From Komsomol to the Republican Youth Union: Building a Pro-presidential Mass Youth Organisation in Post-Soviet Belarus

Abstract

Based on extensive and diverse primary material, this article provides a detailed analysis of the development of Belarusian government-affiliated youth organisations from the late 1980s until 2002. Using a historical institutionalist approach, it examines the transformation of the Belarusian Komsomol into an independent association and the emergence of new, proactive pro-government youth organisations. The article demonstrates that, contrary to common assumptions, building a mass membership pro-presidential youth organisation in Belarus was a complex project that took years to complete. When the Belarusian Republican Youth Union finally emerged in 2002, it was a result of an interplay of many structural and agency-related factors.

Notes

1 For Syria, see Hinnebusch (1980); for Russia, see Mijnssen (2012) and Krivonos (2015); for China, see Unger (2008).

2 For example, in Turkmenistan, there is the Turkmen Youth Organisation named after Turkmenistan’s national poet Makhtumkuli Pyragy; Uzbekistan has the recently reorganised Youth Union of Uzbekistan (previously Kamolot from 2001 to 2017); the Kazakh and Azerbaijani parties in power both have youth wings, respectively, Nur Otan and Yeni Azerbaycan; and Tajikistan has not one but two pro-government youth movements, Sozandagoni Vatan and the Avangard, both mobilising young people to participate in anti-opposition protests. What unites all these organisations is their affiliation with and financial dependence on the government, their explicit and active support for the incumbent president, and their aim of promoting statist patriotism among youth.

3 See, for example, ‘Istoriya VLKSM’, Ministerstvo obrazovaniya Respubliki Belarus’, available at: https://edu.gov.by/sistema-obrazovaniya/glavnoe-upravlenie-vospitatelnoy-raboty-i-molodezhnoy-politiki/upr-molodezhi/100-letie-vlksm/istoriya-vlksm/, accessed 9 March 2020; Laptenok (2004); Parker (2007, p. 95).

4 As most of the data analysed in the framework of the article are in Russian, Russian spelling of the names of people, places and organisations is used throughout.

5 ‘Lukashenka’s Komsomol’.

6 Three key activists consented to being referred to by name.

7 ‘Protokol 1 respublikanskoi konferentsii LKSMB ot 19–20.3.1990’, Natsional’nyi Arkhiv Respubliki Belarus’ (hereafter NARB), f. 63p, op. 7, d. 1108, l. 41.

8 Author’s interviews with Aleksandr Feduta, first secretary of the Komsomol’s legacy organisation, the Belarusian Youth Union, 1990–1993, Minsk, 5 May 2017; Vladimir, a leader of Belarusian Komsomol city and region committees 1989–1991, Minsk, 3 May 2017; Vasilii, a leader of Belarusian Komsomol city and region committees 1989–1991, Minsk, 23 May 2017; and Anatolii, a former Komsomol apparatchik and journalist for Znamya yunosti, Minsk, 23 May 2017. See also Solnick (1999, pp. 118–21).

9 NARB, f. 63p, op. 7, d. 1108; Resolution of the 1st Republican Komsomol Conference, printed in Znamya Yunosti 59 (11343), 28 March 1990, pp. 1–3.

10 Resolution of the 1st Republican Komsomol Conference, printed in Znamya Yunosti 59 (11343), 28 March 1990, pp. 1–3.

11 NARB, f. 63p, op. 7, d. 1110, l. 19.

12 NARB, f. 63p, op. 7, d. 1110, ll. 15–6.

13 NARB, f. 63p, op. 7, d. 1110, l. 18.

14 NARB, f. 63p, op. 7, d. 1110, ll. 7–38.

15 Znamya Yunosti 209 (11483), 25 October 1990, p. 1.

16 Zakon SSSR, ‘Ob obshchikh nachalakh gosudarstvennoi molodezhnoi politiki v SSSR’ ot 16.04.1991 № 2114-1, available at: http://www.libussr.ru/doc_ussr/usr_18600.htm, accessed 11 March 2020.

17 Gosudarsvennyi arkhiv Minskoi oblasti (hereafter GAMn), f. 69, op. 1, d. 3, l. 3.

18 Postanovlenie Verkhovnogo Soveta Respubliki Belarus’ ot 25 avgusta 1991 №1014-XII ‘O departizatsii organov gosudarstvennoi vlasti i upravleniya Respubliki Belarus’, gosudarstvennykh predpriyatii, uchrezhdenii, organizatsii i sobstvennosti Kommunisticheskoi partii Belarusi’.

19 Author’s interview with Aleksandr Feduta, first secretary of the Komsomol’s legacy organisation, the Belarusian Youth Union, 1990–1993, Minsk, 5 May 2017. See also Brel' (2012).

20 NARB, f. 63p, op. 7, d. 1155, l. 8.

21 NARB, f. 63p, op. 7, d. 1155, l. 36.

22 NARB, f. 63p, op. 7, d. 1155.

23 Znamya Yunosti, 236 (11760), 10 December 1991, p. 2.

24 Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv obshchestvennykh organizatsii Mogilevskoi oblasti (hereafter GAOOMog), f. 69, оp. 1, d. 3. l. 5.

25 Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv obshchestvennykh organizatsii Grodnenskoi oblasti (hereafter GAOOGr), f. 20, op. 41, d. 12, l. 8.

