AOS and KOMSOMOL

[barryp]

Hi all,

There is a list of questions you supposed to answer ‘no’. Like if you are nazi criminal etc. One of these questions is about membership in communist party or any organization/group affiliated with it. I am originally from Ukraine, and when it was a part of the USSR, I had to be member of the KOMSOMOL (youth communists). It was meaningless but yet required non-voluntary membership. I have never meet person my age from the same origin who was not member of this organization. I believe I could have some problems then during admission to university if I was not the KOMSOMOL member.
Should I answer ‘yes’ to this question? Will it harm my chances to get the green card?

Thanks,
Barry

 

[vk96]

Read this, especially the highligted area...

This is an article from the online encyclopedia.

From what I understand the fact that you were in Komsomol doesnt mean that you were a member of a communist party. Komsomol was just like a preparation for the communist party.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union

Membership
Membership in the party ultimately became a privilege with Communist Party members becoming an elite, or nomenklatura, in Soviet society. Members of the nomenklatura would enjoy special privileges such as shopping at well-stocked stores, have preference in obtaining housing and access to dachas and holiday resorts, being allowed to travel abroad, send their children to the best universities and obtain prestigious jobs for them. It became virtually impossible to join the Soviet ruling and managing elite without being a member of the Communist Party.

Membership had its risks, however, especially in the 1930s when the party was subjected to purges under Stalin. Membership in the party was not open. To become a party member one had to be approved by various committees and one's past was closely scrutinised. As generations grew up never having known anything but the USSR, party membership became something one generally achieved after passing a series of stages. Children would join the Young Pioneers and then, at the age of 14, graduate to the Komsomol (Young Communist League) and ultimately, as an adult, if one had shown the proper adherence to party discipline or had the right connections one would become a member of the Communist Party itself.
When the Bolsheviks became the All-Russian Communist Party it had a membership of approximately 200,000. In the late 1920s under Stalin, the party engaged in a heavy recruitment campaign (the "Lenin Levy") of new members from both the working class and rural areas. This was both an attempt to "proletarianize" the party and an attempt by Stalin to strengthen his base by outnumbering the Old Bolsheviks and reducing their influence in the party.

By 1933, the party had approximately 3.5 million members and candidate members but as a result of the Great Purge party membership fell to 1.9 million by 1939. In 1986, the CPSU had over 19 million members or approximately 10% of the USSR's adult population. Over 44% of party members were classified as industrial workers, 12% were collective farmers. The CPSU had party organizations in fourteen of the USSR's 15 republics. In the Russian federation itself there was no separate Communist Party as affairs were run directly by the CPSU.

 

[LucyMO]

you will not have problems adjusting even if you answer yes.