The True Communists () were one of the first known

clandestine Clandestine may refer to: * Secrecy, the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups, perhaps while sharing it with other individuals * Clandestine operation, a secret intelligence or military activity Music and entertainme ...

anti-Stalinist The anti-Stalinist left is an umbrella term for various kinds of left-wing political movements that opposed Joseph Stalin, Stalinism and the actual system of governance Stalin implemented as leader of the Soviet Union between 1927 and 1953. Th ...

Communist youth organizations of the pre-war period, which has been founded and operated in the city of Jalal-Abad,

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, in 1940.

Origins

In October 1940, senior pupils of Jalal-Abad School No. 1 Ivan Yatsuk and Yuri Shokk founded a group called "True Communists," which was later joined by other ninth graders. The core of the organization: Ivan Yatsuk, Yuri Shokk, Alexander Elin, Shamil Gubaidulin and Kamil Salakhutdinov – saw the regime established in the Soviet Union by Stalin as

counter-revolutionary A counter-revolutionary or an anti-revolutionary is anyone who opposes or resists a revolution, particularly one who acts after a revolution in order to try to overturn it or reverse its course, in full or in part. The adjective "counter-revolut ...

and set themselves the task to combat the activities of the

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and the government in order to return to

Marxism Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectical ...

not corrupted by the

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, hence the name. The five members were of different social origin: Ivan Yatsuk and Alexander Yelin were from the families of farmers; Shamil Gubaidulin and Kamil Salahutdinov - from white collar families, while Yuri Shokk's parents were blue collar workers. Shokk's father was subjected to repressions in 1937, and his mother was deported from

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in 1938.

Activities

The group started to hold meetings, where they discussed certain actions of the

CPSU "Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspaper ...

and the government, planned group's activities, and studied the works of Marxist classics. Other students of the school were gradually involved in the group's activities, but following the production and distribution of "

anti-Soviet Anti-Sovietism, anti-Soviet sentiment, called by Soviet authorities ''antisovetchina'' (russian: антисоветчина), refers to persons and activities actually or allegedly aimed against the Soviet Union or government power within the ...

" flyers, Ivan Yatsuk, Yuri Shokk and Alexander Yelin were arrested on December 19, 1940. Shamil Gubaidulin was put under arrest four days later. On January 26, 1941, the last one - Kamil Salakhutdinov – was taken into custody.

Verdict

* As the founders of the "counter-revolutionary" group, tenth graders Ivan Yatsuk and Yuri Shokk were each sentenced to ten years in prison with

disenfranchisement Disfranchisement, also called disenfranchisement, or voter disqualification is the restriction of suffrage (the right to vote) of a person or group of people, or a practice that has the effect of preventing a person exercising the right to vote. D ...

for five years. * Their friends - Alexander Yelin and Shamil Gubaidulin – were sentenced to eight years in prison each, with disenfranchisement for three years. * Kamil Salakhutdinov was sentenced to six years in prison with disenfranchisement for two years.

References

{{Banned political parties in Russia Left communism Communist parties in the Soviet Union Political repression in the Soviet Union Stalinism Banned communist parties Soviet opposition groups Banned political parties in Russia