The middle of the 19th century saw the emergence of a new political, economic and philosophical doctrine — Marxism. The teaching aimed to fight for the rights of the working class and peasants. The desired outcome was to bring down capitalism by means of revolutions and to replace it with a communist society where the state would no longer be required and mutual understanding between people would be achieved.
The First World War resulted in the February Revolution in Russia, which led to the rapid development of all political movements. The radical wing of Marxism was headed by Vladimir Lenin, who became the de-facto head of Soviet Russia after the October Revolution of 1917. The same year, even before coming to power, Lenin’s supporters began targeting young people, publishing magazines and holding meetings. This in part resulted in the creation of a centralized youth organization of the Communist Party — the Russian Communist Youth Union (RKSM) in 1918.
After Lenin’s death in 1924, the organization added his name to theirs, thus becoming the Russian Leninist Communist Youth Union (RLKSM). In 1926, the name of the country in the abbreviation changed — the All-Union Leninist Communist Youth Union (Komsomol). The members of this organization were given the badge “Young Communist International” from the 1920s to the 1940s.
The first Komsomol badges appeared in 1922 and represented a flag on which three letters were located in the center of the star — “KИM” (YCI). To receive a badge an applicant was required to be a proactive pioneer, get a recommendation from the Komsomol Committee at school and pass an exam for knowledge of the organization’s charter.
The inclusion of the word “international” reflects the activities of the organization at that time: in the 1920s, the Soviet state made every effort to transfer revolutionary ideas to Europe, planned to build a bright future in industrially developed Germany, France, and Great Britain.
By the end of the 1920s, the Komsomol remained the only political youth organization in the USSR, through its structures the ideological education of young people was carried out. The Komsomol was positioned as the “assistant and reserve of the Communist Party”. By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, there were more than 10 million members in the Komsomol organization.
