# - Stalin, Joseph.

being the manuscript notes for a projected book by Stalin entitled "O molodykh pokoleniyakh. Rechi, statji, otryvki" ("About Young Generations. Speeches, Articles, Extracts"), intended for publication in 1925 by the "Moscow Worker" Press, Stalin's annotation made in pencil on the title-page, containing four projected chapter headings ("Komsomol v derevne" ["Komsomol in general"], "Vopros o molodezhi na sjezdakh partii" ["Question of youth at party meetings"], "Troskism i molodezh" ["Trotsky's letter and youth"], "Partiya i proletarskoye studenchestvo" ["The party and proletarian students"], in several hands (one possibly that of A. Zorkij), also containing newspaper cuttings, including an extract from Stalin's closing report at the 13th Congress of the Russian Communist Party, and an interview between Stalin and the editor of Komsomolskaya Pravda



...T. Zorkij Luchshe podozhdat' jeshe god: materialu malo, ovchinka ne stoit vygelki I. Stalin Izdatelstvo Moskovskij Rabochij 1925...



9 pages, c.367 x 230mm., with three newspaper cuttings laid down and two further annotated cuttings loose, [Moscow, 1924-1925], the loose leaves torn and frayed at the edges, some light browning and staining, Stalin's annotation slightly faded

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a remarkable document from the transition period between the lenin and stalin regimes.

Following the death of Lenin in January 1924, the main rivals for his position as supreme leader were involved in a fierce debate as to what was considered essential to his philosophy. Evidently part of Stalin's propaganda drive at this time is the present manuscript, prepared it seems by A Zorkij, the renowned party editor. Dealing with important matters concerning youth, the party, Komsomol and Trotsky, the manuscript seems not, however, as far as can be ascertained, to have been completed or published.

Komsomol (deriving from "Kommunisticheskiy Soyuz Molodyozhi"), the "Communist Union of Youth", was founded on 29 October, 1918. After 1922, its full official name was Vsesoyuzny Leninskiy Kommunisticheskiy Soyuz Molodyozhi ("All-Union Leninist Young Communist League"). The newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, an official mouthpiece of the central committee of the Komsomol between 1925 and 1991, came in to being following the 13th Congress of the Russian Communist Party, the first issue appearing on 24 May 1925.