation-
ality. No political, ideological, or other tendencies
will prevail at the festival. It will be held in the
spirit of mutual respect and understanding, in the
spirit of the friendship of youth of all countries. Its
program . . . reflects the hopes and interests of
various groups and strata of youth. "
The same theme has been reiterated through all the preliminary
publicity for the Moscow meeting and is being amplified as the
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time of the event nears. The first meeting of the Prepara-
tory Committee held in Moscow in August, 1956, issued a
detailed communique which, in large type, stated:
"Expressing their ideas and views in the most
diverse form, all speakers unanimously supported
the idea of holding the 6th Festival as an event help-
ing to broaden cooperation, contacts and mutual
understanding. It was unanimously agreed that all
organizations, all young men and women, irrespec-
tive of their political views and religious convictions,
race or nationality, could take part both in preparing
and holding the Festival. "
More recently, Jacques Denis, General Secretary of
the WFDY, in the lead article in the Festival magazine,
February 1957, made the following persuasive appeal:
"To participate in the preparations for the 6th
Festival or in one of its aspects, is to contribute
towards the great work for friendship and culture,
while fully preserving the right of onets own beliefs,
programs and particular methods of activity. . .
Our ambition is that the 6th Festival through all its
preparations and at the Festival itself should permit
young people from all parts of the world to come to-
gether, from East and West, young socialists, com-
munists, conservatives and liberals, young people
of all religions so that each one contributes some-
thing positive and at the same time learns of the
experiences of his neighbors. "
Through all media, this "come all ye, nonfaithful as
well as faithful" appeal has been tolled loudly by the Festival
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sponsors. Perhaps the most disingenuous statement of all
was made by Bruno Bernini, the President of the WFDY, in
the form of a "letter to the editor" of Festival (September-
October 1956):
"Through the free exchange of different ideas and
viewpoints and with mutual respect, this personal
contact can make more profound and immediate! the
exchange of knowledge, and through this - friendship,
understanding and peace . . . In this spirit we do not
claim priority over anybody but we wish to be the
same as all others. We want to organise together
this Festival on an equal basis, so that everybody
can make his own contribution to the success of this
united effort, according to his wishes and capabilities.
Despite these protestations, the essentially political
character of the forthcoming Moscow gathering is disclosed
in some of the earlier advance articles published in Soviet
Communist journals intended primarily for party-circle con-
sumption. In one of the most revealing of these, A. Rapokhin,
a secretary of the Central Committee of the Komsomol, writ-
ing in the monthly journal of the Komsomol (No. 6, 1956),
declared,
"/The Festival-s7 are a big contribution by young
people to the uniersal fight for peace, national
independence and a better future . . . the prepara-
tions for the festival are proceeding under conditions
of a new and, mighty upsurge of the movements of the
people for the prevention of a new war and for the
peaceful settlement of all international problems".
Rapokhin outlined the program for the Moscow Festival
virtually as it was later issued by the Preparatory Committee.
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The "peace" and "national independence" language, as we
shall see in the following section, is essentially the same
as that of the foreign policy line of the USSR and of current
and past party directives.
3. To Support Soviet Foreign Policy Aims
The extent to which the Festival and the general
programs of the WFDY and the IUS underlying that event
are focused on Communist political purposes is graphically
illustrated by comparing the content and the language of the
appeals to world youth made by the sponsors of the Festival
with the most recently declared aims of Soviet foreign policy.
Those declared aims are derived from two sources: (1) from
official Party and Government declarations of Soviet foreign
policy, and (2) from the semi-annual "slogans" disseminated
by the CPSU to all its units within the USSR and to the Com-
munist parties of the world.
Most of these aims have been reduced to hackneyed
phrases during the past several years but they remain, none-
theless, basic. Repetition is a fundamental propaganda tech-
nique of the Communists. Tiresome and banal though they
may be, the slogans are effective in getting across to a vast
audience the really significant elements of their propaganda
line. They are not, as some observers in the free world are
wont to believe, mere catchwords or ballyhoo phrases. They
are carefully thought-out, semantically worked-over state-
ments of International Communist policy which are binding
upon all good Communists everywhere (including of course
the leaders of the front organizations). The nature and
importance of the Party slogans are trenchantly described
by Stalin: _
"Slogans of such a party as the Bolshevik party,
are not mere agitational slogans but something much
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more since they have the force of law which must
be carried into effect immediately. Our party can-
not issue practical slogans and then defer carrying
them into effect. It would be deceiving thf, masses.
Before issuing a slogan, the conditions must exist
that will enable the slogan to be carried into6effect;
finally, these conditions must be created. "
Examples of the appeals put out for this year's youth Festival
with their corresponding equivalents in Soviet foreign policy
and CPSU declarations, are arranged in parallel columns for
ease of comparison.. (See TAB A following Page 18).
4. To Curb the Dissent and Spur the Efforts of Soviet
Youth.
The role of youth in Communist strategy and tactics
has been a major concern of Soviet leaders, ever since the
formative period of the Bolshevik revolution. (See Annex,
Sections A and B).
Lenin, from the first days of revolutionary conspiracy,
tended to identify his party with the aspirations of the rebellious
younger generation. As far back as the short-lived 1905
Russian revolt, Lenin in a diatribe against the Mensheviks, said:
"We are the Party of the future, but the future
belongs to the young. We are the party of innovation
and it is to the innovation that youth always gives its
allegiance. We are the party of self-sacrificing struggle
6J. V Stalin, "Right Deviation", published in The All-Union
(Bolshevik) Communist Party, 1929.
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TAB A
1445R000100050001-2
EXAMPLES OF WORLD YOUTH FESTIVAL APPEALS AS A PROPAGANDA
INSTRUMENTALITY OF SOVIET FOREIGN POLICY AND THE CPSU
INTERNATIONAL LINE
Youth Festival (and WFDY
and IUS) Appeals`
Soviet Foreign Policy
Aims
CPSU Line (May Day
Slogans, 1957)'t
"Peace, Friendship, and
Cooperation".
"Force the governments
to take a stand for the . . .
halting of thermonuclear
weapon explosions and the
banning of same".
"Immediate and important
reduction of armed forces".
"General withdrawal of
foreign troops from dif-
ferent countries where
they are stationed".
"Sovereignty and indepen-
dence of all peoples must
be guaranteed".
General Foreign Policy:
"Peace, Friendship, and
Cooperation".
"Relaxation of interna-
tional tension".
"Peaceful coexistence".
"Discontinue nuclear wea-
pon tests . . . and the des-
truction of existing stocks
of atomic and hydrogen
bombs . . . scrap and pro-
hibit for all time the
latest destructive weapons".
"Radical reduction of the
armed forces of the great
powers".
"Peace and cooperation
among nations". **
"Relaxation of interna-
tional tension".
"Demand the cessation of
tests and the complete ban-
ning of hydrogen weapons".
"Struggle for the reduction
of armaments and armed
forces".
"Liquidation of all foreign
military basea".
"The Soviet Union stands
for 'the sovereignty and
right to independence of
all peoples"'.
"Let the independence of the
peoples grow stronger".
Oppose Britain, France
and Israel's "planned ag-
gression, the obvious aim
of which was to restore
foreign domination of the
Suez Canal and regain
colonial privilege in Egypt
and in other countries from
which they had been
expelled".
Opposition to Britain,
France and Israel, as
"the forces of imperial-
ism" which "decided to
give battle not only to
the Egyptian peoples but
to all the peoples of Asia
and Africa fighting for
their freedom and inde-
pendence".
"Hearty greetings to the
Egyptian people whu are
courageously defending
the sovereignty and
independence of their
Motherland". (1956 slogan).
"Warm greetings to the
peoples of the Arab East,
struggling against new
colonialist plans of the
imperialists, for the
strengthening of the national
independence and sovereignty
of their states l"
(1957 slogan).
Work for "joint action of
different organizations in
solidarity with the youth of
underdeveloped countries
for self-determination in
every nation free from
foreign interference; for
national revival in the newly
independent countries and
destroyal of all vestiges of
colonialism; for youth in
colonial countries and
against all discrimination".
"The Soviet people
sympathize with the self-
less struggle the peoples
of the East are waging
against the outmoded
system of imperialism".
"Warm greetings to the
peoples of colonial and depend-
ent countries, struggling
against imperialist oppression
for their freedom and national
independence)".
'Items in this column are 4All items in this column 'tAll items in this column are
quoted from World Youth, are quoted from USSR quoted from the CPSU May Day
January 1957 issue, and Foreign Minister slogans, reported by Tass,
from other WFDY and IUS Shepilov's foreign affairs 20 April 1957, and subsequently
publications. report to the 6th session published in all CP journals.
of the Supreme Soviet;
Moscow radio and Tass 't'tOctober 1956 slogan;
reports in English, 13 omitted in May 1957.
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against the ancient rot and the young are always
readiest for sacrificial combat . . we shall always
be the party of the youth of the advanced class . . .
we need young forces . . . all that is needed is to
recruit young people and not be afraid of them. . .
The youth will decide the issue of the whole struggle,
the student youth and still more the working class
youth. Form hundreds of circles among the youth
and encourage them to work at full blast. "7
Throughout forty years of Communist power in the
USSR the Party leaders have never become complacent or
self-assured about the loyalties of youth. They have con-
centrated their efforts through propaganda, agitation and
indoctrination: (a) to develop the same zeal, enthusiasm
and energy in the building of the Soviet Communist state
that had been exploited for the revolutionary overthrow of
the old order; (b) to create within the Soviet Union the cadres
of future Party leadership and the unswerving and unquestion-
ing "follower ship'' - for both political and economic purposes -
essential to the maintenance of the CPSU dictatorship; (c) to
utilize Soviet youth as examples to be followed by the youth
of other countries.
In 1957 the need for a public reaffirmation of loyalty
to the regime and to the objectives of International Com-
munism is greater than at the time of any past International
Communist youth rally. The increased demands, industrial
and agricultural, of the sixth Five-Year plan require greater
efforts. on the part of the young men and women of the Soviet
Union if the manpower shortages are to be overcome and the
7Excerpted from The Young Generation, Little Lenin
Library, Vol. 26. (New York, 1940).
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quotas met. The Moscow Festival, aside from its interna-
tional appeals, is being used as the occasion for quieting
their dissatisfaction and spurring their energies. Since the
Festival, for the first time, is being held in the USSR, the
Komsomol is being reminded that it is the "host" to the
"guests" from abroad and that its duty is to show off the
accomplishments of the Soviet Union. As far back as Febru-
ary 1956, Moscow 'Radio broadcast an appeal of the Central
Committee of the Komsomol:
"The World Festival which is to be convened in
Moscow . . . will expand the bonds linking Soviet
youth with the youth of other countries . . . the
holding of a World Festival in Moscow places res-
ponsibilities and great obligations on Soviet youth
. . . to greet the Festival of youth and peace with
new labor achievements, with active participation
in the competition for the implementation of the
Sixth Five Year Plan, for the fulfillment ahead of
schedule of the 1956 tasks . . . to start the neces-
sary preparation for the Festival right now to devel-
op amateur activities, set up new choirs, orchestras,
dance and dramatic companies and ensembles . . .
new clubs and houses of culture, and participate in
the improvement of towns, workers, settlements and
villages . . . Let us show our foreign contemporaries
the results of the inspired creative labor of the Soviet
people, the wealth of our socialist motherland, and
everything of which the Soviet people are proud. "
This theme has been repeated in many other broadcasts
and publications within the USSR, and it is expected that the
tempo will be stepped up steadily until the Festival is over.
The CPSU's May Day (1957) slogans indicate the special
attention paid by the Party to its youth:
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"Long live the All-Union Lenin Komsomol, true
assistant and reserve of the Communist Party, the
vanguard detachment of young builders of commun-
ism!"
"Boys and girls ! Be worthy of being sons and daugh-
ters of our great people, indefatigable builders of
communism! "
"Pioneers and school children! Love work and sub-
mit to discipline ! Master knowledge steadily and
persistently! Prepare to become worthy fighters
for the cause of Lenin! "
"Communists and Komsomol members! March in
the vanguard of the nation-wide struggle for the
realization of the decisions of the 20th Congress
of the CPSU, for the building of communism in the
USSR! "
The Party leaders are not depending upon slogans
alone to hold their youth in line. In early 1957 the party
directorate apparently decided to launch a full-scale drive,
as one experienced reporter has said, "to make Soviet youth
safe for Communism". Khrushchev and Soviet President
Voroshilov made a number of personal visits and speeches
to widely scattered Komsomol gatherings in the USSR. On
28 February, at a Komsomol meeting in the Great Hall of
the Kremlin, the entire presidium of the CPSU was seated
on the platform. The occasion was the awarding to the Kom-
somol of its first Order of Lenin for wartime services (12
years late!) and a second, for its part in the reconstruction
of the devastated areas. A third Order of Lenin was awarded
to the Komsomol for its help in opening up new lands. The
delegates at this meeting numbered 1200, allegedly represent-
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ing 600, 000 Soviet: Komsomol "volunteers" in the new lands,
200, 000 Chinese Communist youth "virgin-land volunteers",
and youth organizations of the People's Democracies. Among
other exhortations, Voroshilov urged:
"Protect and increase Lenin's great heritage.
It is priceless. It belongs to you. You are its
guardians . . . remember and cherish the work
and the deeds of your older brothers and fathers
Then, turning to the subject of youthful dissidence, Voroshilov
warned:
"You virgin land reclaimers are,the best part
of the Soviet Union's youth. There are, of course,
a large number of young people like you in the coun-
try . . . Yet there, as you know, are young people
among you, in our midst, who differ from people
like you . . . They maneuver, they seek something,
they dream about something but certainly not about
something they' should be dreaming about. Although
such people are not numerous, they exist. We must
say: 'They should not exist' and take all steps in
that direction. "8
(This passage was included in the broadcast recorded by
monitoring services but was omitted from the version pub-
lished in Pravda 2 March).
Thus, the classic Communist technique of encourage-
ment and threat is being applied from the highest level to the
preparation of Soviet youth for its role, at the Moscow Festival,
8
The manifestations of ferment and discontent in Soviet youth,
which assumed alarming proportions beginning in October 1956,
are discussed below, pp. 46 et seq.
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as host and example to Communist youth throughout the
world.
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II. STRENGTHS AND VULNERABILITIES OF THE
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNIST YOUTH MOVEMENT
In order to appreciate the full significance of the
Moscow Youth Festival, it is necessary to consider it against
the background of the entire International Communist Youth
Movement. As has been indicated above, the Soviet leaders
would not have undertaken the expense 9 and effort, not to
mention the risks of holding the Festival, unless they felt
that the benefits would be of a high order.
The following two sections attempt a summary eval-
uation of the strengths and appeals of International Commun-
ist to youth, as opposed to its weaknesses and vulnerabilities.
It is apparent that the two are not always sharply contrasted;
a strength at one time and in one respect may in another res-
pect and at a different time be a weakness. This is particul-
larly clear in a number of actions of the WFDY and the IUS
which, while strengthening the hold of Communism over those
who were already within its sway, have antagonized and re-
buffed many organizations and individuals who were hesitat-
ing on the periphery.
The following analysis makes no attempt to be
exhaustive, but is presented solely in support of the conten-
tion that the Moscow Festival presents to the Free World a
major challenge, both a danger to be averted and an oppor-
tunity to be exploited. 10
91t is estimated that to have staged in the West a rally com-
parable to the 1955 Warsaw Festival w ould have cost at least
$100, 000, 000. The Moscow Festival will undoubtedly be more
expensive.
10SRS is preparing a study on the International Communist
Youth Movement in which strengths and weaknesses will be
examined in greater detail.
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nWFTr? A T TTCNT .n, Tt
A. Strengths
1. Ideological Appeals
There is evidence that, outside the Bloc, the ideolog-
ical appeals made by the WFDY and the IUS have become
relatively less effective among some of the more sophis-
ticated youth of western Europe than in the pre-20th Party
Congress era, although considerable numbers are still
being taken in by the appeals for cooperation for the larger
purposes of world peace and the welfare of youth. It also
appears that the appeals to nationalism are increasingly
effective in the Asian and African under-developed areas.
The ideological propaganda of the International Com-
munist youth fronts has served in the past as reinforcement
to the other forms of indoctrination of youth within Commun-
ist-dominated countries. How much this intra-Bloc purpose
is still being achieved remains to be seen. The Moscow
Festival should throw some light on the degree to which
Soviet and satellite youth are continuing to respond to the
"world youth" themes.
The combined appeals of the WFDY and the IUS are
primarily beamed in three directions: (1) to obtain the
maximum support among youth in the non-Communist world
for Communist objectives, specifically, Soviet foreig policy
aims; (2) to recruit future cadres and members for the Com-
munist party; (3) to inhibit dissent and to produce stalwart
and unquestioning young Communists, especially within the
Bloc.
The greatest strength of the ideological indoctrination
lies in its combined emotional and intellectual exploitation of
the aspirations and yearnings of youth. Emotionally, the appeal
is to the revolutionary fervor, the militancy, of youth,
especially in countries outside the "socialist camp" - youth in
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r r i
Communist-dominated countries have already had their
revolution ". Originally - and still at times when the occa-
sion demands - the appeal is couched in Marxist-Leninist
terms of the proletarian revolution and in the language! of
The Communist Manifesto. More recently in appealing to
the Asian-African areas, the revolutionary call has been for
the purpose of achieving "national liberation". Moreover,
the terminology has been modernized and somewhat simpli-
fied to suit the audiences in non-Communist areas. The
theme "you are not working for yourselves alone but for
the liberation of all your people and for the creation of a
new world" has a call-to-arms effect upon idealistic and
impetuous young people. The repeated appeals for world
"peace" and against the use of nuclear weapons persuade
youth that it is fighting for an obviously "Good Cause".
The intellectual appeal, which paraphrases Ma:rxist-
Leninist dogma in a variety of ways, offers the Communist
dialectic as the only true "scientific" method for under-
standing the immutable "social forces" which determine the
development of mankind and for solving "the problem that
has been put on the agenda by history". 11 Young intellec-
tuals in their desire to find a universal formula, a "single
answer", a panacea for their own and others' troubles, come
to regard the Communist credo as a revealed and unquestim-
able truth. They find inspiration in regarding themselves as
instruments of historical destiny. Their duty is to act and
to lead others in the creation of an order which, no matter
11The quotation is from History of the Communist Parity of
the Soviet Union (Bolshevik), Short Course. (New York, 1939)
p. 334.
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how violent and ruthless it must be in the transitional
stage, will inevitably lead to the creation of a classless
society in which the state will wither away and all men
will become brothers.
To those in the free world who wonder how the un-
supported assumptions of Marxism can be accepted as
"science" and ardently espoused by intelligent, educated
youth, it need only be pointed out that they have been so
accepted by many intellectuals, old and young for several
decades; the present leaders of the now vast Communist
world are precisely those who, in whole or in part, have
been willing to accept these basic premises.
,.VFDY and IUS combine appeals to sentiment and
to reason in programs which are concerned with the. more
immediate interests of youth and students, as such. Among
these appeals are: (a) to fight for the rights of youth,
especially in regard to standards of living and conditions
of employment; (b) to secure for all young people the right
and possibility of primary, secondary and higher education;
(c) "to promote among students the_love of peace and democ-
racy"; (d) "to provide the means of cooperation between
actively democratic, nationally representative student organ-
izations"; (e) "to assist the students of colonial, semi-
colonial and dependent countries to attain their full social,
economic and educational development; to this end to render
to the students and peoples of these countries all possible
assistance in their struggle for freedom and independence".
The total effect of these ideological and programmatic
appeals may, as evidenced by past propaganda 12uccesses of
the International Communist youth movement, be counted
12See Annex, History of the International Communist Youth
Organizations .
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among the greatest strengths of that movement, even though,
as described further on, there has been some counter.-effect
in the disillusionment of many members who have exper-
ienced the inconsistency between the words and the deeds of
the youth organizations.13
2. Singleness of Purpose
The International Communist youth organizations, as
auxiliaries of the Party, may count among their strengths a
singleness of purpose. Their undeviating mission is to con-
vert, to hold, and to use youth in promoting the power of the
Communist party. All else - from the avowed lofty, univer-
sal purposes, down to the pleasant trips through the side
alleys afforded by Festival entertainments and sports ?- are
conscious means to this end: And the means are never per-
mitted to obscure the ends. This unrelenting drive toward
one goal is in contrast to the multiplicity of choices offered
individuals in a free society. The very diversity which is
13
That the ideological appeal is a major one in inducing
recruitment to the Communist Party and its fronts - at least
in the Western world - is substantiated by a detailed study of
the Center of International Studies at Princeton University.
