Participation of Komsomol in elections of village councils in Siberia 1929

The article considers participation of the Komsomol in election of village councils on the territory of Siberian Krai in 1929. In his study, the author has tried to reveal, which tasks were assigned to the Komsomol by the top Party leadership, how the Communist League of Youth interacted with population during elections and which results this interaction had. As the source base of study, the following were used: reporting materials from State Archive of Novisibirsk Oblast (GANO) and State Archive of Altai Krai (GAAK), party and Komsomol press, statistical books and collections of documents. The election campaign of 1928–1929 took place on the background of escalated social-political and economic situation: food supply difficulties in some regions and using of extraordinary methods to peasants, who did not want to supply bread to the state. Party-state leadership explained bread deficit as a result of malicious actions of capitalist elements, therefore in the new election campaign a course to increase the class struggle was declared. The major press organ of the Communist party – a newspaper “Pravda” (“The truth”) has announced one of the tasks for the elections as “"to expel from the councils of the individuals, who are Kulak’s (village bourgeoisie) agents”. The results of the elections had a special significance in the eyes of the leaders of the USSR, so they expected Komsomol to exert its forces to organize and conduct this campaign. The Central Committee of All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (VLKSM) has forbidden local organizations conducting the other campaigns at the same time. Along with city workers, thousands of Komsomol officials were sent to the country to convince public opinion to support the Soviet authorities. Theatrical methods of agitation were actively used. In addition, the Komsomol members had responsibility for preparing elections and organizing pre-election meetings of youth, where their coevals could nominate candidates from among themselves and shape elector’s mandate. De facto, during the elections, Komsomol acted alone, without the leadership of the Communist Party. Party functionaries often harmed directly the work of Komsomol cells, taking away Komsomol functionaries for own purposes. Nevertheless, according to the results of elections, Komsomol increased its representation in village councils, due to active work with public opinion and imposing candidates to population. The increase in the number of Komsomol members was