Why did Soviet people join ‘Komsomol’, the USSR youth organization? Dmitry Donskoy/Sputnik During the 73 years of its existence, Komsomol had over 160 million members. Was it prestigious or beneficial for a Russian young person to be a Komsomolets? The early Soviet state was the land of troubled youth. Young soldiers returning from a devastating war, parentless teenagers, students who went to big cities to study and were unable to return home in the turmoil of the Revolution. They all wanted to be in control of the events, to take part in major social changes and to have a say in the building of a new future. This mass of young people was also prone to crime, so the Bolsheviks needed something to deal with this growing problem.