See Gabriel A. Almond, The Appeals of Communism (Prince-
ton, 1954). This study analyzes the results of extended inter-
views with 221 former Communist party members (American,
British, French and Italian). Among the major reasons for
joining the Communist party, the study shows that for the
respondents as a whole, 91% joined the Party primarily for
ideological reasons. The range by country, in terms of the
percentage primarily induced by ideological appeals we re:
France, 86%; US, 88%; England, 94`;10, and Italy, 94%. (Other
reasons listed for joining the party were grouped as "self-
oriented interest", "group related interest", and "neurotic
needs").
-28-
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characteristic of western free societies - and which must
itself be preserved and defended - inhibits the development
of a single-end compulsion. Revulsion against cold-blooded
manipulation of people prevents any action which would result
in the domination or coercion by any one country or countries,
let alone by one political party.
When Firee World countries create international youth
organizations, they do so genuinely for such purposes as the
improvement of the status of youth, generally; the advance-
ment of education and health standards, and the promotion
of international cooperation among youth for peace and against
hate or prejudice. These organizations are sincerely devoted
to such non-power ends; they do not exploit good motives as
means to the achievement of arbitrary political power, as do
the Communists. Non-power ends of this type are, in the Free
World's view, ethical, moral and consonant with the multi-
valued orientation of free societies. It is these very qualities,
however, which often make it difficult for free organizations
to compete tactically with a conscienceless and single-purposed
foe, who works untiringly and relentlessly, cares not one whit
what means he uses in getting to his target, and does not scatter
his shots in hitting it. This does not imply that the non-Com-
munist democratically-motivated organizations may not in a
long-range and strategic sense achieve a .more lasting victory
in the battle for youth; but it does mean that, in a relative sense,
the one-goal youth drive may be regarded as among the strengths
of the Communist youth organizations.
3. Organizational Skill
Again, deriving from the parent Communist Party, the
youth front leaders are, above all, good organizers. According
to Lenin, a high degree of organization is a necessary condition
for success of the party or of its "peripheral" organizations.
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The statutes of the CPSU and other CPs, the Party manuals,
the Party directives and instructions are replete with
matters of organizational structure, procedure and method.
Communists in all countries are taught that the? are the
leaders, the guides, the organizers of the proletariat and
the "masses", and they are thoroughly trained in the tech-
niques of organization, administration and management. 14
In the case of the youth organizations, the pattern
follows the military pattern of command, staff and line
structure which also characterizes the organization of the
party. Although in theory the authority in WFDY and IUS
rests in a congress elected by the rank and file, the actual
executive power devolves down through a council1.5 to an
executive committee which is supposed to meet twice a year,
delegating continuing executive authority to a secretariat
headed by a president.
14Almond, op. cit., p. 9: "Perhaps the most important dif-
ference between the Marxist and Leninist models of the Com-
munist militant had. to do with organization. In Marx the
leaders were organizers, but they were organizers of large
proletarian formations, such as trade unions and the broad
labor parties, leaders of study circles, editors of news-
papers, and the like. In Lenin, organization was perhaps
the most explicit and fully elaborated category with both pas-
sive and active components. The militant was organized in a
highly disciplined and centralized party, and it was through
this tightly knit organization that the proletariat and other
social formations were to be organized in dependent, mani-
yulatable, 'transmission-belt' formations. "
5The 4th IUS Congress in August 1956 abolished the Council.
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The real command echelon in the WFDY consists of
a Secretariat composed of a president, a general-secretary
and several secretaries, one of whom is always a key
official of the Soviet Komsomol. The same type of com-
mand structure is focused in the IUS except that the post of
general-secretary has been left vacant. The top working
staff consisting of a series of bureaus, divisions, or sec-
tions, each with a specialized function, is located at the
international headquarters. This staff acts as the coordin-
ating device for all member organizations throughout the
world. The line organization is the sum total of the "Oper-
ating" national member organizations. In addition, operat-
ing commissions and committees are created for specific
projects, and such special business as the preparation for
the Festival.
As shown in the historical Annex to this study, the
movement started with a handful of Lenin's young '"vanguard"
which formed the Young Communist International in 1919.
Today the WFDY claims a membership of 85 million in 97
countries of whom about 60 million are estimated to be
within the Sino-Soviet bloc f id as many as 25 million in
the non-Communist world. The IUS claims that in Sep-
ternber 1956 it had 3, 293, 000 student members, most of
them within the Orbit.
Between the two World Wars the "skeleton forces"
of the Communist youth leagues outside the Soviet Union
struggled to recruit new blood and train new cadres for the
16
This is regarded as a highly inflated estimate but it
remains true that the membership in the Free World is
probably in the millions.'
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Communist parties in Free World countries. Today the
much more broadly organized affiliates of WFDY and IUS
are designed to render the same service for the Commun-
ist parties on a much larger scale, and additionally to serve
as more effective mass propaganda instruments.
One of the orgnizational advantages of the WWFDY and
IUS is their team action with other Communist international
fronts. The Communists play their world front organizations
tactically like a football game; first one player and then an-
other is chosen to carry the ball, with all the others deployed
in support for the execution of the particular play. Tradition-
ally the youth and student organizations are in on most plays
and when occasion demands are chosen to break the way.
In all "peace" campaigns, the WFDY and the IUS have
served in active support of the World Peace Council, (WPC)
which is not only the world-encircling Communist front on
all peace-and-war issues but also a propaganda coordinating
mechanism for all the other fronts. In the penetration. of
schools and colleges and in the dissemination of appeals to
intellectuals, the WFDY and the IUS enter into partnership
with the World Federation of Teachers Unions (FISE). On
all issues affecting young workers - or when the Communist-
dominated unions want the support of youth - theWFDY-IUS
join with the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU). In
matters affecting young scientists, or when the Communist
tactical needs require a special propaganda effort, as in the
"germ warfare" charges in Korea, the youth and student
fronts have rendered valuable assistance to the World Fed-
eration of Scientific Workers. These and other front organ-
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izations also, 17 as a matter of standard practice, quote
from each other's publications. Thus they serve as a team,
working from all occupation and group angles toward the
specific Communist aims.
4. The Incentives of a Communist Career
Personal ambition for advancement and the enjoy-
ment of special privileges is a human characteristic hardly
limited to a Communist society. One of the major evils
attributed to capitalism by the Communists is that it is
based on the selfish incentive of personal power and priv-
ileged status for a few individual "exploiters" of the "masses".
In reality, however, such motivation exists throughout Com-
munist-conditioned society and is greatly heightened by reason
of the elite nature of the Party. To be a Party member in a
Communist state is itself a mark of distinction, setting a
person aside from the mass of non-members who, in effect,
become second-class citizens. To be a Party leader is to
become one of the inner circle of the ruling class, and to
enjoy prestige and the tangible perquisites of office such as
better jobs, better pay, more rations at lower prices, and
better housing than are available to the rank and file of the
Party.
17The International Communist front organizations not men-
tioned above are: The Women's International Democratic
Federation (WIDF); the World Congress of Doctors (WCD);
the International Organization of Journalists (IOJ); The Inter-
national Federation of Resistance Fighters (FIR); the Inter-
national Broadcasting Organization (OIR); and the Committee
for the Promotion of International Trade (CPIT). These organ-
izations, too, work closely as occasion demands with the youth
organizations.
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A career of Communism thus becomes urgently attrac-
tive to young men and women of the Bloc. In non-Communist
countries many young recruits of the Communist Party and
those witting young members of Communist front organiza-
tions, who are not so idealistic as to work for ideological
reasons alone, also find a Communist career attractive, 18
even though they have to face antagonism outside Communist
circles and often risk imprisonment in their own countries by
reason of their Parity activities. They acquire a sense of self-
fulfillment, of ego-reward, in the prospect of going up in the
Party hierarchy, of becoming leaders in an esoteric group and
of engaging in conspiratorial activity. Neurotic needs, including
sadistic impulses, may also be satisfied by the totalitarian na-
ture of Communism, e. g. in the opportunities given the secret
police to inflict punishment on helpless victims (the AVH in
Hungary is a vivid recent example).
In countries adjoining the Sino-Soviet Bloc, or those
vulnerable to Communist incursion and take-over, the young
apprentices of Communism may look forward to the day when
18That the proportion of these young people who participate in
Communist activities at least partially for reasons of personal
interest rather than solely ideological reasons is probably a
substantial one, is indicated in Almond's The Appeals of Com-
munism, pp. 230-257. The study shows that of the former
Communist Party members interviewed (75% of whom had
engaged in Communist-type "radical" activity before the age
.of 23) the percentage of those who admitted to having joined
the Party for "self-oriented interests" was as follows: US, 70%;
England, 34%; France, 39%; and Italy, 35%.
Almond attributes the high US percentage to the fact that "many
of the American respondents were foreign-born or first-generation
native-born and living in situations in which they did not have
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they will receive the rewards for their devotion to the cause.
This reward would of course be membership in the ruling elite
of their own countries.
These several reasons of personal interest in making
Communism a commitment and a career account for the large
number of relatively young people in high positions in the
International Communist movement and in the governments,
industries, and armed forces of countries controlled by the
Communists. The Communist youth organizations themselves,
with their millions of members, have developed bureaucracies
providing hundreds, if not thousands, of paying jobs. Further-
more, even in some countries where the Communists are not
in power but are in a position of influence (e. g. in Italy and
France), they control the hiring and firing for many jobs out-
side the Party organization proper, as in Communist-domin-
ated labor unions, cooperatives, city and provincial councils,
and commercial enterprises controlled by the Party.
5. Fertile Ground Among Asian aryl African Youth
Special concentration by the WFDY and IUS on the
underdeveloped areas has resulted in large recruitment among
the youth of Africa, Asia and Latin America. There were ap-
proximately 2, 500 delegates from these continents at the War-
saw. World Youth Festival, and an even larger number may be
expected in Moscow (600-750 are expected from India alone).
satisfactory access to social relationships". Consequently,
they often sought to solve problems of loneliness and isolation
by affiliating with the Party.
The "self-oriented interests" include not only personal ambi-
tion in the narrower sense but also the need for social acceptance
or recognition, an attraction of Party membership for those who
feel lonely or isolated in the normal social environment.
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In these vast areas, Communists cultivate anti-colonialist
and nationalist independence movements with telling effect.
Their appeal to young people is particularly strong because
they champion.racial equality and integration, not only in
their propaganda output but in their organizational work. 19
Young people - especially the intellectually alert, i.e.
primarily students .- tend to resent racial or ethnic discrimin-
ation, true or alleged, more fiercely than their elders. Con-
versely, they are particularly susceptible to the blandishments
of the Communist approach which include giving Asian and Afri-
can delegations at World Youth Festivals special attention,
generously financing visits from and to the underdeveloped
countries, and granting scholarships at Orbit colleges and
universities.
A report of 1953 describing the special focus of Com-
munism on Asian youth said:
"Asian youth is a major target both for the local
Communist :parties and the Communist- sponsored
international movements. The background to this
development. is that Western ideas with their basically
liberalizing influence have had a stimulating effect upon
19 While preparing for the Warsaw World Youth Festival, for
instance, each European affiliate of WFDY sponsored the par-
ticipation of guests from a colonial country: "The Youth of
Great Britain has committed itself to give material aid to the
youth of Malaya and. Kenya in order to make possible their
attendance. Swedish youth is sponsoring youth from the Sudan,
and youth from Finland their colleagues from Senegal . . . "
(Jacques Denis, Secretary General of WFDY, in the Polish
Communist Newspaper Trybuna Ludu, 15 April 1955).
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Asian youth. One of the results has been the form-
ation of a 'student class', important, inter alia,
because its members have some degree of literacy
and some power to express ideas. Moreover, Asian
youth and youth movements exhibit a high degree of
political consciousness and, in consequence, have
become an important factor in the Asian scene, both
generally and politically. There is thus great intel-
lectual political ferment, and Communist influence
is being brought strongly to bear upon the large and
receptive masses of Asian youth.
"The particular susceptibility of youth to Com-
munism, and the successes scored by Communists
in penetrating youth movements, arise from the spe-
cious claim that Communism is the answer to life's
many and complex problems. and from the emphasis
placed by the WFDY and the IUS on such topics as
'colonialism', racial equality, equality for women,
the freedom and right to self-expression of students,
and other similar themes. These themes fall upon
ready ears in Asia at its present stage of political
and cultural development; and the susceptibility of
youth the world over is heightened in Asia as a re-
sult of efforts being made throughout the continent
to combat illiteracy and bring higher education with-
in the reach of ever greater numbers. "
An impressive example of Communist "racial equality"
propaganda is the 128-page picture album "15 Days in Warsaw"
published by WFDY in commemoration of the Warsaw Festival.
It contains no less than 52 pictures of Asian and African youth,
among which 27 emphasize inter-racial fraternization (in I cases
involving both sexes).
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The intensity of the campaign of the Communist youth
fronts in appealing to the Middle East and African areas is
further evidenced by the most recent (February 18-21,1957)
resolution of the WFDY's Executive Committee. With regard
to the Middle East, the Committee stated:
"The Executive Committee notes with satisfaction
that after Anglo-Franco-Israeli aggression against the
people of Egypt peace has been restored in the Middle
East. It greets the youth of Egypt, who have heroically
defended their independence, as well as the youth of all
countries that have supported them and have struggled
for peace in the Middle East. It welcomes the assist-
ance given by the UNO.
"The Executive Committee demands the immediate
unconditional withdrawal of Israeli troops continuing to
occupy a part of Egyptian territory, despite the UNO
resolutions. It calls upon youth throughout the world
to act -so as to maintain peace in the Middle East and
to espouse the cause of the youth of these countries in
their opposition to all attacks against their independence
and against deeds that may tend to endanger peace and
replace one kind of colonialists by others. "
The Committee then tied in its Egyptian appeal with an im-
passioned "defense" of the youth of Cyprus:
"In these days the Cyprus problem is being dis-
cussed in the UNO. At the same time, arrests, sen-
tences, executions and machinegun shooting are the
order of the day in Cyprus.
"Cyprus, as is known, was the principal military
base for colonialist intervention in Egypt. At present,
this base is a danger for the independence of the peoples
of the Middle: East and a focus of war in that region.
The youth of Cyprus, who for many years have been
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fighting together with their people for the right to
self-determination, with no conditions and no
military bases, are backed by the whole-hearted
solidarity of the young people of Greece, Great
Britain and the whole world. The WFDY, which
has always defended the rights and interests of
youth in the different countries and declared for
the elimination of the foci of war in the whole
world, has expressed its solidarity with the young
Cyprians assuring them of its unstinted support in
their cause of free self-determination and the elim-
ination of colonialist military bases on Cyprus. "
With regard to Algeria, the WFDY Executive Committee's
resolution stated:
"The Algerian question is one of the great
problems preoccupying the youth of the world.
Bloodshed and the oppression of a people striving
for freedom and independence have roused the
indignation of the peoples and the youth of all
countries that believe in the right to self-determin-
ation of all peoples. "
Leaving no stone unturned, the Committee also focused on
the Came_roons:
"The Executive Committee, paying its homage
to the numerous victims of colonialist repression,
expresses its solidarity with the youth of Cameroon,
whose organisation, the Democratic Youth of Camer-
oon, has been dissolved, and the militants beaten
and threatened with imprisonment.
"The Executive Committee demands of the French
trust authorities the immediate cessation of repres-
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sion, amnesty for those imprisoned and perse-,
cuted in connection with the events of 1955, allo-
cation of indemnities to all who lost their property,
and for the 'Democratic Youth of Cameroon' the
possibility of pursuing its activities legally. "
And, finally, South. Africa:
"The Executive Committee, concerned about
the serious situation created in South Africa by
racial discrimination and violent repression against
those who oppose it, recommends to the Secretariat
to take the following measures:
"a) to prepare a memorandum on South Africa
to -be' submitted to the competent bodies of
the UNO; ? '.
"b) to call on all youth organisations, especially
in Africa and Asia, to support the youth of
South Africa through all possible means and
to gain the support of the UNO for a firmer
attitude in this question. "
6. Communist Control or Infiltration of Educational
Systems
Inside the S'.ino-Soviet Orbit, Communist conditioning
of the rising generation begins at birth and is pursued unremit-
tingly in the schools. All Communist education is rigidly
political and is subordinated to the party doctrines, not only
in such "political " subjects as history and civics, but through-
out the curriculum in mathematics and biology or geography,
and in non-academic activities such as athletics. In keeping
with the totalitarian character of the Communist dictatorship,
education is "monolithic" - that is, the students learn only one
approach in all matters, the Communist approach. They are
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carefully shielded from all other approaches and are not
objectively informed about them. The student in a Com-
munist school system has no freedom of decision; he must
conform to the official doctrine and must change his opin-
ions whenever the official doctrine changes or he is court-
ing serious trouble. 20
In all Communist countries, the Communist children's
organizations, the Red Pioneers, and the Communist Youth
Leagues, are closely connected with the school system. They
manipulate whatever student s elf-government may exist, and
they keep both pupils and teachers under surveillance. Mem-
bership in the Communist Youth League is usually an indispen-
sable condition for admission to higher education.
This important role of schools in Communist youth
activities is not limited to the countries behind the Iron Cur-
tain. It extends in various ways into the Free World. Most
important, perhaps, is the Communist influence through
teachers' unions. In a number of non-Communist countries,
even where the labor union movement as a whole is not under
Communist control, teachers' unions are extensively influ-
enced or infiltrated by the Communist Party. On a world-
wide scale, these unions are combined in the World Federa-
tion of Teachers' Unions, Federation Internationale Syndicale
de 1'Enseignexnent (FISE). This important international
"trade secretariat" of the World Federation of Trade Unions
claims a total membership of 7 million in 21 countries, the
bulk of which is within the Bloc.
20See below, Section B. 2 for a discussion of recent manifesta-
tion of student unrest and countermeasures taken by the Com-
munist regime,
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Communist teachers can either directly inject Com-
munist ideology into their teaching or at least arouse doubts
about whatever non-Communist doctrines they have to ex-
pound. The extent and the forms of such influence vary
widely from one country to the next and also depend upon
the individual teacher's devotion to the Communist cause.
The over-all impact of these active Communists should not
be underestimated.
Communist influence is also propagated by the prac-
tice of granting scholarships for students from non-Commun-
ist countries at institutions of higher learning inside the Orbit. 21
The best known example is the return of many thousands of
Overseas Chinese students to the Chinese mainland to attend
colleges or universities. In recent years, the number of
scholarships granted by the 31oc countries to foreign youths,
primarily from Asia., Africa and Latin America, has rapidly
increased and has now reached several thousands every year. 22
Generous terms as well as curiosity about life in mysterious
Moscow or Peiping, lead many non-Communist students to
compete for these scholarships. 23
21 In 1956 the International Educational Exchange Program of
the Department of State sent 2000 Americans abroad for study,
teaching and research (not counting ICA and other technical
programs) and brought 4000 students, scholars and leaders
from 80 countries to the US.
22It has been reported by Egyptian university professors that
more than 1, 500 Egyptian students have been offered scholar-
ships at Soviet universities for the year 1957.
23Through their youth fronts the Communists also have made
offers to establish schools in underdeveloped countries -
directly to the governments concerned. A particularly impu-
dent gesture of "youth diplomacy" along these lines was
reportedly made to the Sudanese Government in April 1956.
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A third way in which Communist youth activities
exploit schools is through the establishment of cells, overt
or clandestine. The "school cell" of a Communist yoi th or
student organization is the equivalent of a "factory cell"
which is the basic unit of Communist parties and of Commun-
ist Youth Leagues, for their members employed in factories.
School cells provide daily contact among members and consti-
tute a valuable basis for propaganda, agitation, and recruit-
ment. Occasionally, these cells are instrumental in promot-
ing student strikes and other forms of unrest and subversion -
a particularly effective weapon in the many countries where
uprisings traditionally begin in the university.
