Communist Upbringing under Stalin: The Political Socialization and Militarization of Soviet
Youth, 1934-1941

Seth Bernstein
Doctor of Philosophy
Department of History
University of Toronto
2013

Abstract:
In 1935 the Communist Youth League (Komsomol) embraced a policy called
“communist upbringing” that changed the purpose of Soviet official youth culture. Founded in 1918, the Komsomol had been an organization of cultural proletarianization and economic
mobilization. After the turmoil of Stalin’s revolution from above, Soviet leaders declared that thecountry had entered the period of socialism. Under the new conditions of socialism, including the threat of war with the capitalist world, “communist upbringing” transformed the youth league into an organization of mass socialization meant to mold youth in the shape of the regime.
The key goals of “communist upbringing” were to broaden the influence of Soviet
political culture and to enforce a code of “cultured” behavior among youth. Youth leaders
transformed the Komsomol from a league of young male workers into an organization that
included more than a quarter of Soviet youth by 1941, incorporating more adolescents, women, and non-workers. Employing recreation, reward and disciplinary practices that blurred into repression, mass socialization in the Komsomol attempted to create a cohort of “Soviet” youth—sober, orderly, physically strong and politically loyal to Stalin’s regime.
The transformation of youth culture under Stalin reflected a general shift in Stalinist
social policies in the mid-1930s. Historians have argued whether this turn was a conservative 
iii retreat from Bolshevik ideals or the use of apolitical modern state practices in the service of
socialism. This dissertation shows that while youth leaders were intensely interested in modern state practices, they made these practices into central elements of Soviet socialism. Through the Komsomol, youth became a resource for the state to guide along the uncertain and dangerous road to the future of communism. Reacting to domestic and international crises, Stalinist leaders created a system of state socialization for youth that would last until the fall of the Soviet Union.