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On Communist Education
Kalinin

FROM A SPEECH AT THE SEVENTH CONGRESS OF THE ALL-UNION LENINIST YOUNG COMMUNIST LEAGUE
MARCH 11, 1926

You will note that both the Central Committee of the and our Soviet Government pay more attention to the Komsomol ,Congress than to any other Congress. Why is this so?. . . The main reason, it goes without saying, is that our country's main wealth is growing in the Komsomol. In the Komsomol we have those who later will take the places of the old guard of fighters for Socialism. The Komsomol is the vanguard, the cream o:£ the proletarian and the peasant youth. Accordingly, I believe that the aspirations and ideals particularly characteristic of the youth ought to grow and develop on a wide scale in .the Komsomol.

Indeed, what is particularly characteristic of youth, of young people? What distinguishes a member of the Komsomol from the average adult, say, from me? 0f course, outwardly I differ from you in having a grey heard. But that is only an outward distinction. If the differences were only outward, no special Komsomol organization would be needed. What further distinguishes the Komsomol is its peculiar spiritual qualities.

The first quality that especially distinguishes the Komsomol is its particular, exceptional receptivity. You, members of the Komsomol, do not fully under­ stand this, but when we older people recall the past, we know that the memories of our youth stand out far more vividly than others. The events that take place at an adult age, when a person has grown up, slip from his memory more rapidly, than the events of his youth.

What does that mean? It means that people are most receptive when they are young

In this regard our approach to the Komsomol must be different. Let us take, for example, the problem of Communist agitation. The measure one might use in the case of an adult is dangerous when applied to a Komsomol member, inasmuch as the use of one and the same yardstick will create different impressions, cause different mental perturbations in the Komsomol member and the adult. From this premise a great many practical conclusions can be drawn as to the way propaganda and agitation should be conducted among the Communist youth.

What is particularly characteristic of  young people is their tremendous inner urge to realize their ideals in practice. Young people are always ready for self sacrifice; they are always eager to walk to the other end of the earth, to go tothe sea, whether before the mast or on the captain's bridge, to discover new lands, and so on so forth. And, comrades, this is quite natural. I don't know about other people, but as for me, u p to the age of 18 my head was full of that sort . of thing. I do not think the young people of today are any different in this regard. I do not think this desire for the miraculous, the desire to perform wondrous feats of valour, to accomplish great things for the people in science and in other fields is not characteristic of the youth of today as well.

Then there is another point. By and large young people are exceptionally sincere and straightforward. Now, however sincere and straightforward a person of mature years may he, his life's experience and the knocks it brings with it considerably tone down these  passionate yearnings of youth for truth and sincerity.

I have ,touched on only a few of the features that ·distinguish young people from adults. It seems to me that these are the main ones. I shall not stop to deal with others, but are these features in themselves of value to man? Undoubtedly they are. If these qualities of themselves were not of particular, exceptional value to man, I ,have no doubt that a considerable part of the spiritual beauty of youth might, perhaps, fade away.

Well then, we-particularly the leaders of Komsomol organizations, and the Party, which gives the lead and indicates the direction Komsomol activity should follow-we think that these peculiar qualities of youth should not ibe stifled. On the contrary, they should be preserved and developed; the new, more perfect hu­man being should be brought up on this basis. It is easy enough to say "bring 1up," but the actual job of bringing up is, of course, a very difficult one.

... Many people are under the false impression that the development, the shaping of the hl1IIlan being con­si$1 in young people occupying themselves with their Komsomol duties. But these Komsomol duties consist mainly of mastering the ABC of politics, studying Marxism, in a word, social problems.

It seems to me that such a narrow view of prob­lems concerning the formation of human beings is a wrong one. I recall the way ,we developed as Marxists in days gone by. We not only studied .specifically Marx­ist books. (By the way, there were far fewer of them in those days. Take the present The ABC of Political Knowledge, by Berdnikov and Svetlov, if nothing more. Why, it is a huge hook. At that time we only had the Erfurt Program and the Communist Manifesto.)

Well, then, I was referring to our studies in under­ground circles; while we studied the basic principles of Marxism we also covered a course of general education, beginning with the Russian classics-fiction writ­ers, ·historians, critics-in a word, the whole range of knowledge to be found in books. While working in a plant, we at the same time got an all-round education in literature, science, etc.
 