In non-Communist countries, the Party's own schools
attempt to achieve the same objectives as those within the
Bloc. For the more advanced Party youth, a Marxist-Len-
inist Institute or the equivalent (often under a cover name)
is established in almost every country where the Party exists.
Additionally, certain affiliates of the WFDY and the IUS serve,
in effect, as Party schools.
7. Government Support
Full utilization of the assets described above is pos-
sible only with the unstinted support of all the- Communist
governments. Within the Sino-Soviet orbit, Communist
youth organizations enjoy an exclusive state monopoly in all
,youth matters. Work of the International Communist youth
and student organizations on either side of the Iron Curtain
is supported financially and operationally by the Communist
governments.
Without such backing, the expensive headquarters
staffs of WFDY in Budapest and of IUS in Prague would be
impossible. The thousands of paid Communist youth organ-
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izers, instructors and workers throughout the world could
never receive their salaries out of the very modest, often
purely nominal membership fees. As noted above (page 24)
a World Youth Festival, with all expenses paid for thousands
of participants from far-away countries, lavish spectacles
and globe-encircling propaganda before and after, costs
many millions of dollars; in the Soviet-Communist orbit,
only governments have funds of such magnitude. Special
"popular" fund-raising campaigns may, on occasion, be
conducted abroad in order to conceal the true source of the
Festival's support.
In addition, Communist youth and student organiza-
tions in non-Communist countries enjoy assistance similar
to that rendered to Communist parties and to other Com-
munist front organizations. They enjoy the prestige of
official endorsement by the great Communist powers. They
receive subsidies; they may pass sensitive communications
through Orbit diplomatic or intelligence channels; if their
officials face prosecution for subversive work, they may
find a safe haven behind the Iron Curtain; in any event, they
are furnished with competent legal counsel and often with
carefully engineered propaganda support to establish their
"innocence".
Government: support of youth organizations has, of
course, not been a monopoly of Communism. The youth
organizations of the Nazi-Fascist era, closely resembled
the Communist pattern; the Hitler Youth in Germany and
Mussolini's youth organization in Italy, closely tied in with
the educational system and lavishly financed by the govern-
ment, were ominously similar to the Komsomol, which. to
some extent they consciously imitated. Democratic coun-
tries have no comparable institutions.
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1. The Disaffection of Youth: The Realities of
Communism v.s. the Illusions
A steadily increasing volume of official and un-
official reports was received in the first months of 1957
indicating the existence of discontent and unrest among
youth in Communist-dominated countries. These reports
range from detailed accounts by participants or eyewitnesses
of the revolt of youth in Hungary and Poland to the many
examples of non-violent but nonetheless significant dissidence
of students within the USSR. All these point to the basic weak-
ness in the Communist youth movement: the undermining
effect of disillusionment which sets in when the ardor and
dynamism of youth, activated by an ideology which proclaims
itself "revolutionary", is stifled by the orthodoxy, deceit
and ruthlessness of Marxist-Leninist totalitarianism. The
weakness is inherent and probably irremediable in a system
which attempts to achieve results on the one hand, by per-
suasion, and on the other, by dictatorial control.
Young people are more prone than their more exper-
ienced and skeptical elders to accept an idealistic appeal
uncritically. That is why, as noted in the preceding para-
graphs, the lofty aims held up by the Communists are counted
as among the strengths of their youth movement. But once
youth becomes disenchanted, its reaction is likely to be much
more pervasive and emotional than is the case with older
people who have learned to 'adjust" to the bitter realities;
who feel that it is futile to try to change the "facts of life".
More than any other sector of the population, youth in a
Communist regime is unremittingly indoctrinated, and has
great demands placed upon it. At the same time, it is
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prodded to do more and more work in the factories, on the
farms, in the party formations, and in the armed forces.
As a result of this constant pressure, it inevitably comes
to perceive the inconsistencies between theory and prac-
tice, between word and deed. Youth cannot forever accept
the rationalizations put forward by the priesthood of the
Party. It becomes a prey to doubt which, in turn, leads to
discontent and disaffection. So long as the regime can keep
an iron discipline with police terror as a threat, the doubt
remains quiescent;. However, when the regime itself chooses
to unmask some of its basic deceptions (as in the denunciation
of Stalin at the 20th Party Congress) it cannot avoid allowing
a modicum of freedom to discuss the issues arising from so
shocking a disclosure. Doubts, now much fortified, find
expression in serious ferment and unrest. That is what has
happened in the USSR in the latter part of 1956 and early in
1957. The Kremlin leadership's alarm over student unrest
has led to a full-scale Party campaign within the Soviet
Union against "ideological deviations" and "unhealthy ideo-
logical tendencies".
2. Extent and Nature of Youth's Discontent in the
Soviet Union
The present cleavage between Communist leaders
and the young intelligentsia appears to be greater than the
normal antagonism between generations. Student dissidence
has not been limited to any single university (although the
examples of protest at Moscow University have received
the largest amount of attention because of the university's
prominence) nor to any particular academic group. Com-
plaints of ideological deviation have come from a number
of cities in the European area of the Soviet Union - from
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Leningrad to Sverdlovsk, from the major Baltic cities and
from Minsk, Kiev, and Kharkov.
The principal elements of the Soviet students' dis-
content are discussed in the following sections.
a. Boredom and Apathy toward Ideological
Indoctrination
Student and Komsomol groups have repeatedly
demanded a curtailment of required instruction in Marxism-
Leninism, and science and art students have questioned the
value of "diamat" (dialectical materialism) in their curricula.
In response, the authorities have called for the improvement
of ideological indoctrination and are attempting strict enforce-
ment of attendance at obligatory political courses.
The boredom and apathy of Soviet youth was admitted
at the Komsomol congresses in 1956. Komsomolskaya Pravda
of October 16 stated:
"In the past it has happened that Komsomol members
abandoned their studies in political schools, as they
were very dissatisfied with them. This happened
when the propagandist, instead of helping the stu-
dents themselves to understand the facts and to
analyse events, only presented them with ready-
made formulae. "
The same paper, (September 11), reviewing the year's studies
in Komsomol circles and political schools, said that propa-
gandists had often left the burning questions of the youth un-
answered and "did not attempt to create an atmosphere pro-
pitious for comradely discussions and a wide exchange of
views".
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The Soviet Literary Gazette, March 7, describing a
Pioneer (Soviet Soy Scout) meeting, said "the boredom was
so thick, heavy and impenetrable that it was almost palpable.
As long as our work with the Pioneers consists of nothing
but speeches and reports, as long as we have electric fires
instead of real ones, as long as there is no vitality, there
will be no enthusiasm and no romanticism".
Innumerable other instances of ennui have been noted,
sometimes openly, sometimes tacitly, in the Soviet press and
in reports from foreign observers who have talked to Soviet
students, as well as from almost all youthful defectors from
Communist countries.
b. Open Questioning of the Official Line
The loss of confidence of Soviet students in their
regime is attested by numerous reports from reliable sources.
Questions at university lectures have displayed impatience with
the lecturers bordering on contempt.
At a lecture on "International Events" held in the Lenin
Library in Moscow, October 30, 1956, about 200 Soviet stu-
dents were in attendance. The lecture, a stereotyped survey
of current international developments, skipped lightly over the
recent events in Hungary and Poland. The students paid little
attention to the speaker and some yawned loudly and rudely in
his face. They were waiting for the question period. At the
end of the lecture the speaker solicited written questions, stat-
ing that "the Party, in accordance with the decisions of the 20th
Party Congress, is pursuing a policy of open and frank discus-
sion of current problems". He received over 50 questions,
every one dealing with either Hungary or Poland. The speaker,
apparently quite unprepared for this response, tried to shift to
other, less explosive subjects. Each attempt was met by cries
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of "enough of that. We demand to hear the truth about Hun-
gary and Poland". The speaker then asked if there was any-
one in the audience who "believes that the Soviet press does
not print the entire truth". In response, the entire audience
of 200 stood up in unison. The speaker was completely taken
aback and tried to duck the issue again. The audience then
all walked out of the hall.
The next lecture at the Lenin Library on December 6
was devoted to the subject "The Vigilance of Soviet Man".
This in effect was what in Western countries would be called
a lecture on "security" in the broader sense of the term, i. e.
vigilance against foreign subversive ideas. The lecturer was
a Party official sent to talk to the students to give them the
correct Party line on questions which might have been put in
their minds by the Voice of America and the BBC. As before,
the students paid little attention to the formal lecture and
waited for the question period. They then bombarded him
with a series of questions, ranging from such subjects as
the meaning and extent of "hooliganism" in the USSR to de-
tails about Hungary. The speaker in each instance tried
defensively to give the "standard" Party position. The stu-
dents, dissatisfied with the answers, became restless and
broke into hoots and jeers, and again finally walked out on
the speaker.
The Western observer, who reported these outbursts,
gained the impression that the students to whom he had
spoken are beginning to think that "possibly the fault lies
somewhere in the Communist system itself", even though
there was no open expression to that effect.
The inherent paradox in Marxist ideology's effect on
youth begins to make itself evident here. The observer points
out that when students have been brought up on Marxism they
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have to accept the tenet that human phenomena are explained
by the nature of the system in which they occur. Thus it
would not be illogical for students to begin to think that the re
is something wrong with a system which produceg Stalins,
Hungarys and Polands.
c. Cultural Revolt against "Socialist Realism"
Soviet students-have begun to resent the straitjacket-
ing of literature and the fine arts within the rigid framework
of "socialist realism". At a recent lecture on Soviet literature,
Moscow University students seized the opportunity to protest
against the "bureaucratic degeneration" of the Soviet system.
After taking over control of the meeting from the university
staff, the students called their own representatives to the
rostrum and roundly applauded their sallies at the govern-
ment. The speakers stressed the need for more effective
"public control" over government ministries and insisted
that this control should develop from below. They deplored
the official pretexts such as "the dangers of infection by bour-
geois ideology" which were used to suppress criticism. They
emphasized that no effort had been made since the 20th Con-
gress to apply Marxism-Leninism "creatively" to the country's
political and cultural. needs. They derided the official journals
of both the Party and the Komsomol for publishing only stereo-
typed articles reiterating obsolete formulae and evading the
issues of the day.
At another lecture at Moscow University entitled
"The Latest Tasks of Modern Soviet Literature", students
again showed their restive mood. The lecturer, one Pro-
fessor Brovman, a "Laureate critic" of the Soviet Union
and a member of the Union of Writers, found it necessary
to begin by telling the students that they would not be per-
mitted to read during the lecture. After a hackneyed sum-
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mary of the "great events" in the Soviet Union in 1956, he
said that a more objective approach to Soviet literature was
the outstanding feature of the year. Numerous works which
had been suppressed during the period of the personality
cult were now being published. Modern Soviet writers
("modern" defined as after 1953) have been writing about
the "little man", not the "big man" as in Stalin's day. And
the "masses" have begun to appear in novels. ". . . those
who speak about the old truths do not deserve respect; only
those who proudly advance new truths should be respected".
This approach was enthusiastically received by the
students. Said one: "Maybe he's going to say something,
maybe he's different". The speaker went on to appraise
some of the current and "non-conformist" writers who are
favorites of the young literati. The students applauded
when he said something favorable and expressed disapproval
when he belittled those writers or indicated they were "out
of line" with the Party doctrines. When the speaker des-
cribed one author, Vladimir Tendriyakov, as a "failure"
because the hero in one of his works was "too indifferent
in his attitude toward society", one student shouted from
the rear: "So what if he's indifferent to society? So what? "
The speaker shouted back that he would tolerate no inter-
ruptions to his lecture.
The students' attention was greatest, however, when
the lecturer spoke of the contemporary literary idol of Soviet
youth, Vladimir Dudintsev, author of Not by Bread Alone,
which has become the center of a lively controversy4within
24Dudintsev's novel has been roundly condemned in the offi-
cial Party and Government press, largely because of "its
lack of concern for the collective" and its emphasis on in-
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the Soviet Union. The lecturer said some kind things about
Dudintsev's ability as a writer but sharply criticized his
unorthodoxy. He did his best to express the Party's line
on the author, but the students would have none of it. How-
ever, as the Western observer points out, it was not only
the students' reaction which was noteworthy but also the
fact that the speaker, in this instance, did not echo the par-
ty line in a dogmatiz:: or flamboyant manner. Instead, he
appeared to be appealing to the students for an "objective"
approach, in itself a significant concession to the new in-
transigence of Soviet students.25
d. Report from a Moscow University Student
A detailed account of unrest at Moscow State Univer-
sity was recently received from a Russian student by Forum,
dividuality. It was the subject of a riotous student meeting
in Moscow on November 2, 1956, at which the author him -
self had to counsel moderation.
25Dudintsev is not the only recent writer who has, by impli-
cation, criticized the crushing effect of the Soviet system on
creative individuality. Even prior to the death of Stalin,
Vladimir Dobrovolsky, in a novel entitled Zhenia Maslova
(published 1950), presented his leading figure as "an idiosyn-
cratic romantic" and a "troublesome old man" from the Party's
viewpoint; yet, to the author and to the unprejudiced reader,
the hero emerges as a "valiant figure", morally victorious
over his bureaucratic critics. For an account of this, and a
number of post-Stalin works depicting ferment in Soviet
society, see Vera Alexandrovna, "New Trends Among Soviet
Youth", in Soviet Survey, published by the Congress of Cul-
tural Freedom, London (April 1957), pp. 10-15.
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a Free World journal published in Vienna. 26 The concrete-
ness of the report and the fact that many of the incidents it
cites have been corroborated in other reports give it a ring
of authenticity.
According to this letter, on November 30, 1956, a
student posed a question "of decisive importance, perhaps
the decisive question of Marxism" in the discussion period
following the compulsory lecture on Marxism-Leninism. After
pointing to Lenin's tenet that the general strike is a weapon of
the proletariat but must never be used as an instrument of the
exploiting class, he asked how it was possible that in a social-
ist country such as Hungary a general strike could take place
against a Communist workers' and peasants' government. In
reply the Professor could repeat only what had appeared in the
Soviet press about "Horthy-Fascist instigators" and the sub-
versive activities of Western "imperialists". Another student
quoted Lenin's classic words on the "party of the new type"
which is obliged to take over the demands of the workers in
the general strike, and to direct them. It was pointed out that
this party of a new type (i. e. the Communist Party) must never
take action against a general strike with the methods of the
bourgeois exploiters' state - with martial law, military force
and the dissolution of the workers' councils. "At this point",
the student writer stated, "the discussion deteriorated into
a noisy chaos, and the professor chose to leave". News of
this stormy session spread throughout the students' quarters,
including those of the Hungarians, who were startled by the
frankness of the discussion but did not feel that it was wise
of them to take sides on this issue directly involving their own
country.
26 Forum No. 38, (February 1957), pp. 45-47.
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In the course of the post-class discussions the ques-
tion was openly raised whether the Party bureaucracy.has
not already become: an "exploiting class" in the classic
Marxist sense. On the following day handwritten notes ap-
peared on the bulletin boards of the Komsomol organization
demanding truthful reporting and free discussion about Hun-
gary. Subsequently the Komsomol called a meeting of mem-
bers, over the objections of the secretary. In a quick vote,
the membership decided to make discussion of "The Hungar-
ian Question in the Light of Marxism-Leninism" the only
item on the agenda.
At the Komsomol meeting, a student speaker lashed
out at the "over-bureaucratized apparatus" which "has lost
contact with the masses and which tries to stay in power with
the methods of the already unmasked Beriya". This referred
to Hungary, but the comparison with the USSR was implicit
and was later explicitly expressed:
"One must ask whether the disregard of the decisions
of the 20th Party Congress could not cause a similar
development here and whether it is not possible that
some day our workers will not rise under the banner
of Lenin against their bureaucratic oppressors who
have become bourgeois".
The student writer cited other examples of bold dis-
sent, most of which. were covered by the official reports
cited above. Apparently the incidents were regarded by the
regime as sufficiently disturbing to warrant calling a special
meeting of the Moscow city-wide Komsomol Committee and
of the Moscow Party Committee. The Party Committee de-
cided to "advise" the dean of the University to expel a number
of students whose names were to be compiled by the Komsomol.
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The university Komsomol leaders were criticized for "lack-
ing contact with the students, and grave errors in ideological
work". On 3 December the university administration expelled
140 students for1IIhooliganism" and announced the discontin-
uance of Marxism-Leninism lectures until after the first of
the new year.
e. "Wall Newspapers" and "Heresy"
Another - and for the Soviet Union, quite startling -
manifestation of student protest has been the appearance of
"wall newspapers" at Moscow University. Among other items,
these have contained Russian translations of BBC and Voice of
America broadcasts, particularly news from Hungary. After
the first few issues had been removed by the university author-
ities, the students took turns guarding the newer editions. It
has been reported that the students who were responsible for
the "wall newspaper" have been expelled from the university.
At Leningrad, another student publication (an overt, not a
"wall", magazine) called Heresy has been under severe at-
tack for "decadent" writing and may by this time have been
suppressed.
Student demands for fundamental governmental reforms
in the direction of the Western concept of democracy have been
reported. Among these is the call for the creation of a second
political party in the Soviet Union. It has been reported that at
a university meeting, from which Party members were exclud-
ed by the non-Party students, a manifesto was drawn up con-
demning the single party system and advocating the replacement
of the Supreme Soviet by agenuinely democratic body based on
free elections. Soviet media have not explicitly mentioned such
incidents, but there have been frequent indirect references to
s TTC t' rmTT V
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"demagogic statements" and attitudes "alien to socialism".
It would appear, indeed, that there is a certain vul-
nerability to the regime in the very existence of the Soviet
Constitution. The wording of this document appears to guar-
antee certain fundamental human rights, and provides an
"elective" basis for the Supreme Soviet, which theoretically
determines the composition of the executive bodies of the
government. In practice, "constitutional government" in
the Western sense is nullified by the dominant role assigned
to the Communist Party. Nevertheless, the document, if it
were taken literally, might provide a focus for the demands
of youth for greater "legality" in the State and for a broad
liberalization of the totalitarian regime.
g. Objections to Maldistribution of Income and
Class Distinction
Students have protested the disparity within the USSR
between the pay of bureaucrats, party officials, officers of
the armed forces and other privileged persons compared to
that of the industrial proletariat (the theoretical ruling class
in a Communist state). At a student meeting at Moscow
University, December 11, 1956, the students hooted down
a speaker who questioned the existence of great income dif-
ferences in the Soviet Union.
Students, likewise, have objected on several occa-
sions to the increasing rigidity of the class structure in
Soviet society, a sensitive point for a regime which claims
to be creating a "classless" society. Current Soviet litera-
ture abounds with references to class differentiation of a type
which in the West, or at least in the United States and the
United Kingdom, would be reminiscent of the Victorian era.
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Snobbishness and personal stress arising from differences
in family and social background are a source of disillusion-
ment for those who have taken the Communist egalitarian
promises literally. While some students may derive satis-
faction from feeling themselves part of the Soviet elite, the
majority probably cannot reconcile such sentiments with the
basic gospels of the Communist religion.
h. Expressions of Nationalism
Communists preach "national liberation" or "national
self-determination" to the people of the countries emerging
from colonialism. At the same time, they reiterate the doc-
trine of "proletarian internationalism", centered in the Soviet
Union, for the Communist parties outside the Bloc and "patri-
otism to the Socialist motherland" for the peoples of the Soviet
Union. Despite years of indoctrination, youth within the USSR
continues to display unorthodox sympathies for manifestations
of "bourgeois nationalism".
Anti-Russian ferment has become more acute since
the disillusioning revelations of the 20th Party Congress. At
the Congress itself, Mzhavanadze, Georgian Party First Sec-
retary, warned of the necessity to "nip in the bud any mani-
festations of bourgeois nationalism". There have been numer-
ous reports of demonstrations in the Baltic Republics and
Georgia. From 7 to ,9 March, 1956, there were disorders
and demonstrations in Tbilisi during which students shouted
nationalist slogans and carried portraits of Stalin. That
these demonstrations were motivated by Georgian nationalist
sentiment and not merely by enthusiasm for the memory of
Stalin was shown by the succession of articles condemning
nationalism which appeared in Zarya Vostoka after the demon-
stration. One, dated 24 March, stated:
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"Little attention is devoted in the university to
bringing up youth in the spirit of Soviet patriotism
and proletarian internationalism, to which racial
and national exclusiveness, nationalism and chauvin-
ism and disrespect for other peoples and datives are
alien. "
On the same day the paper reported that during the 1955-56
academic year, 2, 682 "man-hours" had been lost on Marx-
ism-Leninism at Tbilisi State University, while the corres-
ponding figures for dialectical materialism and political
economy were 2, 237: and 1, 665 "man-hours" respectively.
