somol
also serves as a source of manpower reserve in government and as an
instrument for the application of party policies and directives. In the
early 1970s membership was about 1 million (see ch. 2; ch. 15).

Despite all the attention given to youth affairs, alienation of young
people manifests itself in many different ways. There were no tangible
signs of protest such as outward demonstrations, mass rallies, or
disruptions during congresses, plenums, annual meetings, or regional
conferences to show this alienation. But the negative attitude and
sagging interest in political indoctrination and economic activities
increasingly worries party leaders. The ideological and political gap
between generations prompted the administration to prepare and publish
Zhivkov's "Youth Theses" in December 1967. This work is basically an
inspirational treatise to counter what Zhivkov averred was national
nihilism among the youth, characterized by apathy, absence of
discipline, improper family upbringing, misdirected school discipline,
and ill-prepared Komsomol programs, among other things. The theses also
deplored the "degenerate influences" of capitalist society that were
evident in conspicuous material consumption in food and beverages,
dress, music and dance, and social mobility brought about by bourgeois
affluence.

In an effort to bring the youth back into line, the theses emphasized
patriotic political education within a Marxist-Leninist frame of
reference, defined the duties and privileges of the young people, and
finally directed the reorganization of the Komsomol under closer party
supervision. The initial reaction to the theses was one of increasing
passivity.

In another effort to court the Komsomol-age group, political speeches
openly lauding the youth union as the instrument for the realization of
the technological and scientific as well as the military technical
training of young people and their patriotic education have been
resorted to. Further, in extolling the work and importance of the youth
union to the all-round development of Bulgarian socialist society,
Zhivkov also enjoined the youth to implement the Sixth Five-Year Plan of
the BKP.

The organization for Bulgarian children still too young for the Komsomol
is the Pioneers, also known as Young Septembrists to commemorate two
September events in Bulgarian political history--the abortive communist
coup d'etat in 1923 and the successful overthrow of the monarchy