Kremlin to revive Soviet-era Komsomol school to indoctrinate youth

The Russian government is planning to open a political education workshop for youth that will be analogous to the Soviet-era Higher Komsomol School, which indoctrinated young Communist Party members, the Russian pro-state news agency RBK reported on April 15.

The Komsomol was a youth division (ages 14 to 28) of the Communist Party during the Soviet Union. The Higher Komsomol School trained future leaders, teachers, and party workers, offering degrees in "communist education."

Russia will launch a new program called the Digoria Political Education Workshop to train personnel who work with youth, a source in the Kremlin told RBK.

The source likened the program directly to the Higher Komsomol School.

"It will be its modern analog for young specialists in the socio-political sphere and youth policy administrators," he said.

Participants "will receive both ideological training and special knowledge on the management of youth organizations and participation in political processes."

Russia's state Youth Affairs Agency, Rosmolodezh, is expected to be the school's primary customer. By the end of the year, the school aims to conduct 12-13 educational programs for 100 people per course.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously drawn inspiration from the Soviet era when enacting modern-day Kremlin policy. In 2023, the government launched the state youth group Movement of the First, which Putin suggested naming the "Pioneers" — a callback to the Soviet-era organization for children.  

Moscow's policy of "military and patriotic education" relies on schools, youth organizations, and camps to heavily militarize children, instilling loyalty among the younger generation towards Putin's expansionist ideology.

As the world looks away, Ukraine’s journalists are stepping up to tell the story themselves

As Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine drags into its fourth year — leaving behind more destruction, more death, and deeper trauma — the global conversation is shifting. The world’s leading democracies are preoccupied with their own internal crises, some slipping toward authoritarianism, others cons…

The Kyiv IndependentDaryna Shevchenko