During the week preceding the 1956 revolution anni-
versary celebrations there were largescale demonstrations
in Vilnius and Tallinn. As in Georgia, the ringleaders were
students who shouted nationalist slogans demanding the with-
drawal of Russians from the Baltic Republics and the release
of intellectuals from prison.
The leading article in Soviet Estonia of 23 November
1956 revealed that all is not well in the republic's Komsomol
organization. Speaking of what should be done to improve the
ideological education of young people, the article says:
"Educational work in the hostels where a con-
siderable part of the young people live must be
seriously improved. Much more must be done
than hitherto to struggle against any and all attempts
to infect the minds of young people with the poison
of nationalism and religious prejudices, against
drunkenness., hooliganism and other remnants of
capitalism. "
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3. The Revolt of Youth Within the Satellites
a. Hungary
The revolt of Hungary, in which youth, together
with the workers and intellectuals, displayed unparalleled
heroism, has brought to the surface a current of discontent
and hatred whose depth was certainly not suspected in the
West, and probably not in the Soviet Union. The revolt has
been ruthlessly quelled but Hungarian youth remain tense
and potentially rebellious. All leaders of the revolutionary
student committee in Budapest have been arrested, with the
exception of one who succeeded in escaping to the West. But
Soviet Communism's hold on youth has not been, and proba-
bly cannot be, restored. The failure of the radar regime to
set up a new "loyal" organization of any significant size is
evidenced by the fact, admitted by the regime itself, that
the recently organized Eungarian Communist Youth League
has been able to enroll no more than 40, 000 members as
against a membership of over one million in the pre-revolt
Democratic Youth Federation. The secretariat of the WFDY
(which has relocated in Budapest after fleeing from the city
during the revolt) has also been making intensive efforts to
create new mass organizations in Hungary but so far has
been singularly unsuccessful.
The continued loathing of Soviet Communism is
graphically illustrated by a Hungarian school teacher in a
letter published in the Communist youth weekly Magyar
Ifjusag on 2 February 1957:
"When I go into the common room, all the other
teachers suddenly fall silent. There is an ice-cold
impenetrable wall between us . . . I am the only
Communist teacher in our school. I go about as if
branded.
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Class One staged a demonstration in the
corridor and bawled at the top of their voices: "We
don't want to learn Russian'. . . . I don't see why
it should be a sin to tell the children Russian fairy
tales. But the other teachers said that if they had
to be told fairy tales, let them be French or some-
thing like that.
"I have to watch every word I say. There is
such an atmosphere here that it is a crime to men-
tion the name of Lenin . . . "
In Poland a majority of youth is bitterly hostile to
Soviet Communism. A conference of representatives of
Polish youth held in December 1956 decided to dissolve the
existing Union of Polish Youth (ZMP) and to form a new
"Revolutionary Youth Union". The intention of the confer-
ees was to create a fairly loose, coordinating federation in
place of the monopolistic ZMP. The conference adopted a
strong resolution, using language which would have been in-
conceivable in the pre-Poznan days:
"The monopolistic, pseudo-political organization of
the younger generation (the ZMP) has ceased to exist .
It was the embodiment of the Stalinist concept of the
youth movement. Its aim was to falsify and obliterate
existing differences, to neutralize the political aspir-
ations of youth, to rear blind, soulless and obedient
robots. Its decline and fall is the result of the pro-
cess of de-Stalinization27 and democratization . . . It
27 Typical of the disillusionment of Polish youth after the dis-
closures about Stalin was a letter from a student of the Warsaw
Polytechnic Institute, who declared "I do not know how to change
my soul for the fourth time without the fear that it will become
a rag. "
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The resolution set forth certain new political aims.
The new organization would work for the construction of the
"Polish Socialist model", for democratic rule and for Poland's
economic and political sovereignty; it would "discard the pat-
tern of Communist morality falsified by Stalin" and would at-
tempt to "revive Socialist humanism". The resolution also
raised the significant question of the organization's member-
ship in the WFDY. The Polish Union, it said, would not
agree to "uncritical membership"; WFDY should make "con-
siderable changes toward greater freedom and tolerance".
The formal resolution also expressed adherence to
"national Communist" principles attributed to the Gomulka
regime:
"The Revolutionary Youth Union recognizes the lead-
ing ideological role of the Party and the importance
of its.political leadersnip . . . (it) will carry out
the Marxist line of the Party of the working class,
maintaining its right to influence the shaping of this
line . . . (it) considers itself an autonomous organ-
ization. It is neither an annex of the Party nor does
it want administrative direction of the union by the
Party. It is of the opinion, however, that the Party
can and should influence the union through its mem-
bers in the ranks of the union . . . "
There was some dissent at the Polish youth conference,
however, to paying even this much obeisance to the Party. One
delegate is reported to have said, "We should support the revol-
utionary youth movement, but not a Communist organization.
Only a minority of young people have a Marxist outlook at the
present time".
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The general tenor of this founding session appears
to express Polish youth's high expectations and aspirations
under the new order. In January, however, the Gomulka
regime itself sponsored a new "official" youth organization,
the "Union of Socialist Youth". This organization, some-
what more "conservative" in its views, is now regarded as
the over-all coordinating federation. The Revolutionary
Youth Union has been effectively incorporated into the new
parent body. There have also been created a Union of Rural
Youth and a Union of Polish Boy Scouts.
On January 15, 1957, these three youth organizations,
meeting jointly, agreed to "re-establish" contacts with the
WFDY but to proceed with caution. Bruno Bernini, Presi-
dent of the WFDY, visiting Warsaw January 20-26, was in-
formed that the Polish organizations were willing to main-
tain "close contacts", even though not yet ready to re-join
the 77FDY, and were willing to send delegations to the Mos-
cow Youth Festival.,
Despite its relative moderation, the Union of Social-
ist Youth has exerted little appeal in the first five months of
its existence. Its membership in May 1957 was estimated
to be about 60, 000, compared to 2, 000, 000 in the quasi-
official, pre-Gomulka ZMP. The membership of the "non-
official" Revolutionary Youth Union is not determinable at
this time.
One of the features of the present movement which
seems to interest serious youth is Po Prostu, the weekly
organ of "students and young intellectuals". This journal
has become famous throughout the Bloc for its outspoken
and penetrating commentaries. It has come to occupy a
unique place in the "unofficial" campaign for liberalization.
In recent weeks it has come under closer Party scrutiny and
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its editor has been dismissed, but it continues to be out-
spoken. Its influence was described by a Radio Warsaw
commentator in Novy Kultura (April 18, 1956): "Today
anybody in Poland who wants to form his own opinions and
who wishes to see the world in a new light should not only
study the 20th Congress but also Po Prostu. "
Events in Poland have had a strong influence in both
satellite and Soviet universities. Since last October, Polish
newspapers have been eagerly read by Soviet students;
Polish-Russian dictionaries are in great demand by students
who spend their free time translating articles in the Polish
press into Russian. It has been reported that the Soviet
authorities have sent many of the Polish students back to
their homeland. This measure is said to apply mainly to
students of the humanities; technical students will be per-
mitted to remain.
In Bulgaria, radical purges by the Communist author-
ities and the secret police have produced a general paralysis
in the life of the Dimitrov Youth Association. According to
reports from Sofia, some 200 high school, and 1, 500 univer-
sity and technical school students were arrested, and there
is talk of a plan to deport them to the USSR, within the frame-
work of an economic agreement with Moscow.
There is ferment among the students in Rumania. At
the first meeting of a new student association in Bucharest
on 9 March, Minister of Education Constantinescu significantly
admonished the students to take a stand against reactionary
idealistic trends, and to keep "the poison of the cosmopolitan
ideology from infecting their ranks".
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Although the situation is not so critical in Czecho-
slovakia, the Communist press, particularly the youth organ
Mlada Fronta, has complained of the passivity and the un-
political spirit of Czechoslovak youth. A new regulation for
admission of students to institutions of higher education
prescribes that, henceforth, admission will not be granted
on the strength of school certificates or entrance exarnina-
tions but on recommendations from political organizations,
an indication that students are no longer trusted.
Students in East Germany were among the first to
take courage from the Hungarian and Polish examples. They
openly opposed the leaders of the Communist Youth organiza-
tion Freie Deutsche Jugend (FDJ) and expressed dissent in
various forms, including a widespread demand to end com-
pulsory lectures on Marxism-Leninism and in the Russian
language. Demonstrations in favor of the Hungarian rebels
were reported at several universities. In the medical. schools
of Leipzig and Humboldt universities, the students organized
their own meetings in defiance of edicts from the leaders of
the FDJ and passed resolutions demanding free choice of
foreign languages, abolition of compulsory tests in Russian
and of compulsory ideological instruction; they also demanded
an opportunity to study the "Philosophy of Idealism". At
Dresden University, students complained of the lack of-in-
formation concerning Poland and Hungary compared to what
they admitted hearing from Free World radio stations. Party
Chief Walter Ulbricht in December, 1956, took note of the
official student disturbances and threatened to "take a stand
against those . . . who indulge in disruptive criticism . . .
and who express doubts and take a negative view of every-
thing so far achieved . . . wherever these troublemakers
appear in the faculties they must be stopped . . . "
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4. Communist China
Official concern over student "indiscipline" and
"failure to distinguish friend from enemy" in Hungary was
expressed in Chinese Communist press and radio broad-
casts early in 1957. Students have also been berated for
"doubts aroused by the international situation", for "irre-
sponsible behavior" and for a "lingering feeling of indiv-
iduality " which causes them to place their personal inter-
ests ahead of those of the state.
In at least two institutions of higher learning
(Chengting Technical School. of Geology and Tsinghua Univ-
ersity) the students sought to organize mass demonstrations
to present demands for liberalization similar to those in
Poland and Hungary, but they were "dissuaded" by Party
and youth-organization leaders. Subsequently, it was re-
ported, classes were suspended at both institutions and all
students involved were compelled to attend new "remedial"
courses of political indoctrination. Despite this punitive
action, posters regarded by the regime as "both dangerous
and impertinent" had appeared on the walls of the schools.
Recent statements in the Party journals indicate
that relaxation of student indoctrination has led to instances
of impertinence toward teachers, absenteeism from classes
and refusal to participate in school-sponsored welfare work.
Students were said to have become confused between "social-
ist democracy" and "bourgeois democracy".
Teachers are also being severely criticized by the
regime. They have been charged with "a laissez faire
attitude" and a failure to display interest in student politi-
cal matters which will lead to "the development of bureau-
cratic individualism and radical democracy among the
students ".
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Paralleling recent moral strictures of the Soviet
regime, peiping authorities have asserted that "fondness for
extravagant dance parties, where Western jazz is played and
women rascals abound" has exposed Chinese youth to "corro-
sive" capitalist concepts and has had an adverse effect on their
factory production and ideological studies.
As in other parts of the Orbit, the official counter-
action to dissent is compulsory attendance by all students
and all senior youth organization members, including fac-
tory workers, at new and intensive courses of ideological
indoctrination.
The disturbances at the Chinese universities have been
freely reported in the Communist press. The official explana-
tion of this situation stresses the overcrowding of the institu-
tions of higher learning. It is claimed that almost twice as
many students were admitted in 1956 as in previous years.
Although Chou En-lai, at the Eighth Congress of the Chinese
Communist Party (September 1956) promised the expansion
of educational facilities, it would appear that there is still
a great shortage of classrooms, with the result that classes
have to be staggered. Thus, the current academic situations
maybe largely a manifestation of "growing pains", rather
than of serious ideological crisis.
5. Repercussions among Communist Youth Organ-
izations of the Free World
The impact of the Polish and Hungarian uprisings
produced a chain reaction on Communist sponsored youth
organizations of the Free World, which was intensified by
the indignation and shock of the "bourgeois" press, especially
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in Western Europe and the United States. As a result these
auxiliaries or fronts of the Communist Party have exper-
ienced discord, confusion and rifts on a hitherto unparalleled
scale.
In Austria, for example, the reaction among the mem-
bers of the Communist youth organization was so strong that
the head of the Austrian Communist Party, J. Koplenig, found
it necessary to devote a considerable part of his speech to the
17th Congress of the Party to the problem:
"I wish to mention a great weakness of our party,
which was insufficiently expressed in the documents
for the preparation of the party congress, a fact which
was correctly and sharply criticized. I refer to the
problem of youth . . . Youth's interest in technical
progress, in sports and travel can be linked with our
aim to establish peace and international understanding.
Finally, youth's interests are devoted to the problems
and perspectives of their own lives. It is a character-
istic of our time that youth is participating increasing-
ly in production. This makes it imperative for us in
our struggle for the economic, social, and cultural
demands of the workers to give better and more thor-
ough attention to the wage, working, and housing condi-
tions of the young people and to devote the greatest
attention to our youth in all movements, actions, and
struggles .
"In order to win the young people for our party
and for the struggle of our party it is necessary that
the Communists, particularly in the enterprises, estab-
lish close contact with the young workers. Particularly
our shop stewards and trade-union officials can do much
here. The party must help to strengthen the Free
Austrian Youth and to promote its development. "
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In France, the malaise which had been developing in
the Communist front "Union of the Republican Youth of France"
caused the Central Committee of the Party to make a far-
reaching decision to transform the front into an openly-labeled
Communist organization. The new organization is known as
the "Union of the Communist Youth of France" (UJCF). It was
also decided to establish a collateral openly-Communist stu-
dent organization, the "Union of Communist Students of France"
(UECF).
The Founding Congress of the Union of Communist Youth
was held at Ivry 14-16 December 1956. According to the offi-
cial Communist newspaper L'Humanite, there were 824 dele-
gates present from within France and representatives from the
youth organizations of most other European countries and from
the International Communist front organizations.
Maurice Thorez, addressing the Congress, stressed the
classic role of Communist youth as a school for developing a
hard core of future cadres for the Party:
"The Union of Communist Youths is the best school
for those who are about to become men. They find there
the teachings of their only reliable guide: the Commun-
ist Party.
"Undoubtedly Lenin was right when he said that
'youths come to Socialism in a manner different from
their fathers'. That is why Communist youth must
have an organization independent from the Party.
"Nevertheless, Communist youth is inspired by
the teachings of the Party. It makes use of this treas-
ure, in which are founded and welded together revolu-
tionary enthusiasm, the wisdom of scientific thinking,
the energy of the future and the experience of the past.
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"For their part, the organizations and ruling
bodies of the Party, on every level, will never for-
get their duty, not only to defend the demands of
youth, but permanently to support the Union of
Young Communists, to watch over its development
and to help its progress by every means possible. IT
Apparently a considerable debate had occurred within
the French Communist Party over the tactical wisdom of
abandoning the front for the more overt type of Communist
youth organization. The grounds for the unprecedented
change-over were probably (a) discord and disunity within
the front organization arising out of de-Stalinization;
(b) unwieldiness and diffuseness of the broad based front;
(c) excessive personality conflicts; (d) a new tactical line,
decided upon by the leaders of International Communism,
to tighten ranks by creating youth arms of the Party more
directly under its control and more amenable to its disci-
pline.
If it is true that this represents a new tactical line -
which in fact would be a reversion to the type of Communist
youth organizations existing during the period of the Young
Communist International28 (YCI) - this, indeed, could lead
to a drastic change in the character of WFDY and IUS. Such
a course would imply that the Communists have re-appraised
and have found them wanting in the present youth front tactics.
It is too soon, however, to arrive at such a conclusion. While
the changeover appears to be a trend in Western Europe,
there is as yet no evidence that such a policy has been adopted
for the "colonial" countries of Africa and Asia. Thus the Com-
28See Annex: "History of the International Communist Youth
Movement','.. pp. 82 f.
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munists may go along with a bifurcated youth movement:
half front and half open. Whatever their intention may be
in pursuing such a policy it would certainly appear that the
total effect would be to disunite the Communist youth move-
ment in its present form and make it more vulnerable to
attack by its opponents..
The French Communist leaders - perhaps the
staunchest Stalinists in the Communist world today -
apparently have some misgivings about the faithfulness of
their own youth. At any rate, there has been a rather con-
spicuous lack of emphasis on the Festival in the French
Party press. While the Communist press of other coun-
tries has been steadily exhorting delegates to attend the
Festival, almost no space has been devoted to the subject
in L'Humanite" This relative silence has been attributed
by some observers to a fear that French young people
might be contaminated by the national-Communist ideas
of representatives of countries such as Poland or by con-
tact with dissidents among Soviet youth. The French Party
is planning to send a delegation to Moscow but it will un-
doubtedly be more carefully hand-picked than usual.
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CONCLUSIONS
Judging from the results of past World Youth Festivals,
it seems probable that the 1957 Moscow event will achieve
the purposes for which it was designed: to help the Commun-
ist Party of the Soviet Union attain some of its major current
propaganda objectives. Among these objectives are: (a)
stabilization of International Communism after the shocks
and strains of de -Stalinization, Poland and 'Eungary; (b) inten-
sification of Soviet influence in the highly volatile but uncom-
mitted Asian and African "colonial" areas; (c) reinforcement
of the weakened hold of the Communist parties over their own
youth.
The 1957 Festival will be lavish and meticulously
organized on an unprecedented scale. The converging on
Moscow of thousands of young people, representing dozens
of races and nationalities, and the display of confident bon-
homie by the Soviet leaders will suggest that all is well in
the Communist empire. The great show will seem more real
to many of the participants than bloody strikes in Poznan or
rubble in Budapest. Cameras and microphones will focus on
African and European, Asian and Latin American, Moslem
and Christian, Buddhist and Hindu debating with the exuber-
ance of youth under the tolerant spires of the Kremlin. From
the multi-national assemblies and innumerable interdelegation
and professional meetings will come resolutions in favor of
peace, disarmament, colonial freedom, and racial equality
which will be subtly employed as indorsements of Soviet policy.
The Communist leaders can probably also count on national
pride and the excitement of the Festival to divert the atten-
tion of many of the Soviet young people who have been in a
questioning and disputatious mood during the past year or two.
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They will also count on their internal vigilance to make sure
that nothing really gets out of hand.
Any advantages to the Free World may be less tan-
gible and longer in disclosure. Despite the impressive stag-
ing (and Potemkin-village effects such as were created for
the 1955 Warsaw Festival), the USSR cannot be entirely hid
from thousands of curious visitors, and some of them are
bound to make comparisons between their own and Soviet
living standards. Although attempts to manage discussion
meetings and to isolate previously identified critics can be
expected, there will be representatives of western countries
who will insist upon expressing a non-Communist interpreta-
tion of events and problems. Indeed, the Festival might
Z9An example of how an intrepid representative of the Free
World can break through the rigged arrangements of an Inter-
national Communist front organization was the speech of the
Reverend Candy, representing Canadian peace societies at
the World Peace Council's disarmament meeting in Helsinki
in June 1955. The Reverend Candy obtained the floor for a
few minutes and asked why the WPC never criticized the
Soviet Union and always tried to make it appear that the
Western nations were responsible for the disturbed state
of the world. He indicated that the Canadian peace group
he represented had hoped that this would be a genuine,
impartial peace-meeting - not one that by implication was
Communist-dominated and designed to serve the interests
of the USSR. His remarks were widely reported in the free
press. Another example is that of Mr. Fred Jarvis, labor-
socialist member of the British National Union of Students
who, at an IUS Council meeting in Moscow in August 1954,
effectively and articulately denounced the IUS as a "Comin-
form instrument ".