I think that if, let us say, the fulfillment of Komsomol duties in our schools were to hinder the study of mathematics-I deliberately say mathematics, since it is a subject that most sharply differs from the ru­diments of political knowledge-if the study of mathe­matics or 1he natural sciences were to he replaced by that of the rudiments of political knowledge, then we should he doing the wrong thing. In that case, the education of a Komsomol member who has read a few hooks on the rudiments of political knowledge would only he superficial. In conversation he would have something to say on every subject, superficially he would appear to he educated, he would have an out­ward gloss, hut you would not call him a developed and educated person. When you meet such a, comrade he makes a very good impression at first. But  just spend a few hours in conversation with him and you will see that his political knowledge has no basis, that he lacks the knowledge of the natural sciences possessed by any secondary school graduate. That is why, I think, the Komsomol organization should help not only to give the younger generation the rudiments of political knowledge but also see to it that their political knowl­edge is based on those branches of general education and knowledge that are considered the necessary attri­butes of every more or less developed person. This development, this knowledge, should not be ignored. I once made the statement at the Lobachevsky Military Academy that to study Marxism does not mean to read through Marx, Engels and Lenin; you may study their works from cover to cover, you may be aible to repeat their ideas word for word, but that will not necessarily signify that you have really learned Marxism. To learn Marxism means to know after mastering the Marxist method how to approach all the other problems connected with your work. If, let us say, the sphere of your future work is agriculture, will it be of advantage to be able to employ the Marxist method? Of course it will. But to employ the Marxist method, you have to study agriculture, too, you have to be an agricultural expert. Otherwise noth­ing will come of your attempt to apply Marxism in agriculture. This should not be forgotten ii you wish to apply Marxism in practice, if you wish to be men of action, and not text mongers of Marxism. But what  does hoeing a Marxist mean? It means being able to adopt the correct line. But to be able to adopt the correct, Marxist line, you also need to be a first-rate ex- . pert in your particular sphere of activity.

Now this general thesis is applicable literally to all members of the Komsomol organization, from students down to Komsomol members working in agriculture in the countryside, and factory apprentices. In order to be a good fitter who can apply his knowledge and tackle each job in the way that will give the best results, every Komsomol member at a factory has to consider in advance how to go about his work. Any­body who undertakes a job without a plan does his work badly, and as a result turns out an article of poor quality. Hence you ,see that the Komsomol organ­ization has to impress on each of its members that his chief task is to acquire a perfect knowledge of the trade he is learning, to work as well as his teacher does. If he learns his trade he is able to provide for himself materially, and in addition has the prospect of developing his particular aptitudes still further as time goes on. If a turner or a fitter .works badly he will be tied to his job, because a bad worker has great difficulty in finding a new one; and it is not easy for a Komsomol member to work for long at one and the same job, because he wants to see the world. If you want to see the world, be \he sort of fitter or turn­er who, after the first trial, will be given a job any­where.

' In conclusion-a little homily. I have noticed that some of our young people adopt a flippant attitude to the ski􀁀led men who teach them. I would very much like our young people to read the ancient philos­ophers. There they would see with what attention and respect pupils regarded their teachers. To learn to work well, you must put your heart into your .work. Unless you do, you will never learn to work. A fitter's apprentice, let us say, ought to disregard all the negative points of his teacher, and learn :from him all he can about his trade. You know yourselves how funny an old man of 60 may look to young people in very many respects, but if you pay attention only to this, you will miss the main thing. What you have to do is to learn all .about your trade from him.

All the hopes of the Soviet Union are placed on the Komsomol organization. Our further successes will depend on its successes, on how it assimilates the achievements we already have.

Hence it is quite natural that if the Komsomol does not pay enough attention to these main issues, we shall fail to accomplish the task facing us, we shall lose a great many highly valuable trades without having suc­ceeded in passing them on in their entirety to the Komsomol. I would like you to examine thoroughly all the problems I have outlined in brief, all the various propositions I have placed before you .

If the young people correctly approach these prob­lems a substantial part of the negative points I have dealt with will be overcome of themselves. For life is too interesting, there are so many subjects to absorb one's attention. All you have to do is to interest the youth in such subjects as are of great value and make for their all-round development.

Stenographic Report of the Seventh Congress of the All-Union
Leninist Young Communist League, Russ. ed., 1926, pp. 15-18