Abstract
A mixture of youth vanguardism and class politics shaped the particular identity of the rural Komsomol during NEP. Rural komsomols repudiated village traditions and “backwardness” and embraced instead a purposeful life dedicated to service to the Party and to the countryside's economic, cultural, and social progress. They committed to self‐improvement in order to become forward‐looking Soviet peasants, bearers of socialist modernity. The activism and dedication of rural activists allowed the Komsomol to become one of the most important Communist organizations in the first decade of Soviet power. Yet within a few years, these inroads in rural areas would be undermined by the anti‐rural sentiments that swept the urban‐dominated Communist organizations, the Komsomol included. Based on archival research, the article looks at NEP politics and documents the evolving relationship between rural youth activists and the Komsomol organization, and between the Komsomol and the Party and the state.
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