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well be the occasion for the public airing of more unorthodox
opinions than Moscow has heard in forty years. Some per-
sons accustomed to free societies will probably be affronted
and disillusioned when they encounter Communist methods
of discussion and resolution-drafting. But these experiences,
eye-opening to the minority of unindoctrinated visitors, will,
in all likelihood, be less advantageou's to the Free World than
the ideas and impressions left with thousands of Soviet young
people. It is in this respect-that the Kremlin is accepting
some risk in proceeding with the Festival. Many reports
over the past couple of years indicate that among the edu-
cated Soviet youth there is a new curiosity about the outside
world and a skepticism of the official Communist line. To
the several thousands who will be hosts, the rally must seem
to be the opportunity to ask a lot of questions that have been
accumulating. Unrest and critical attitudes have become even
more pronounced among the youth of the satellite countries,
although, in this respect, it must be admitted that time has
been on the side of the Festival sponsors; had the gathering
been scheduled at the time of, or soon after, the uprisings
in Poland and Hungary, the tide of revulsion might have
caused the cancellation of the Festival.
Young people from Eastern Europe will be present
in large, carefully selected delegations, but one can suspect
that their Communist seniors must be somewhat apprehen-
sive over their contacts with persons eager for views about
the events of 1956. The satellite youth have their questions
too. The Free World can hope that a little yeast will be part
of the mixed replies that the Communist youth - Soviet and
satellite receive.
It must be recognized, however, that the opportunities
for expressing dissent at the Festival will be strictly limited.
Communists regularly engineer the large political sessions so
that there is little or no chance for open discussion or debate.
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A case in point is the "Hiroshima Day" rally at the Warsaw
Festival. That rally - probably the most important of the
serious events at the Festival - was deliberately restricted
to speeches and to the introduction of resolutions by the
leaders of the Communist-dominated Japanese youth organ-
ization. There was no opportunity for questions or challenges
and the resolutions were, as might be expected, passed
"unanimously".
In general, the Festivals are contrived to drown out
any sounds of discord in a vast sentimental harmony of youth-
ful comradeship, fun and games. ? There may be slightly more
opportunities at the smaller sessions, but these do not us wally
receive much publicity. The quality and quantity of the enter-
tainment and sports of the Festivals are more than sufficient
to keep the thousands of boys and girls occupied and happy for
the entire two-week period. (The Warsaw Festival sponsors
in 1955 stated that it would have taken eighty years for any
one person to attend all the events, and the Moscow event is
being touted as much larger). These gayer doings, while
competing with and limiting the occasions for serious discus-
sion, will, however, afford many opportunities for Free World
youth to get together on an informal, personal basis with Com-
munist Bloc youth.
While the propaganda gains realized by the Communists
from their large investment in the 1957 Festival may meet their
expectations within the Bloc and in some uncommitted areas, the
total world-wide effect will probably be considerably less than
they have hoped for. The Festival has been accorded a cold recep-
tion by many Free World countries which are unwilling to lend
respectability to this major Lnternational Communist front effort,
particularly after the events in Hungary. It now appears that the
delegations from some key countries will be substantially smaller
than the quotas established by the Preparatory Commission and
limited in membership largely to the leaders or representatives
of already Communist-dominated youth and student organizations.
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The Disaffection of Communist Youth
The nature and extent of dissidence among Soviet
students, coming on top of the rebellious actions of Polish
youth and the full-scale, fighting revolt of young Hungarians,
have apparently startled the Soviet regime quite as much as
the Free World. Evidences of such unrest have been repeat-
edly corroborated and documented by reliable Free World
observers. In addition, the Soviet regime, by its Union- wide
press and radio campaign, by the personal flying visits to
youth meetings of many of the top Kremlin leaders, and by
its punitive actions, has admitted its alarm and its determin-
ation to quell the dissent. Similar, if not as extensive, youth-
ful disaffection and countermeasures have been reported in
East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Rumania, Bulgaria and in
Communist China.
There is no longer any question that there is an un-
.anticipate,d "revolt of youth" within the Communist world,
but what it may portend for the future of International Com-
munism remains a matter of conjecture. A valid assess-
ment would have to be based on more evidence than is now
available. Some tentative conclusions can, however, be
reached. First, it is reasonably clear that except for the
Hungarian uprising, the unrest of youth, while it has re-
sulted in some amazingly outspoken criticism of the func-
tioning of the Communist regimes, and, in the satellites,
of the fact of Soviet domination, has not yet extended to a
questioning of the validity of basic Marxist-Leninist prem-
ises or of a "socialist" order.
Thus the quarrels of Communist youth with their
official elders still remain essentially "within the family".
And it is a safe prediction that the regimes will make every
effort to keep them so, if they do not suppress them com-
pletely. Nevertheless, the stirring of youth in a system
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which prides itself on its ability, and uses its total educa-
tional effort, to shape the young human mind in its own
image, remains one of the most remarkable developments
in the Communist world since the Bolshevik Revolution. It
provides a glimmer. of light in what was long assumed to be
the successful blacking out of individuality by a totalitarian
order. The restiveness of Communist youth, now held with-
in bounds by the regimes, might conceivably at some future
time break through into a real movement for a freer society.
A second conclusion is that the ferment of youth has
had an unsettling effect on Communist youth organizations,
locally, nationally and internationally. The Soviet Komsomol
has been hard put to keep its members in line, and has itself
been criticized by the regime for maintaining insufficient
discipline and control. The traditional Hungarian Communist
youth organization has vanished and been replaced by a new
"official" one which is shunned and remains pitifully small.
The Polish organization has been overturned, then elirnin-
ated, by its own members, and'the entire youth movement
has been disrupted. Similar, if less drastic, changes have
occurred in the other satellites. The Communist Chinese
youth league has been disturbed by recent developments. In
the Free World there has been sharp discord in the youth
fronts. The French Communists are attempting to tighten
their hold on their youth by converting the front organization
into a frankly Communist body. The WFDY and the IUS have
suffered several acrimonious controversies and the latter, at
least, has been jolted by a number of disaffiliations. All this
points to heightened. vulnerabilities within the International
Communist youth movement.
Looking beyond the 1957 Moscow rally, the WFDY and
the IUS have prepared extensive programs for a series of
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international, 30 regional, national, and local youth and
student activities, each designed to serve World Commun-
ism's tactical purposes. To a greater extent than ever
before, tensions and antagonisms are likely to be inherent
in such activities. The scope, setting and timing of each
Communist-sponsored event should be examined closely to
provide the bases for countermeasures which could turn it
to the advantage of the Free World.
30The next important international meeting of the WFDY - its
Congress - will follow the Festival by about two weeks and will
be held in Kiev, USSR.
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HISTORY OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNIST YOUTH
ORGANIZATIONS
A. Before and During World War I: The Socialist Youth
Inte rnational
Between 1889 and 1914, all Marxist parties were affil-
iated with the Second Socialist International, despite the funda-
mental ideological and tactical differences which separated the
radical left-wing, led by Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg, from the
Marxist Center, represented by Karl Kautsky, Rudolf Hilfer-
ding and Otto Bauer, and from the right-wing revisionists like
Eduard Bernstein or Jean Jaures. The attitude of the Social-
ist parties towards war and militarism was decisive for the
split after the outbreak of World War I. The right wing sup-
ported the war effort in every belligerent country, the center
opposed it, but only with legal means, while the left wing
aimed at turning the "imperialist" war into civil war ("revol-
utionary defeatism").
Youth, already subject to military conscription in peace-
time, was even more vitally interested in the question of war
than the older age groups. Consequently, the efforts of the
left-wing elements to expand their influence in the interna-
tional socialist movement were focused upon the Socialist
Youth Organizations. At the first International Conference
of Socialist Youth Organizations, held on 24-26 August 1907,
in Stuttgart, Karl Liebknecht, prominent left-winger and later
founder of the Communist Party of Germany, was elected chair-
man and delivered the key note address, "The Struggle against
Militarism" (for which the Imperial German Government sen-
tenced him to 18 months in prison). The Conference consisted
of only 20 delegates from 13 countries, who represented notmore
than a few tens of thousands of youthful socialists - but it offered
the left-wing in the international socialist movement a convenient
and promising point of departure.
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The Berne Conference, 1915
After the outbreak of the war in 1914, the secretariat
of the International Federation of Socialist Youth Organiza-
tions was virtually paralyzed, since it was located in Vienna,
i. e. in a belligerent country. This gave the left wingers the
opportunity to call an international youth conference of their
own in neutral Switzerland; on 4 - 6 April 1915, 16 delegates
from 10 countries representing 33, 800 members, convened
in Berne. The conference adopted a resolution on "the war
and the tasks of the socialist youth organizations", which
marked a sharp break with the official policies of the major-
ity socialist parties:
"This war is the result of the imperialist
policy of the ruling classes of all capitalist countries.
Even where the ruling classes and their governments
describe it as a defensive war, it is the consequence
of this policy which is hostile to the people and
inseparable from capitalism.
"The international socialist youth conference
demands an immediate end of the war. It welcomes
the attempts of party groups in belligerent countries
to resume the class struggle and to impose peace
upon the ruling classes. It declares it to be the duty
of the youth comrades in the belligerent countries to
support energetically this spreading movement for
peace. . .
"The conference emphasizes the need to en-
lighten the young men and women workers in all
countries about the causes and the character of war
and militarism as inevitable features of the capital-
ist order, to educate them in the spirit of interna-
tional class struggle and to rally them in increasing.
numbers to the banner of revolutionary socialism. "
1
Translated from: Wilhelm Mltnzenberg, Die Sozialist-
ische Jugendinternationale, (Berlin, 1919).
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The conference elected Wilhelm Munzenberg, who
represented the Socialist Youth League of Switzerland, as
Executive Secretary and put him in charge of a "provision-
al international secretariat" in Zurich. It decided to pub-
lish an international magazine, YOUTH INTERNATIONAL,
to create a "Liebknecht Fund" to assist victims of the fight
against militarism;, to hold an annual "international day of
youth" and to organize socialist children's groups (later
known as "pioneers"). The secretariat in Zurich operated
overtly in neutral Switzerland, but its communications with
socialist youth groups in belligerent countries, especially
the distribution of the magazine YOUTH INTERNATIONAL,
were carried out mainly by clandestine means.
11
Munzenberg, a dynamic leader and gifted organizer,
patterned the political line of his work more and more closely
after the "Zimmerwald Left", led by Lenin. He printed
articles by Lenin, Trotsky, Karl Radek, Liebknecht and
other communist leaders in the 10 issues of the YOUTH
INTERNATIONAL which were distributed in 25, 000-3C), 000
copies across closed borders. Lenin, then an exile in Swit-
zerland, immediately realized the potential value of Munzen-
berg's efforts and welcomed in his own newspaper the publica-
tion of the YOUTH INTERNATIONAL and the course followed
by its organization:
"The majority of the official Social-Democratic
Parties of Europe are now advocating the meanest and
vilest form of social chauvinism and opportunism. . .
In the circumstances thus prevailing in Europe, on the
League of Socialist Youth Organizations falls the tre-
mendous, grateful but difficult task of fighting for revol-
utionary internationalism and for true socialism and
against the prevailing opportunism, which has deserted
to the side of the imperialist bourgeoisie. The YOUTH
INTERNATIONAL has published a number of good articles
in defense of revolutionary internationalism, and the whole
publication is permeated with a fine spirit of intense hatred
for the betrayers of socialism who 'defend the fatherland'
in the present war, and with an earnest desire to purge the
international labor movement of the corroding influence of
chauvinism and opportunism. . .
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" . . we must be decidedly in favor of the
organizational independence of the youth league,
not only because the opportunists fear this inde-
pendence but because of the very nature of the case;
for unless they have complete independence the youth
will be unable either to train good socialists from
their midst, or to prepare themselves to lead social-
ism forward. We stand for complete independence of
the Youth Leagues, but also for complete freedom of
comradely criticism of their errors. We must not
flatter the youth. "2
Lenin here emphasizes the independence of youth organiza-
tions, an independence which he advocated as long as it made
itself felt against the majority of Social Democratic Party
leaders. A few years later, the Communist parties did not
grant their youth organizations any degree of autonomy, even
in matters of organizational detail, let alone in policy.
In the first years of the war, the Socialist Youth Inter-
national endeavored to maintain contacts with all socialist
youth groups which opposed the war, including groups which
remained Social Democratic in character, such as the social-
ist youth organizations in Austria and in the neutral Scandin-
avian countries. But in the final phases of the war, especially
under the impact of the Russian revolution, Miinzenberg and
his associates took an increasingly outspoken stand in favor of
the radical left wing, the Bolsheviki, and turned sharply against
all shades of democratic socialism.
This turn toward the extreme left was documented at the
meeting of the Bureau of the Socialist Youth International, held
in neutral Stockholm on 19 and 20 August, 1917. The political
resolution adopted there stated in part:
2December 1916, in Sbornik Sotsial-Demokrata, #2. Reprinted
in: V.1. Lenin, The Young Generation, Little Lenin Library,
Volume 26. (New York, 1940).
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"The historical events in Russia are brilliant
proof for the correctness of the methods of socialist
class struggle which we have always propagated.
The socialist youth welcomes therefore wholehearted-
ly and fraternally the socialist revolutionaries of
Russia and celebrates in their victory the victory of
the revolutionary ideas. But just as the Russian
revolution can achieve full socialist victory only in
open fight aainst the bourgeois government and
against the Social Patriots, revolutionary tactics
in all other countries can also win only in fighting
Social Patriotism uncompromisingly. It must be
therefore the continuing task of the socialist youth
to rejuvenate the general labor movement" and to re-
kindle the flame of revolutionary struggle . . . The
socialist youth *ill help to incite the masses of
socialist workers to serious revolutionary activities
in order to bring about lasting peace soon and to
realize Socialism. "
B. BETWEEN WORLD WARS I AND II: THE YOUNG
COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL
The Founding Congress, 1919
As the logical conclusion of the war-time developments
outlined above, Mtinzenberg, after the end of World War I, led
the Socialist Youth International straight into the communist
camp. The Comintern had been founded in Moscow in March,
1919, and the Socialist Youth International was transformed
into the Young Communist International (YCI) at a congress
held in Berlin in November, 1919. Socialist and communist
youth organizations from 14 countries, totaling 250, 000 mem-
bers, were represented - among which the Russian Komsomol,
with 100, 000 members, was by far the largest and most impor-
tant. M{ nzenberg was the main speaker.
3
Translated from: Wilhelm Mttnzenberg, Die Dritte Front.
Aufzeichnungen aus 15 Jahren proletarischer Jugendbewegung.
(Berlin, 1930).
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The Is sue of Autonomy
The Berlin Congress adopted a political program
which, although it followed unconditionally the communist
party line, claimed for youth the role of "revolutionary
vanguard" and for its organizations a high degree of
autonomy - two claims which challenged the absolute
hegemony of the Communist Party and had therefore to
be abandoned shortly thereafter. The most significant
passages of this 1919 program of the YCI read:
"3. The founding of separate proletarian
youth organizations is necessitated by (i) the situa-
tion of youth in economic life and in society which
forces it to fight for the defense of its own interests,
(ii) the psychological peculiarities of youth, (iii) the
necessity of special methods for its socialist and
revolutionary education.
"4. The working youth is the most active and
most revolutionary part of the proletariat. The most
important task of the communist youth organization
is at present untiring political agitation among the
broad masses of the workers, the organizing of
political activities, the direct fight for communism,
the participation in overthrowing capitalist rule and
the education of youth to be builders of communist
society.
"5. The communist youth organizations con-
duct an energetic struggle against all bourgeois
parties, as well as against the right-wing Socialists,
the avowed lackeys of the bourgeoisie, and against
the socialist Center who support capitalist society
by their vacillating attitudes. . . In their political
fight, the youth organizations endorse the program
of the political party or fraction in their countries
which is affiliated with the Third International, or
the program of the Third International. Organiza-
tional relations with the party are determined by
two basic principles: (i) autonomy of youth, (ii)
close contact and mutual support. "4
4
Translated from: Wilhelm M{inzenberg, Die Dritte Front.
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Lenin's View of Leading Role of Youth
Lenin, addressing the Komsomol Congress in 1920,
summed up and re.-emphasized the importance of the young
Communist league as the "shock group" in building Soviet
society. He said:
"We can build communism only from the sum of
knowledge, organizations and institutions, only with
the stock of human forces and means that were be -
queathed to us by the old society. Only by radically
recasting the teaching, organization and training of
the youth shall we be able to ensure that the results
of the efforts of the younger generation will be the
creation of a. society that will be unlike the old society,
i. e. a communist society.
"You must be the foremost among the millions of
builders of communist society, which all young men and
young women should be . . . The task of the Youth League
is to organize its practical activities in such a way that,
by learning, organizing, uniting and fighting, its members
train themselves and all who look to it as a leader, train
them to be Communists.
"The Young Communist League should be a shock
group, helping in every job and displaying initiative and
enterprise. The character of the League should be such
that any worker, although he may not understand its doc-
trines, although he may not immediately believe them,
nevertheless should see from the practical work and
activity of its members that they are Eeally the people
who are showing him the right road. "
Stalin's Doctrinal Changes, 1919-1929
Stalin did not grant the Communist youth the autonomy which
Lenin had promised, nor did the YCI's concept of youth as
"foremost among the builders of communist society" fit into his
Lenin, Sbornik Sotsialista.
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scheme of total party control. On 29 October 1925, for
instance, he stated in KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA:
"Formally speaking, the Young Communist
League is a non-Party organization. But it is at the
same time a communist organization. This means
that the Young Communist League, while it is formally
a non-Party organization of workers and peasants, must
at the same time work under the guidance of the Party.
The task is to ensure the guidance of the party in all
the work of the Young Communist League. The Young
Communist Leaguer must remember that without such
guidance the Young Communist League will be unable
to perform its fundamental task, namely, to educate
the worker and peasant youth in the spirit of the dicta-
torship of the proletariat and of communism. 6
The actual subordination of the Communist Youth Leagues
proceeded quickly, but the program of the YCI - which in its
Berlin (1919) version was quite at odds with Stalin's concept -
was completely rewritten only at its fifth congress, held in
Moscow in 1929. The appeal with which the Executive Com-
mittee of the YCI prefaced the new program indicates clearly
the initial difficulties which had to be overcome before all com-
munist youth organizations had completely accepted the com-
manding role of the Communist parties. This appeal reads in
part:
There have been considerable changes in our
conception of the role of the Young Communist League.
In the Berlin program of the YCI (1919), the role as-
cribed to the youth is that of being the vanguard of the
revolutionary movement, and the relations between the
Young Communist League and the Communist Party were
characterized as that of two equal independent and amic-
able organizations. . .
"These -principles of the Berlin program fully
expressed the actual state of affairs in the Communist
6
Reprinted in: J. Stalin, The Tasks of the Youth. (New York,
1940).
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movement of that time.. The Young Coinmunist organ-
izations in many, if not in most countries, really played
the role of a vanguard, the role of pioneers in the Com-
munist movement. They organized the Communist
parties and from their ranks came the first communist
groups. . .
". But now that the movement has developed
all over the world, now that it has matured' and given
rise to Communist parties, the true leaders of the revol-
utionary struggle, the relations between the Young Com-
munist Leagues and the Communist Parties, and conse-
quently the role and position of the Young Communist
League in the system of revolutionary organizations,
could not but go through a thorough revision.
"The Second Congress of the YCI adopted, after a
long struggle at the congress, which was later carried
on in the Leagues, the principle of the political subor-
dination of Young Communist Leagues to the Communist
Parties. At that time (1921) such a decision appeared to
be absolutely necessary, although it met with great
resistance from the then leaders of the Young Communist
organizations who were still completely swayed by their
'vanguard' ideology. But practice has shown that the
formulation of the Second Congress was inadequate.
Actually the relations between the Young Communist
Leagues and Communist Parties became much closer
than the formula of 'political subordination' implied, the
Communist Parties generally became the leaders of the
Young Communist Leagues.
"The responsibility of the Party for the leadership
of the Young Communist League does not interfere with
the organizational independence of the Leagues. They
have their own autonomous organizations, elected bodies,
wide democracy, and their own internal questions. This
is absolutely essential for a maximum development of ini-
tiative and Communist training of the League members. "7
7Programme of the Young Communist International, Young Com-
munist League of America, (New York, 1929).
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From "Revolutionary Vanguard" to "Preparatory School"
The YCI program of 1929 defines that organization as
"a section of the Communist International (CI) working upon
the basis of the program and the statutes of the CI". It recog-
nizes that the Communist Party, "the leader of the working
class, needs a reserve, which would assure a new cadre of
young forces for its ranks and which would serve as a prepar-
atory school, training the young generation of workers for the
Communist Party".