26 For Central Eastern Europe, see Grzymala-Busse (2002); for the former Soviet Union, see March (2006).

27 GAMn, f. 69, оp. 1, d. 3, ll. 13–4, 17; GAOOMog, f. 69, оp. 1, d. 2, l. 47.

28 GAOOMog, f. 69, op. 1, d. 3, l. 14.

29 NARB, f. 63p, op. 7, d. 1180, l. 6; see also Solnick (1999, pp. 112–24).

30 Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv obshchestvennykh organizatsii Gomel’skoi oblasti (hereafter GAOOG), f. 90, op. 1, d. 2, l. 13; author’s interview with Aleksandr Feduta, first secretary of the Komsomol’s legacy organisation, the Belarusian Youth Union, 1990–1993, Minsk, 5 May 2017.

31 GAOOGr, f. 20, op. 41, d. 21, l. 10.

32 GAOOGr, f. 20, op. 41, d. 21, l. 10.

33 GAOOMog, f. 69, op. 1, d. 8, l. 40; GAOOGr, f. 20, op. 41, d. 2, l. 84.

34 Author’s interview with Aleksandr Feduta, first secretary of the Komsomol’s legacy organisation, the Belarusian Youth Union, 1990–1993, Minsk, 5 May 2017.

35 Author’s interviews with Aleksandr Feduta, first secretary of the Komsomol’s legacy organisation, the Belarusian Youth Union, 1990–1993, Minsk, 5 May 2017, and Nataliya, one of the founders of Rada, Minsk, 18 April 2017.

36 Author’s interview with Nataliya, one of the founders of Rada, Minsk, 18 April 2017.

37 Postanovlenie Soveta Ministrov Respubliki Belarus’ ot 16.06.1992 №438 ‘O naznachenii M.V.Podgainogo Predsedatelem Komiteta po delam molodezhi pri Sovete Ministrov Respubliki Belarus’.

38 Author’s interview with Aleksandr Feduta, first secretary of the Komsomol’s legacy organisation, the Belarusian Youth Union, 1990–1993, Minsk, 5 May 2017.

39 Author’s interview with Aleksandr Feduta, first secretary of the Komsomol’s legacy organisation, the Belarusian Youth Union, 1990–1993, Minsk, 5 May 2017.

40 NARB, f. 63p, op. 7, d. 1156, l. 18.

41 Zakon Respubliki Belarus, ‘Ob obshchestvennykh ob’’edineniyakh’ ot 31.01.1995 № 3560-XІІ.

42 ‘Belorusskii soyuz molodezhi nameren sozdat’ v novom verkhovnom sovete “psevdofraktsiyu po voprosam molodezhnoi politiki”’, Agentstvo BelaPAN, 27 October 1995.

43 Author’s interviews with Alla Danilova, first secretary of the BYU, 2001–2002, Minsk, 23 May 2017; and Vadim, former Direct Action activist, Minsk, 18 April 2017.

44 On policy entrepreneurialism, see Cairney (2012, pp. 271–72).

45 Direct Action leaflet (1996). Personal collection of Vadim, former Direct Action activist.

46 Author’s interview with Alla Danilova, first secretary of the BYU, 2001–2002, Minsk, 23 May 2017.

47 ‘Osnovnye tseli, zadachi i metody deyatel’nosti BPSM’, Ustav Belorusskogo patrioticheskogo soyuza molodezhi, 1997.

48 GAOOMog, f. 330, op. 1, d. 22, l. 8.

49 For period press, see, Korolevich (1997), Pivovar (1997), Radkevich (1997); archive documents GAOOMog, f. 330, op. 1, dd. 5, 8, 22; GAOOGr, f. 60, op. 1, dd. 5, 17, 18; GAMn, f. 695, op. 1, dd. 1, 5, op. 2, d. 3; GAOOG, f. 396, op. 2, d. 2.

50 Author’s interview with Alla Danilova, first secretary of the BYU, 2001–2002, Minsk, 23 May 2017.

51 Author’s interview with Alla Danilova, first secretary of the BYU, 2001–2002, Minsk, 23 May 2017.

52 Ukaz Prezidenta Respubliki Belarus ot 09.07.1997 №380 ‘Ab dzyarzhaunau padtrymtsy Belaruskaha Patryyatychnaha Sayuza Moladzi’.

53 See, for example, GAOOMog, f. 330, op. 1, d. 5, ll. 1–5.

54 GAOOGr, f. 60, op. 1, d. 18, ll. 59–66.

55 GAOOGr, f. 60, op. 1, d. 5, l. 29.

56 GAOOGr, f. 60, op. 1, d. 5, l. 34.

57 Author’s interview with Maksim, former BPSM and Rada activist, Minsk, 1 May 2017.

58 Author’s interviews with Alla Danilova, first secretary of the BYU, 2001–2002, Minsk, 23 May 2017; Aleksei, a BYU staff member from Grodno region, Grodno, 10 May 2017; and Andrei, a BYU staff member from Homiel’ region, Homiel’, 3 May 2017.

59 Author’s interview with Svetlana Koroleva, the leader of Rada in the 1990s, Minsk, 18 April 2017; Velichko (2003); Drigaylo and Aleksandrovich (2003).

60 Author’s interviews with Alla Danilova, first secretary of the BYU, 2001–2002, Minsk, 23 May 2017; and Aleksei, a BYU staff member from Grodno region, Grodno, 10 May 2017.

61 Quote from field notes made by the author during participant observation at this event, Minsk, 28 March 2017.

62 Author’s interview with Grigorii, analyst for the EuroBelarus consortium, Minsk, 18 April 2017.

Additional information

Funding

The research for the article was conducted while the author was at the University of Helsinki. This work was supported by the Strategic Research Council at the Academy of Finland under grants 303480 and 303529.

Notes on contributors

Kristiina Silvan

Kristiina Silvan, Finnish Institute of International Affairs, Arkadiankatu 23 B, P. O. Box 425, FI-00101 Helsinki, Finland. Email: [email protected]