International Youth and Students Day . What exactly is this?

I became interested in this question, when among my friends almost the same conversations were going on at the same time. "Congratulations on the day of youth!" And in response, "What? Well, one more reason to drink.”

Something is unclean, I thought, and went to Wikipedia. It turned out that humanity has not yet agreed on such a simple matter as international holidays.

International Youth Day - celebrated on August 12. Established by the United Nations in 1999.

World Youth Day - celebrated annually, on 10 November. Established by the VFDM Congress in 1945. Most likely, the leaders of the United Nations, when they established their holiday, purposefully ignored VFDM and the half-century history of international youth associations.

International Day of Student Solidarity - celebrated annually, November 17th. Established in 1942, at the International Meeting of Students Fighting Against Nazism.

In addition to these dates, there are also World Youth Days from the Catholic Church, from the Orthodox Church, and there are probably other ones, but we will not specifically touch upon religious institutions in the article.

In addition to international dates, there are also national holidays. In Russia, it is:

Youth Day - celebrated on June 27, beginning in 1993, was established instead of the Day of Soviet Youth, which was celebrated annually on the last Sunday of June.

The Day of Russian Students (Tatiana's Day) is celebrated on December 25 in honor of the anniversary of the founding of the first university of Russia, Moscow State University (founded in 1755).

Not weak, right?

We can still compare with the Soviet times. The day of Soviet youth was appointed on the last Sunday of June and was well suited to the graduation party. It was marked since 1958. And of course, the USSR actively participated in the celebration of World Youth Day on November 10, because the Komsomol was one of the most active members of the WFDY. We can compare ... But if we compare with the Soviet times, it is clear that we are now growing up too long and too late.

In the 1930s, boys and girls of 18 years of age, having graduated from school, already had much work experience, especially those who studied with an eye to the working profession. For free or for a penny, our peers attended sections, clubs, mastered new equipment (tractors and airplanes) and new sports (shooting, parachute). And the most important thing - in the prewar period of 18 years - is a real adult man, an adult woman. After all, now everyone goes through the school, and in it - the team, and each person is formed primarily by people, secondarily - by books, but definitely not by serials, they were not there at all. The teachers of the generation are both school and family. Young people, brought up in this way, took the first blow of the war, survived and won. These are our grandfathers.


In the 1970s, boys and girls 18 years old also pass through school, many are engaged in social work, but for many it is already a burden. There are rumors among them, gossip, they also read, watch movies, television, TV shows, and at 18 they are also adults, not formally, but in fact. The youth no longer trusted adults and especially the authorities as it was before the Great Patriotic War. Their generation was brought up primarily in the family. These are our parents.

And then we appeared, the children of the 1990s and 2000s. Our parents and even grandparents worked from morning to evening, worked on extra money, sold something, if only we did not starve. Kindergartens began to close, and we began to sit all day at home. We began to bring up the TV. Then came the Internet. At the age of 18, many of us are still children, do not know what they want to be and what to do, because they had no reason to think about it at school. Now the school system is no longer the cultivation of a comprehensively developed adult, it is only a set of educational services. School teachers are no longer eligible to educate students. We have become passive, childish, I personally know a few people who, at the age of 30, did not become anyone, did not learn a profession, did not create a family, but simply smoked the sky.

When the upbringing of young people was an honorable duty of all people, our society could turn mountains, block rivers, defeat fascism. When upbringing became the lot of intellectuals from the cinema, TV and the Internet, our society cannot even say a firm “NO” to raising the retirement age.

What happened? Capitalism happened. In 1991, a counter-revolution took place, the socialist state was destroyed, and 15 capitalist states began to appear on its ruins.

A reader will object: after all, there was capitalism in the USA in the 1930s, and there were no problems with upbringing! Yes, there were problems. And not only in the USA. Let's compare not historical events, but our days. Nowadays, infantilism among young people is an international problem. Look, for example, at Japan, in which schoolchildren drop out of school to spend years locked up in their room, one on one with the computer. The retreat is very common there, both among teenagers and adults. “Political instability, volatility of the labor market, as well as a limited field for involving young people in political and social life lead to growing isolation of young people, they write on the UN website. This all is nothing but alienation. Marx wrote about it.

It has been observed that among young people in Muslim communities, regions and countries of infantilism is also very small. There is another problem, archaic, when they try to do their whole life “according to the law of the mountains,” for example. They fought against the "law of the mountains" in the USSR, because according to it, it was possible to literally enslave women and it was not even considered immoral, not that a crime ...

And now remember the article from our newspaper, where we wrote about young people in the DPRK. Remember? Then it will be easier for you to find the answer.

It turns out that the question of the immaturity of a young man depends on the moral for which this person is brought up. If socialist morality - then a person grows up mature, purposeful, active, active, principled. If the morality is petty-bourgeois, philistine - a person grows up amorphous, passive, unprincipled, and he can “stuff” any kind of “burda” into his head. If the morality is capitalist, the person grows up as a predator, a hunter, for whom the people around him are either victims or rivals. If the feudal morality - a person grows two-faced, for “his” he is one, but for “strangers” is completely different, and with respect to “strangers” almost everything is allowed ...

But morality directly depends on the state of society! What kind of social and economic structure is in the yard, what is the position of the country in the world economy, what is the position of the carrier of morality in the country.

And we come to the fact that our world has only two choices. Either back, in the Middle Ages - or forward, to communism! And since we are a communist newspaper, the Middle Ages do not suit us at all. And so all existing Youth Days for us is a reason to declare a fight.


To defeat personal shortcomings, each of us must deal with them on our own, with the help of loved ones. But it will be only a personal victory. For everything else, you need to unite, and youth organizations are very well suited for this.

We will not be able to repeat the system of education, upbringing, education, which was built in the USSR: firstly, now is another time, secondly, now it is a different socio-economic system. Under capitalism, it is impossible to completely recreate Soviet schools and universities: no matter how many enthusiasts and volunteers, one signature of a minister or president puts an end to any public initiative.

What follows from this? Two ways. Either reconcile or fight for socialism and communism. We chose the second path: the struggle. We call on all young men and women, all those who are young in heart and soul, to join this struggle.

Communism is not a mass execution, no matter what anyone says. Communism is not a mass prohibition, no matter what anyone says. Communism is the next step in the evolution of all mankind. These are new technologies, new opportunities, new horizons. Communism begins with small things: with the trade union, with the youth conference, with the scientific circle. But it is he who will destroy the alienation.

Communism is the youth of the world, and erect it for the young!

Ivan Kotran