Having thus reduced the role of Communist youth organi-
zation s from that of a "revolutionary vanguard" to-that of a
"preparatory school", the program further justifies the neces-
sity of such organizations by referring to the situation of young
workers under capitalism and to the psychological peculiarities
of youth, paraphrasing the point in the 1919 program which is
quoted above. The program quotes Lenin to the effect that the
most general task of the YCL is "to study communism" and
specifies that this study -
if. . . consists in the organized participation of
the YCL in the general class struggle of the proletariat
and, within the limits of this struggle, in the advocacy
of and struggle for the special demands and interests
of the working youth, above all, against militarism
and imperialist wars, and questions concerning the
economic demands of the working youth. "
Although this program is international in character, it
contains very specific rules concerning the forms and methods
of organization to be followed by the Young Communist Leagues
in every country:
"As an organization of Communist education and as
a preparatory school for the Party, the YCL is a much
broader organization than the CP . . . The YCL should
therefore strive to exceed the CP in numerical strength
. . . Although the YCL is a mass organization, this does
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not eliminate the usefulness of non-party mass organiza-
tions of the working youth for special tasks. These
auxiliary organizations are a sort of 'transmission belt'
which link up the YCL more closely with the masses . .
"The organizational structure of Communist Youth
organizations corresponds with their revolutionary role
and tasks in the class struggle . . . The basis of the YCL
is the factory group which coordinates League members
according to their place of employment. YCL members
who cannot be organized in factory groups because of the
nature of their work, are organized in street groups.
Street groups are also basic units of the League organi-
zations, but the center of gravity and the main role is
played by the factory groups. 8
"In order to extend a guiding influence to the youth
in the mass organizations of adult and young workers
(trade unions, sport leagues, various auxiliary organi-
zations, etc.), the YCL organizes its members in these
organizations into YCL fractions . The fractions are the
mouthpiece and most important instrument of the YCL in
these organizations . . . The YCL does not limit its
activity to the framework of 'legality' ordained by the
bourgeoisie. In its struggle against capitalism, the YCL
is continually compelled to combine its open legal activity
with illegal and semi-legal work and therefore to overstep
the limits laid down for it by bourgeois legality.
"The YCL realizes that it is surrounded by enemies
on all sides and that it must expect at any moment to be
driven into illegality by the bourgeoisie. It therefore
prepares itself technically and politically for such an
eventuality and creates for itself - in legal conditions,
too - an organized apparatus through which it will be
able to continue its work in case of enforced illegality.
But even in a state of illegality the YCL must remain a
8Detailed directives for the work of factory groups (cells) of
Communist Youth Organizations were given in Leitfaden fttr
die Betriebszellena:rbeit, Herausgegeben vom Exekutivkomitee
der Kommunistischen Jugendinternationale. (Guide for Factory
Cell Work. Issued by the Executive Committee of the YCI).
(Berlin, 1932).
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mass organization, i. e. it must not lose contact with
and influence over the masses. For this purpose it
creates various legal organizations (including political
ones) of the working youth. But the YCL looks upon
these organizations only as legal forms of work for
the illegal YCL. The main thing is to ensure the leader-
ship and development of the YCL itself. Even the fierc-
est capitalist terror, the dissolution of all legal youth
organizations, cannot prevent the YCL itself continuing
to be active among the masses and working untiringly
for its aims. "
Additional chapters of the program deal with the attitudes
of the YCL toward war and its anti-militarist activities, its
struggle for the economic demands of young workers, its
special tasks among the rural working youth, its work under
the conditions of the dictatorship of the proletariat (i. e. in the
Soviet Union), activities of the YCI in colonial and semi-colonial
countries, the training of working-class children ("Red Pioneers")
and the sports activities of the YCL. A concluding chapter deals
with the opponents of the YCL, notably with fascist, bourgeois,
and social democratic youth organizations.
The Scope of Young Communist International Activities
The official report, prepared by the YCI for its Fifth World
Congress (which adopted the program discussed above), gives a
cross section of the multitudinous activities in which the Commun-
ist youth organizations engaged between World Wars I and II,
inde r the leadership of the YCI. 9
Total membership of the YCI rose from 1, 294, 000 in 1925
to 2, 157, 000 in 1928. However, out of the latter total, 2, 030, 000
were members of the Russian Komsomol, 25, 000 of the YCL in
9The Young Communist International between the Fourth and
Fifth Congresses, 1924-1928. Communist Party of Great
Britain. (London, 1928). 250 p.
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the Communist areas of China, and only 102, 000 in the entire
capitalist world. The bulk of these 102, 000 belonged to overt
YCLs in the following countries:
Germany
20,
000
France
10,
500
Sweden
14,
500
Czechoslovakia
12,
800
Norway
3,
000
North America
2,
500
Greece
2,
000
Legal YCLs were reported to exist in 18 other countries and
illegal organizations in 17 countries, including China, Poland,
Italy, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Spain, Japan, Korea, Iran and
Turkey. The total membership of these 17 illegal YCLs was
said to be 29, 700 (in 1928).
The total number of factory groups in all affiliated YCLs
(excluding the Soviet Union and China) had reached 1, 900 in
1926, but had decreased to a mere 650 in 1928, despite the
rule, quoted above, that factory groups were to be the basic
form of organization everywhere. The report estimates that
only 7% of the membership in Germany, 8% in France, 11% in
Czechoslovakia, but 27% in Greece belonged to factory groups.
Conversely, it asserted that the percentage in the illegal YCLs
was much higher: for instance, 20 - 30% in Italy, 25 - 30ojo in
Poland.
In addition to the above listed membership, the YCI
counted front organizations and children's groups among its
assets. The fronts reported a total membership of 67, 000 in
9 countries; the most important was the "Red Youth Front" in
Germany with 21, 000 and the "Korean Student League" with
23, 000 members. Communist children's groups existed in
24 countries, totaling 1, 969, 000 members, but only 32, 600
of them were in capitalist countries.
Even though these membership figures outside Russia
were wholly unimpressive, the YCI and its affiliates engaged
feverishly in a wide variety of subversive political activities.
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Peace propaganda and anti-militarist as well as anti-
colonialist subversion were already at that time priority
assignments. In March 1927, for instance, the YCI launched
an international campaign against war and against interven-
tion in China and the Soviet Union under the following slogans:
"Hands off China, Down with Intervention,
Immediate Recalling of all Troops and Battleships,
Against Imperialist Preparation for War against the
Soviet Union, Fraternization with the Oppressed
Chinese Nation, Unity of the Soldiers and Workers
in the Struggle for Chinese Freedom, Fraternization
of the Soldiers of the Armies of Intervention with the
Chinese Soldiers of Freedom, Against the Imperialist
Policy of the U. S. A. in South America. "
The report noted, however, that only the YCLs in England,
France and Italy had actively participated in this campaign.
The next priority on the YCL list was the fight against
"white terror and Fascism" which during those years meant
primarily the regimes of Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary and Yugo-
slavia. The YCI also participated in the campaign for Sacco
and Vanzetti and in the 15 July 1927 riots in Vienna; it likewise
tried to play a role in connection with the British general strike
of 1926.
Periodical (usually annual) commemorations of revolu-
tionary events were developed into a regular calendar. These
included the International. Day of Youth in September (commem-
orating the founding conference of the Socialist Youth Interna-
tional in Stuttgart, 1907, the Lenin- Liebknecht- Luxemburg
week in January, the anniversary of the Paris Commune [8
March 18711, the anniversary of the Bolshevist October Revolu-
tion, and the anniversary of the Red Army.)
The YCI had rendered vitally important services to the
International Communist cause, on the national as well as on
the international level. In several countries it had furnished
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the first core for the build-up of Communist Parties during
the formative years of the Comintern after World Warr I.
Later, it had become the reservoir from which the future
cadres of Communist militants were recruited, indoctrin-
ated and prepared. for their intended tasks. But the YCI
had never developed into a real mass movement outside
the Soviet Union and it had never gained access to even a
substantial minority of the millions of working youths or
students in the free world.
In the last years before World War II the YCI began
to lose what few assets it had outside Russia. Hitler's rise
to power meant the end of the German YCL - which had been
the strongest section of the YCI in the capitalist world. The
YCLs in such countries as Austria, Czechoslovakia and
Greece were also outlawed. With the outbreak of World War
II in September, 1.939, the YCL in France, another strong-
hold of the YCI, was driven underground.
It was therefore hardly a loss for the International
Communist movement when the YCI was dissolved in 1943
together with the Comintern of which it had formed a sec-
tion. The YCI was revived after the war in an entirely
different form, this time as a true mass, or front organi-
zation. It not only resumed the essential role of the YCI as
a cadre school for the International Communist movement,
but also developed. into a significant instrument of mass
propaganda and indoctrination on behalf of the combined
international aims of the Communist parties of the world
and of the Soviet Union, and later those of Communist China.
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C. SINCE THE END OF WORLD WAR II: WORLD
FEDERATION OF DEMOCRATIC YOUTH AND
INTERNATIONAL UNION OF STUDENTS
At the end of World War II, the International Commun-
ist movement replaced the auxiliary organizations of the inter-
war period, such as the Young Communist International, the
Profintern (International of Red Trade Unions) and others, with
international front organizations which were far less blatantly
Communist in appearance and were thereby able to attract -
or at least to mislead - sizeable numbers of unwitting non-
Communists. This far-reaching change in the character of
the International Communist organizations not only gave them
much greater maneuverability and flexibility in theirpropa-
ganda, but also corresponded to the general trend of camou-
flaging more thoroughly the true fifth-column functions of these
groups.
Front Organizations as Communist Tactical Weapons
Martin Ebon describes this metamorphosis 10 with
reference to the WFDY, the World Federation of Trade Unions,
the Women's International Democratic Federation and the All-
Slav Congress:
"The four new internationals represent a new
departure in Communist strategy. Before 1943 there
were a number of specialized Communist Interna-
tionals in the fields of labor, youth, minorities, etc.
But these organizations were clearly labeled Com-
munist; there was no question of taking other left-
wing groups into them.. . . With the dawn of the
'united front' era, Stalin killed off most of these
agencies in the interest of cooperation between Com-
munists and-other left-wingers. Now the specialized
internationals have been resurrected. But a new
twist has been added: their aims, their compositions
1RThe New Communist Internationals, "The American Mercury
(June 1948) p. 721.
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and their origins have been carefully disguised...
The idea of the 'front' organization, in which Com-
munists have the real power while non-Communist
liberals contribute the money and prestige, has
been placed on a world-wide basis. "
The Commutst. technique of penetrating and taking
over youth and other front organizations has been described
in detail by Philip 'ielznick:
if. .. we may now proceed to consider the role of
Communist peripheral organizations as they reflect
the ubiquitous striving for unity. The older peri-
pheral groups were simply a means of establishing
organizational control over individuals who were
close to the party ideologically. But now they were
conceived of as weapons which would permit the
party to gain organizational access to and control
over broader sectors of the population having no
ideological commitment to Communism or even to
Marxism.
"The use of the term 'front' to characterize
Communist eripheral groups, and the relation of
the latter to united-front tactics, may be the source
of some terminological confusion. The word 'front'
in the phrase 'united front' refers, characteristi-
cally, to the military context, in the sense of an
alignment against an enemy formation. It is in this
sense that the word is used by the Communists them-
selves. On the other hand, the phrase 'front organ-
ization' is not a Communist one, and is derived from
the architectural idea of a facade. The peripheral
organization. is a 'front' to the extent that it func-
tions as a cover behind which the political activities
of the party are carried on.
"Although deception is by definition involved
in the use of 'front' organizations, it was not always
a dominant aspect of united-front tactics. On the
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contrary, it was deemed essential that the party
openly present its banner and its leaders, for. the
early history of Communism, after the founding
of the International, was one of direct appeals to
rally the masses behind its banner. In 1935, how-
ever, this orientation underwent a basic change.
It was a change which is generally regarded as a
shift in political line, i. e., the relaxation of
aggression against western democracy. In fact,
however, the shift represented something addi-
tional and even more fundamental: the historic
culmination of the logic of Leninism, wherein
deception became recognized as communism's
most useful and characteristic tool. Bolshevism
was now to wrap itself in any ideological banner,
or to infest as a parasite any expedient host, which
would yield increments of power to the party, even
though this power could not be exercised in its own
name. Thus after the Seventh Congress the united
front became essentially deceptive; the party re-
treated from open participation, relying more and
more on the covert maneuverability of its cadres
and on the use of peripheral organizations as shields
for this secret penetration and control. Hence the
old 'open' peripheral organizations, when used to
implement the new unity tactics, inevitably became
'fronts'. Al
However careful the Communists are to disguise their
manipulation of the WFDY, the IUS and other international
fronts in the eyes of the general public, they do not hesitate,
when addressing their own inner circles, to emphasize their
vital significance for the Communist cause. This is authori-
tatively illustrated, for instance, by an article in the Comin-
form journal, For a Lasting Peace, for a Peoples Democracy:
11Philip Selznick, The Organizational Weapon (McGraw-Hill,
1952). pp. 145-146.
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"The: role of the mass organizations of working
people in the capitalist countries has also grown in the
struggle for the vital interests of the peoples, for
peace, bread and freedom. In France, Italy, and
other capitalist countries, mass organizations consti-
tute a powerful organized force. The right of these
organizations of the working people and their influence
increase immeasurably due to the creation of interna-
tional amalgamation. The World Federation of Trade
Unions, the International Federation of Democratic
Women, the International Federation of Democratic
Youth, the International Students Union, the Interna-
tional Co-operative Alliance and many other interna-
tional bodies, unite millions of working people of all
countries of the world. . . " (25 May 1951).
The Founding of WFDY
The World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) was
founded at an international conference held from 31 October to
9 November 1945, in London. At the outset, it took on a res-
pectable aspect. In the West, the desire to remain on close,
friendly terms with the war-time Communist allies was still
strong. Many non-Communists accepted invitations, and even
the President of the United States sent a message of welcome
to the conference. According to the report rendered by the
U. S. delegation, 62. countries were represented by 437 dele-
gates and 148 observers, allegedly speaking for "over 40 mil-
lion young people". Only 3. 5% of the delegates were openly
identified as representing Communist youth organizations;
2. 5% came from socialist youth groups, 6% from trade unions,
while 2. 5% came from the YMCA and the YWCA, 3. 5% from
Scouting groups, 4. 5% from Protestant and 3. 5% from Catholic
youth groups, etc.
The resolutions adopted by the London Conference were
couched in generalities so sweeping that the Communist purpose
behind them remained hidden even to attentive observers. Thus,
in the principal political resolution:
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"This Conference calls upon all democratic
youth organizations to assist in the establishment
of a just and lasting peace; to support the claims
of young people to the necessary conditions for
spiritual, cultural and physical development, and
to promote friendship and respect among nations.
"Young people want the military victories of
the war years to lead to lasting peace and security.
They believe that an authoritative international
organization, founded upon joint action of the Great
Powers, is capable of maintaining peace. They sup-
port fully the Charter of World Organization, drafted
at San Francisco, support the establishment of the
United Nations Organization as an effective, interna-
tional political instrument for the maintenance of
peace and for raising the social and economic stand-
ards of all people . . .
The Constitution of WFDY, adopted in London, is equally broad,
universal and lofty in expression. In Section III, it defines the
aims of the organization as follows:
"(a) To strive for close international under-
standing and cooperation amongst the youth in the
fields of economic, political, educational, cultural,
and social activity, with respect for diversity of
ideas and national conditions; to make the maximum
contribution to the elimination of fascism in all its
forms; to render active assistance to the govern-
ments in ensuring peace and security in bringing up
the rising generation in the spirit of democracy, and
in raising the standard of life of the young generation.
"(b) To work for the active participation of
youth in economic, political, social and cultural life,
for the "removal of all restrictions and qualifications
connected with sex, method of education, domicile,
property, or social status, religion, political belief,
color or race; to ensure for the democratic youth,
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freedom of speech, press, religious belief, assembly
and demonstration, and to assist the foundation of
democratic youth organizations where these do not
exist.
"(c) To work for good conditions of education ,
labor and leisure, and for the development of cultur-
al, educational and sports activities amongst all youth.
"(d) To do all in its power, in the light of the
present lack of unified national youth committees, to
bring about the free and voluntary cooperation and
association of youth organizations on a national level.
"(e) To do all in its power to educate the young-
er generation in the ideas and responsibilities of world
citizenship.
"(f) To represent the interests of youth in
international affairs and organizations and wherever
possible to bring to the notice of such organizations
questions affecting the interests of youth. To call the
attention of world public opinion to the urgent needs of
youth. To maintain the closest possible contact with
all other organizations having similar aims, and seek
the support of people prominent in public life. "
An analysis of the above "aims" in the light of ten years
of WFDY activities shows, from the vantage point of hindsight,
that these- resounding generalizations were drafted not merely
to be acceptable to the many unwitting delegates gathered in
London, but primarily to provide a broad foundation for sub-
sequent Communist manipulation. For this purpose, "elimina-
tion of fascism" means really subordination to Moscow's chang-
ing policy objectives. The Communists identified as fascist
not only the regimes of Spain and Argentina, but also, at various
times, those of the U. S., of Western Germany, or even Yugo-
slavia. The "spirit of democracy", in this context, is -
especially within the Soviet orbit - "people's democracy", i. e.
Communist dictatorship.
Paragraph (b) of the "aims" demands freedom of speech,
press, religious belief, assembly and demonstration "for the
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democratic youth". According to Communist semantics,
however, only Communists and their collaborators are real
"democrats". Everybody else, however firm his democratic
convictions and practices (in the Free World sense), is to be
considered a fascist or at least a "bourgeois" or a "reaction-
ary" and therefore not only is not entitled to free speech,
press, assembly, but must be "eliminated", as noted in
paragraph (a).
Paragraph (d) pledges the WFDY "to bring about the
free and voluntary cooperation and association of youth organ-
izations on a national level". Just as the Communist parties
strive for political monopoly, suppressing all other parties,
the Communist youth organizations strive for their owh mono-.
poly. What they mean by "free and voluntary cooperation" is
shown conclusively in the satellite countries; not only political
youth groups of all colors, but also church youth, boy scouts,
sports groups and any other associations rallying young people,
have been forced into a merger with the "state youth monopoly",
an affiliate of the WFDY.
"To represent the interests of youth in international
affairs and organizations" is proclaimed by WFDY in paragraph
(f) as one of its aims. In pursuit of this, it has sought to
achieve the status of a consultative organization with the United
Nations and other international bodies - with indifferent results .
In the same paragraph"the closest possible contact with all other
organizations having similar aims" is demanded. This has to
some extent been realized, by collaboration with the other
international fronts, especially with the World Peace Council
and the World Federation of Trade Unions. The WFDY has also
12Particularly significant is the development of the "Free German
Youth" organization in the Soviet Zone of Germany whose resem-
blance to the equally monopolistic and totalitarian Hitler Youth is
striking. See Gerd Friedrich, Die Freie Deutsche Jugend: Stoss-
trupp des Kommunis mus in Deutschland . Cologne, 1950, (anti-
Communist); Deutschlands Junge Garde: 50 Jahre Arbeiterjugend-
bewegung, herausgegeben vom Zentralrat der Freien Deutschen
Jugend, Berlin, 1954, (Communist).
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tried persistently to establish "united fronts" with non-
Communist youth organizations, and is intensifying the effort
in connection with the forthcoming Moscow Festival.
Communist Direction and Control of the First Youth Festival
The remarkable effort made at the London conference
to give WFDY a non-partisan cloak of respectability subsided
shortly thereafter into the routine formula of "rallying all youth
regardless of political opinions". This was partly owing to the
rapid deterioration of East-West relations, leading to the out-
break of the "Cold War", but partly also to the apparently in-
evitable trend in front organizations to reveal more and more
of their true character, the longer they are in operation.
Communist direction revealed itself as early as the
First World Youth Festival, held in July-August 1947 in Prague.
