Leninist Young Communist League of Latvia

{{Short description|Latvian branch of the Soviet Komsomol}}

{{Infobox political youth organization

|name = Leninist Young Communist League of Latvia
LĻKJS

|native_name = {{langx|lv|Latvijas Ļeņina Komunistiskā jaunatnes savienība}}

|colorcode = red

|logo = File:Komsomol Emblem.png

|caption = Emblem

|logo2 =

|caption2 = Flag

|founded = 18 October 1940

|dissolved = 10 September 1991

|headquarters = Riga, Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic

|ideology = {{ubl|Communism|Marxism-Leninism}}

|international = World Federation of Democratic Youth

|national = Komsomol

| mother party=Communist Party of the Soviet Union

| state party=Communist Party of Latvia

|preceded by=

|membership = 202,321 (1990)

|newspaper = Padomju Jaunatne

}}

The Leninist Young Communist League of Latvia ({{langx|lv|Latvijas Ļeņina Komunistiskā jaunatnes savienība}}, LĻKJS) was the Latvian branch of the Soviet Komsomol that served as the youth wing of the Communist Party of Latvia from 1940 to 1991.

History

File:Badge.60-LĻKJS-Latvija.jpg

The LĻKJS was founded in 1940, during the Soviet occupation of Latvia, as a union of formerly clandestine communist youth organizations that operated in independent Latvia between the World Wars. Membership of the LĻKJS was predominantly ethnically Latvian, with a substantial Russian minority.{{cite book |last=Swain |first=Geoffrey |author-link= |date=2004 |title=Between Stalin and Hitler: Class War and Race War on the Dvina, 1940-46 |url= |location= |publisher=Routledge |page=207 |isbn= 1134321554}}

In early 1990, delegates at the LĻKJS Congress voted to adopt a new set of organisational statutes independent of the all-Union Komsomol, but not amounting to a full withdrawal. This action was precipitated by the independence of the Estonian and Lithuanian branches of the all-Union Komsomol in 1989 and 1990, respectively.{{cite book |last1=Tolz |first1=Vera |last2=Newton |first2=Melanie |date=2019 |title=The Ussr In 1990: A Record Of Events |url= |location= |publisher=Routledge |page= |isbn= 978-1000306859}}{{cite book |last=Pilkington |first=Hilary |author-link= |date=2013 |title=Russia's Youth and its Culture: A Nation's Constructors and Constructed |url= |location= |publisher=Routledge |page= |isbn= 978-1134876433}}

References