Raised under Stalin : young communists and the defense of socialism

In Raised under Stalin , Seth Bernstein shows how Stalin’s regime provided young people with opportunities as members of the Young Communist League or Komsomol even as it surrounded them with violence, shaping socialist youth culture and socialism more broadly through the threat and experience of war. Informed by declassified materials from post-Soviet archives, as well as films, memoirs, and diaries by and about youth, Raised under Stalin explains the divided status of youth for the Bolsheviks: they were the "new people" who would someday build communism, the potential soldiers who would defend the USSR, and the hooligans who might undermine it from within. Bernstein explains how, although Soviet revolutionary youth culture began as the preserve of proletarian activists, the Komsomol transformed under Stalin to become a mass organization of moral education; youth became the targets of state repression even as Stalin’s regime offered them the opportunity to participate in political culture. Raised under Stalin follows Stalinist youth into their ultimate test, World War II. Even as the war against Germany decimated the ranks of Young Communists, Bernstein finds evidence that it cemented Stalinist youth culture as a core part of socialism. "Seth Bernstein shows how Stalin's regime provided young people with opportunities as members of the Young Communist League or Komsomol even as it surrounded them with violence, shaping socialist youth culture and socialism more broadly through the threat and experience of war. Informed by declassified materials from post-Soviet archives, as well as films, memoirs, and diaries by and about youth, Raised under Stalin explains the divided status of youth for the Bolsheviks: they were the 'new people' who would someday build communism, the potential soldiers who would defend the USSR, and the hooligans who might undermine it from within. Bernstein explains how, although Soviet revolutionary youth culture began as the preserve of proletarian activists, the Komsomol transformed under Stalin to become a mass organization of moral education; youth became the targets of state repression even as Stalin's regime offered them the opportunity to participate in political culture. Raised under Stalin follows Stalinist youth into their ultimate test, World War II. Even as the war against Germany decimated the ranks of Young Communists, Bernstein finds evidence that it cemented Stalinist youth culture as a core part of socialism." -- Provided by the publisher. Provided by publisher __Communist Upbringing under Stalin: Young Communists and War in a Socialist Society, 1929-1945__ examines Stalinist mass youth culture in the period of the Great Terror and World War II. For the Bolsheviks, youth were the “new people” who would someday build communism. Despite Stalinist assertions that the country was marching inexorably toward communism, though, there was no blueprint for raising a socialist generation. “Communist upbringing”—the program of moral socialization of the Young Communist League (Komsomol)—absorbed the violent atmosphere of the 1930s and 1940s. Even as it surrounded them with violence, Stalin’s regime provided young people with opportunities, shaping socialist youth culture and socialism more broadly through the threat and experience of war. "RAISED UNDER STALIN"--"Contents"--"List of Figures" -- "Acknowledgments" -- "Note on Conventions" -- "Introduction: The First Socialist Generation" -- "1. Youth in the Stalin Revolution" -- "2. Cultural Revolution from Above" -- "3. Class Dismissed?" -- "4. The Great Terror as a Moral Panic" -- "5. The Rehabilitation of Young Communists" -- "6. A Mass Youth Organization" -- "7. Paramilitary Training on the Eve of War" -- "8. Youth at War" -- "Conclusion: The Aftermath of War" -- "Appendix of Tables" -- "Bibliography