Martin Ebon has described American experience at this Festival:
"'A large American delegation participated in
the Festival. A few days after they arrived in the Czech
capital, eight of the Americans realized that they had
been roped into a Communist-run affair. They prepared
a protest which they tried to distribute during the Festival's
closing sessions, but they were stopped by a Czech army
officer. When the eight young men and women returned
to the United States they reported, among other things,
that the Soviet exhibit at the Festival had dramatized the
heroic progress of Soviet youth under Commurdsm; while
the American exhibit was concerned with such matters as
lynchings, race prejudice and the prospect of depression.
"The minority report of these eight Americans
stated that 'the present leadership of the sponsoring
organizations, the WFDY, is predominantly Communist'.
A sophisticated group might have made this discovery
without going to Prague; the WFDY had been Communist-
controlled from the day of its founding in November 1945.
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It is true, however, that the organization had camou-
flaged this fact for.some time . . . As soon as the
executive committee of the WFDY began to issue
pronouncements, on the problems of the world, how-
ever, it became p3parent where the control of the
group lay. . .
Complete Communist control of the Prague rally is
evident from reports issued by the WFDY affiliate, notably
a report covering both the Festival and the ensuing WFDY
Council meeting from which the following statements are
quoted:
fummarizing the progress report of the WFDY
Secretarial "Successful campaigns were conducted
against Franco's terrorism in Spain, for the defense
of democratic rights in Greece, for the support of the
liberation struggle of the young republics in Vietnam
and Indonesia and thereby against imperialism.
From the discussions in the Council meetin
"The representative of millions of young Chinese
reported on the fight of Chinese youth which sacrifices
itself against foreign intervention. The youth of China
is being killed with American war material. Supported
by this material and by instructors, two million mer-
cenaries of Chiang Kai-shek have attacked the free ter-
ritory of China in 1946. . . It would be good for the young
Americans to fight against the shipment of war materials
and against the American intervention in China, because
the production of war material can only damage the wel-
fare of American youth and increases the danger that
they must bleed once more on battle fields.
13Ebon, op. cit. p. 721.
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/The representative of Greece stated:/ 'We can
not start the reconstruction of our country since the
arms of England and of America prevent us from doing
so . . . The civil war, maintained by England and
America ruins our country . . . "
LFrom the resolution, unanimously adopted by
the WFDY Council/ "The Council believes that new
efforts have been made by the imperialist circles of
certain countries during the past year to fight against
the unity of those nations which contributed most to vic-
tory in the war.. The civil war in China was continued
and enlarged as a result of American intervention. The
fascist governments in Spain and Greece were supported
by Washington and London. The imperialist circles of
England and France have provoked wars in Indonesia and
Vietnam . . . "
L un-imarizing the action program adopted by the
Counci: "1) To unmask the enemies of peace and
democracy with doubled intensity so that the largest
part of youth may understand and actively support the
fight for peace. 2) To support actively the fight of
youth against fascism and imperialism and to defend
suppressed democratic youth organizations by large-
scale solidarity campaigns. 3) To take measures to
strengthen the unity of youth and to obtain intensified
cooperation with international youth organizations which
are active in the same sense, like the Christian youth
organizations in Geneva. 4) To defend the vital inter-
ests of youth by implementing carefully the decisions
included in the resolution on the demands of working
youth, the fight for the right to work, for a worthy
standard of :Living, for equal wages for equal work, for
ban against child labor, for paid vacations, for voca-
tional training during working hours . . . and for the
right to join organizations. "
14 Translated from: Erich Honecker, Die Jugend der Welt ffir
Frieden, Freiheit, Fortschritt. Die Prager Tagung des Welt-
bundes der Demokratischen Jugend. (Berlin, 1947).
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The Party Line at the WFDY 1949 Congress
How faithfully WFDY followed the International Com-
munist party line was also shown very explicitly at its Con-
gress held in Budapest, in September 1949. The Congress
issued a "Manifesto to the Young People of all Countries" in
which the following immediate tasks were formulated:
"Condemnation of the war-like preparations
of big capitalists, headed by the American imperialists.
"Attacks on the Marshall Plan and the North
Atlantic Treaty.
"Allegations of the violation of democratic free-
dom in all countries oppressed by the imperialists,
including the United States.
"A call to youth organizations to render utmost
support to the young democrats of.India, Vietnam, Burma,
Malaya, Indonesia and other colonial and dependent coun-
tries in the struggle for peace and the independence of
their peoples.
"An appeal to youth to support the invincible army
of peace partisans, headed by the mighty Soviet Union
which made a decisive contribution to the defeat of
Fascism.
"A call for unity of international youth vi thin the
WFDY and a condemnation of the forces seeking to split
this unity. "15
One of the most striking instances of the WFDY's obedient
submission to the Moscow party line is its treatment of the Yugo-
slav youth organization which had been a charter member of
WFDY since 1945, but was expelled and furiously attacked after
the Yugoslav Party had been ousted from the Cominform in 1948.
In 1955, after Khrushchev and Bulganin had made their pilgrim-
age to Belgrade and had begun the process of restoring friendly
15
Facts about International Communist Front Organizations
Revised edition, (March 1955) p. 21.
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relations with Tito's government and party, WFDY had to
reverse itself once more. The WFDY Executive Committee
meeting, held in Warsaw, 27-28 July 1955, adopted the fol-
lowing resolution on Yugoslavia (note the characteristically
ambiguous language, carefully avoiding "partisan" words
like "Communist"):
" The Executive Committee has examined
the questions of relations between the WFDY and
the Yugoslav People's Youth. The incorrect attitude
of the WFDY to the Yugoslav People's Youth and the
break in relations between that organization and the
WFDY is not in the interests of the unity of the demo-
cratic youth movement. The Executive Committee
has decided to annul the resolution on the breaking
of relations with the leaders of the Yugoslav People's
Youth passed. by the Executive Committee at the ses-
sion in Bucharest in January 1950, as an erroneous
resolution incompatible with the activity of the WFDY,
a Federation whose aim is to promote unity, coopera-
tion and friendship among youth and youth organiza-
tions in all countries. The Executive Committee
sincerely desires the restoration of friendly relations
and the broadest cooperation between the WFDY and
the Yugoslav People's Youth, in the name of unity of
youth, of friendship and of world peace. "
At the time of this writing, however, the Yugoslav
youth organization has not yet rejoined WFDY nor, for that
matter, has any other Yugoslav organization returned to mem-
bership in a Communist international front.
The 1955 Warsaw Festival
Thousands of young people from all over the world con-
gregated in Warsaw between 31 July and 15 August 1955 for the
Fifth World Youth Festival. We shall describe the Warsaw
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Festival in some detail, since it offers some fairly specific
indications as to what to expect in Moscow in July of 1957.
The Cominform journal, "For a Lasting Peace, For
a People's Democracy! " (5 August 1955) welcomed the
Festival with words of highest praise, connecting it with
the policy of the Geneva Summit Conference - a theme
repeatedly emphasized in Warsaw:
"The opening of the Festival coincided with
the beginning of a new stage in international relations.
The Geneva Four-Power Conference was a first step
in establishing confidence among states, regardless
of their political and social systems, on the basid of
peaceful co-existence . The successful outcome of
the conference convinces the youth that the 'cold war'
can and must be ended. The Warsaw Festival is
another proof of the possibility of achieving lasting
and peaceful cooperation among peoples .
"The influence of the World Federation of
Democratic Youth, which consistently fights for the
rights of youth, is growing year by year . . . The
Federation and its organizations are now co-operating
on an ever greater scale with other international and
national youth organizations . . . No international
youth gathering has ever had such a widely represen-
tative character as the Warsaw Festival . . .
"Those participating in the Festival are people
of various races and nationalities, different trades
and diverse political, social and religious convictions
and views. Today you can meet in the streets of
Warsaw French Socialists and Catholics, Italian
Christian Democrats and members of the Saragat
party, English Labourites and Social Democrats from
Western Germany. The idea of the Festival is forever
winning new millions of young hearts in all continents.
It is supported by all the youth organizations in Japan,
Indonesia, Egypt and other countries. "
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The total number of all types of participants was
variously estimated at between 30, 000 and 50, 000. This
compares with the participation in previous festivals estim-
ated as:
1947
First World
Youth Festival
Prague
? No. from .
71 countries and
territories
1949
Second World
Youth Festival
Budapest
10, 000 from
82 countries
1951
Third World
Youth Fe stival
Berlin
26, 000 from
104 countries
1953
Fourth World
Bucharest 30, 000 from
Youth Festival
1 l I countries
1955
Fifth World
Youth Festival
Warsaw
30, 000 from
115 countries
1957
Sixth World
Moscow
30,000-35,000
Youth Festival
expected from
120 countries
("Soviet Weekly"
August 2, 1956).
Tab B on the following page represents a breakdown
by country of the number of delegates who attended the Fifth
World Youth Festival in Warsaw. (The term "delegate" is
very loosely used; only a minority of the participants had a
mandate from any youth organization).
Poland, the host country for the Warsaw Festival,
claimed 2, 500 delegates; 140, 000 Poles were expected at the
Festival, the balance of which contributed "padding" to the
Bloc representation. Polish radio and press quoted specific
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Breakdown by Country of 30, 000 Participants who Attended the V World Youth Festival, Warsaw, 1955.
NOTE: These figures are approximate and incomplete for certain areas. They are compiled from
official and press sources.
Western Europe
Middle East Asia
Africa
Poland
2
500
E. Germany
,
1,
500
Finland
2, 000
Egypt
404
India
350
Nigeria )
Chile
180
Czechoslovakia
1,
500
W. Germany
1, 500*
Iraq
Japan
51
Gold Coast)
Venezuela
26
USSR
1,
100
France
1,400
Israel
Cameroons 1,
000
Uruguay
23
Rumania
800
Gt. Britain
1, 300
Lebanon)
227
Ivory Coast)
Argentina
17
Hungary
700
Denmark
1, 200
Syria
Algeria 170
Colombia
26
Cam. China
600
Sweden
1, 000
Turkey
Tunisia 77
Bulgaria
385
Austria
11900**
Morocco 53
N. Korea
158
Holland
750
Sudan 41
Other
Albania
145
Belgium
500
S. Africa 34
Switzerland
292
Senegal 15
Iceland
125
Italy .
Australia
50
US
32
The Free German Youth (Freie Deutsche Jugend, FDJ) Communist front organization in
West Germany, was banned by the German government in 1951.
**Until July 1955, over 1/3 of Austria was occupied by the Soviets.
***Bernini announced that there were 404 delegates from Egypt, whereas Polish Radio and Press
listed the total 227 for the Middle East including Egypt.
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figures of national delegations to the Warsaw Festival total-
ing 19, 401. No numbers were given for the delegations from
the US, Greece, Spain, Paraguay and Guatemala, even though
these countries were reported to be represented. Among the
countries where WFDY affiliates have been banned, West
Germany sent 1, 500 delegates, Egypt 404, and South Africa
In the preparatory propaganda for the Festival, Com-
munist parties and other overt Communist groups kept as much
as possible in the background. It has been reported that:
. . . the KPD / Kest German Communist Pares/
remained in the background during the recruiting of
delegates, leaving the task to the party-controlled
Festival Committee. However, the party assured
itself of some control by sending along KPD and FDJ
/Communist youth organization in Western Germany -
illegal, while the party itself was then still legal/
members as group leaders.
The Polish Communist government had gone to great
lengths to make war-ravaged Warsaw appear its best to the
foreign guests.
"For a couple of months before the Festival
Warsaw underwent feverish improvements. Along
the principal streets the houses were plastered, and
round about the ruined central sections there were set
up high billboards covered with advertisements of the
Festival. Some rare commodities like meat, photo-
graphic film, and textiles, appeared in retail. trade.
It is understood these are not ordinarily available,
and the Warsaw people, we hear, were grumpy in
advance that they would disappear again from the
shelves as soon as the Festival should be over. "
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In the events of the Festival, peace, international
understanding, sports and arts were stressed, while the
political purpose of the Communists was, on the whole, ef-
fectively camouflaged.
"Much care has been taken to create a seem-
ingly free and democratic atmosphere and to keep the
Communist emphasis, even ideology, in the back -
ground . . . It is reported that all 'anti-imperialist'
propaganda has been hurriedly deleted from literature
and prepared speeches, and there are to be no
effigies ridiculing Western statesmen in the proces-
sions. At the festival in East Berlin in August 1951,
a symbol of a dollar sign with claws and ugly cari-
catures of Mr. Churchill and President Truman were
carried in the parades. All this kind of thing has been
abandoned and whatever form Communist propaganda
may take, it will clearly be less vicious and more
indirect. " 10
There were no less than 547 concerts and artistic
performances at 40 indoor theaters, 25 open-air stages and
25 motion picture houses. These performances included com-
petitions in folk singing, classical and folk dancing, appearances
by a Soviet ballet and a Polish theater group, and four circuses.
Behind this many-colored screen, however, the real
intentions of the sponsors were shown in numerous more serious
meetings. On 6 August, the Festival observed "Hiroshima Day",
the 10th anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb, an
event closely connected with the international Communist peace
campaign; a representative of the World Peace Council addressed
the rally on this subject. On 10 August, a meeting of the delegates
'from the five great powers, " France, Britain, the US, the Soviet
Union and Communist China, endorsed the then current Commun-
ist drive for a five-power pact "in the spirit of the Geneva summit
London Times, 1 August 1955.
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conference". It also called for the reunification of Germany
"on peaceful and democratic foundations". On 11 August, a
meeting of the youth from 14 Asian countries, sponsored by
the Indonesian delegation, asked for the "relaxation of tensions"
and "an end to colonial rule". On 13 August, a similar meet-
ing of the delegates from 26 European countries was held.
There were "numerous" meetings devoted to the
"solidarity of the youth of the world with the national libera-
tion struggle of youth in colonial and dependent countries",
according to the official report. Separate meetings for the
delegates from various international front organizations, such
as the World Peace Movement and the "former partisans and
fighters for national independence", were held. A conference
of more than 100 young journalists was attended by the Russian
vice president of the Communist International Organization of
Journalists. Another feature of the Festival was the presence
of numerous "trade" meetings, in which delegates belonging to
the same trade or industry were apparently briefed on Commun-
ist line activities in labor unions and related matters.
Elaborate security measures were reported by non-
Communist participants. It was reported that:
"Twenty-three members of the SFS (East German
State Security Service) accompanied the German delega-
tions and were assisted by 180 'helpers'. Five delegates
from West Germany were arrested by the SFS for espion-
age and returned to East Berlin. These individuals were
accused of having photographed an air field and several
jet planes . . . Members of the delegations from East
and West Germany were segregated during the festival. "
Another source reported that "in general, no watch was
kept on where anybody had spent his time but there was a close
watch at the door /of the delegations' living quarter and in
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general outsiders were not let in. Even delegation members
were let in only when theyshowed their festival cards". An
Italian sportsman who attended the festival, reported to Radio
Free Europe:
"Every member of the delegation was given an
identification card and tag. The athletes' cards speci-
fied the sport: they represented. These cards were
valid for most of the celebrations of the Festival. In
those cases where they were not valid, tickets were
handed out daily for these events. Besides, these
cards were valid for the city transportation system
and also served as the return ticket to Vienna.
"A certain number of interpreters were
assigned to the various quarters of the delegations,
the number varying according to the number of dele-
gates. These interpreters accompanied the delegates
wherever they went. "
Estimates of the net result of the Festival, in terms of
how much it benefited International Communism, vary widely.
(The most sweepingly positive statements among all the non-
Communist sources reviewed came from a person described
as a "naturalized US citizen, who had served for 17 years on
the diplomatic and legal staffs of an Eastern European coun-
try, and was now engaged in teaching and research on the
Soviet Union and on !international relations"). One non-Com-
munist participant stated:
"I have been very much struck by the great
impression on Poles which the recent International
Youth Festival has made. The organizers tried to
attract and hold non-Communists. They played up
the themes of folklore, brotherhood and peace, which
they professed to find exclusively under Communist
auspices. The technique employed was to set up a
17RFE #8845/55, 18 October 1955.
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nonpolitical backdrop and then peddle the Communist
line in front of it . . . I can testify that this technique
succeeded quite well and that its effects should not be
underestimated. .
"The effect of this spectacle has been enor-
mous. One of the most graphic examples of this effect
has been in the correspondence which I receive from
Poland. My correspondents have never furnished any
information or expressed any political opinions of any
sort. However, they have all commented on the Youth
Festival. Despite their hostility to Communism they
all spoke of the splendid way in which the Festival was
organized and on the excellence of the parades and
games which were staged. My point is that if anti-
Communists who know from their daily experience
what life under a Communist regime is like hatre been
impressed to the extent of writing about the sort of
thing they always avoid mentioning, how much great-
er than that must be the effects on the foreign dele-
gates to the Festival, who are young people who have
never had any experience whatsoever of life under a
Communist regime. This to me is the alarming thing. "
A different view of the political impact was presented by
an American journalist:
"Not all of the visiting youth were even potential
converts. The sports teams had made a precondition
of non-participation in the festival itself. Previous
experience dictated a decision to make participation in
the political meetings voluntary, and many visitors took
advantage of the free .om to stay away.
"Segments of all the Western delegations, except
the American, visited their respective embassies and
exposed in the process a sturdy immunity to the political
purposes of the gathering. Many of the Swedes, Danes,
Norwegians, and British were obviously there for a cheap
holiday and no other purpose. The great majority from
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Cominform countries were 'believers' anyway, so
little was gained by having them.
"The fact of the Geneva conference just before
the festival opened took the sting out of the old party
propaganda lines about alleged American 'warmonger-
ing'. Actually the propaganda exhibits around Warsaw
had been largely purged of anti-American features
shortly before the festival.
"My own strong suspicion is that Communism
lost more than it gained and that the Cominform country
governments will think twice before they stage a sixth
World Festival . . . The old early postwar momentum
has gone out of these things. I am more than ever con-
vinced that the inner fire has died down in Communism,
even behind the Iron Curtain. ,18
This prediction concerning another Festival has been
refuted by the scheduling of the Moscow rally and the world-wide
preparations for it. We believe that, on the whole, the Warsaw
Festival substantially promoted the International Communist
cause, especially among the youth of the underdeveloped areas
of the world.
On the other hand, it is important to note the liabilities
to the Communists of the Warsaw Festival. Many participants
obviously came only for an all-expenses-paid junket; delegates
from the Communist Bloc countries observed the better cloth-
ing and state of health of many Western guests; the less gullible
participants from the West got a glimpse of life behind the Iron
Curtain, despite the gaudy facade. There seem to have been some
unpleasant incidents, such as quarrels between Germans and Poles,
and numerous cases of petty thievery, drunkenness, and the like.
Despite all this, we can be sure that the Communist governments
would not continue to spend substantial sums on these Festivals
if they did not believe that they received valuable political results
in return.
18Joseph C. Harsch, in the Christian Science Monitor,
26 August- 1955.
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The International Union of Students
Numerically, the International Union of Students (IUS),
with its claimed membership of six million, is far smaller
than WFDY with its alleged eighty-five million members.
Organizationally, 'it is linked to WFDY and participates in all
of the WFDY's major enterprises, notably in the World Youth
Festivals,. which are officially styled "World Festivals of Youth
and Students ".
The close working relation of the two organizations is
reflected in. the interchangeability of its personnel.
"The only international front organization with
which the WFDY cooperated closely was one of its
auxiliaries, the IUS in Prague.. In summer, 1953,
the WFDY and the IUS jointly financed the travel of
youth, delegations from Western countries; the WFDY
paid for the travel of the delegations to the Congress
in Bucharest while the IUS paid for the travel of the
delegations from Bucharest to the Communist-spon-
sored World Student Congress in Warsaw. Also, the
WFDY loaned some of its translators to the IUS for
the Congress.
"All WFDY employees at the headquarters in
Budapest knew that the IUS was Communist-run
because of the way in which staff members of both
organizations transferred from one organization to
the other. For example, Roberto Carillo, the Spanish
representative at WFDY headquarters, had worked for
IUS before he went to Budapest. Carillo's predecessor
in Budapest, Luis Azcarate, is presently with the IUS
in Prague. "
The overall development of IUS since its foundation at
the World Student Congress at Prague in August of 1946 followed
the lines similar to WFDY.
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"When the end of hostilities was in sight, these
students turned their vision to the challenge of postwar
reorganization. In :March 1945, the British National
Union of Students (BNUS) called a meeting of twenty-
four students of various Allied nations who were then
in London to plan the creation of a new international
federation as quickly as possible after V-E Day.
