800.00B Communist International of Youth/25
The Second Secretary of Embassy in the Soviet Union (Henderson) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 4.]
Sir: With reference to the Embassy’s despatch No. 987 of October 26, 1935,70 and previous correspondence concerning the Sixth Congress of the Communist International of Youth (KIM), I have the honor to forward herewith the resolutions70 on the report of Wolf Michal, unanimously adopted by the Sixth Congress of the Communist International of Youth, and published in the Komsomolshaya Pravda of November 12, 1935. The resolutions are published under the heading of “tasks of the United Front of Youth.” Accompanying the resolutions there is also published a notice giving the composition of the Secretariat, Presidium, Executive Committee and candidates to the KIM, a translation of which is attached hereto as enclosure No. 1.70
[Page 266]The tenor of the resolutions follows very closely those passed on other speeches of the Comintern and the Youth Congresses of this year. The usual pictures of the distress and despair confronting capitalist youth, together with eulogies on the position of youth in the Soviet Union, present no new themes. The same slogans are put forward for the struggle against fascism and the necessity for penetrating to fascist youth through the various youth organizations in fascist countries.
In conformity with Soviet policy concerning the Comsomol, a demand is made for a radical reorganization of the International of Communist Youth together with a complete renunciation of imitation of the parent organizations, i. e., the Communist parties. The functions and interests of youth are to remain completely divorced from Communist Party politics and to be devoted exclusively to education. Of interest in this respect is that henceforth it will be necessary “to renounce such high demands upon youth as are usually made upon members of the Communist Party.” Nevertheless, “lasting ties” are demanded between all youth organizations and the Communist Party. “The cause of toiling youth demands this.” “The Congress considers the task of convincing all members of this to be extremely important, and considers the ties between the International of Youth and the Communist International also to be necessary.”
As in the case of the Comintern the Congress considers that the primary task of communist youth unions is to achieve organic unity with socialist youth unions. This unification must be founded on the fact that socialist youth has also taken an anti-fascist stand, that it is also interested in an amelioration in the life of youth, in freedom, in peace, and is likewise working towards socialism. The chief obstacle, as always, is the Socialist International which is hostile toward the idea of union with the Communist International. The Congress recommends to all organizations belonging to the Communist International of Youth that the “consent” of socialist youth be obtained for the formation of a United Front, and that the basis and plan for joint action on both local and national scales, as well as individual questions and the basic platform, be worked out “jointly” with socialist organizations. The same tactics are called for in connection with socialist members of parliaments as in the case of the Comintern. On the basis of the examples set by the “committees of coordination” in France, and the “liaison” committees of Spain, the Congress calls for constant cooperation and the formation of “joint associations” with all parties in the hope of achieving a United Front. With the formation of such associations, the unions can remain independent and can preserve their ties with the corresponding parties and internals. But in the last analysis the Communist International of Youth “declares its firm [Page 267] decision to fight for the unification of revolutionary youth of the whole world, for the creation of a single International of Youth.”
The resolutions state that the sections of the Communist International of Youth in France and the United States have understood the great importance of uniting the forces of youth. This is evident from their participation in the United Front movement of youth developing in these countries. Success in these countries has been possible as a result of the fact that youth from all organizations has been drawn into the discussion and development of a common platform of collaboration. The tactics in the United States and France have required that non-Comsomol youth organizations are not to be considered as mere adversaries, but as temporary “fronts” which must not have forced upon them stereotyped ready made Communist platforms. The same kind of common ground must be obtained at all costs, namely: opposition to the militarization of youth, to compulsory labor camps, to labor exchanges, military schools, et cetera (Dimitrov). Realizing the role of the intelligentsia in the more advanced capitalist countries, particular attention must be devoted to work among students. The former abstract phrases of the Comsomol are to be replaced by the “living language of youth.”
The Congress of the Communist International of Youth “notes with alarm that only an insignificant part of laboring youth is organized into labor unions, and that the growing younger generation of toilers is not being brought up and hardened in the ranks of the labor union movement, in the spirit of militant class solidarity and devotion to the cause of the working class.” The success of the youth movement is impossible without the help of the labor unions. As in the “storm” years of the first Five Year Plan in the Soviet Union members of the Youth International are to be the “udarniks”73 within the labor unions, to win respect by their exemplary work.
Very significant in the resolutions is the cry for open warfare against holding the Olympic Games in fascist Germany. Realizing the hold of the Nazis on German youth through the medium of sport organizations, the old tactics of “boring from within” in fascist sport organizations become once more the order of the day.
Nationalism as opposed to chauvinism is to play a role in connection with “national-revolutionary” and “national-reformist” organizations of youth. “Co-operating with these and with other mass youth organizations, taking into consideration the differences between the various sections of youth and between different regions of one and the same country, it is essential, for the purpose of uniting the forces of the younger generation, to create various types of peasant, Indian, negro, student and other organizations of youth.” These organizations [Page 268] should carry on their work on the basis of the satisfaction of the vital demands and requirements of youth and should educate them in the spirit of “revolutionary hate” for the imperialist oppressors, in the spirit of devotion to the cause of freeing their people from all exploitation and enslavement.
The Embassy is unable to identify a number of the delegates elected to the Presidium, the Executive Committee and its candidates. Raymond Guyot, a member of the French delegation, reported previously, is elected General Secretary of the KIM. Gil Green, the American, and Chemodanov, Soviet spokesman, are members of the new Secretariat. Among the candidates to the Secretariat is Prokofev, Soviet citizen. On the Presidium are Green, Chemodanov, Prokofev, General Secretary of the Soviet Comsomol. These four are also elected to the Executive Committee. Among the candidates to the Executive Committee is Lightfoot, an American.
Except for the issue of the Komsomolskaya Pravda quoted above, no other Soviet newspaper has made mention of either the resolutions or the notice.
Respectfully yours,