The Russian Communist Union of Youth (RCUY) was created

The Unions of working youth started to appear in different Russian cities and town during the preparative work for the revolution of 1917. Their principal goal was to draw the youth into   revolutionary struggle.

The February revolution of 1917 contributed to the increase of social and political activeness and to the appearance of youth organizations of workers whose members took their cue from the socialist parties.  In Petrograd, for instance, there was formed the Socialist union of working youth that took its cue from Bolsheviks. There also were youth unions of socialist revolutionary, anarchists, Mensheviks. There also were created the unions of student, of young peasants in villages.

On October 29, 1918 the first all-Russian congress of the unions of young workers and peasants opened. It was decided to unite uncoordinated unions in the all-Russian organization with a single center that would work under the guidance of the Communist party of Bolsheviks – the Russian Communist Union of Youth (RCUY). The program and the regulations of the Union were approved. They stated that the Young Communist League being an independent organization all by itself, was functioning under the guidance of the Communist party. The Young Communist League intended to expand the ideas of communism among young people, to provide them with a political education, to draw the youth into economic and state development, the defense of the Soviet power.

In July of 1924 the RCUY was given the name of V.I. Lenin and from that time it was called the Russian Leninist Communist Union of Youth (RLCUY). Due to the formation of the SSR Union in 1922, The Young Communist League was renamed into the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (ALYCL).

The decision about the self-dissolution of the ALYCL was made during the XXII extraordinary congress of the ALYCL that took place on September 27-28, 1991.

Lit.: Алексеев А. А. История ВЛКСМ в десятилетиях его деятельности. М., 1988; Ануфриев В. И. История ВЛКСМ в фалеристике. М., 2008; История ВЛКСМ. Живая летопись. Тетрадь 1—3. М., 1966-68; Осовский Ю. В. Политико-просветительная деятельность РКСМ среди рабочей молодежи в условиях новой экономической политики: (1921-1925 гг. ): автореф. дис. ... к. и. н. М., 1991; Товарищ Комсомол. Документы съездов, конференций и ЦК ВЛКСМ 1918-1968. Т. 1—2, М., 1969; Трущенко Н. В. I съезд РКСМ. М., 1983.

Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:

Komsomol in the national history: [digital collection];

The First All-Russian Congress of the RCYM, October 29 - November 4, 1918. Moscow; Leningrad, 1926.