Among those attending this meeting were students
from the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain,
France, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and other countries
which were then in process of being liberated from Nazi.
control. Anxious to convoke a more representative
assembly, they set up a committee to arrange a larger
gathering in London in the fall of the year. This deci-
sion marked the rebirth of the international student
movement. "l9
IUS resembles its parent also in that while it began as an
innocuous looking group, its Communist-character became more
and more obvious. Consequently, many non-Communist student
groups originally affiliated with IUS left it when they recognized
its subversive nature. 20
Certain aspects of the IUS story, however, do not simply
repeat the WFDY experience. The very existence of a Commun-
ist-manipulated international student organization, separate from
Peter T. Jones, The History of U. S. National Student Associa-
tion Relations with the International Union of Students, 1945-56.
Foreign Policy Research Institute, University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia, Pa. p. 2.
20A case history of the experiences of a predominantly non- ,
Communist student organization in its affiliation with IUS, the
British National Union of Students, is presented by Ralph Blumenau in
Communists and Students, (London, 1954).
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the main youth organization, is an interesting deviation from
previous Communist concepts. When the Young Communist
International was founded in 1919, it expressly rejected the
idea of separate student organizations. It insisted that
students and young workers should belong to the same Com-
munist Youth Leagues, applying the principle of factory cells
to universities and colleges as the students' "place of employ-
ment". 21 By the end of World War II, however, the Commun-
ist leaders obviously recognized that this rigidly orthodox and
"class-conscious" principle barred them from successful re-
cruitment of students. The principle was therefore abandoned.
Sociologically, student organizations differ significantly
from general youth organizations. Many of them resemble the
youth divisions of labor unions in certain countries, insofar as
they, too, are often "pressure groups", voicing the professional
and economic interests of their members within the lawyer group.
Just as many labor unions are based on shop stewards in the
factories, many student unions are based on student councils
and other organs of student self-government in universities and
colleges. This makes it easier for student groups to recruit a
high percentage of their fellow-students and promotes a high
degree of cohesion and stability of membership. Students, of
course, normally leave these groups as soon as they have con-
pleted their studies.
21
"The Student Section of the Anti-Fascist Committee of Soviet
Youth" is the USSR affiliate of IUS, the nearest equivalent in
the USSR of the National Union of Students groups in the West-
ern World. This principle is apparently maintained in the USSR
even today.
The Anti-Fascist Soviet Youth Committee has now been re-
organized into a Committee of USSR Youth Organizations. This
will coordinate the activities of member organizations, foster the
friendship and cooperation between Soviet and foreign youth, and
promote contacts with international and national youth organiza-
tions. Chairman of the new Committee is Sergei Romanovsky.
(Moscow Radio, July 22; Soviet Weekly, July 12).
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IUS concentrates a major portion of its over-all effort
on Asia, Africa and Latin America. In these areas, students
are traditionally the spearheads of revolutionary movements.
In countries only recently freed from domination by European
powers, the rapid expansion of a native intelligentsia assures
virtually every student a role in government, business, or
party politics soon after graduation and increases the weight
and importance of student groups.
The constitution of the IUS, as innocuous as the consti-
tution of the WFDY, describes the organization as representa-
tive "of the democratic students of the whole world who work
for progress". Its avowed aims indude the following, relative-
ly unobjectionable planks:
"To secure for all young people the right and
possibility of primary, secondary and higher education,
regardless of sex, economic circumstances, social
standing, political conviction, religion, color or race.
"To promote among students . . . the love of
freedom and democracy.
"To provide the means of cooperation between
actively democratic, nationally representative student
organizations.
"To assist the students of colonial, semi-colonial
and dependent countries to attain their full social,
economic and educational development: to this end
to render to the students and peoples of these countries
all possible assistance in their struggle for freedom
and independence. "
However, in the actual practice of IUS, especially in the
meetings and resolutions of its leading organs, the Communist
character of the organization can be unmistakably recognized.
This was first revealed in connection with the Communist coup
in Czechoslovakia in. February, 1948.
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"By 1949 the breach between the Cominform and
Yugoslavia had become irreparable. However, if the
I JS wished to break off relations with the Yugoslavs,
the latter had no intention of allowing themselves to be
quietly pushed out of the IUS. Five Yugoslavs had
accordingly arrived in Sofia on the first day of the
Council meeting. A Scottish delegate saw them on
the following day being escorted from their hotel by
Bulgarian police. The Yugoslavs hurriedly explained
they were delegates to the Council; and they asked him
to take the matter up with Grohman, the Czech Presi-
dent of the IUS.
"The Western delegates did so that same evening.
Three days later, when nothing had been done, they
took the matter up again, first in the Praesidium,
then in the Steering Committee, and finally on the
floor of the Council. Eventually Grohman was com-
pelled to produce a statement from the Bulgarian
government to the effect that the expelled delegates
had tried to contact 'known Tito agents' in Sofia and
had attempted to conduct activities hostile to the Bul-
garian government. The IUS, Grohman went on,
would certainly not assist in the smuggling of enemy
agents into Bulgaria. After a vitriolic speech against
the Tito regime from the Bulgarian delegate, the clo-
sure of the discussion on this point was moved and
carried. . . -122
At the IUS Executive Committee meeting in London in Febru-
ary 1950, the Yugoslav student organization was formally
expelled from IUS. Needless to say, IUS, like WFDY,
reversed itself in 1955, when the Moscow party line favored a
rapprochement with Yugoslavia, and "annulled" all hostile
decisions it had adopted five years earlier.
Blumenau, op. cit., p. 20.
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A more recent picture of how IUS toes the International
Communist party line: is given in the report on a meeting of the
IUS Council held in Moscow, 20-26 August 1954. Since 92 dele-
gates and 79 observers attended that meeting, it is obvious that
the Communist manipulators had to engage in some management.
Nevertheless,
"Burma expressed dissatisfaction that strikes and
protest actions were so coolly received in 'more
developed countries' . . . A young lady from the Union
of Democratic: Student Youth in Istanbul (Turkey) . . .
mentioned Norway and stated directly to us that if we
really wanted to assist colonial, half-colonial and under-
developed countries, we could do so by sending a resolu-
tion of protest to the Turkish Government demanding that
it cease its undemocratic methods. . . "
"Tuesday, 24 August. The meeting opened with a
lengthy political lecture from North Korea. It was ex-
plained how favorable everything was there, and how
desperate the students in South Korea were, thanks par-
tially to the Americans. From Japan a representative
of the All-Japan Student Federation held a lengthy speech
on the A- and H-bombs.
/After a speech by the representative of the Australian
NUAUS (National Union of Australian Students) attacking
IUS as the 'Student Section of the Cominform /: "The next
speaker was a representative from the All-India Student
Federation. The remarks were filled with emotion and
ended with a fanatic attack on NUAUS, Australia. It was
clear that the Indians had advance knowledge of the Aus-
tralian statements (the texts of all speeches had to be
submitted 12 hours in advance, 'for translation') and
this knowledge they used to the maximum . . . The All-
India Student Federation aroused tremendous enthusiasm
with its presentation. . . "
Further evidence of the IUS party line can be found in its
publications. In 1950, for instance, it published a pamphlet
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"US Education in Crisis", which alleged that "the depressed
state of education was clearly similar to the general economic
crisis in the United States as a whole, for which the banks and
monopolies seek war as their only solution". On the other hand,
IUS issued a pamphlet, "Twenty-one Unforgettable Days in the
Soviet Union", praising the "true democracy in schools and
universities" in the USSR and declaring that "the life and con-
dition of the Soviet youth and students, proud of the leading
role of their country in the world struggle for peace, help to
show the way to a brighter future for all student youth".
Still another IUS pamphlet, "Colonial Education",
attacked the Western powers, especially Britain, for "oppress-
ing" colonial peoples and denying them education. Yet another
hailed the rebels in Greece, Burma, Indonesia and elsewhere -
and the students assisting them - as fighters seeking "to pre-
vent their countries from becoming military bases in a world
war, which the warmongers try strenuously to foment".
Throughout its existence, IUS, like WFDY, follows the
International Communist party line on every issue. It blames
the US for "waging aggressive war" and using germ bombs in
Korea, for preparing a nuclear war, for refusing to disarm, and
for denying Red China its "rightful place" in the UN. It praises
all things Soviet.
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OFFICIAL PROGRAM OF THE VIth WORLD
YOUTH AND FRIENDSHIP FESTIVAL FOR PEACE
AND FRIENDSHIP - MOSCOW 1957
I. General Activities
1. Opening ceremony. Central Lenin Stadium,
Moscow, July 28, 1957.
2. International Peace andFriendship Rally (follow-
ing broad discussion of this subject by delegations).
3. Peace and Friendship Pageant.
4. Regional meetings of delegations to discuss ques-
tions of common interest (optional).
5. Meeting of representatives of international youth
organizations to discuss cooperation and promotion of the
interests of youth.
6. Get-togethers of Festival participants of simi-
lar trades and occupations (see Section II of Program), fol-
lowed by:
Meeting of young industrial workers
Meeting of young farmers
Meeting of young intellectuals
7. Get-together of Festival participants who are
members of parliament.
8. Evening devoted to solidarity with young people
of colonial countries.
9. Pageant: Glory to Peaceful Labour.
10. Gala celebration of rural youth. Preceded by get-
togethers of rural youth.
The program of the celebration includes performances
by folk choirs and dance groups. National rural costumes
and games will be shown.
11. Girls' celebration (gatherings and meetings of
girls; display of fashions and national costumes; ball).
12. "A Glimpse into the Future". (Atomic energy at
service of man).
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13.
Aquatic gala.
14.
Meeting of Festival participants with writers and
artists.
15.
Gala youth carnival.
16.
Ball in Kremlin for Festival participants.
17.
Planting of Friendship Park
18.
Closing ceremony. August 11, 1957.
II. Gatherings
Get-togethers of Festival participants of similar
trades and occupations
During these gatherings, Festival delegates of similar
trades and occupations will discuss questions of common
interest. Visits will be arranged to factories, collective
farms, machine and tractor stations and schools, where Fes-
tival participants will meet Soviet young people engaged in the
given trade or occupation. Get-togethers of young people in
the following trades, and occupations and industries are planned:
Miners -
Working conditions, safety measures and ways of safe-
guarding the health of young miners.
Farmers, Peasants and Small-holders -
Possibility for young farmers to have their own farms
and the conditions for making them paying enterprises.
Exchange of experience on farming.
Dockers -
Protection of the labour of young dockers during hand-
ing operations. Professional training, full employment
and permanent salaries for young dockers.
Electrical Engineering and Power Industry -
Conditions for the training and improvement of young
workers in the electrical engineering and power industry.
Food Industry -
Mechanization and intensification of labour in the
food industry and the position of young workers. Work-
ing conditions and health protection.
Position of young women in the food industry.
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Building Workers -
Professional training.
Mechanization in building and problems facing the
young builders.
Railwaymen -
Intensification of labour and working conditions.
Iron and Steel Engineering and Machine-Building Industries -
Labour productivity in metallurgy and machine-
building, living conditions, and health protection.
Prospects for the future with the advent of automation.
Printing and Publishing Industry -
Health protection and working conditions.
Problem of new techniques and exchange of experience.
T extile -
Intensification of labour and the problems of full
employment in the textile industry.
Position of young women in the textile industry.
Clothing Industry -
Professional qualification, problems of full employ-
ment and working conditions of young women workers.
School Teachers -
Problem of training more teachers, construction of
schools and in this connection, the problem of full
employment for young teachers.
Problem of the health of children in relation to the
syllabus and. the role of sports in schools.
Importance of modern technical developments (radio,
television, etc.) in teaching.
Role of reading in the education of children.
Problems of Professional Training and Apprenticeship -
The right to learn a profession and the possibility
of getting a job in it.
Professional training of young work rs.
Office employees -
Problems of work in accordance with the level of
knowledge, and advancement.
Communication and Transport -
Position of young employees in connection with the
intensification of labour in separate branches.
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Public Health -
Problem of public health in different countries and
the role of young public health workers.
Journalists -
Role of the press and the young journalists in promot-
ing understanding between young people and in
educating youth.
Agricultural Workers -
Right to permanent employment and security.
Problems of professional training.
Screen and Stage Artistes -
Role of art in shaping moral and aesthetic qualities
and in strengthening friendship and understanding
among youth of different countries.
Exchange of experience between young artists of
different countries on ways of mastering their
profession.
Chemical Industry -
Health protection and safety engineering.
Fishermen and Seamen -
Problems of safety and working conditions.
Leather Industry -
Working conditions, life, and health protection
of young workers in the leather industry.
Get-togethers of Artists and Hobbyists
Leaders of amateur talent groups
Leaders of choirs
Artists
Orchestra conductors
Puppeteers
Stamp collectors
Photography fans
Amateur film makers
Airplane model makers
Radio amateurs
Esperantists
Angler s
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Get-togethers of Youth and Students of
Similar Religious Faiths
Such get-togethers will be arranged at the request
of Festival participants.
Get-togethers of Delegations
These will be arranged starting from the second day
of the Festival. They should last several hours, to give
the participants enough time for a free exchange of opinions,
discussions and talks about the life of young people, their
interests, and defense of their rights. Cultural activities,
non-official sports meetings and the like may be arranged
during the gatherings if the delegations so desire.
International Get-together Club
Venue for gatherings, discussions, etc.
III. Student Program of the Festival
International Seminar and Excursions for Students
of Architectural and Civil Engineering Schools
Visits to architectural monuments and construction
sites in Moscow; meetings with prominent Soviet architects.
Trip to Leningrad.
International Seminar and Excursions for Students
of Agricultural Schools
Lectures by distinguished agricultural scientists,
visits to Timiryazev Agricultural Academy, USSR. Agri-
cultural Exhibition, experimental stations, machine and trac-
tor stations, collective farms and state farms.
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International Seminar and Excursions for Students
of Technical Schools
Lectures on topical questions relating to electric
power, visit to Moscow Power Institute, inspection of high-
tension transmission lines and other structures.
International Seminar on Peaceful Uses of Atomic
Energy
Popular lectures by outstanding specialists in peace-
ful uses of atomic energy, visit to the Atoms for Peace
Pavilion of the USSR. Industrial Exhibition and other places
connected with the seminar topic.
International Seminar for Students of Music Schools
Subject: "Folk Motifs in Musical Composition".
Talks with prominent musicians, discussions, musical
illustrations, exchange of information on the organization of
musical education in different countries, visits to historic
places connected with music and art.
International Seminar for Law Students
Subject: "Problems of International Law in United
Nations Charter".
Lectures by distinguished specialists on international
law, discussions, exchange of information on law education in
different countries.
International Seminar for Students of Literature
Lectures on contemporary writing in different countries.
Addresses by prominent writers and literary scholars,
exchange of information on the organization of literary education
in different countries, visits to Lenin Library, Gorky and
Tolstoi museums, Mayakovsky Library-Museum, Nikolai
Ostrovsky Museum, excursion to Yasnaya Polyana, where Lev
Tolstoi lived.
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International Seminar for Students of Philosophy
Subject: "Is it. Possible to Foresee the Development
of Human Society? "
Addresses by prominent philosophers, exchange of
informationon the study of philosophy in different countries.
International Seminar for Students of Cinema-
tography Schools
Discussions of topical problems relating to the con-
temporary cinema, meetings with prominent cinema people,
demonstrations of the work of students of cinematography
schools of different countries, exchange of information on
the organization of cinematography education in different
countries .
International Get-togethers of Students Specializing
in Same Field
The object of these gatherings is to promote an ex-
change of information and views concerning curricula and
methods of instruction in different countries.
The gatherings are to be held at the respective col-
leges in Moscow. The participants will have an opportunity
to acquaint themselves with the schools and to meet mem-
bers of the teaching staffs.
There will be visits to museums, art galleries, schools,
exhibitions, and so forth, arranged according to the given field.
Get-togethers of students specializing in the following
fields are planned:
Medicine Geography
Education Astronomy
Economics Geology
Chemistry Biology
History Physical education and
Archeology sports
Fine arts
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Evening devoted to student songs of many countries.
"Universities of the World". (An evening devoted
to the university traditions of different countries, with
demonstrations of costumes, student songs, and other
customs) .
International Students' Club
The International Students' Club will be a permanent
centre for students who are participants in the Festival.
Activities taking into account the varied interests of stu-
dents are to be arranged daily. The Club will be a place
for informal gatherings of students; it will have reading
rooms, a cafe, chess rooms, halls for gatherings, etc.
The following activities are to be included in the
program of the International Students' Club (taking into
account the opinions of Festival participante):
Lecture on "Interplanetary Travel", followed by
questions and answers.
Discussion: "Development of National Culture",
with addresses by prominent foreign and Soviet cultural
personages.
Lecture on "Students and World Culture", followed
by questions and answers.
Meetings with distinguished authors and poets of
many countries.
Discussion: "The University and Society".
Discussion: "Educational Reforms".
Students' ball.
Gathering devoted to students' cooperation in sphere
of culture and exchanges among students specializing in same
fields.
Meeting with members of Soviet Antarctic expedition.
Demonstration of films made by students.
Lectures about student life and the student movement
in countries represented at the Festival by student delegations.
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Get-togethers of editors of student publications and
students of journalism.
Get-together of student delegations from different
countries.
Gala concert for students.
Dance evening.
Exhibition of simultaneous chess play on 50 boards.
Evening of symphonic miniatures performed by
students' symphony orchestra.
Jazz evening.
Concert given by pupils of choreographic schools.
Meeting with outstanding Soviet stage artists.
IV. Stage Performances
1. Concerts and plays (various themes and genres).
2. International song festival. Performances by
national choirs. A combined choir, made up of the choirs
of various delegations, will sing the most popular youth
songs, the music and lyrics of which will have been dis-
tributed beforehand. Get-togethers to learn popular songs.
3. Folk dance: festival. Performances by national
dance groups and soloists. Mass contests, with prizes for
best performances of folk dances. Get-togethers to learn
folk dances.
4. Festival of young talent. Performances by win-
ners of Festival contests.
5. Get-together of youth theatres. Demonstration
of plays by youth theatrical companies from different coun-
tries. The companies invited to the Festival will present
their plays in a special theatre, where discussions of the
plays will also take place.
Amateur theatrical companies of students and work-
ers, as well as companies of young professional actors,
are eligible for the get-together of youth theatres. The
best companies and performers will be awarded honor cer-
tificates.
6. Soviet ballet performances.
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7. Circus procession through'the streets of Moscow,
culminating in gala circus performance.
8. Evening of humour (performances in various
genres).
9. Concerts and evenings of performers of popular
songs (recitals and international popular song programs).
10. Performances by puppet theatres of different
countries .
11. Classes in folk dancing. Arranged by Soviet bal-
let masters for specialists and young dancers.
VI. Anniversaries of Scientific and Cultural Personages
The anniversaries of men and women of different
countries who have contributed to the progress of world
science and culture are to be marked during the Festival.
These affairs are to be prepared beforehand by the
delegations of the respective countries.
Film Showings
'Films on various subjects, presented by delegations,
will be shown. They can be full=length, short-reel, feature
and documentary films and animated cartoons.
The following exhibitions are to be arranged during
the Festival:
a. An international art show;
b. Exhibitions of stamps, photographs, interna-
tional organizations, etc.
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IX. Sports
1. Sports contests will be held from July 30 to
August 9, 1957. They will be arranged by the International
Preparatory Committee of the VIth World Youth and Stu-
dent Festival and other organizations.
The national teams of organizations which are not
members of international sports federations, as well as
sportsmen and teams of workers', students', and other
sports clubs, may enter the competitions.
There will be contests in the following sports:
Track and field
Gymnastics
Swimming
Weight-lifting
Free-style wrestling
Cycling (road)
Table tennis
Soccer
Rugby
Volleyball
Basketball
Springboard diving
Badminton
Track and field
Gymnastics
Swimming
Table tennis
Volleyball
Basketball
Springboard diving
Badminton
2. Open tournaments in table tennis, volleyball and
chess will be arranged.
3. Festival participants may take tests to qualify for
Festival sports badge.
4. International get-together of tourists.
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