In the 1950s, the problem of labor shortages at construction sites and in the industry was solved with the help of the Komsomol (All-Union Lenin Communist Youth League) members. In 1956, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Council of Ministers of the USSR issued a resolution ‘On measures to provide labor for the most important construction sites and enterprises located in the eastern and northern regions of the country and the Donbas’. Throughout the country, there was a ‘Komsomol call’ — the redistribution of workers.

Hundreds of girls and boys went to construction sites voluntarily, on Komsomol directions, which became a characteristic feature of that time They symbolized ‘devotion to communist ideals’ — the desire of young people to contribute to the development of the economy. The voucher was an accompanying document and confirmed that the Komsomol member was officially sent to work. It reported that the bearer ‘at the call of the Communist Party and the Soviet government expressed a voluntary desire to selflessly work on the most important construction sites and industrial enterprises in the eastern and northern regions of the country’. The exact name of the construction objects was not always indicated in order to maintain secrecy.

The museum houses one of these Komsomol vouchers, which belonged to Nina Stupina. The voucher has a red cover — it is a booklet that has the seal and signature of the secretary of the committee of the All-Union Lenin Communist Youth Union. Nina Stupina received a referral from the Komsomol organization of the political department of military unit No. 77927 for the construction of an object called ‘PO Box No. 5’.

Representatives of Seversk organized a recruitment of volunteers in Moscow and Leninabad (now Khujand). From June to August 1956, 2,956 Komsomol members came to the city sent by the Komsomol Central Committee. Among them, there were 217 young people with families and 309 very young boys and girls. The city met its heroes with a celebration. The Komsomol members had their own slogans, and the phrase ‘ticket to life’ became a set expression.
A participant of the Komsomol project recollected about this time, ‘The train stopped in the 29th block, near the bakery. It was nighttime. A brass band was playing. Mikhail Tsarevsky greeted the arriving workers from the rostrum.’

More than half of the volunteers who arrived did not have construction specialties, and training was hastily organized for them. Work and life were not easy: the Komsomol members had to get used to the harsh climate, hard work and unsettled life.

By the end of 1956, 528 people left the construction site for various reasons. But most of the Komsomol members remained at the construction site and linked their lives with the city, which later became their home.