MOSCOW -- The Soviet Communist Party youth league, for decades the country's only official youth organization, gathered Friday in Moscow for a congress at which it was expected to dissolve itself.
The 22nd Congress of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, known as the Komsomol, was convened under pressure from the organization's republican branches, which began calling for its dismantling in the aftermath of last month's failed coup.
In its 73 years of existence, the Komsomol was responsible for promoting ideological orthodoxy among Soviet young people. It was also considered a training ground for the Soviet leadership. Former Soviet Vice President Gennady Yanayev, now in prison for his part in last month's failed coup, was for many years a senior official in the league.
High on the congress' agenda is the question of what to do with the organization's vast assets, which include buildings, publishing houses, resort camps and hotels scattered throughout the Soviet Union.
The assets include valuable real estate like the Orlyonok hotel in central Moscow and companies like the Sputnik travel agency, the youth counterpart to the state-owned Intourist organization.
The Komsomol also has large cash reserves. The league's first secretary, Vladimir Zyukin, told a press conference earlier this week that the organization had an equivalent of $217 million in its insurance fund.
After the league is dissolved, Zyukin said two-thirds of this money will be distributed among its 23 republican and regional branches, and the rest will be transferred to the Komsomol's various businesses, such as the Molodaya Gvardia publishing house. Some of the money will go toward paying off the organization's debts.
Since last year, the league has tried to reform itself from a centralized bureaucratic organization into a looser federation of youth groups. Communist ideology was de-emphasized, and providing social services to young people was given top priority with the creation in 1990 of a $56 million social fund.
Despite this, Komsomol membership has continued to plummet, dropping from 41 million in 1985 to barely 19 million now.
Among the 438 delegates to the congress, there was wide support for shutting down the giant organization in its current form.
'The structure that has existed up until now is irrational,' said Alexander Chubatenko, a delegate from the Ukrainian capital Kiev. 'It doesn't correspond with the spirit of the times. No one is in favour of keeping it.'
He said the congress will probably decide to set up a coordinating body that will replace the existing 200-member Central Committee apparatus during a transition period.
The coordinating body will also decide how to distribute the Komsomol's property and businesses.
Despite the near-unanimity among delegates over the fate of the organization, there were some strident voices of dissent.
The Communist Initiative, a political movement founded late last year that advocates orthodox Communist values, staged a small demonstration at the congress. Bearing placards denouncing Zyukin, the group vowed it would fight the move to dismantle the league.
'It's very bitter and insulting for us that the youth league has come to this,' said Yuri Sidorov, one of the protesters. 'We'll do everything we can (to stop its dissolution).'
Sidorov, who was not a delegate, estimated that the group had the support of 10 delegates at the congress, which he acknowledged would not be nearly enough to block the vote on dissolution.
The group wants the Komsomol to retain a Marxist-Leninist political ideology and remain a centralized organization.
